One set of isolated and trussed MotoGP forks frenetically judders according to factory Aprilia data from a 2025 lap around the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia. It was at this facility that the SLD originated and where a key revision to Ducati’s apparatus was refined.

“When you lower the bike and you limit the stroke of the shock then you can reach a very low value of rear height,” reasons Barana. “Making it work is not easy because the system is particularly complicated. There is some more rigidity because you work more on the bump stop, so we had to find that balance. It could be a complaint for the rider because it is an unusual, harsh feeling.

“We tried and adapted it according to the riders’ feedback because the bump stop could perhaps be a problem for them on acceleration or touching a kerb. You need the suspension to work. It has been an advantage, for sure, but I would also say we have used it less than we thought in the beginning because it is quite tricky to balance the use and having a limited shock.”

Márquez won seven consecutive grands prix and sprints in the mid-part of 2025 but the complexity of set-up, hinted by Barana, seemed to hinder Bagnaia’s feeling on the GP25. He struggled with front grip, and aside from an emphatic double in Japan where he cryptically said, “We tested different things in Misano, different things that we already had. But we never had the chance to really try it this season…I was just feeling a bit better”.

The double world champion had a torrid late season spell of ten races without a podium and six DNFs that eventually led to his departure from the team (that had been his home for six years) for Aprilia in 2027. Márquez meanwhile stamped the title at that same Japanese GP with five rounds remaining.

Curiously Márquez and Bagnaia were vague on the SLD’s influence when asked (and were not feigning ignorance in the realm of sensitive technical information). For all the logic of a supposed technical upgrade, the practical implementation in human hands is still a critical part of the execution. “From the idea, to seeing the result on track takes a while and can be a complicated process,” Barana warned. “It usually takes a while for riders to adapt. When they are so confident on a bike and then you give then a system that can perform better but works in a different way they need a period to adapt in order to take out the potential of the new solution. You could potentially have more downforce, but it is still something different. They need to understand how it works in respect to something they are used to and then to react.”

During the visit in Sweden, Öhlins management described themselves as “almost a single supplier company but with a factory feel”. While the company was able to satisfy Ducati’s objectives, it also had to maintain its high-level provisions to Aprilia, Honda, Yamaha and Ducati’s two other satellite outfits.

“It is a balance with so many teams to treat everyone equally,” Torstensson says. “At the same time everyone has specific needs so it is ‘factory’, It is a custom solution even if the base product is more or less the same. Each manufacturer has their own theory to their problems and this is one of our main strengths because we are able to make a special design in a couple of weeks if a manufacturer needs it.”

Öhlins sole opponent is KTM-owned WP Suspension, which supplies four KTM RC16s in the pitlane. For KTM there are pros and cons to being in the minority with their kit. “For a suspension manufacturer with many bikes on the grid then there are lots of opportunities to test,” KTM MotoGP Technical Director Seb Risse told us. “You are able to understand if problems are general or particular to a bike but then you also must be quite political, and development can slow in terms of rate of innovation as well as supply to customer.

“Innovation has been the key to our success in the last years”

“A smaller amount of bikes means fast reaction and quick supply but then also less track time and it’s harder to define what comes from a bike, what comes from a track and what comes from the suspension itself.”

2027 blanks the canvas for MotoGP and engineers will have to find the gaps between the lines of the rulebooks once more when the analysis of Pirelli rubber and other features of the 850s become more engrained.

Ducati, with its Corse division helmed by renowned technician Gigi Dall’Igna, mixing expertise with youthful graduates from prestigious technical universities in Italy, is already charged.

“Innovation has been the key to our success in the last years; the sophisticated aerodynamics, the lowering system, mass dampers. Things that are now common in MotoGP but 10-15 years ago nobody used or exploited these things,” Barana states. “This is not rocket science. I don’t want to say [innovation] was easy but we looked at other categories and different engineering fields and then just tried to adapt [them] to our world. The difficult part here is to overcome that first step and not over-think and not throw things away after the first try. To see the potential. To insist. Also, a lot of riders help in this process and when you have many there are some that are more conservative and some that are more open-minded.”

True pioneering can still seep through MotoGP and the march of evolution does not slow. The SLD is already fading in significance and hasn’t been picked up by many other teams as manufacturers look more and more to 2027 and the days when motorcycle ride height manipulation will be a technical curio in the annals of the series. Tomorrow must be today, otherwise the contest is over.

“It’s not just a race on Sunday but also every day of every week through the year for us,” Risse says. “You can never sit back and relax [just] because you might have innovated something. The competitors will have their version or own innovation. It is not only possible but absolutely necessary to innovate, and to keep doing so…but you cannot enjoy it for long.”