Ducati has won six races out of 11 and has been on pole more than six times. The work of Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, added to that of Enea Bastianini, has been the protagonist in this fight for points.
However, the Borgo Panigale factory is significantly threatened by the leadership of Fabio Quartararo and the numerical closeness of Aleix Espargaró. For this reason, in an analysis of the first 10 Grands Prix so far, the Ducati sports director, Paolo Ciabatti, assured that “consistency is what matters today” in the championship.
“In a way, we were happy to see many Ducati competitive on circuits that were not favorable for us – like Sachsenring – but obviously we had mistakes later,” Ciabatti reviewed with the media in Assen.
“If you look at the standings, and if you look at Fabio [Quartararo] and Aleix [Espargaró], they score points in almost every Grand Prix. They are doing an incredible job. For us, obviously, on the one hand, as a manufacturer, we are happy with the results.”
“There’s always a Ducati on the front row, always a Ducati on the podium, and we’re leading the constructors’ championship. But obviously we’re behind in the drivers’ standings, especially with Pecco [Bagnaia] and Jack [Miller] , they are far from Fabio, and this weighs”, added.
The zeros that Pecco Bagnaia has had recently “are affecting his chances of fighting for the championship”, a fervent objective of the factory.
Currently, his spearhead is 66 points behind the reigning world champion. Despite these premises and with nine races to go, beating Fabio Quartararo is not an impossible task for Ducati.
“Well, it’s still possible, obviously, because there are still 10 races, or nine races, and we can get a lot of points, but realistically it’s going to be very difficult,” he assumed during the last round in Assen. “As you can see, Fabio and also Aleix are always on top and make very few mistakes, so we have to do our best, as you can imagine, trying to win where we can,” concluded the Italian factory’s sporting director.
