After a winter spent feeling everyone’s favorite, the first impact with the 2022 season must not have been the softest for Pecco Bagnaia. On a track historically friendly to Ducati like that of Losail, renamed this year Lusail, he found himself having to deal with a Desmosedici GP that performed a little below expectations.
After a crash in FP1, held in conditions very different from those of the race, he struggled to find the feeling with the front even under the artificial lights and in the end he had to settle for a tenth time which will probably be worth direct access at Q2, but that certainly does not satisfy him.
“I’m not happy with how it went today, I expected to be a bit faster in FP2. During the tests we tried a lot of things to make sure we chose the right package, but in this way we may have left something behind”, Bagnaia said at the end of the day.
“I’m not happy with the feeling I had on the front today, perhaps even a little dictated by the conditions that weren’t the best. We don’t know why we were struggling so much in insertion and I didn’t feel 100% at ease, but we already have the quite clear ideas on what to do tomorrow to improve the situation and this is important, “he added.
After the crash at turn 6, he also seemed quite upset, but the reason is simple: “I was a bit angry, because it was FP1 and it is not good to fall in a session that I don’t say is useless, but in which you run in good conditions. different from those of the race, I crashed only because you use ‘wrong’ tires and the front one was a bit too cold to push at that moment. These things can happen in Qatar, precisely because you have to use different tires in FP1 and in FP3, but it would be better to avoid them “.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Today, however, it was not so much performance that held the ground at Ducati, but the choice made by the two factory team riders with regards to engine homologation. Following the line dictated by Pecco, it was in fact decided not to focus on the 2022 engine, but to use a mix between this and the previous one with which the Piedmontese had made sparks in the second half of 2021.
“It is not true that we have discarded the 2022 engine, we have only chosen the best possible package among the options available in the Mandalika test. Maybe sometimes things go out too quickly from Ducati, but everyone wants to talk about Ducati and this is a bit strange. I wonder if the same questions about the engine were also asked to the official drivers of the other brands “, explained the vice-world champion, without hiding a bit of controversy.
Then he tried to argue for this decision: “We only chose the best package, as I think is normal in MotoGP. We chose this engine that I like best of both the old and the new and, together with my team, we are convinced that it is the right basis to work on. It’s a mix between last year’s engine and the new one “.
“We had decided to try it after the Jerez test. At Mandalika then we saw the potential of this package and we chose it because we think it is the best. It is the one with which I was able to be fastest constantly and since our goal is to win. , we think that to succeed we must use this engine “.
Finally, he was asked for a comment on the birth of Valentino Rossi’s first daughter, and if as a member of the Academy today he feels a bit uncle: “It made me laugh that when I congratulated Vale on Juliet’s birth, she immediately asked me about the fall. But she will surely be one of the girls with the most uncles I have ever seen. “
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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