Last Friday Ducati put an end to the suspense of the long election of its second rider for the official team in 2023. The decision, which at the beginning of the year was made in favor of Jorge Martín, underwent a change of course when Enea Bastianini managed to win three of the first seven races of the season, just before the Italian Grand Prix, when the Bologna house planned to announce the promotion of the Spaniard as Pecco Bagnaia’s teammate.
The good results of Enea and the media pressure, to which Ducati’s noble staff has always been so sensitive, forced a change in strategy, opening a kind of competition between both riders to see who would win the position, a situation that It put extra pressure on both riders.
Despite the fact that, since then, Jorge has scored more than double the points of Enea in the last six races, finally Claudio Domenicali , CEO of the factory, asserted his vote so that the Italian driver would be chosen.
Speaking with Aleix Espargaró on the M otorsport.com MotoGP Podcast, the Spanish rider explains that if it had been up to him, the decision would have been different.
“I would choose Martín, but it’s not worth it because I’m a good friend of Jorge and maybe I’m not biased,” says Aleix, second in the overall standings in the World Championship with Aprilia.
While it is true that the strong friendship between the Catalan and the Madrid rider may influence the Aprilia rider’s point of view, Aleix justifies what his choice would have been, noting that the ‘competition’ unleashed by Ducati has influenced the results of the brokers involved.
“In my opinion he has more talent, Jorge is a killer, he has a beastly talent. I think that Martín is not getting the results this year because of this issue and because of how Ducati has managed it,” says Espargaró.
Despite the fact that he would have acted in another way, the runner understands that the Bologna house has acted in that direction.
“It doesn’t give them stability. But I also have to say that when you have so many good youngsters, in the end it’s not a bad approach either: risk your bike and show it on the track, I’ve always thought that athletes should earn our bread by competing, but they have put a lot of pressure on them,” he considers.
“Personally I think that, at the level of stability and speed, Jorge Martín is the closest thing to Marc Márquez that there is on the current MotoGP grid, but the choice is Ducati”, settles the one from Granollers.
