Ducati unveiled a new Italian MotoGP Blue color scheme this weekend in support of the Italian national football team. nationale Azzurri, Before the upcoming Euro 2024 tournament.
Italy is heading to Euro 2024 as the defending champion, after defeating England in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley Stadium in 2021.
Ducati Lenovo will wear team blue livery this weekend at the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, where factory riders Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini will have jerseys printed on the back of their titles.
Bagnaia heads to Mugello as a two-time winner of the Italian MotoGP Grand Prix, having won there in 2022 and 2023. He was also in the lead when he dropped in Arabiata 2 in 2021.
Bagnaia is also one away from winning last Sunday's Catalan Grand Prix, although that came after falling from the lead on the final lap of the Catalunya Sprint. He currently trails Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martin by 39 points in the rider standings.
Enea Bastianini still finishes the MotoGP race at Mugello. He crashed on the warm-up lap in 2021 when he nearly hit the back of Johann Zarco, crashed mid-race in 2022, and missed the race last year due to injury. Last weekend in Barcelona, Bastianini incurred a 32-second penalty at the Grand Prix after failing to serve any of three long penalties he earned in the race (the second two were awarded for failing to serve the first, which was awarded for cutting into Turn 2 when he was pushed wide (via Alex Marquez).
Ducati has not yet revealed a special livery for its factory Desmosedici GP24s, but it does say that “the Ducati factory team’s Desmosedici GP24 machines will be taken to the track for the warm-up on Sunday morning in a special livery featuring a light blue livery.” For the national team with blue, white and gold details.”
This will not be the first time the Azzurri's National Championship has been celebrated in a MotoGP livery, after Valentino Rossi raced the 2008 Catalan Grand Prix with a blue livery on his Yamaha YZR-M1 and a football helmet design. This was before the 2008 European Championship, which Italy entered after winning the 2006 World Cup.
Italy was eliminated from the competition in the quarter-finals, when it lost on penalties to Spain, which won the tournament. Rossi finished second in the Catalan Grand Prix, beating Spaniard Dani Pedrosa.
