Desmosedicis currently fill 36% of the MotoGP grid but, while Gresini's machinery is assured until the end of 2025, Ducati’s existing deals with Pramac aꦕnd VR46 expirꦺe this season.

Yamaha, reduced to just a factory entry since t﷽he end of 2022, 🍃is trying to recruit a satellite team into its ranks for next year to double their presence on the grid.

While Ducati has fielded eight bikes since 2016 - and othe💫r manufacturers have done so in the past - the competitiveness of the Desmosedici after two title🐎s in a row continues to prompt debate over whether a limit on bikes-per-manufacturer should be imposed.

While supp❀orting eight riders is a considerable burden, there are also big advantages in areas suc🔜h as data gathering and testing.

“Dorna cannot stop an Independent team from choosing whichever bikes they want, if a manufacturer is willing to supply them. It’s a free market,” Herve Poncharal, who owns the GASGAS Tech3 team, told ltxcn.top during an interview last year.

“The team would say, ‘We want this package. Our riders want this package. Our sponsor wants this package. And now you're going to interf🐷ere and damage my business by stopping me?’

“It's like if a MotoGP fan was told they were not allowed to buy the road bike they wanted becauꩵse it was popular and had to buy a different one just to balance the numbers, they wouldn’t be happy!

“The Independent teams are private companies and it's up to them to select the best bikes they can iꦬn terms of cost, support from the factory, performance, reliability etc.

“It was not [Ducati’s] original strategy I think [to have eight bikes], but they said ‘yes’ when they were approached by the teams, they’ve managed theꦆ situation and nobody has a bad bike. It’s a ꦆhuge investment in terms of logistics, manpower and money."

MotoGP's 'ideal grid' did not materialise

While Dorna’s unfulfilled goal was to have each of the six previous manufacturers supporting one satellite team, some factories dragged their feet despite the ‘carrot’ of extra financial support from the co🌸mmercial rights holder.

“Dorna is giving a financial ‘carrot’ to the factori𓆏es [to supply satellite bikes]," explained Poncharal, who is also presid🧔ent of the teams’ association IRTA.

"So if a manufacturer only has a factory team, two bikes, they get X amount of financial support. But if that same manufacturer also hasꦬ a satellite operation, they get X + Y.

“For sure, Dorna would prefer and it was always 𝄹the ideal scenario when we had six manufacturers, for each of them to have one fꦑactory and one satellite team.

"6 manufacturers, 4 bikes e🐽ach, 24 riders. Ideal grid. Bu🔯t it didn't work.

“Dorna was pushing. We’ve all been pushing. We did everything we could to con💞vince every manufacturer [to suppo♔rt a satellite team].

"But some manufacturers play the game better than others. Also, you have to respect the manufacturers if they don't want to have a satellite operatiཧon."

The 🎶Independent teams also pay a lease fee of several million euros per rider to their manufacturer for satellite machinery, which is effectively covered by Dorna.

“[A factory with a satellite team] gets more financial support from the promoter, plus the l🌃ease fee [for theඣ bikes] which the satellite team is going to pay you.”

Poncharal und🍒erlined the Dorna funding comes with no strings attached and satellite teams are free to lease 💮from whichever manufacturer they choose.

‘The absent are always wrong’

While previously seen as a burden on the factories, a satellite team has become an essential eleme🦄nt of a competitಞive MotoGP project.

“Now, finallꦆy, more and more manufacturers understand that having a satellite operation is not a weight or a handicap, as was said sometimes in the past," continued Poncharal, during the 2023 interview.

"It’s an advantage because you can prepare young riders for the future, and you have mo♐re feedback and data, at a time when testing has been cut ൩back.

ཧ“I think Aprilia are happy to have four bikes now and I believe Yamaha is really looking for a new satellite operation. In the near future, I don't thi🐽nk there will be any factory without a satellite team.

"But at the moment, Ducati helped the champꦐionship more than hindered the championship.”

If another manufacturer wants to tempt a team away from Ducati, they will simply need to provide a be🍰tter all-around offer.

In other words, if tꦿhe bike itself is not as competitive as a Desmosedici, other incentives such as increased factory support, lower leasing costs and a longer-term partnership might all come into play.

“I🉐n French, we say, ‘the absent are always wrong’," Ponchar𒆙al said.

"If you don’t ha🎶ve a satellite team there are two reasons: Either you don’t want one, or you are no𝓡t offering a package that is competitive enough - not just on track, but the whole package.

“This is what you have to consider when you talk to a manufacturer. When I left Yama𝄹ha to go to KTM and Pierer Mobility, fo🃏r sure I was leaving a bike that at that moment had a higher level of performance.

“But the overall offer, for me as the owner of my company, was much be💦tter. And within two years we’d won two races with KTM.

“So you also have to consider, how close are you to the factory? The levelꦦ of support and involvement of your manufacturer is important.

“I'm very happy to be with Pierer Mobility. I signed a five-year deal with Dorna and at the same time a five-year deal with my manufacturer. It means I can plan, and invest. If you only have a one-year deal you never know what’s happening the next yeꦍar.

“Now the𓃲 Independent teams are in a much more comfortable position than in the past. Almost every Independent team rider is signed directly to their factory and most also have [factory] spec bikes.

“As Gresini showed, and we’ve shown in the past, a satellite guy can win races. And ultimately, in the future, why not win the c꧋hampionship?

“But going back to your original question, don’t forget there have been times when Honda had eight MotoGP bikes and Yamaha, in our first 500cc sඣeason in 2001, also had eight bikes and nobody was complaining!”

Ducati's eight entries are divided between the Factory, Pramac, VR46 and Gresini teams. KTM, Honda and Aprilia each have one factory and one satellite team, with Yamaha's two bikes run by the official 🌠Monster team.

Three satellite teams have contracts that expire at the end of the 2024 season: LCR (Honda), Pramac (D🎃ucati) and VR46 (Ducati𒁏).

VR46 has long been𝕴 seen as Yamaha’s likely future partner, but Valentino Rossi’s team insist they are ‘happy’ with Ducati, albeit seeking upgraded factory-spec machiꦐnery.

Amid ไrumours of a closer VR46-Ducati cooperation, Pramac - title runner-up with Jorge Martin last season and currently leading this year’s standings - is also believed to have entered talks with Yamaha.

Both Pramac and VR46 are thought🐬 to have an option that allows them to remain with Ducati next season if they wish.