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Ducati had made it clear from the outset: before Misano the decision will be made as to who will be Pecco Bagnaia's teammate from next year in the factory team. The candidates have been known for some time, with Enea Bastianini on the one side and Jorge Martin on the other.
Both made their MotoGP debut last year and the Spaniard, with the colours of the Pramac team, immediately amazed everyone, conquering his first pole positions and podium in the second race and then managing to win in Austria. The Italian, for his part, made constant improvement. In the Avintia team he finished the season by getting on the podium twice at Misano, despite a lower spec bike.
The same fate has been reserved for him this season, with a GP21 in the colours of the Gresini team. Despite the technical gap, the Beast of Rimini has achieved 3 victories: in Qatar, Austin and Le Mans. Martin, on the other hand, has scored 2 second places, in Argentina and in Barcelona.
Clearly the results are all on Bastianini's side, but at Borgo Panigale they wanted to wait before making a decision, which seems to be mature by now. From what GPOne has been able to find out, the balance right now is tipped heavily in Enea’s favour and we shouldn't have to wait long for it to be formalized.
The last two races have been on the side of the Italian. At Silverstone he finished 4th, overtaking Martin right in the wet. In Austria he was halted by a broken wheel rim, but it was Jorge who stood out… negatively. At the start of the race he helped Quartararo to get back into contention with overtaking moves that were not too clean… against Enea, while in sight of the finish he crashed trying to overtake Miller, almost bringing down the Australian in the crash.
So the odds of the Spaniard went down and those of Enea went up. Ducati probably would have preferred (also for marketing reasons) to have a mixed couple as regards nationalities in the first team, but it would not be the first time with two Azzurri. In the recent past Dovizioso had in fact shared the garage first with Andrea Iannone and then with Danilo Petrucci.
Bagnaia and Bastianini are the only two riders to have won on the Reds this year, so from the point of view of results they couldn't have chosen better. With them from next year they will play with two ‘strikers’, being able to count on the best talents produced by the Italian school at this time.
Martin would thus remain in Pramac, but would still be able to count on a GP23 identical to that of the riders in the official team.
The game now seems over, not much more to wait and the cards will be placed on the table.
