Ducati at work in Jerez tests
MotoGP doesn’t stop, and on the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, very important tests are underway. Of course, they don’t give points, but as 2025 also teaches, this is where the turning point of a season can be found: right in Andalusia, 12 months ago, Marco Bezzecchi and Aprilia did an exceptional job, building the foundations to significantly improve the RS-GP25 during the year and build an RS-GP26 ready to win.
Read more Horner: “Alpine? There’s a lot of speculation. For now, I’m still on a break from F1”
Ducati, suddenly, finds itself chasing Noale’s bike, which also proved very strong in Jerez. The Factory team’s GP26, however, only shone in the particular conditions of Saturday, while on Sunday it plummeted amidst crashes and technical problems. This is why team manager Davide Tardozzi has long marked this date on the calendar, well aware of the areas to work on with Gigi Dall’Igna: the focus is on aerodynamics, with innovations also to the swingarm and fairing.
#MotoGP is a prototype championship and this is what you call prototype kit! MM93 about to test his GP26 with swingarm fairings designed to clean up the all-important airflow at the rear of the motorcycle #marginalgains pic.twitter.com/5MSvMpNZAy
Read more Russell in defense of today’s F1: “Many positive aspects in the regulations and new cars”
— Mat Oxley (@matoxley) April 27, 2026
Tardozzi’s words
“I believe it has become crucial to have downforce, which can give you the right aerodynamics, especially in the fast corners, where we know Aprilia has made a leap forward“, commented Tardozzi to Sky Sport MotoGP. “Over the weekend, apart from Alex who was truly incredibly fast, the Aprilias were more performant than us. So we are trying aerodynamic mixes to find the right solution, especially in turn 11 and turn 12, where Marc then crashed yesterday, and where this morning it seems that at least Bagnaia has found something good“.
“I think soon we will have something more to be more competitive and fight more consistently with Aprilia“, he added. “We did it here, but I believe there will be tracks where they will be faster than us by default, I’m thinking of Silverstone, where historically they have been stronger than us.“
