MotoGP | Bezzecchi: “Now I understand how to ride the new Ducati”

The Qatar Grand Prix kicks off a new season, which will be full of new features, unknowns, but also many confirmations. Among these is Marco Bezzecchi, who for the third consecutive year wears the colors of the VR46 team. The rider from Romagna is ready to return to the track, this time with the GP23 with which he initially did not feel comfortable, but slowly he is starting to familiarize himself with the new weapon he has at his disposal in MotoGP.

If the Sepang tests did not go according to expectations, the situation certainly improved in Qatar, when Bez he returned to the Ducati for the second pre-season test: “In Sepang I struggled a bit, but in the Qatar tests I felt much better and I started to understand better how to ride the bike, to change my style a bit driving. When I tested the new bike, I felt that it was very similar to the old one. But when I started pushing I struggled a lot, especially when entering corners.”

“Stopping is a little different and I'm still working on it because it's a quite sensitive part of riding and when you don't have enough confidence, you don't trust as a whole. In Malaysia I tried to modify the bike more without changing the riding style too much, but it didn't go well. From the Sepang tests to the Doha tests I studied a lot at home on what I could do differently. When I started testing here I tried to adapt my riding style to the bike and it went much better. I think I will continue in this way,” Bezzecchi explained on Thursday in Lusail.

In 2023, the VR46 rider scored his first success in the premier class, fighting for the title until a few races before the end of the season. Given the solid year put in place, it is normal to expect a further step from the Romagna native. However, Bezzecchi does not feel more pressure than usual because of this: “I definitely have more eyes on me, but last year is in the past. In sports every year is very different, so I have to focus on this year. It's a little different from when I was a kid. We have more things to do, so Thursday is quite a busy day, but you start to see all the riders with new colours, even from other categories. This thing is very cute. I'm nervous, but it's normal… It's like the first day of school, only more important and more fun!”.

This year, Bez shares the garage with a new teammate. Luca Marini who left VR46 to go to Honda, and his place was taken by Fabio Di Giannantonio, who in the tests showed a better feeling with the GP23 than Bez. However, this does not involve the creation of a hierarchy within the team: “I think there is no number one in the team, in the end everyone does their job. Fabio was very fast last year at the end of the season, but also in this year's winter tests. For me it's an opportunity to learn from fast riders. In Ducati and in my team we share data, so I can see what Fabio does and what others do differently from me to learn and be faster.”