Last year, Ducati became the MotoGP rider’s champion for the second consecutive year, but had to manage a fierce competition until the end between its factory rider Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín from the Prima Pramac Racing satellite team. Marco Bezzecchi (VR46/Ducati) was also in contention.
Paolo Ciabatti, who was the Ducati sporting director until the end of 2023, admitted to the Motosan.es website that it was a somewhat complicated situation not knowing which rider would be the champion. However, he emphasized that it was a good problem, knowing that whoever became the champion would be a Ducati rider:
– On the one hand, no, because when you are sure you will win the World Championship, it’s a good problem to manage. Because at the moment when [Brad] Binder couldn’t win, there were Pecco, Jorge, and Marco. Ducati was going to be the world champion of riders. It was also about constructors. The end was quite tough because Pecco and Jorge were super competitive. It’s a good problem, but you have to take a lot of aspirins because you know you’ve won everything, but you still don’t know with which rider.