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Dall'Igna: "Don't disturb Bagnaia", but Ducati has three of a kind in hand

There is a Poker of aces in the game that will be played out at Misano in just over a week and that is worth a world title, but it is the Borgo Panigale manufacturer that has three in their hands. However, the cards have been dealt and they must make a choice that has been postponed for too long

Dall'Igna: "Don't disturb Bagnaia", but Ducati has three of a kind in hand

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We cannot create a character, he needs time, victories and personal charisma. All things that come or do not come and without which any sportsman, from this point of view, is a giant with feet of clay.

Italian motorcycle racing can have another world champion. It might arrive this year, or next.

And the moment is favourable because there are two manufacturers that field bikes capable of giving it to us: Ducati and Aprilia.

The second can win the world championship today with Aleix Espargarò, but let's face it: it will never be the same as what it was with Max Biaggi. Yet the premises are all there. Let's say that in order to fully represent us, he is lacking a bit of healthy arrogance. Massimo Rivola, CEO of the Noale manufacturer is too much of a gentleman in his manners, but perhaps this year's success has caught everyone a little by surprise. Maybe later in time, with a second team to field the situation will be different. And maybe an Italian rider will also arrive.

With Ducati it’s much more clear-cut: it is the dominant and driving force of the world championship with eight bikes on the track with which all riders manage to go fast. There is no doubt that the Dall'Igna-Ducati combination has paved the way: all the innovations of recent years have been introduced by the Reds from Borgo Panigale ... but it hasn't won the world championship since 2007, where it proved, like Ferrari, to be capable of unleashing enthusiasm even if there is no Italian rider on board. A unicum for a nationalistic country full of tifosi like ours.

However on the eve of the Misano Grand Prix both are in the running to hit the big target. On paper Aprilia should be the favourite with Aleix Espargarò who is closer to Fabio Quartararo at -32 points, but the headstrong Spaniard has only won one Grand Prix, in Argentina, with Quartararo in difficulty, so it seems to us that actually Pecco Bagnaia - who is at -44 but has won more than anyone this year, five Grands Prix, the last three in a row - has greater possibilities.

However, the arithmetic tells us that with 7 races until the end of the world championship, the Frenchman - who is also a little Italian by origin and Spanish by adoption and therefore we find it difficult not to love him and not want the best for him - could always come second behind the Ducati rider and confirm his title. He would in any case deserve it.

As we have already written, the Austrian GP was a huge, wasted opportunity for Ducati: taking away just 5 points from Fabio at the Spielberg drag circuit is something that, in private, will have pissed off Gigi Dall’Igna.

So changes are urgently needed for Misano. And these can only come from the forces on the track, because as we have already had the opportunity to say to Bologna top brass, you can dominate the world constructors’ and teams’ championships, but without the riders’ title you’ve won nothing.

Ducati was missing strategy at the Red Bull Ring

 

For this reason, there is a need, not for team orders that Ducati could only give within the factory team, but for strategy. Something that was totally lacking at the Red Bull Ring.

It could be said that Jack Miller was unable to keep his wheels in front of the Yamaha, that Johann Zarco didn't do it either, but in our opinion the other two aces they can count on at Borgo Panigale are Martin and Bastianini. And they know it.

In Austria the 'Beast' was unlucky, Martin did not race for the brand

 

While the latter was unlucky because of a broken front rim, the buccaneering Spaniard certainly did not race for the brand. Nothing to see there, there were no team orders, but a suggestion to avoid creating difficult situations there was.

For this reason, the same mistakes cannot be made at Misano. Dall’Igna knows it well, but he brings with him a situation that has gotten out of hand: the internal war (because it is war) between Martin and Bastianini. The pointless, harmful delays on which one of the two will end up in the official team have created strong internal discontent that the two riders have metabolized differently based on their character.

Bastianini has thrown the injustice behind him, Martin at the moment is a bull who sees red and wants to demonstrate. But demonstrate what?

At this point, what Gigi said to our colleague Paolo Ianieri from La Gazzetta is very true: “I continue to see it (the possibility of snatching the title from Quartararo) but we cannot rely solely on our strength. We will need to create some particular situation, but by looking in-house we will have to do things in the best possible way".

Something that did not happen at the Red Bull Ring. And in fact Dall’Igna continued: “We can already say that no one should bother Pecco: it would be stupid if a Ducati rider bothered him without a reason”.

This is not a team order, which, as has been reiterated, is only acceptable in the last race. Kenny Roberts asked Yamaha for it in 1983, demanding the help of Eddie Lawson against Freddie Spencer at Imola, and it didn't help. However, it is a clear invitation that cannot fail to be accepted.

Yes, but the problem is that Ducati cannot offer any carrots at the moment, neither to Martin nor to Bastianini since they have promised both of them the moon without letting them land. A bit of the situation of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who commanded the Apollo 11 module without being able to be the first man to step on our satellite. And that’s how it will end up with one of the two. And it will be even tougher, both if the announcement is made before or after Misano, because it will still be perceived as a missed opportunity.

These are the facts, and our considerations. Mistakes are always made, and certainly without Bagnaia's at the beginning of the season, Ducati would not be in this situation. What is certain is that today, however, this world championship is in the hands of the team, as well as in the one that Pecco uses for the gas.

 

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