Ducati has been the only team to offer any form of realistic challenge to Honda and Marc Marquez in MotoGP for the last three years, with Andrea Dovizioso leading the charge in 2017 and Jorge Lorenzo joining in on the act last season. 2019 has been no different, with Dovizioso and new teammate Danilo Petrucci both having won a race at the time of writing. But how are you going to go about such a feat in MotoGP 19?
Well expectations are going to be quite high should you seal a contract with Ducati. MotoGP’s career mode sees you start off in one of three satellite teams before moving on to a factory team, and it couldn’t come with more pressure than at Ducati.
Expectations
Like Ferrari in F1, Ducati have lofty expectations so wins at the outset will be key to your success at the team. Remember that this team has not won a title since the Casey Stoner era way back in 2007. So they will be hungry for success!
You are going to have to exploit the advantages of the Ducati bike in order to get the best out of it, and beat the likes of Marquez, Doviziso and the ever present Valentino Rossi. The Ducati’s strengths are under braking, and it’s top speed. It is of course called the Bologna bullet!
So, make sure the package you pick following pre-season with your new Ducati is the one that gives you the best straight-line speed and the best braking capabilities. Do plenty of laps to ensure you are 100% confident with the package.
Ducati's strengths
The Ducati within the MotoGP 19 career mode is every bit as potent as the one in real life when it comes to that power. I have often found myself far behind an opponent going down a straight, only to close up massively and even pass them come the end of it. Likewise, the brakes on the in-game bike are very strong, and it is easy to over-brake and fly off the bike. Use that power to your advantage, and get hard on the brakes (but not too hard) as you make a move on an opponent.
From then on, it’s about completing all the programs in the practice sessions to grab those points and see the bike development progress. It is then down to you on the track to get the most out of the bike on the brakes, and then ease out of the corner and feel that top speed punch you past your rivals!
Where doesn't the Ducati work?
Ducati may well be one of the powerhouses on the MotoGP grid but there bike is not quite the perfect machine just yet. Some tracks such as Jerez, Austin and Aragon do not quite suit the strengths of the bike. Whereas tracks such as Le Mans, Mugello and Austria play nicely into the strengths of the Ducati.
It has certainly seen more tracks suit it in recent years than not, which is good news for you, the player.
Jerez is perhaps one of the tracks where you will struggle the most, especially when it comes to tyres. Ducati have not had a podium, let alone a win, at that track in real life since 2010, which highlights how much of a struggle it has been for them.
Watch out for your tyres through that race, the Honda’s and Yamaha’s will have a definite advantage over you at that track, so coming away in the top five is probably going to be a good result for both you and the team. That will keep them happy when it comes to any future contracts too.
Where the bike works best
So what about those tracks that play to the strengths of the bike? The most obvious one is Austria, and that has been a Ducati playground for the last few years. A Ducati has won the race every year since the championship returned to the circuit in 2016, and quite frankly there seem to be no signs of the team releasing its stranglehold on the track anytime soon. So, make sure you use that power advantage to good effect. The tyre life should not be such an issue around this track, nor the other tracks Ducati are strong at.
So this is, in a nutshell, the essentials to a good season aboard the Bologna bullet. Use every tool at your disposal and you may well come out of it at the end of the year as a MotoGP world champion for Ducati.