Ducati unveils livery for 2020 MotoGP campaign

The Italian manufacturer comes into 2020 with an unchanged line-up of three-time MotoGP championship runner-up Andrea Dovizioso and one-time race winner Danilo Petrucci.

Rumours at the end of last year suggested Ducati was looking to replace Petrucci – whose form suffered in the second half of the season – with Pramac’s Jack Miller, though Motorsport.com understands the buyout clause in Petrucci’s contract would have proven too costly.

Ducati finished third in the constructors’ standings last year, with Yamaha beating the Italian firm by three points despite winning one fewer race.

With the marque showing off a largely unchanged dark red livery on a GP19, the most notable feature is the return of Mission Winnow branding from main sponsor Philip Morris – which was removed from the bikes late last season.

Commenting on the launch of its 2020 campaign, Ducati General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna said: “From the rider point of view, we haven’t changed anything, and honestly speaking I am very happy about that.

“We did last year the first part of the season really good, and I think we have the possibility to improve the achievements that we did last year.

“So the target will be exactly the same of the last two years; fighting for the world championship, and if possible achieve the result to win the world championship.

“It’s not easy, like usual we have a lot of riders that can fight for the final results.

“For sure our most important competitor will be [Marc] Marquez and Honda, but in the last part of the season we watched a number of riders improve quite a lot. So, I expect the fighting for the 2020 championship will be really difficult, more difficult than in 2019.”

Testing begins at Sepang in Malaysia on February 7-9, with one final three-day outing taking place in Qatar on February 22-24.

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