Davide Tardozzi believes circuit characteristics will continue shifting the competitive balance between Ducati and Aprilia in their MotoGP title battle.
Davide Tardozzi expects the back-and-forth battle between Aprilia and Ducati to continue for the remainder of the season, depending on the characteristics of each circuit.
After being outscored by Aprilia in each of the opening three rounds, Ducati fought back with a Marc Marquez-Alex Marquez double in Jerez.
Since then, the constructors’ points at each event have gone in favour of Aprilia at Le Mans, Ducati at Catalunya, Aprilia at Mugello, Ducati at Balaton and Brno, Aprilia at Assen, Ducati at Sachsenring and then Aprilia at Silverstone.
“It will be like this: It will be Aprilia and Ducati circuits towards the end of the season,” Tardozzi told MotoGP pit lane reporter Jack Appleyard just before the Silverstone race.
The riders’ championship has been even more volatile, with all four Aprilia riders suffering at least one grand prix DNF in the past five rounds.
Marc Marquez, Ducati’s reigning world champion, capitalised to slash a 102-point deficit down to just 18 points after the Sachsenring.
However, the Silverstone Sprint was a bitter surprise, with the Spaniard fading to ninth after an extreme tyre drop.
“We did not expect the huge problem [in the Sprint]. We thought that maybe we can fight for fourth, fifth, sixth place. Not ninth,” Tardozzi said.
“We have to face this problem and work on it because it's not possible that that's happening again.”
Although a repeat was avoided in the grand prix, Marquez could only manage seventh place, as the third-best Ducati rider, scoring just ten out of a possible 37 Silverstone points.
That also saw Marquez slip 40-points behind Aprilia title leader Jorge Martin.
“To try to win the championship it’s not necessary to win all the races,” Tardozzi said earlier in the weekend.
“It’s necessary to collect the most points possible when you are not the fastest, and attack when you are the fastest.”
Next weekend’s Aragon round should be very much the latter, with Marquez and Ducati winning the last four races at the Spanish track.