One of the biggest stories of the 2024 MotoGP championship so far has been the huge discrepancy between Ducati’s dominant factory-spec GP24 machine and the other bikes on the grid – including the year-old GP23 bike ridden by Marc Marquez, a situation few expected given the Italian company’s normally gradual transition between seasons.

However, according to The Race’s sources in the paddock (and confirmed by a visual inspection of Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin’s machines compared to those of Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi), there is a reason for the significant drop in their performances in 2024 that is beyond the control of the Gresini and VR46 teams.

In recent seasons, we’ve come to expect a fairly standard transition at Ducati, with factory riders (both in the official team and top satellite team Pramac Racing) receiving the latest creation from chief engineer Gigi Dall’Igna’s workshop in Bologna, with constant development over the course of the season to keep them competitive.

Meanwhile, the two satellite teams in the lower league take over the other teams’ annual motorcycles at the post-season tests in Valencia and race with them in the following season with minor modifications.

This situation usually means that the older Desmosedicis start the season with some competitive advantage even over their factory rivals, thanks to the maturity of their package and a wealth of data from the previous year.

In 2023, for example, Bezzecchi was able to take two wins from the first five races, catapulting himself into the title fight. The year before, it was Enea Bastianini who won three of the first seven races under similar conditions, securing a factory place alongside Bagnaia for 2023 and 2024.

This season, however, the picture has been very different. Only Marc Marquez has been a regular contender for a podium finish with the one-year-old bike, while Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez (all Grand Prix or sprint winners on one-year-old machines in 2023) have only achieved two podium finishes between them.

The difference between the two motorcycles was never more obvious than at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend.

Rewatch the duels between Bagnaia, Martin and Marc Marquez in the opening laps using MotoGP’s helicopter camera and you’ll immediately see where the six-time MotoGP champion comes up short.

He was under extreme pressure when exiting corners and accelerating on the many straights of the Red Bull Ring and visibly lost a lot of time, which he then tried to make up elsewhere in overtime. A scenario that ultimately contributed to his crash in the sprint on Saturday and knocked him out of the fight for the podium.

😱 💥 @marcmarquez93 HAS SUCCULED!

The Spaniard has dropped from 2nd place to the back of the field 📉#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/vmWa9slwgp

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) 17 August 2024

Why have this year’s GP24 bikes been able to make such a huge and unexpected leap over last year’s machines? Well, according to The Race’s sources, it’s quite simple: the bikes the GP23 riders are currently racing are not the fully developed end-of-season models that Bagnaia used to win the title.

The decision by the Marquez brothers, Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio, may have been partly a financial one and partly driven by the time pressures of building up a full newer specification kit and getting the bikes ready for next season. The Marquez brothers, Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio are riding something more akin to what Bagnaia used in pre-season testing last year, without the significant improvements made later in the year.

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Some of these are visible upon closer inspection, as the bikes feature last year’s early-spec aerodynamic improvements rather than the upgrades introduced later in the season, but it is believed that even more of these are internal, which has contributed to their significant speed difference.

One such internal component is the latest version of the ride height gauge, which is apparently not available to GP23 drivers.

“It depends on the track,” said Alex Marquez when asked by The Race at the Red Bull Ring how much difference it makes.

“On tracks like this one you can have a really good advantage, when doing wheelies and stuff. Or in Motegi. But on tracks like Aragon maybe you have less. It depends.”

It seems that the status of the older specification will not change even in the middle of the season, despite Marc Marquez’s surprise move to the factory team for 2025.

While Ducati now appears to have an interest in supporting Marquez’s season more extensively ahead of his big move, the company appears to be limited by its contractual obligation to offer every available upgrade to all four GP23 riders simultaneously, something Ducati is currently unable to do.

Perhaps the story also serves as a warning to current title contender Jorge Martin, who will join Aprilia at the end of the season after being passed over for a works car next year in favour of Marquez. The explanation for the drop in satellite specifications also suggests how significant Ducati’s mid-season upgrades can be.

And now that it is known that not only he, but the entire Pramac Racing team (which will become Yamaha’s satellite team in 2025) will leave the team next year, many assume that Martin’s development will not change. There are already rumors that he too is already feeling the disadvantage he has put himself at technically.