Marc Márquez’s victory in the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi gave Gigi Dall’Igna his 100th MotoGP success with Ducati. The milestone arrives during an exceptional run for the Italian manufacturer, yet the motorcycle Dall’Igna places above all others in his Ducati career is not one of the machines that produced its headline wins.

His choice is the GP15, the first Ducati developed completely under Dall’Igna’s technical direction. He had joined the company from Aprilia at the end of 2013, and his changes helped bring the Desmosedici back to the podium during the 2014 season. The GP15 itself never won in 2015, but it produced nine podium finishes, including five runner-up results, with Andrea Dovizioso, Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci.

Dall’Igna’s reasoning is rooted in the progress represented by the GP15 at a time when pressure inside the project was intense. Iannone delivered the first MotoGP victory of his Ducati era in 2016. The larger breakthrough came in 2022, when Pecco Bagnaia won Ducati’s first riders’ championship since Casey Stoner. Ducati has taken the riders’ title in every season since then.

Dall’Igna describes the current run as a golden era for Ducati and says improving on its results will be extremely difficult. At the same time, Ducati and Aprilia are locked in a close contest for the final championship of the 1000-cubic-inch and Michelin era. Márquez was two points behind Jorge Martin before Mandalika. Bagnaia, who has 31 MotoGP wins with Ducati, finished eighth in Japan.