MotoGP | Bagnaia: “I don’t want Marc in the official Ducati? I’m an ass…!”

So far Le Mans has been one of the great unfinished business for Pecco Bagnaia in MotoGP. In the last two years, the reigning world champion has always shown high-level potential, scoring pole position in both cases. On Sunday, however, only disappointments arrived: in 2022 he crashed when he was fighting for the victory with Enea Bastianini. Last year, however, he was ousted almost immediately by a contact with Maverick Vinales.

The Ducati rider, therefore, seems to have an open account with the French track, despite it being the first to give him a podium in the World Championship in 2015, during his Moto3 days. But we know well that usually when it comes to redeeming himself the Piedmontese has few equals on the premier class grid.

“I think one of my strengths is that I don’t care if I lose points, if I lose the race or if I crash, because I know perfectly well that if other things are right I can fight for the victory and I can recover. It’s always It’s been like this in recent years: in 2023 I more or less struggled every weekend and then we managed to fight for the top positions in the race”, said Bagnaia in the press conference that opened the French Grand Prix weekend.

“I like Le Mans, I love the environment with the grandstands always full at all the corners. The only thing is that on the last two occasions I wasn’t able to finish the race, once due to a crash and another due to a contact But in any case the potential has always been high and we have always been able to fight for the top positions”, he added.

When asked if he is particularly keen on winning this race, he continued: “Yes, absolutely, because I love everything about this event. It looks like the weather could be fantastic, so it would be great to be able to have a good battle here too. 2022 I came close, but then I made a mistake at the penultimate corner and last year I didn’t have the chance to fight for the win, even though the pace was competitive and I would have been in the fight. But yes, it would be one of the races best to win and not only for the points up for grabs from a World Championship perspective, but precisely for the idea of ​​winning here at Le Mans”.

The most interesting part of the media chat with Pecco, however, was undoubtedly the one relating to his future teammate. When asked who he would prefer between the two riders who joined him in the conference, namely Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez, his answer was very piqued due to some rumors that have emerged in recent days that he didn’t like at all.

“Honestly, I have already answered this question. In recent days I saw a video of a journalist who said he had heard that I don’t want Marc in the official team. But that’s bullshit. I don’t care. I just want to beat them all, try to be always the best and continue like this. I have no preferences, honestly. I am working well with Enea (Bastianini) I know perfectly the type of work we are doing and in any case, if the team changes my teammate, we will have to start again from scratch. But my ambition is always to be stronger than them.”

However, the topic was very hot and so he was subsequently also pressed on how things would go if he and the number #93 drove the same version of the Desmosedici GP instead of a GP24 and a GP23, and here too the reply came loud and clear .

“Thinking about ifs is always wrong in our world. Ifs and buts are not factors I work on. But I believe that the races would be the same, because the differences between the GP24 and the GP23 are very small. Some things are better and others worse, but I’ve been riding the Ducati for a long time while Marc has only done four races. We know his value perfectly, but I think the result in Jerez would have been the same even with the same bikes.”

Finally, he had his say on the new regulation that will be introduced in 2027, which provides for a reduction in displacement to 850cc, a decrease in aerodynamics and the ban on lowerers: “I’m very curious to try the 850cc engine, it will be nice to try that type of change. But I think it’s a bit strange, because we’re at the peak of prototype racing, so we should have the fastest bikes ever and instead we’re going to reduce the speed. But it’s also true that we want to see more battles and in In this sense, I believe that the only thing to remove is aerodynamics, because it doesn’t favor the fight, but only safety. In any case, I believe that we will get used to it and that the drivers’ values ​​will always be the same.”