Seven days after Pecco Bagnaia’s feat in MotoGP, Ducati has no time to catch its breath and already has to uncork another sparkling wine. Alvaro Bautista gave Borgo Panigale the second world championship of 2022, the first in Superbike after eleven years. In fact, the last Ducati title, won by Carlos Checa at the time, dates back to 2011. Once again, it is a Spaniard who brings the Red to the top of the world and in the production derivatives it is a combination that seems to work.
There were many doubts about Bautista’s return to Ducati in 2022. After the experience of 2019, there were many who did not have too much faith in the rider from Talavera de la Reina. An explosive debut that culminated in mistakes and a swagger that had made him lose faith. Then the two years of ordeal in Honda and finally the return to Borgo Panigale. Gigi Dall’Igna believed in the binomial, but he was in the clear minority.
Yet the Ducati Corse General Manager was right. At the end of the Mandalika round he revealed that he immediately had the feeling that 2022 was the right year, he had seen a different Bautista than 2019. In fact, the domination was less impactful than that of three years ago, but it has proved more steady and mature. If 2019 was the year of illusion, 2022 was the year of maturity, which led that illusion to become a real goal.
Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati, World Champion
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Bautista learned from that debut season, in which the many mistakes and a still not perfect Panigale V4R led him to choose to embrace another project. The two years in Honda have perhaps served even more than the experience in Ducati. Riding the Fireblade he won three podiums in two seasons, the difficult moments were more than those of joy and the Spaniard often found himself wondering if it was the right choice.
Today, after seeing Alvaro on the roof of the world, we can say it. Yes, it was the right choice. Without obstacles you cannot learn and even the new world champion is aware of this, who claims to have learned a lot from these two complicated and stingy years of satisfaction, in which he swallowed so many bitter morsels. Thanks to his experience in Honda, the Bautista who returned to the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati garage was a different rider.
He demonstrated this right away, showing not the 11 consecutive victories strung together in 2019, but a management of the championship that still led him to collect 14 successes, but to have a consistency that had not been seen three years ago. He was the rider who best interpreted this Ducati, which has grown in the meantime. Bautista and the Panigale V4R have grown together, in parallel, to find themselves complete and mature this year. They chose each other again at the right time, and each gave the other a way to show this growth. While Alvaro “made his bones” in the production derivatives in HRC, the four-cylinder was turning into the weapon that in the hands of the Spaniard became the unbeatable bike, which also stopped a Toprak Razgatlioglu in splendid shape. And now the story continues …
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