Putting behind a forgetful 2013, Ducati Corse has chosen to race in the 2014 MotoGP season under the OPEN Class. Since Casey Stoner’s departure, the Italian Racing Team has been consistently struggling to get the correct setup on their MotoGP bikes.
But for the 2014 season, Ducati has carefully weighed the two options and decided to go under the OPEN Class category which they believe would give them more freedom for evolving and developing their Desmosedici GP14 MotoGP machines.
Ducati Corse General Manager, Luigi Dall’Igna said “We have carefully studied the new technical regulations and have concluded that the Open option is the most interesting for Ducati, in the current situation. This year we have to keep developing our bikes throughout the season to improve our competitiveness, and the Factory option appears to be too restrictive for our needs. We are confident that the electronics package provided by Magneti Marelli and DORNA has very good quality and will allow the correct management of all the main functions of the bikes.”
Offlate, Crutchlow and Dovizioso have been extensively testing the Desmosedici GP14 were of opinion that Ducati chose the OPEN CLASS against the Factory Option.
The difference between the Factory and Open Class is that though both use similar Magneti Marelli ECUs, the Open class includes usage of standard software against the Factory Class where a team is allowed to write their own codes in the software. But the Open Class has an advantage where it’s allowed to pump in extra 4 litres of fuel and can use 12 engines in a season, whereas the Factory Class is allowed only 5.
Hopefully, this move gets the Ducati Corse Team more closer to Honda and Yamaha.The first race of the season kicks off with the Qatar Grand Prix on 23rd March 2014.