Marco Bezzecchi
The upcoming MotoGP season offers every team on the grid one last shot at the current 1000cc regulations, but one Ducati chief has predicted a rival of the Italian constructor to struggle a lot more than they did last year.
Ducati have remained the benchmark for every other MotoGP team since their rise to dominance at the beginning of the current decade.
No other constructor has managed to dethrone the Borgo Panigale-based team in the standings since 2020, with their bikes also winning four out of the six riders’ championships to have been contested in the same amount of time.
However, the second half of the season showed some vulnerabilities in the Italian team.
Marc Marquez’s stint on the sidelines certainly didn’t help, but Aprilia still managed to capitalise on the Spaniard’s absence to sow some seeds of worry inside the Ducati garages.
- READ MORE: Francesco Bagnaia fires back at the ‘unnecessary’ thing he heard amid Ducati struggles last year
True or false? Ducati’s dominance will come to an end in 2026.
Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments!
Ducati director Davide Barana thinks MotoGP concessions will hinder Honda this season
In an interview with Moto.it, Ducati technical director Davide Barana was asked for his expectations on where the Italian constructor’s rivals will be once pre-season testing gets underway in Malaysia.
One of the notable changes that occurred over the winter break was Honda’s movement in MotoGP’s concessions rankings.
After remaining in rank D since the new system came into effect in 2023, the Japanese constructor moved up to rank C after a strong second half of the season last year.
Barana believes the limited testing opportunities that they will now receive will hinder their chances this season.
He first highlighted the strong end to 2025 that Ducati’s competitors had, saying, “Some of them certainly had a very competitive end to the season, so I expect they could at least start from there.
“We’ll see how they’ve worked. It’s difficult to say at the moment, but Honda will lose concessions, so they will certainly return to a big loss.
“I think so, because being able to test more official riders freely gives you a great speed of development that you wouldn’t otherwise have.
“Yamaha will bring a completely new bike, so I imagine it won’t be easy to be competitive right away, but that’s just my guess. We’ll see.”
Who should Honda sign for the 2027 MotoGP season?
Do you think it should be someone other than the riders in this list? Let us know in the comments below!
Honda are setting their sights on a star-studded rider line-up for the 2027 MotoGP season
Despite the Ducati chief believing that Honda will once again be on the backfoot in the upcoming term, their recent trajectory suggests that they could be a force to be reckoned with at the start of MotoGP’s new ruleset in 2027.
If they are able to get the bike development side of things correct, all that is missing is a star-studded rider line-up to take them to victory.
Fabio Quartararo has been linked with a Honda move following his recent unrest at Yamaha, and the financial prowess that the Tokyo giants possess may be enough to tempt him away from a new deal with their Japanese rivals.
Another name that has found itself in the same conversation as Honda is Pedro Acosta, with it recently being confirmed that the promising Spaniard will be leaving KTM at the end of 2026.
Pit Beirer is adamant that Honda is no better than KTM, but the monetary advantages that the Asaka-based outfit has will surely tempt any rider on the grid.
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