Three names on shortlist but the clock is ticking on Ducati's big decision

With Fabio Quartararo off the market for the next three MotoGP seasons𒁃 including the current 2024 campaign, could the next domino to fall be at Ducati?

Jorge
Jorge

2021 MotoGP champion 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Fabio Quartararo made a surprising decision last week as he⛎ agreed to𒀰 a new two-year deal with Yamaha.

The Japanese brand has endured a difficult time since winning the championship with Quartarar𝄹o in 2021, losing out to Francesco Bagnaia in 2022, before a very disappointing season in 2023 as it marked their first winless campaign since🍸 2003.

Quartararo received interest from Aprili꧟a as a 4m Euro salary reportedly was offered to𒁃 the French rider.

However, Yamah🙈a more than doubled that offer by givi𝓡ng Quartararo a yearly salary of 12m for the next two seasons.

While that secures Quartararo’s future, it 💙means Jorge Martin won’t be joining Yamaha which would have been in play had Quartararo left.

Instead, Martin’s future could n🥃ow be locked in at Ducati unless Aprilia swoops in with 🤡an offer he can’t turn down.

However, that appears unlikely and Martin, who is the current championship leader, will want to move in alongside Bagnaia at the factory 𒀰Lenovo Ducati team.

Martin has been the most consistent rider so far in 2024 and last season’s runner-up has mad🅷e it known on several occasions that he wants to be 🐭a factory rider.

Ducati have plenty of options but when it comes 🥂to performance, current results and age, Martin might be the favouri✤te to join Bagnaia.

But what about t✱he likes of Bastianini and Marquez?

Starting with the former, Bastianini has looked back to his bes๊t▨ at the start of 2024 after adapting better to the new Desmosedici GP24.

Enea Bastianini, MotoGP race, Portuguese MotoGP, 24 March
Enea Bastianini, MotoGP race, Portuguese MotoGP, 24 March

Bastianini secured second spot behind Martin last time out in Portimao, and although Martin has been stronger than🍒 the Italian so far this season, the Italian is a rider that on his day has proven to be 𓆏very hard to beat.

Bastianini has also been a very good team-mate to Bagnaia and so the familiarity of being in the factory team, experieꩵnce and results he has is not something Ducati will take lightly when making a deci🍬sion.

Martin’s raw pace and recent results says he should be the rider to get that seat, however, Bastianin𒐪i remains one of the best riders in MotoGP and therefore D🧜ucati might want to keep their line-up intact.

The wildcard here is🍸 Marc Marquez, because the Spaniard is arguably th⛄e best MotoGP rider of his era, if not ever.

Marquez, like Bastianini, has been very strong so far this season and an argument could be made that only Martin and Bagnaia ha💃ve demonstrated more consistent spe🌟ed than the eight-time world champion.

If Ducati chose to sign Marquez alongside Bagnaia, it would mean looking at what he’s capable of doing, rather t﷽han basing their decision off of results aboard their bike.

Marquez only has two rounds of experience ridingℱ a Ducati, but that hasn’t stopped him from bein🐷g very impressive.

Marquez could also make a big statement by w♍inning this week♔end at COTA, one of his most successful circuits on the calendar.

Of course, the incident between Marquez and Bagnaia in Portimao might scare management aw🐓ay from taking a risk, but equally, 🌺putting Marquez on their factory bike would be a big statement and would do wonders for sponsors.

Our prediction as it stands is that Martin will 𝄹get the second factory Ducati ride for 2025, while Bastianini could be set for a mov✃e away from Ducati after it was reported that talks have begun with Aprilia.

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