Moto GP: Championship leader Jorge Martin crashed out in his home GP in Spain, while Bagnaia took out a dramatic win.
The good news for Ducati is that MotoGP’s benchmark factory team has no bad options when choosing a rider to become teammate to reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia in 2025.With reports out of Europe suggesting an announcement could be made at or before the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello on the first weekend of June, Enea Bastianini, Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez won’t have too long to wait to learn their fate.
And then there’s 31-year-old Marquez. The six-time MotoGP world champion, currently in his first season for Ducati’s third-string customer outfit Gresini Racing, took a massive pay cut and a one-year deal to leave Honda at the end of 2023 now his body, ravaged for the past five years from repeated shoulder surgeries, is closer to 100 per cent that at any time since his career-defining crash at Jerez in 2020.
“No matter how it goes, we will have to leave some important riders out of the equation. My legs are shaking just thinking about having to make this decision.”On-track speed is one thing, but off-track compatibility is another – and a consideration Ducati is painfully aware of as lessons from the recent past show what happens when a rider duo becomes more combustible than convivial.
It came early in 2018, with Lorenzo winning all three of his races in red after he’d been shown the door.
It’s a calling card he’s not had a clean run at since, his 2023 barely getting off the start line after he was mauled by Luca Marini in the season’s first sprint race in Portugal, breaking his right collarbone and missing the first five rounds. Speed, then, isn’t Martin’s problem; staying power has been, as last year’s championship showed. The moment the 2023 title chase flipped into Bagnaia’s favour? Indonesia, where Martin crashed from a comfortable lead and handed Bagnaia, who had qualified back in 13th, a gift in the form of 25 points. Bagnaia never trailed in the title chase again.
Those options could come at Yamaha, which only has 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo signed for next season, or Honda, where 2020 champion Joan Mir comes off contract in December. But with both Japanese factories languishing at the back of the grid again this season, arguments other than financial to turn his back on Ducati are flimsy.
Jack Miller Signing Cycles Short-Form Sprint Races Evolving Rider Policy Malaysia Japanese Factories Adjustment Period Portugal North America Andrea Iannone Rider Market World Titles Italian Bike Francesco Bagnaia Reigning World Champion Familiar Territory Gp/Getty Images Argentina Fabio Quartararo World Champion Champion Chasing Europe Final Corner Off-Track Compatibility Luca Marini Italian Journeyman Season Start Rider Duo Grands Prix Double Podium Finish Three-Time World Champion Factory Focus Class-Leading Race Management Northern America Start Line Report Card Pay Packets South-Eastern Asia Southern Europe Time Getting Media Cut-Through Sister Garage Full-Factory Ride In-Race Tyre Management Warning Label Fermin Aldeguer Jorge Martin Three-Horse Race United States Of America Top-Line Team Antepenultimate Round Third-String Customer Outfit Agence France Presse Jorge Lorenzo Danilo Petrucci Championship Pomp America Factory Support HORROR SHOW Brilliant Win Premier-Class Titles Official Team Yamaha Calling Card Getty Images Inc. Championship Runner-Up Tyre Life One-Year Contracts Matt Clayton Benchmark Factory Team Joan Mir One-Year Deal NUCLEAR OPTION Italian Marque Plum Job Vacancy Massive Pay Cut Desperate Times Valentino Rossi Spain Desperate Measures Comfortable Lead Shoulder Surgeries Mick Doohan Championship Standings Title Chase Marc Marquez Asia Gigi Dall'igna Can’T-Lose Position Europa Press Title Chances Las Time Indonesia
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