With Jorge Martín fighting for the title in the Prima Pramac satellite team and Enea Bastianini facing difficulties and injuries in the factory Ducati team, there were rumors for some time in 2023 about a swap between them for this year.
However, this did not materialize, and at least according to Bastianini, it was not even a topic on the table. According to the site Motosan.es, the Italian stated to the newspaper Marca:
– I often heard about this. But officially, no one told me anything, and I don’t think it was like that, but that doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that I am in this team because it has always been complicated for me. For me, it is important to have another year with the same team.
In the final stretch of 2023, Bastianini managed to recover his physical fitness after the injuries he had and even won the Malaysian GP. Martín was in contention for the title with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) until the end, but ended up as runner-up.