The European industry sets the pace in Moto GP

Beyond the tight fight for the championship and the umpteenth return of Marc Márquez, the great story of the season in the Moto GP World Championship is the consolidation of European dominance in the event.

This turn of events has an Italian accent, with Ducati and Aprilia squeezing their smaller budgets with creative solutions that have left Japan's giants behind, stranded since the start of the pandemic.

Nothing that Yamaha and Honda, the great dominators of all time, have tried has done them much good this year.

Neither does the checkbook.

Only its world champions, Fabio Quartararo and the one from Cervera, with their overflowing talent, have managed to maintain the most precious crown, that of pilots, in the Pacific.

The technical change is staged in the record year of the Borgo Panigale brand, with records of 11 victories, 14 pole positions with seven different drivers, 23 consecutive podiums and 28 in total this season.

This domain has placed Pecco Bagnaia as the main candidate for the title, his reference in the classification, despite having accumulated five zeros due to falls.

The Turin native will start third this Sunday at the Australian GP (at 05:00 on DAZN) and is just two points behind the reigning Yamaha world champion, fifth on the grid and still leading after having seen an advantage cut that became 91 points at the beginning of the summer.

"In the last five years, Ducati has achieved more victories and podiums than any other factory, we have achieved three manufacturers' titles and four runner-up finishes with two different riders, Dovizioso and Bagnaia",

analyzes Paolo Ciabatti, sports director of Ducati Corse, for EL PAÍS.

The great pending issue is clear within the red squad: “We are proud, although we do not hide and obviously our great objective continues to be the drivers' title.

Very little has been missing, surely all the pieces of the puzzle fit together and some luck”.

The only wing for them came from Australian Casey Stoner in 2007, and the previous one for a European factory dates back to the days of Phil Read and his MV Agusta in 1974.

surely fit all the pieces of the puzzle and some luck”.

The only wing for them came from Australian Casey Stoner in 2007, and the previous one for a European factory dates back to the days of Phil Read and his MV Agusta in 1974.

surely fit all the pieces of the puzzle and some luck”.

The only wing for them came from Australian Casey Stoner in 2007, and the previous one for a European factory dates back to the days of Phil Read and his MV Agusta in 1974.

At Phillip Island,

it was for Jorge Martín's Ducati and the Western brands – seeking to match their best consecutive winning streak in five decades (eight) – placed eight bikes in the top 12 on Saturday.

This season there have been three Japanese victories (Yamaha with Quartararo) and 14 European ones, two for Miguel Oliveira with the Austrian KTM, another for Aleix Espargaró with Aprilia and 11 for the constructors' champions.

Faced with the obvious boom in technology from the Old Continent, the Japanese have been half an eye on 2023 all year, where they hope to reverse the trend that has placed them in tow.

"To stay competitive, the Japanese manufacturers will have to adopt a more European style," says Livio Suppo, the Suzuki team's chief executive officer with championship experience at both Ducati and Honda.

“Cultural difference,

the need to have everything very well planned in the long term, does not help in a competition environment where you have to be prepared to react quickly”, he concedes.

Along the same lines, Honda's sports director, Alberto Puig, acknowledges some organizational shortcomings aggravated by the pandemic: "In Europe the reaction is immediate, while in Japan it has been a slower process because there has been no connection between the engineers and their country of origin.

Immersed in one of its worst results crises, the return of Márquez –second on the grid after taking advantage of the slipstream at Bagnaia– was immediately noticeable in the results of the brand with the golden wing.

Despite this, even his flagship has requested technical and organizational changes.

Puig admits the possibility of building an HRC headquarters in Europe.

"We are assessing the disadvantage of not having an operations center here," he explains after pointing out that they have not yet found the key to change at a technical level, as their star pilot asks them.

In Oceania, the Hamamatsu brand surprised by sporting Ducati-style shark fins and other aerodynamic details reminiscent of those introduced this season by Aprilia.

After the use of an aluminum swingarm from a small German factory in the latest tests,

"Honda's DNA is not to look at what the other manufacturers do, but given what the Europeans have improved, we have to look at how they have done it and find a way to improve it," says Puig.

Ciabatti speaks openly about how innovation and the risks taken from Bologna have influenced the rest of the factories: “Over the last 10 years we have introduced many novelties that have later been used and, why not say it, copied, by others. builders.

The wings, the different aerodynamic elements or the exit devices are some examples”.

Aprilia, with Espargaró 20 points behind the leader and fourth in the standings this Saturday, has also found creative solutions that now bring them notable benefits despite being the brand with the lowest budget in the competition.

“It is a pride that a factory as big as Honda notices us.

The engineers at Noale are doing a great job”, says the rider from Granollers.

Ramón Forcada, one of the most experienced coaches in the World Cup, assures that the Japanese shipwreck would have been even more noticeable without the presence of their world champions: “When you are very much at the limit, you have no time or room for maneuver to investigate in other lines.

Getting your driver to keep winning already sucks all your capacity.

If Fabio wasn't at Yamaha, the disaster would be at the level of Honda without Marc”.

To explain this debacle hidden behind the talent of its best riders, the three team managers provide several factors that have made the difference.

Puig says the approach to developing the bike has been too traditional, and Suppo believes the big advantage lies in more investment in aerodynamics and other technological solutions at the right time.

Ciabatti talks about creativity,

imagination and interpretation of the regulation as some of the keys to the paradigm shift.

Also young.

“I don't know if it's a coincidence, but the average age of all Ducati workers [around 150 people] is 40 years old.

On the track, in recent years, we have also opted for a line of young drivers”, he points out.

Now they need to finish off with the drivers' title, since 1975 in Japanese hands with the exception of Stoner and Ducati in 2007.

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