Marc Marquez says Ducati's controversial rear spoiler it raced in the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix is not worth “a lot of tenths”.
Andrea Dovizioso beat Marquez by 0.023 seconds in Qatar, with Honda, Aprilia, KTM and Suzuki launching a protests against the use of Ducati's swingarm-mounted spoiler immediately after the race.
The initial protest was thrown out, with the case being taken to the MotoGP Court of Appeals – which ruled in favour of Ducati last week, deeming its winglet legal.
When asked if Honda would now copy the device, Marquez admitted he didn't know, but admitted it likely hasn't given Ducati much of an advantage.
“I don't know [if Honda will develop its own Ducati-style wing], but I know Honda and for sure they are trying to analyse [it].
“They are trying to understand what is its function specifically and where you can improve with that.
“I'm sure all the manufacturers will try [to do the same] when somebody tries. But I think this spoiler is not giving a lot of tenths.”
Suzuki's Alex Rins echoes Marquez's comments, stating: “For sure, as Marc says, when somebody has a different thing [to the others], I think all manufacturers try to copy it.
“Sincerely, I finished fourth in Qatar, I did the race with Dovi who was running this spoiler.
“I don't feel like it made a lot of difference. Only on the straight [was there a difference between the Suzuki and Ducati], but maybe this is for another reason.”
Dovizioso 'wasn't worried' by protest
Despite his Qatar result remaining provisional for two weeks, Dovizioso admits he “wasn't worried” he'd lose his 25 points, and that the worst case scenario for him would be the inability to run the device again.
“At the end, no, because I wasn't worried about the points,” he said when asked if the gap between Qatar and Argentina was strange for him.
“In the worst case, they [the FIM] wouldn't give us the possibility to use the piece in the future [if the appeal went against Ducati].
“About that, I wasn't worried because we put that piece on in the warm-up. Also, we didn't have a lot of data on that piece.
“When you use something, it's because there is something interesting [offered in performance], but we still didn't have the data about it.
“The victory was the victory, I feel so good in the way I finished the weekend.”
