Although last year, in his debut in the premier class, he already dazzled with two unexpected podium finishes riding a Desmosedici 2018 of the Avintia team, Ducati did not think it appropriate to give Enea Bastianini the best material available this year, and despite having him under contract , placed him in the refounded Gresini Racing structure, with a 2021 motorcycle.
On paper, in addition to behind the official drivers, Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, and those of Pramac, Jorge Martín and Johann Zarco, Enea was also behind Luca Marini, with 2022 material in the VR46, as the sixth Ducati rider on the MotoGP grid.
However, the rider from Rimini has rebelled against everything established to be, after six completed races, the best driver of the brand in general and the one who has won the most races, Qatar and Austin.
Until last Sunday, when Bagnaia achieved the first victory of the year for a Desmosedici GP22, the 2021 machinery seemed to enjoy a certain advantage, a winning inertia that had come from last year, when it managed to win four of the last six races. The question is, how long can this inertia be prolonged in time?
“I don’t know, surely the official bikes will have evolutions throughout the championship, but at the moment my bike has nothing to envy the 2022, maybe a little agility due to the new fairing, but for the rest they are very similar. For So I don’t feel inferior to the officials,” Bastianini assured in an exclusive conversation with Motorsport.com last week in the Jerez paddock.
With a motorcycle already made and amortized, the question is whether Ducati is going to evolve or improve the material available to Enea.
“Everything will depend on my results and what will come from the official riders, and also if they are parts that can be adapted to my bike, but this is something that I don’t know right now.”
For a constructor like Ducati, it must be difficult to assimilate that a rider from a satellite team earns more with a motorcycle from last year, than his brand new full factory prototypes.
“Surely it must not be easy from their position to see that one of their official riders is not in front of one of a satellite team, also a new satellite team. But for them I am a Ducati rider within the Gresini team and I don’t think they are not happy about this. I feel like I have the full support of the factory,” he says convinced.
The number one goal of the boy from Rimini , apart from winning a race and, if possible, the title, should be to make the jump to the official team next year.
“I’m here to try to win and try to get the best results this year. Looking to the future, obviously, the goal is to join an official team. It will depend on many factors, the first thing to do is to get results. At the moment I’m focused on this championship” , dodge the thorny question.
When the time comes, if Ducati decides that it cannot be the official team, the options would be to go to Pramac, which may or may not be a step forward, or to stay in Gresini with the same material as the official riders. A complicated choice.
“It’s a difficult question. I think it all depends on what Ducati wants to do, at the end of the day they are the ones who decide everything. Next year I will have a fully official package, that’s for sure, and then we’ll see which team they want. get high or what they want to do with me”, he resigns himself, or not.
Lastly, we asked Enea if, in the future, he would be a Ducati rider, or would he not mind experimenting with other factories.
“I see myself as a Ducati rider, but certain conditions must be met to continue being a Ducati rider. But today I say yes,” settles ‘the beast’.
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