MotoGP mid-season report: ‘We don’t like team orders’ - Ciabatti

While the pre-season favourite may not quite be challenging for the MotoGP title as yet in 2022, Ducati have certainly flexed its muscle in the first half of the year.

Three of the top five are on Bologna machinery with Johann Zarco leading Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini - albeit the latter on the GP21. The Frenchman is the only of the trio yet to stand on the top step but his consistency places him eight and nine points respectively ahead of his Italian rivals and just 37 off the, so far successfully, defending champion Fabio Quartararo.

Ducati’s Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti is aware that while Bagnaia and Bastianini hold three wins each, reliability is key to a title run. Something the Borgo Panigale outfit is long overdue.

“I think consistency is what matters today,” Ciabatti said when reflecting on the first ten races. “If you look at the standings, and if you look at Fabio and Aleix [Espargaro], they score points in every single Grand Prix, they are among a few without any zeroes, and they are doing an amazing job. For us, obviously on one side as a manufacturer, we are happy with the results.

“We have won five races out of ten. We have been on pole seven times out of ten races, there is always a Ducati on the first row, always a Ducati on the podium, and we’re leading the manufacturers’ championship.

“But obviously, we are behind in the riders’ standings, especially with Pecco and Jack [Miller], and this is heavy, because obviously the zeroes that especially Pecco had recently – one was not his fault, but still is a zero – are affecting his chances to fight for the championship, which is always our goal, and it looks like a difficult challenge now on for the season.

“It is still possible, obviously, because