RiderTua.com – Most of the riders competing in MotoGP will complete their special contracts on 31 December. And among the 22 bikes on the current grid, there are two seats that every rider really wants, and they are none other than the two red bikes from Ducati Lenovo, which have won the world championship for the second time in the last season.
Much of the Ducati squad’s victory is due to the competitiveness Pecco Bagnaia has shown since 2022, the pace that has pushed him to take on the second challenge completed by Casey Stoner in 2007 that has established the Turin rider as the best rider currently in MotoGP.
Ducati Will Not Rush To Sign Enea Bastianini’s Contract, Good News For Jorge Martin
Therefore, Ducati has now put all its planning agenda into ensuring its continuity with Pecco Bagnaia who will definitely ask for a significant increase in his compensation (salary) after he wins the last consecutive title. This is undoubtedly an effort that the production line will have to compensate by providing more money to their number one driver.
Davide Tardozzi, Group Chief of Ducati Lenovo, explained at the last test in Qatar that the immediate need of the factory at the moment is to resume Pecco Bagnaia, they will extend the contract signed some time ago at the beginning of the year at Losail.. “To start with, “We need to resolve everything with Pecco. At that point, we will see what happens next,” he said via Motogp.com media.
But for now there are many questions on the other side of Pecco’s garage, especially in the situation of Enea Bastianini. The Italian rider did not have a good 2023, where injuries and the need to adapt to the Desmosedici GP23 meant ‘The Beast’ to endure his worst season. Now, with the start of 2024 and after some very promising official tests, Bastianini seems poised for a comeback.
“Enea is one of the riders we are targeting, but we plan to give more time to choose which rider will be with us in 2025 and 2026 (Martin, Bastianini or another),” admitted Tardozzi, adding that this season will be an important year for Ducati.
But Ducati has also not forgotten the competitiveness that Enea showed in Qatar and Malaysia, and has confidence that the Italian will be one of the four or five riders who will fight for the world title until the end.
For now, Ducati is waiting to see how Enea Bastianini performs, with the wait not to rush into extending his contract which is good news for Spaniard Jorge Martin, whose desire in 2025 is to race for factory Ducati. If this doesn’t happen, the Pramac rider has now confirmed that he will look for another team, and currently Honda, Yamaha, Aprilia and KTM will have official spec bikes available in 2025. Anything could happen in the future for Jorge Martin.
