Prima Pramac Racing

Pramac Racing in 2024

After reaching new heights in 2023, with Jorge Martin runner-up in the riders’ standings and Pramac winning the teams’ title, Ducati’s official satellite squad returns with a revised line-up of Martin and new signing Franco Morbidelli for 2024.

Unlike the other satellite Ducati teams, Pramac will again have access to factory spec Desmosedici GP24s, as used by the Ducati Lenovo team of Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.

Pramac Racing’s MotoGP history

The Pramac name arrived in MotoGP in 2002, the first year of the new four-stroke rules, by entering Tetsuta Harada on a 500cc Honda. 

Pramac soon scored a major coup when it signed deals with HRC and Max Biaggi to run the Roman Emperor on an RC211V for 2003. That became a three-way collaboration when Biaggi was placed at the proven Pons team, while Pramac fielded Makoto Tamada (on the improving Bridgestone tyres) on the other side of the Pons pits.

Biaggi won two races for ‘Camel Pramac Pons’ while Tamada took a podium on the white and red ‘Pramac Honda’ and was disqualified from another, at Motegi, for ‘dangerous riding’ after contact with Sete Gibernau, even though the Spaniard remained on two wheels.

2004 saw the two sides of the garage morph together under the ‘Camel Honda’ moniker, although Tamada remained on Bridgestone and Biaggi Michelin tyres.

Luca Montiron oversaw Tamada’s side of the garage for Pramac with Pons again focussing on Biaggi, who took what would be his last MotoGP win on the way to another third in the world championship.

But Tamada enjoyed the best season of his career, aided by the Bridgestone rubber now surpassing Michelin at some tracks. The Japanese won in Brazil and then at home in Motegi on his way to sixth in the standings.

While the loss of Camel forced Pons to withdraw from the 2005 MotoGP season and Montiron began a new ‘JiR’ project centred around Tamada, Pramac began a new relationship with d’Antin and Ducati.

Initially only a single rider entry for Roberto Rolfo, on Dunlop tyres, ‘Pramac d'Antin’ expanded to a two-rider line-up for 2006.

But there were big changes for 2007, with Pramac acquiring Luis d’Antin’s team, securing the latest spec Desmosedicis, switching to Bridgestone tyres and signing proven winner Alex Barros, who took the first ‘Pramac Ducati’ podium at Mugello.

An all-new line-up of Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli, plus title sponsorship from Alice, arrived for 2008, with Elias claiming back-to-back rostrums at Brno and Misano.

By 2009 Honda and Yamaha had erased Ducati’s early 800cc advantage an it would take until 2015 for a Pramac rider to stand on the MotoGP podium again, despite signing the likes of Aleix Espargaro (2010), Loris Capirossi (2011), Ben Spies (2013, who retired due to injury after just two races) and Andrea Iannone (2013-2014).

It was Danilo Petrucci who put Pramac back on the rostrum, despite Pramac having been ‘demoted’ to both riders on year-old Desmosedicis that season.

Team-mate Scott Redding equalled the podium feat in 2015, but Petrucci narrowly outscored the Englishman over the second half of the season - as the pair went head-to-head in a shootout to decide who would receive factory-spec bikes for 2016.

Petrucci made use of his upgraded machinery to delivery four podiums and a new Pramac Ducati high of eighth in the 2017 world championship, which he equalled in 2018 alongside new team-mate Jack Miller.

When Petrucci moved to the official team for 2019, Miller took over the Italian’s factory bikes with new rookie team-mate and future world champion Francesco Bagnaia on the year-old machines.

Miller matched Petrucci’s eighth in the standings with a new Pramac high of five podiums, then finished runner-up three times in the covid shortened 2020 season for seventh in the world championship. Bagnaia also received the latest Desmosedicis for 2020 and rode to his first MotoGP podium, at Misano.

Both Miller and Bagnaia were promoted to the factory team for 2021, when Pramac ran rookie Jorge Martin alongside Johann Zarco. The Frenchman finished runner-up four times in the opening seven races, but Martin fought back from leg fractures in Portimao to finally claim Pramac Ducati’s first MotoGP win, in Austria.

With Martin a proven winner and Zarco a new Pramac best of fifth in the world championship, expectations were high for 2022. However, Pramac was rocked by the departure of long-time team manager Francesco Guidotti, who was poached over the winter to run the factory Red Bull KTM team.

Guidotti’s departure was combined with handling issues from the new Desmosedici, prompting factory riders Miller and eventual champion Bagnaia homologated a slightly different engine spec. Although both Pramac riders took podiums they were only eighth and ninth in the world championship.

Ducati didn’t make the same mistake twice and a more polished version of the Desmosedici began the 2023 campaign, while Pramac hired Gino Borsoi from Aspar to take over team management. The new Saturday Sprint races also played into the hands of Martin’s explosive speed and he spent the second half of the season hunting down Bagnaia.

Martin won four grands prix and briefly took the title lead in Indonesia but fell in the Sunday race, lost victory in the Phillip Island round on the last lap after a tyre gamble, then struggled with a ‘bad tyre’ in Qatar. All of which gave Bagnaia a safe points lead heading into the Valencia finale, where Martin won his ninth Sprint of the season but crashed out of the grand prix after tangling with Marc Marquez.

Zarco meanwhile crowned his final Pramac campaign by breaking his victory drought, in Australia, and matching his best of fifth in the world championship.

Their combined efforts gave Pramac victory in the MotoGP teams’ title, the first time it had been won by a non-factory squad.