The new year brings new concessions in MotoGP for some manufacturers, with Yamaha and Honda being the main beneficiaries, unlike Ducati who have been deprived of some extra perks, something that has earned criticism from Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia.
The two-time world champion was asked if he thought the two Japanese teams would have a big advantage in terms of being able to test more, and not only that, and he answered in the affirmative but criticised Dorna for taking away some of the benefits that Ducati had: ‘They have more tests… they start in Malaysia with two or three more days and then they can test anywhere and I think that will be a big step forward for them. It’s true that they need it but, from my point of view, the concessions for Ducati didn’t have to change. For Ducati it had to be the same and not reduce test days, number of tyres, wildcards. I didn’t understand that because the concessions for the others were huge’.
He then spoke about Yamaha’s reinforcement, with the team reinforcing itself precisely at Ducati, first with Marco Nicotra, and then Massimo Bartolini: ‘If you consider Honda and Yamaha I think it’s good for them because they can do more things. Yamaha have Max Bartolini, it was for them and it will certainly be a big step forward for them, they’ll have a big advantage from my point of view’.