Without much incident, Michele Pirro ended his weekend as Fabio Di Giannantonio's replacement at VR46 Racing in 20th place after finishing 21st in Saturday's Sprint Race. Two uninspiring results, also motivated by the lack of knowledge with the team.
"If I were to make a comparison with five, six years ago, everything has changed. I used to come here with my bike and my team. The level is different, since there are so many good bikes. When you do the last race of the season in a different team that, by the way, will be seeing part of the staff move to another brand in a few days, it's not easy. I still had fun riding the GP23. I got a second and a half a lap, which isn't bad. Certainly, if I had come here at the beginning of the year, it would've been different. There had already been a race here in the spring, and that complicated things even more," he stated, analyzing the situation.
Trying to analyze why he encountered so many difficulties, the 38-year-old explained: "The tires are very different than last year's, and the GP23 was designed for old tires. The gap between the GP24 and GP25 will probably be smaller, because they're born on the basis of the same tires."
When asked about the championship just won by Jorge Martin at the helm of Ducati Pramac, the rider from Puglia recalled how this outcome and the brand's dominance in general are the result of hard work that began 12 years ago. "The manufacturer has been able to give a competitive bike to everyone and, in 2025, Di Giannantonio at VR46 Racing will also be able to enjoy the updated model. This makes me very happy," he said, with thoughts already directed towards Tuesday's test also in Barcelona.
"I'll return to the track with some new parts, and I'll go back to my work as a test rider. It'll be interesting to make a comparison between the GP23 and the GP25. I'm curious. I have some sensations. We'll see what's going to change. I don't think there's going to be much difference between the current model and the new one. I hope we can find some extra performance to have more margin over the others in terms of engine, but I think the foundation of the GP24 is already very good. Then we're going to have many good riders on the GP25. In the end, they make the difference."
In the upcoming World Championship, there are going to be two fewer riders. Pirro was asked if this would change the outcome: "In my opinion, we've done a good job, so I hope we can live off the results of these years until I retire. Otherwise, I'm ruined because I'll have to grind more kilometers," he said, jokingly. It won't be easy because, in the tests, I saw that the Japanese were very aggressive, so I expect to see them close. I hope that, until 2026, we'll dominate and win the title in the future, as well. We have two top champions and, even if Martin and Bastianini were to lose, we try to make do with who we have."