Ducati “learnt a lot” thanks to Alvaro Bautista WorldSBK ballast

After winning the WorldSBK title in both 2022 and 2023, 2024 has not gone the way Ducati had expected, with its lead rider trailing by 92 points in the riders’ standings after seven rounds.

It’s been a learning year for the Bologna brand in the production derivative series, perhaps not the position it expected to be in having won 27 races with Alvaro Bautista in 2023. However, the changes made to the WorldSBK rules, notably the addition of ballast for riders weighing under 80kg, has meant significant changes for Bautista in particular.

“This year, we faced this new challenge as Ducati with Alvaro having some ballast on the bike,” Ducati WorldSBK Technical Coordinator, Marco Zambenedetti, told WorldSBK.com. “We tried several configurations of ballast and, of course, every configuration needs its proper setting. We’ve learnt a lot compared to last year.

“For sure, some performances in some areas have been decreased because of the bike with more mass. We also learnt how big the impact of increasing the overall weight with this smaller rider.”

The work Ducati has done this year has led Bautista back to competitiveness. Having struggled for much of the year to fight for victories against Toprak Razgatlioglu, it was while battling with the Turkish rider for the lead at Portimao that Bautista fell in Race 2.

“It seems, from Most, we have found something that gives Alvaro a better feeling,” Zambenedetti said.

“Now we’ve had a couple of rounds in this configuration and also with, let me say, special tyres.

“We are looking forward to seeing if this configuration will work with the standard Pirelli tyre allocations, also with the softer compound. We hope to have found our best configuration.”

Ducati’s year of learning has coincided with advancements from other manufacturers, including Kawasaki which has taken advantage of ‘Superconcession’ parts to help their straightline performance, and BMW which signed Toprak Razgatlioglu.

“This year, the new match of BMW with Toprak and the superconcessions introduced by other competitors – Kawasaki, BMW, Honda – increase the level of competition against us,” Zambenedetti explained.

It has meant that Ducati’s development has been different between its two riders, Bautista and reigning Supersport World Champion Nicolo Bulega.

“We need to go home at the end of races and push our bike harder to the limit. We work in a 360-degree way on the overall bike development, especially on the engine side so we developed different exhausts for Nicolo, different ballast configuration for Alvaro, different electronic settings.

“We worked a lot on the engine mapping and we’re still working. We have a lot to do especially with the introduction of the E40 eco fuel and the reduction of the fuel tank which affects us.

“It’s an area where we never worked but we have to push until the last race of the season.”