Two years and two championships against highly valued opponents but in different conditions, that’s how it was for Francesco Bagnaia in 2022 and 2023, with the rider briefly comparing his seasons against Fabio Quartararo and Jorge Martin. The Ducati rider also talked about a curious statement he made at the GP of the Americas, where he spoke of the Desmosedici’s stability being “too much”.
If in 2022 the Italian’s main opponent was Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), this year it was Jorge Martin (Pramac/Ducati), with the reigning world champion putting his opponents at different points, as he explained: ‘It’s difficult to compare. Last year Fabio started very well but as soon as I started winning he started having more problems. He was and is very fast but his bike doesn’t give him the chance to fight me, so we were in different situations. This year with Jorge after Barcelona he started to gain a lot of confidence in himself and started to win points, to recover every weekend and it was difficult to stop him. Then I crashed in India, I was ahead of him and that was a bonus in his recovery, but it was more difficult this year for sure’.
In addition, the #1 also recalled how the sharing of data between the Ducati teams ended up benefiting “harming” both himself and Martín at the same time:
– Sharing data is useful and more stressful at times because I remember that in many races I was more competitive, or he was more competitive and I saw his data and he saw mine, and we were improving in the same way. It was certainly more difficult than last year.
Bagnaia also recalled his words after the race at the GP of the Americas, where he spoke about how the ‘stability of the Desmosedici’ was a ‘problem’, with him clarifying: ‘I think it’s clear. If you remember Martín in Indonesia, what happened to him: he was so confident, pushing hard, gaining time on the second-placed rider and with 3s to go and without knowing why, he crashed, and that’s what happened to me in Austin. I was riding, I felt unbeatable and then it came to turn two, I came out a little wider, and I lost the front without knowing why, and I still don’t know why today, honestly’.
He added: ‘What I realised is that sometimes you have to be a bit calmer and understand the situation better with the tyres and then push, because last year was a great lesson, especially in the first part of the season’.