Although it was an expected move, it was not until this Saturday that the sports director of the Italian structure confirmed that Frenchman Johann Zarco, who will turn 32 next month, will renew his current contract with the Bologna factory to compete with the team Pramac satellite, in what will be its third season with official material in that garage.
Zarco, Moto2 world champion in 2015 and 2016, made the leap to the premier class in 2017 with the Tech3-Yamaha team, where he spent two years before being hired as an official rider by KTM.
In the Austrian house, despite having a two-year contract, he only lasted half a season, finishing the 2019 course with LCR-Honda. In 2020, already signed by Ducati, he competed with Avintia, the second team linked to the factory, jumping to Pramac in 2021 with the latest model motorcycle. In his two seasons at Pramac, Zarco has scored 9 podiums, but he is still looking for his first victory in the premier class after seven years and 93 grands prix.
“We are going to renew Johann so that he continues in Pramac”, confirmed Paolo Ciabatti in an interview with the official website of the championship, amid discussions about who will accompany Pecco Bagnaia in the official garage in 2023, a place for which only Jorge Martín and Enea Bastianini count, he assured.
“As we already said, we would like to take some time, we will probably wait until the second race in August to assess the situation a bit,” Ciabatti explained to motogp.com .
In that sense, Ducati has already closed an agreement with both riders so that they continue in the discipline of the brand, waiting to know in which team.
“Our objective was to have Enea and Jorge with us next year. I think we have reached that objective. Now, to decide who goes in the factory team, we would also like to give Jorge a little bit of an opportunity to get on the motorcycle without physical problems and others”, he explained.
In recent days, rumors have appeared about several riders linked to the Ducati orbit, basically for the position that Bastianini would leave vacant in Gresini, since the Italian, if he does not go to the official team, will go to Pramac. For that position, Ducati has negotiated with Miguel Oliveira and Alex Rins, as far as is known, although some have linked Joan Mir, the 2020 champion, for Bagnaia’s teammate.
“I have heard Joan Mir mentioned, he is a great rider but we have never had contact with him,” Ciabatti ruled out. “I think the decision will be between Jorge and Enea for the factory team,” he insisted.
“There are no other riders included in that possibility, what we are going to do is renew Johann Zarco at Pramac”, he confirmed.
With these statements, Ciabatti wanted to distance himself from the rumors surrounding the first two Ducati teams.
“So I think this puts a bit of a lid on the talk about potential new riders coming into the picture. I think we have a lot of competitive riders at Ducati right now, so we have to make the right choice between them.”
The only question that would remain open is who covers Bastianini’s loss at Gresini and if the Italian, in case he does not have access to the official team, agrees to move to Pramac, or as is his initial wish, remains in his current formation.
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