potential wasted by bad luck

For two years, Pecco Bagnaia teamed up with Enea Bastianini, the one who had been a fierce opponent for him in 2022, when one raced for the factory team and the other for Gresini. However, in the eyes of the double MotoGP world champion, his sidekick was unlucky once they were united under the official banner, deprived of the performances to which his potential could have destined him.

“Enea is a driver who, in my opinion, has been very unlucky during this chapter of his career. That was very much the case last year,” retains Bagnaia. “This year he unfortunately found himself in the loop of media discussions on the subject Márquez, Martín and Enea, and he could not relish the situation. But in my opinion, Enea is a driver who has potential amazing.”

“When he manages to make everything go in the right direction, as we saw several times at Silverstone and elsewhere, he is clearly one of the strongest drivers. It’s a shame not to having had it at its maximum But, in addition to a great pilot I knew a friend who helped me in different situations”, greets the Turinese.

Touched by his teammate’s words, Bastianini made their relationship one of the best things to remember from his time in the official team: “From this point of view, I am very grateful for this adventure at Ducati because we fought a lot but with a lot of respect. We formed an incredible, very solid team. We worked all the time to achieve to be faster and the level has undoubtedly increased thanks to the work we have done together. We sometimes tried a new part on the bike and talked a lot about bringing the maximum to Ducati, and this equipment was also provided to Jorge. [Martín] and Franco [Morbidelli].”

“Pecco made me grow from several points of view. But that also goes for Jorge and Marc [Márquez]who gave me a hard time and made me grow. I feel like a better driver and I hope I can demonstrate that.”

If he is grateful for these exchanges, on the other hand Bastianini can only admit that he did not actually achieve the results he hoped for. In this sense, his first season in red strongly conditioned the rest, with first difficulties in finding his feet, then especially injuries which kept him on the sidelines for a long time. At the start of barely more than half of the Grands Prix, he only broke through at the very end of the championship by returning to victory in Malaysia.

“I think Enea suffered a lot from her fall last year and it took her almost a year to recover,” notes team manager Davide Tardozzi on the official website. “But on the other hand, this year he proved that he can fight for the first places, and fighting against a real champion like Marc for third place is not a bad result.”

“A lot of things to blame me for”

Third place in the championship ended up escaping Bastianini in the last race, the fault according to him being a certain inconsistency. “In reality, I felt strong almost everywhere at the end of the season. But the variations depending on the different situations have an impact. It can be good in the morning and bad in the afternoon, or vice versa. Other than that, I didn’t miss anything. I think it’s a question of consistency.”

“My potential was probably very close to that of Pecco and Jorge, but on many occasions I was not consistent and I was missing something,” he judges. “When I was ahead in qualifying, I was then behind in the race, and the next time it was the other way around. It can’t be good to play for the title. If we want to win the title, we have to change that. I hope to have more luck for my future because I know that I can do something more than in 2024.”

“One more year would have been useful for me to be able to make a difference. I cannot take last year into account because it was of no use to me,” decides Bastianini who, after four years riding the Desmosedici, with seven GP victories and two in the sprint format, joins the KTM group for next season by joining the Tech3 team.

“I will clearly take away a lot of experience. Let’s say that these four years have been very good, with ups and downs. If we want, we can say that, sometimes, we have not been up to the situation , so I have a lot to reproach myself for, but there were also a lot of joys and I experienced a lot of beautiful moments.”

Avec Matteo Nugnes