MotoGP, Guintoli: "The Ducati 2025 engine gives problems in braking due to the new crankshaft"

At Buriram, the GP25s of Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia showed up with the 2024 engine configuration, but nonetheless dominated far and wide, tearing apart the competition that instead raced with all the updated equipment.

Asked about the issue that in itself could wrap up the outcome of the World Championship, Sylvain Guintoli pointed out to TNT Sports an important aspect.

"The old bike is so good that they have not been able to improve it," he said, "The engine unit that was tried in Sepang in testing was fitted, but I know that it was not appreciated by the riders, in the sense that while it was one step ahead in acceleration, it was two steps behind in braking. This problem usually occurs when the inertia of the flywheel is changed. With more weight, when you on the throttle, the bike becomes smoother and is fluid, however, on braking it struggles to stop."

"They tried and tried again by tweaking the setup, but when that is the DNA of an engine, it's hard to change. That's why they preferred not to risk it and in the race use the old specification. In terms of the spectacle it's great because it allows you to see more Ducati riders in action with similar material," he remarked.

To what the Frenchman claimed, another former champion like Neil Hodgson added a detail. "In testing, the 2025 engine was made available for everyone to try and so the feedback came not only from the Lenovo team. That's the beauty of having six competitive riders. In the end they agreed that last year's was better. If they could have made slight modifications they would have tried, but since it is frozen it was not worth the risk," was the Frenchman's consideration.