On Martin: “He deserved the official team, but we gave him everything we had to compete for the title.” Regarding concessions: “It’s right to give them to the Japanese, not to Aprilia or Ktm”
In the cold of a Valencia that suddenly discovers the arrival of winter, a few minutes before the start of testing, Gigi Dall’Igna, general manager of Ducati Corse, takes stock of the season that has been and the one to come. Here, by theme, is what he said.
What to say about this incredible 2023?
”I want to say thanks to our riders and to all those who work in the racing department for the work they have done. We started with a bike that already worked well and we managed to improve it in phases where others had been better than us, such as the departure”.
Here at the Valencia tests we will see Marc Marquez for the first time riding a Ducati, how will you handle it?
“Ducati’s position is that they certainly didn’t want Marquez. Now I’m curious to hear the comments of one of the most important riders in history, it’s an honor that he wanted to race with us. The management of such a cumbersome rider is certainly an issue important. We will have to be good at managing the relationships between the various riders and the teams, harmony is one of the strong points of today’s Ducati. The argument between him and Bezzecchi? It’s a race episode, then it passes. If the Ducati Will it be suitable for Marc? Almost all the riders have won with our bike, I imagine it will be suitable for him too and, if necessary, we will be able to adapt it to him too. The fact that he only wanted a one-year contract is reasonable, often for satellite riders this solution is chosen. Your contribution to Ducati? I listen to all the riders in the same way, it would be wrong to follow just one. I am convinced that if someone has a problem, solving it also helps the official team rider.”
Will the fact that Marquez has a Ducati in his hands have any influence on Bagnaia?
“For Pecco, having Marc in Ducati won’t change much. His goal will be to win the World Championship for the third time, a feat that very few have achieved. Today, Bagnaia is becoming one of the most important riders.”
Did Jorge Martin deserve the official bike?
“Jorge had an incredible championship and deserved the official team. But we only have two bikes and the contracts must be respected. We are Ducati and we do it. Then at the end of the year we will evaluate the best options. We have done our duty with him, we gave him a bike to fight for the championship until the end, without ever penalizing him.”
What will the 2024 bike be like?
“The riders always ask us the same things: a bike that performs better, is faster and corners better. At the end of the season, as hasn’t happened for a while, we had chattering problems, which will be one of the issues to be addressed further down the line. Marquez, like all the other riders of the satellite teams, will have the bike that Johann Zarco finished the season on. Some evolutions had been introduced on the bike of Bagnaia, Bastianini and Martin which however gave rise to some reliability and performance problems and also considering that are solutions that are not easy to use for private teams, we preferred not to use them.”
What are your thoughts on concessions? Is it right to give them to all builders?
“I think they are important for those in difficulty, so I agree that it was right to give them to the Japanese, to give them some advantage. However, I don’t think it is right to give them to manufacturers who have won races (Aprilia, ed.) or who have constantly fought to do so (Ktm, ed.). Not in the short term, but in the medium term, this could lead to us having a penalty in terms of performance. In any case, I don’t think that taking away our performance is one of the objectives of the Fim or Dorna In Superbike you start from standard bikes, here we all start with the same rules, it would be unnatural to have penalties in MotoGP.”
What do you think of all the controversies surrounding Michelin in recent weeks?
“It’s not easy to make tires that are the same as each other, it’s the same thing for engines, I have the same problem because even if they’re built the same way, sometimes you can have some problems. If you get a bad tire at the crucial moment of the season hurts, but you don’t win or lose a World Championship because of a tire, but because of the mistakes made during the season. And if you want to improve, that’s what you have to focus on.”
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