Just like his colleague Francesco Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini is in the final year of his contract with Ducati in MotoGP. However, his continuity is more uncertain – considering that in 2023 he couldn’t show his potential due to injuries, this year he has to prove he deserves the seat when there is a lot of competition for it.
Team manager Davide Tardozzi told the championship’s website that it’s a crucial season for Bastianini, believing the rider will be in the title fight:
– It’s an important year for him after a very bad year in 2023. I think he recovered from all the body problems. Mentally he’s really focused to try to be one of the contenders for this year’s championship. I think that he already showed us in Qatar and in Malaysia that he will be very competitive. I think he will be one of the four, maybe five, guys who will play for the championship until the end.
For now, Ducati has not yet started discussing the renewal with Bastianini, who is one of the options: ‘First of all we have to finalise with Pecco, then we’ll see what’s going on for the second place. Enea is one of the guys who is under the eyes, but we will take a bit more of time to decide the second rider for 2025 and 2026’, Tardozzi said.