Ducati has revealed a new blue colour scheme for this weekend's Italian MotoGP in support of the Italian national football team, Nazionale Azzuri, ahead of the upcoming Euro 2024 tournament.

Italy heads into Euro 2024 as reigning champions, having defeated England in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley in 2021.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will wear blue team gear this weekend at the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello, with factory riders Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini getting shirts with their surnames printed on the back.

Bagnaia heads to Mugello as the two-time defending winner of the MotoGP Italian Grand Prix, having won there in 2022 and 2023. He was also leading when he fell at Arrabbiata 2 in 2021.

Bagnaia is also off the back of a victory at the Catalan Grand Prix last Sunday, although this came after he fell from the lead on the final lap of the Catalan Sprint. He currently trails Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martin by 39 points in the riders' standings.

Enea Bastianini is still to finish a MotoGP race at Mugello. He crashed on the warm-up lap in 2021 when he nearly ran into the back of Johann Zarco, crashed mid-race in 2022, and missed the race last year through injury. Last weekend in Barcelona, Bastianini incurred a 32-second penalty in the Grand Prix after failing to serve any of three long-lap penalties he was awarded in the race (the second two being given for not serving the first, which was awarded for cutting turn two when he was pushed wide by Alex Marquez).

Ducati has not yet revealed a special livery for its factory Desmosedici GP24s, but it says that "The Desmosedici GP24 machines of the factory Ducati team will be taken to the track on Sunday morning's warm-up with a special livery characterized by the light blue colour of the national team with details in blue, white, and gold."

It will not be the first time the Nazionale Azzuri will be celebrated by a MotoGP livery, after Valentino Rossi raced the 2008 Catalan Grand Prix with a blue livery on his Yamaha YZR-M1 and with a football helmet design. That was ahead of the Euro 2008 competition, which Italy entered after winning the 2006 World Cup.

Italy went on to be knocked out of the competition in the quarter-final stage, when they were beaten on penalties by Spain, who went onto win the tournament. Rossi finished second in the Catalan Grand Prix, beaten by Spain's Dani Pedrosa.