The Ducati Desmo450 line certainly complies with the FIM’s rule that rally raid bikes have an engine displacement of 450cc at most. That doesn’t mean you should expect to see them at the Dakar Rally anytime soon.

Speaking with Motorcycle News at World Ducati Week earlier in July, CEO Claudio Domenicali discussed the company’s recent off-road endeavors. When asked if Dakar would be one of them, he ruled it out—for now, anyway.

He explained to MCN that “we try not to open too many battlefields, because actually, once you do something you have to do it properly and so something that actually keeps us busy and deserves a lot of attention is off-road because we just started and actually we are on a learning path.”

Said active battlefields are in enduro and motocross. The Red Bull Ducati Factory MXGP Team currently competes in the FIM Motocross World Championship and Ducati Corse races in AMA Supercross, while the Desmo450 EDS is the Italian marque’s enduro bike.

Since these disciplines are new forays for the traditionally pavement-based manufacturer, Domenicali would rather not dive into other off-road styles just yet.

“We are passionate about bikes, we are passionate about competition and so never say never but as I said before opening a new battlefield it’s better actually we concentrate,” he told MCN. “We are racing (in motocross) and now there will be the enduro as well. The enduro 450 is on the market now and actually we’ll have a plan for competition for next year and so all of that will have to be properly followed.”

Even if Ducati proper isn’t going to hit the desert yet, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who tried. HERO Racing has a partnership with Ducati USA to field the Desmo450 in desert racing, which led to the team winning the Mint 400 in March for Ducati’s first desert victory since 1969. A DesertX also competed in the 2024 Mexican 1000.

The Desmo450 MX launched last year.

Featured image credit: Ducati