Ducati factory team manager Davide Tardozzi admitted that Aprilia is still “a small step ahead” in the 2026 MotoGP season. However, the Italian executive expressed hope that the technical team will deliver updates to improve the Desmosedici in the near future.
Ducati’s dominance in MotoGP is facing a serious threat in 2026, as Aprilia hit the ground running with a stronger package early on. The Noale manufacturer closed out the first half of the championship atop the Riders’, Constructors’, and Teams’ World Championship standings.
Nevertheless, Ducati managed to mount a fightback—not only by unlocking more performance from the GP26, but also thanks to Marc Márquez’s physical recovery following his shoulder procedure, alongside Francesco Bagnaia finding a better setup feel with the prototype.
Marc currently sits third in the Riders’ Standings, just 18 points behind championship leader Jorge Martín. Meanwhile, Bagnaia occupies eighth place in the table, 65 points adrift of the top.
“The confidence we have in our drivers and the trust they have in Gigi [Dall’Igna] and the technical engineers at Ducati Corse is what allows me to remain positive,” Tardozzi said in an interview with the official MotoGP website. “The relationship within the garage is extremely close, and that mutual trust will make all the difference moving forward.”
“I really hope our engineers bring something to upgrade the bike soon,” he added. “That said, we believe that with a little more luck and enhanced performance, Marc and Pecco will have a fantastic second half of the season.”
Reflecting on their 2026 campaign so far, Tardozzi evaluated that performance had fluctuated significantly across the opening rounds.
“The first part of the season was up and down,” he recognized. “We didn’t start off on the right foot due to a few crashes. Pecco wasn’t performing at his usual level, but after a few races, we raised our game relative to our opponents, and I think with a bit more luck, both Pecco and Marc secured strong results.”
“Pecco scored four consecutive podiums, while Marc won two full race weekends [prior to his victory in Germany], sweeping both Saturday’s Sprint and Sunday’s GP,” he recalled. “The recent rounds have been very positive, even if we acknowledge that our rivals are still a small step ahead of us,” he concluded.
MotoGP now enters its summer break before returning to action August 7–9 for the British Grand Prix, Round 12 of the 2026 season.
