After Ducati finished fourth at the Suzuka 8 Hours last weekend, its attention has turned to its future in the event, which could include Pecco Bagnaia.

Ducati teamed up with Yukio Kagayama this year, with the Japanese ex-BSB star switching to the Bologna brand after a long association with Suzuki. The team fielded ex-BSB rider and current Ducati Australian Superbike rider Josh Waters, former MotoGP rider and Moto2 podium finisher Hafizh Syahrin, and Ryo Mizuno, who signed this year for the Kagayama team to race its Ducati Panigale V4 R in the All-Japan Road Race Championship's JSB1000 class.

To confirm the official interest in the race from Borgo Panigale, Paolo Ciabatti was in attendance at Suzuka. Ciabatti was previously the Sporting Director of Ducati Corse, and although he has now moved to direct its new motocross project, he still has ideas about the future of Ducati's presence in Suzuka.

Speaking to Motomatters.com, Ciabatti told Japanese journalist Akira Nishimura that the collaboration this year with the Kagayama team has been important to re-establish Ducati's relationship with Bridgestone, which is the dominant force in Suzuka tyres, and that it could continue that collaboration in the future, but with different riders.

Particularly, Ciabatti sees MotoGP riders in Ducati's Suzuka future. At this year's event, Johann Zarco was the only current MotoGP rider to line-up, for Honda, but Yamaha in the past has made the most of its own WorldSBK and MotoGP riders to win previous editions.

In 2015, for example, Yamaha won in the first year of its then-new-generation R1 with then-Tech3 riders Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro alongside Japanese legend Katsuyuki Nakasuga. Espargaro returned in 2016 to win with Nakasuga and Alex Lowes, then riding for the Pata Yamaha WorldSBK team. Nicky Hayden, when racing for the Ten Kate Honda team in WorldSBK, raced at Suzuka in 2016 for the HARC-PRO team, Casey Stoner raced for HARC-PRO when he was HRC MotoGP test rider in 2015, and going back to the early-2000s Honda fielded its MotoGP star, Valentino Rossi, alongside its World Superbike Champion, Colin Edwards, to win in 2001.

Ciabatti told Motomatters.com that, among Ducati's current Grand Prix stars, both reigning two-times MotoGP World Champion and current points leader Francesco Bagnaia is interested in racing Suzuka, as well as 2023 Qatar Grand Prix winner Fabio Di Giannantonio, who is expected to be announced as a third Desmosedici GP25 rider for next season.

Bagnaia fuelled the fire somewhat regarding the speculation around his own Suzuka desires, commenting on an Instagram post from Ciabatti "Preparato bene tutto, che poi arrivo," which roughly translates to "Prepare everything well, I'm coming later."

For Ducati to commit to taking MotoGP riders to Suzuka would be to commit to try to win the race. Achieving such a target would mark Ducati down in history as the first non-Japanese manufacturer to win the race.