There are five Grands Prix, four non-European, left before the end of the world championship which now boils down to a fight between Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia but still without the excitement that a duel between two riders of this caliber should spark off.
It has all come to this because they have both made mistakes, a lot of mistakes: Bagnaia has no-scored in 7 races, 3 GPs and 4 Sprints; Martin has been left high and dry in 4 races, 2 GPs and 2 Sprints. The pair of Ducati riders has won a total of 10 Grands Prix, 7 of them by Pecco, yet despite this haul it is the rider from Turin who is chasing the Spaniard with 21 points to make up. Never has such a thing been seen in so many years of the world championship, not least because the there has hardly been any competition. The other five Grands Prix, in fact, have gone the way of Vinales, once at Austin, and two each to Bastianini and Marc Marquez, who from the beginning have been playing the role of outsiders.
Enea, in fact, has never, except for now at the end of the season, been up to the standards of his two rivals, while Marc, making his debut with Ducati and the old GP23, has paid for his inexperience with the new bike, but above all the long years of stops and operations after his accident in 2020.
Yet Bastianini and Marquez have overall, made fewer mistakes than the leading pair: the #93 did not score any points in the GP of Portugal due to a collision with Bagnaia and then in the GP of the United States, in the Sprint in the Netherlands, in the Sprint in the UK, in Austria and then broke his engine in Indonesia.
The #23 has made the fewest mistakes of all: two zeros in two Sprints to which was added the crash in Indonesia, but without too many high points. The result now is that with 185 points available Enea is chasing at -75 and Marc at -78. There is no mathematical exclusion from the title fight for them, but the road is now almost completely barred... barring unimaginable twists and turns. That might come but only from those who should be the two protagonists who, thanks to their friendship, appear to be facing this World Championship of Mistakes with fatalism rather than anger.
Mind you, beyond a few lapses in style - Jorge's umbrella gesture at Misano 2, Pecco's accusation against Alex Marquez at Aragon - the couple who win but don't break the TV screen are showing great sportsmanship, but motorcycle racing - as it gets closer to the Liberty Media era - wants more: spectacle not only on the track, controversy in the box, accusations between team managers, gossip in the paddock. We are not saying that it is fair and that we like it, far from it, but this is the turn the sport has taken. Without bothering with F1 or the Olympics, which fill the pages of newspapers and live TV coverage with facts unrelated to pure and simple competition, this is the way of the world today.
And it is perhaps for this reason that Dorna at Motegi, in an attempt to warm up the souls will put one in front of the other in the press conference, instead of the usual four frontrunners, just Martin and Bagnaia. Bastianini and Marquez will not even be guests at the second meeting, which will instead feature Acosta, Nakagami and Quartararo. Not by chance, one KTM rider, one Honda and one Yamaha. Much to the chagrin of Aprilia, which is not in attendance, but this is only the consequence of the apparent starvation with which Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, both now out of the team, are tackling this end of the season.
Be that as it may, Jorge and Francesco aside, the rest is all sub-clou, to use terminology dear to boxing. And here we are reminded of the weigh-in ceremonies that see, very often, the two challengers, attacking each other verbally, if not even physically. OK, it's a different sport, boxing is pure aggression, but the reality is that the face-to-face are often appearances between these protagonists. A way to ignite interest in the challenge that instead languishes in MotoGP despite the fact that we are witnessing some amazing racing.
And that it is not just our impression is shown by the fact that in this season finale there has been a lot of talk about radios, F1 style, to insert an element of commentary interest and get the pits more involved. As if MotoGP needed that.
The reality is that, irrespective of the spectacle on the track, which is by no means lacking, the hype that motorcycle racing lacks today depends solely and uniquely on the protagonists, but a leopard can't change its spots, and while in Spain there is more talk of Marc Marquez than of Jorge Martin, who has a great chance of taking the title, even in Italy there has been more discussion this year about Marc's accepted challenge of racing for the Gresini team than about the fact that we have for the third year in a row an all-Italian pairing, Bagnaia and Ducati, fighting for the world championship. Yet this seems to us absolutely remarkable, at least as remarkable as the world #1 in tennis won by Sinner!
This is something that above all Ducati, which is dominating the world championship as never before this year, but has certainly not set the media world on fire, should start to wonder about. Just think if Ferrari had done that!
And it is not enough to have Claudio Domenicali who last June talking to Sky TV ended up in all the media with his shock declaration, "Marquez? He would not be the right choice for us." His was an articulated reasoning, not just a throwaway comment: "These things are nice because they make people talk, like in the sports bar, however, I think it is not the right thing for us. We have a group of extraordinary riders that we have raised. Bagnaia is a crazy talent, he is underestimated, he still makes some mistakes but that's okay, if he hadn't made mistakes we would have already been talking about a dull championship. But there is not only Pecco, we also have Bastianini, Martin, many young riders that we are following. Marquez is an extraordinary talent, he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, but Ducati draws its strength from the way it works with its riders, ours is a family spirit, today we are good like this and we will continue like this, the results are proving us right."
You all know the way it ended, but then again, only fools don't change their minds. Here, maybe motorcycle racing needs more externals like this, managers who put themselves on the line, riders who don't apologize for inappropriate words or gestures.
We have the spectacle. The management of it, on the other hand, is sorely lacking , and taking two of the stars of this championship, Bastianini and Marquez, out of the press conference to ape the boxing weigh-in ceremony and increase interest certainly won't be sufficient. In fact, looking closely, it is precisely Enea and Marc who may have the sword to put on one of the scales of the challenge.