They could only be Italian. Passion and pride pouring out of those bright red colours as Ducati celebrated their 100th MotoGP™ win on Sunday. It had to be at Misano, although Mugello would have been fine, and it had to be an Italian rider who took the chequered flag. Throw in that fifth consecutive Constructors' title and it is the perfect weekend for the Bologna factory, apart from the Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) crash.
Honestly, I don’t think any of us realised what lay ahead at Suzuka in 2003 when Ducati at last threw their hat into the MotoGP™ arena. It was the tragic Japanese Grand Prix in which Daijiro Kato lost his life that overshadowed all other events including Loris Capirossi’s third place on the V4 Desmosedici engine housed in the familiar Ducati tubular steel lattice frame. We started to take more notice when the former 125 and 250cc World Champion Capirossi started on the front row of the grid at the second round in South Africa.
Their threat to the all-conquering Japanese giants was emerging and at the third round in Jerez, Capirossi and his team-mate Troy Bayliss took first and second places in qualifying – that first win was not far away. It came three races later in Barcelona with a Capirossi win over the Hondas of Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau. It was the first time an Italian rider had won on an Italian machine for 27 years. Ducati were up and running after the first win in the premier class, although they had tasted Grand Prix success in the smaller classes. In 1958 Italian Alberto Gandossi won two GPs en route to second place in the 125cc World Championship. A year later Mike Hailwood became the youngest ever Grand Prix winner when he won his first GP in Ulster riding the 125cc Ducati. The Italian factory had a sniff of the 500cc class in 1971 and 72. Italian Bruno Spaggiara, who won a 125cc Grand Prix on a Ducati in 1958, secured Ducati a first Premier class podium with a third place behind the MV Agustas of Giacomo Agostini and Alberto Pagani at Imola in 1972.
Capirossi continued to remind the Japanese factories that Ducati meant business with three straight wins at the Japanese Grand Prix at the Honda-owned Motegi circuit, between 2005 and 2007. He looked like a potential World Champion in 2006 until a first-bend melee in Barcelona wrecked his chances. At the final race of that season, Troy Bayliss returned to win in Valencia with Capirossi second, but all that had happened before was overshadowed when a young Australian arrived in the red of Ducati. Casey Stoner simply blew the opposition and Championship apart a year later.
What a combination. Stoner and the 800cc Ducati. Ten Grands Prix wins not only brought Ducati their first world title but blew away the theory that the 800cc machines would lap slower than their former 990cc counterparts. Witnessing Stoner sliding the number 27 Ducati surrounded by the stars of the Australian flag, often with the rear Bridgestone tyre smoking, was an awesome sight as the Australian re-wrote the history books. He became the second youngest rider to win the premier class. Only Agostini, Doohan and Rossi had won more Grands Prix in one season.
Stoner was the first rider in the MotoGP™ era to have led every lap for three successive races and set a record of 18 points scoring finishes in one season. It was an unbeatable combination of brilliant engineering and pure rider genius. Stoner won 13 more Grands Prix for Ducati before finally leaving for Honda in 2011 where predictably he brought the Japanese factory the world title.
Ducati joined Grand Prix giants Honda and Yamaha as the only factories to win over 100 GPs in the modern MotoGP™ era. They will add another premier class world title and more victories by the end of this season. Who knows when or if this incredible run will come to an end? There is little indication of their reign being threatened for a long time.
Those solid foundations laid down by Capirossi and Stoner have served them well.