MotoGP turns 22 and Ducati has been in the top category for 21 of those 22 years. Therefore we can say that the Ducati MotoGP are already a classic, not so much because of the successes of recent seasons where they are crushing the competition, but because together with Honda and Yamaha they are the only manufacturers that since MotoGP became MotoGP are in the ship.
It is true that Ducati arrived in 2003 and that the MotoGP name started a year earlier, but the debut at the 2003 Japanese GP, also remembered for Daijiro Kato's tragic accident, marked the real change. Not only with 6 four-stroke motorcycles, but with a large part of the grid using them and among them the first Ducati MotoGP: the Desmosedici GP, which later served as the basis for the street model.
Furthermore, Ducati came with a fairly solid project, so much so that that first season they finished second in the constructors' championship, something that, as time showed, was not so easy to achieve. Specifically, the motorcycle that appeared last weekend at the Bedfordshire auction was the one used by Loris Capirossi, and since in those days tobacco advertising was not yet prohibited, it sports the logos of the famous tobacco company.
The other MotoGP Ducati that went up for auction with the same result, not finding a buyer, was Casey Stoner's GP7. That bike is legendary for several reasons, although the main one is that Stoner won the 2007 title with it, the first of the 800 era and Ducati's first in MotoGP.
That machine, which was fitted by Bridgestone and which knew how to squeeze them better than anyone else, reportedly delivered 200 HP, which helped Casey achieve no more and no less than 10 victories, four more podiums, five pole positions and six fastest laps and all of this in only 18 races.
The MotoGP Ducati will continue looking for an owner and if you have a lot of money it could be you
As we said, the success that these MotoGP Ducati had on the track makes them unique motorcycles and it was expected that between them they could raise close to 800,000 euros. But one thing is what is expected and another is what really happens. And what happened is that no one got any of them.
In any case, there is good news and that is that if you have 481,000 euros left over you can get Casey Stoner's Ducati GP7, and if you are more economical for 343,000 you can get Capirossi's GP3. Quite a bargain…
