MotoGP | Bastianini: “Aprilia is a good option, but I hope to stay in Ducati”

Barcelona is the present, but it is the future that holds sway at Ducati. The decision on the name of Pecco Bagnaia’s teammate for the next two years is approaching, it will probably arrive at Mugello or immediately after, but there are still three candidates for that saddle. The two favorites remain Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez, but the person currently occupying that side of the garage, namely Enea Bastianini, cannot already be considered to have been left out.

All three found themselves lined up in front of the media, with Bagnaia acting as an amused spectator, in the press conference that opened the weekend of the Catalan Grand Prix, and obviously the choice that the men in red will have to make, which will then give the go-ahead to dominate the market, was the key topic.

“This will probably be the most difficult decision for Ducati, because we are the top four in the World Championship, even if Pecco already has the contract and is therefore out of the running. Right now, my saddle is not uncomfortable: the Ducati is very fast, even on the tracks where we may have struggled a bit last year. I can still be an official rider next season too, but I know that Jorge and Marc are very fast and this complicates things a bit, but we’ll see.” , Bastianini said when asked to delve into the topic.

In the event that he were to lose his place, one of the most talked about options for “Beast” is a move to Aprilia, even more so after Aleix Espargaro announced his retirement at the end of the season today. The Rimini native did not discard the matter at all, suggesting however that the priority remains Red: “Of course, it can be an option. He’s a good builder and has made great progress in the last five. It can certainly be a good option, but perhaps it is better to wait a little longer.”

Returning to current events, the Catalan circuit has never particularly smiled on him in his stint in MotoGP, with a tenth place and two retirements. Therefore, it won’t be too difficult to try to improve his score over the weekend.

“I haven’t been very lucky here in Barcelona in the last period: in 2022 I crashed and last year I made a big mistake at the first corner, triggering an accident which also involved other riders. Let’s see how this year goes, hopefully better, but it’s a strange race because there’s very little grip and therefore it’s important to have a good basic set-up”, he concluded.