When the 2022 MotoGP world championship roars into action under the Losail floodlights on March 6, eight of the motorcycles on the 24-strong grid will be Ducati Desmosedicis.
The other factories are worried, not so much by the number of bikes but by their speed. Ducati’s desmodromic-valve 90-degree V4 has been MotoGP’s quickest machine pretty much ever since the first iteration was unleashed at Suzuka, the opening race of the 2003 season.