MANAGER of the Ducati team, Davide Tardozzi, admitted that he was disturbed by Bagnaia’s second position in the MotoGP standings even though he had won half the races so far.
The factory team racer achieved his ninth victory from 18 rounds at the Thailand MotoGP last weekend, after successfully fending off attacks from his Gresini rival, Marc Marquez, in the first half of the race.
However, with just two rounds remaining, he still faces a 17-point deficit to Pramac’s Jorge Martin, who has won just three races on Sunday by comparison, including one since the summer break.
A series of crashes in grands prix and sprints, plus some misfortune in between, have damaged the Italian’s chances of a third successive premier class title.
Speaking about the intra-Ducati championship battle, Tardozzi stressed that it was important for Bagnaia and the factory team to minimize mistakes to overcome Martin.
“In the end, if I had to say what bothers me a little is that Pecco has won half the races and is second in the championship. This is something that must and must make us think about the future,” said Tardozzi, quoted by Motorsport.com, Wednesday (30/10).
“We’ve made too many mistakes in the races, we can’t do that again any time soon. But having a driver who has won half the races is something important.”
“Pecco made history, at the moment he beat a great guy like Casey Stoner, so thank you Pecco!”
Tardozzi also had words of encouragement for Martin, who he believes is much more mature now than when he failed to win the title in 2023.
The former superbike racer explained that the Spaniard has learned to accept the best results on any given day, which has contributed to his consistency and a drastic reduction in crashes from pole position.
“After last year, when he lost the title, Jorge is very good at understanding that he needs help from his emotional side,” added Tardozzi.
“I think last winter he made great progress mentally and he put it into practice.”
“It’s no coincidence that he is the world championship leader, when he has to finish, he finishes, something he wouldn’t have done last year or in the past. We can only say congratulations to Jorge Martin.” (Z-2)
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