Ducati confirms that they won’t use team orders to save their ever weakening 2022 title charge

Ducati confirms that they won’t use team orders to save their ever weakening 2022 title charge

Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti

With the season reaching it’s midpoint, Yamaha MotoGP rider Fabio Quartararo is leading the championship with Aleix Espargaro from Aprilia being a close second with a gap of 21 points. Johann Zarco is next on the standings having a 58 point deficit to championship Leader Fabio Quartararo which makes Zarco the highest placed Ducati rider among the lot.

Factory team rider Francesco Bagnaia cut his gap down to 66 points from the leader after grabbing a win before the summer break in the Dutch Grand Prix where Fabio Quartararo failed to finish the race.

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“We won’t give team orders,” says Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti

Francesco Bagnaia
Francesco Bagnaia

“Ok, first of all I must say that obviously at the moment there are still races to go,” Ciabatti said.

“In principle, with a few exceptions in the past, we don’t like team orders. Obviously, if it’s the last race and one rider has no chance to win and the other rider has the chance to win, you might think about a strategy. But this is an exceptional case. Now, we’re not in that situation.”

“We won’t give team orders, the only indication we give to our riders is to avoid making extreme moves on each other. We still remember the experience of  Dovizioso andIannone in Argentina many years ago and we would like to avoid a similar situation.“

“But this is the only thing we tell our riders, [which] is to respect the riders in the same brand a little bit more, do not try extreme manoeuvres if possible. But for the rest, they are free to do what they want and if they can win a race, they should win a race.”

With only 9 races remaining in the 2022 MotoGP season, it is going to be a tough time for Ducati to maintain winning consistency and achieve success in their title charge as all the pressure is on them. The racing action will resume soon enough with the start of August  as the Silverstone GP lies ahead of us.

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