After kicking butt and taking names all season long in Italy’s national motocross championship, Ducati is now planning to expand their race campaign to the international level. Next weekend, they will bring their new Desmo450 MX to the MXGP World Championship, debuting it at the Dutch GP.
That’s a pretty bold move, considering this bike was only first shown to the public in January of this year. But Ducati has emphasized race performance from Day 1, instead of an interminable teaser campaign focusing on short teasers. It’s no appetizer, all steak, with this machine’s development.
Ducati has been racing the Desmo450 MX in the Italian motocross championship. It was immediately successful, with pole position and a heat win in its first weekend. Now, months later, Ducati’s test rider Alessandro Lupino currently sits atop the standings in the Italian MX series. And his closest competition just might be Tony Cairoli at this point. Cairoli is also putting the Ducati prototype through its paces, and he won the first heat at the Tuscan race weekend. Whatever Ducati is doing with this machine, they’re doing it right.
That includes choosing the right man for the job at the Dutch GP. Cairoli is a nine-time champion in the FIM’s MXGP championship, and he will race the Desmo450 MX at Arnhem on the 17-18 weekend. It’s all being done in preparation for a full-scale assault on MXGP in 2025, when Ducati says it will run a factory team for the entire season.
That’s a bold move, Cotton; the 450 class is the pinnacle of off-road racing, and they’ll be going up against stiff competition. But after next weekend, they should at least know where they have to improve the bike before taking to track next season.
