Until today it had been labeled as rumors launched by the Spanish media, because Ducati had never taken the field directly to comment on the rumors according to which it was considering the possibility of bringing Jorge Martin to its official team next year, making reverse path towards Prima Pramac Racing to Enea Bastianini.
A choice that could also be sensible if you consider that “Martinator” is competing for the title with Pecco Bagnaia and that with three long races and two Sprints remaining in the season he trails him by just 11 points. In a certain sense, he would like to form a real “dream team”, which this season has already been able to add 10 victories in the long races and the same number in the Sprints.
It is equally true, however, that in these times, a year ago, the score of the reigning world champion and “Beast” was not too different, because we were talking about a total of 11 Sunday victories when the Sprints did not yet exist. And it was this performance that had tipped the scales in favor of the Rimini native when it was time to choose Pecco’s partner, given that in 2022 it was the Madrilenian who had disappointed expectations.
If Martin had a great explosion in 2023, on the other hand Enea did not have the year he would have liked. Due to injuries he was forced to miss eight Grands Prix and the broken shoulder blade in the first Sprint of the year, in Portimao, prevented him from becoming familiar with a Desmosedici GP which has changed a lot compared to its predecessor, relegating him to to a supporting role.
It is curious, however, that Ducati contributed to fueling the rumors on Bastianini’s best day of the season, in which he managed to conquer the front row and place fourth in the Sprint. The words of sporting director Paolo Ciabatti to the Dorna microphones, in fact, have opened a small glimmer of hope for the possibility that this much talked about operation could materialise.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing
“As everyone knows, for next year we confirmed Enea (Bastianini) as a driver for the official team towards the end of August”, said Ciabatti initially, but then continued with a sign of openness when the current performance was brought to his attention. of the Spanish driver. “It is true that with Martin’s current level of performance it is a reality that we have to consider. At the moment we have not made any decisions, we will see. We cannot ignore this level of performance.”
For his part, Bastianini, however, did not seem particularly worried when the statement was reported to him: “Jorge has been the strongest driver of the second half of the season so far. I, on the other hand, have probably been the poorest of the second half of the season so far. But I will make him change his mind. I know my potential, but sometimes when you want to do too much you can’t achieve your goal, so you have to take a step back. Today I did it, but this situation doesn’t put pressure on me, I’m just happy with how things went today.”
Martin, however, spoke about it during Thursday’s press conference: “I can only say that I will be proud to continue in Pramac next year, but obviously if Ducati wants to take me to the official team with the factory bike, I will be extremely happy.”
It is clear, however, that if Bastianini manages to end the season on the wave of what he showed today, perhaps even giving a hand to Bagnaia in defending the title, then he would have a good chance of deserving that second opportunity that the men from Borgo Panigale seemed to have already granted him a couple of months ago, precisely by acknowledging that this season had been too anomalous to allow a coherent evaluation.
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