In recent years, MotoGP has enjoyed a boom of fast young talent making it to the premier class, with riders such as 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo and 2020 champion Joan Mir, as well as the multiple race winners Francesco Bagnaia, Brad Binder, Jorge Martín or Miguel Oliveira.
In 2021, Jorge Martín , from Pramac Ducati, won the Styrian Grand Prix and got another three podiums, also managing to stand on pole on up to four occasions, while Enea Bastianini, from Avintia, got two podiums in his first year with a 2019 Ducati.
Referring to Jorge Martin ‘s season, Jack Miller praised the young Spaniard, while also explaining how strong the young MotoGP talent is overall.
“I think this bike [the Ducati] is not easy to ride at all,” Miller began.
“It has its complications and all that. All the rookies make me nervous , really, because they’re getting faster and faster.”
“[Pecco] as a rookie, he came in and led the test in Malaysia. He said ‘I took a while,’ but that’s a lie, because he didn’t.”
“Jorge did a fantastic job, he missed a few races this year, but he has shown that he has come in with the professionalism that maybe I missed when I came in. He has really stepped up in that aspect and has done a fantastic job with his racing ability.
“There are a lot of things that personally took me a long time to learn, but he is a very complete driver. He makes me nervous, and also Bastianini . When you get overtaken by a rookie driver, now I know how [Andrea] Dovizioso and [Danilo] must have felt. Petrucci when I did it to him, it’s not a pleasant feeling, that’s for sure.”
“But I’m looking forward to getting better and better because it’s amazing to see how well they’re doing at such a young age and how well they’re going to keep doing,” he added.
Bagnaia, also referring to Martin’s rookie season, noted that the Spaniard seemed to have learned things he didn’t in his rookie year.
“I think he has done a good job this year, more than good. Because starting as a rookie, already in the second race he got a pole and a podium, as well as winning in Austria, I think he has had a great season. You must be happy for what you did.”
“For sure our bike is not the easiest for a rookie, but from the beginning he learned very quickly the things that I couldn’t learn [in my rookie year].”
“This has been the first year that I felt so comfortable with the bike. Ok, it is also true that now our bike is more competitive, but it was also competitive last year and sometimes I was fast, but most of the time I was behind. “, he concluded.
