Beast mode activated
Can Enea Bastianini bounce back from his 2023 disaster? Can Alex Rins turn Yamaha’s dwindling fortunes around? What about Raul Fernandez?
Go back 12 months and everybody was talking about the mouth-watering prospect of Enea Bastianini and Pecco Bagnaia going head-to-head as factory Ducati teammates. After all, Bastianini had beaten Pecco with Gresini in 2022 and pushed him into mistakes, so surely a fierce rivalry was on the cards.
It wasn’t to be thanks to Bastianini fracturing his shoulder in the season opener, and then his ankle at the Barcelona round. His Malaysia win aside, 2023 was a write-off. A year to lock away, never to be revisited.
Things are already looking up in 2024. As Davide Tardozzi said during the Sepang test: “He is another rider, he’s the Enea Bastianini that we saw in 2022 and we are really confident that he will be one of the contenders.”
Like Bagnaia, Bastianini has broken the lap records at both of the pre-season tests and was one of only four riders to drop into the 1:56s at Sepang. In Qatar, he completed a factory Ducati one-two behind Bagnaia, while he put together the fourth fastest average lap-time during the longer runs.
It would appear that the man known as ‘The Beast’ is adapting much better to the GP24 Desmosedici than he did to the 2023 machine. Following the Sepang test he told the media that it felt more like the 2021 bike (Bastianini didn’t race the GP22) and therefore he preferred it to the 2023 engine.
Ultimately, Bastianini feels much more at home and comfortable on the new Ducati – a bike which already looks ominously like a fast, reliable, all-round package which even the
GP23 bikes may be unable to stop.
This is all positive because we know how strong Bastianini can be, especially on race day. His performances in 2021 and 2022 were fantastic, nobody could conserve tyres like the Italian and therefore be so strong in the later stages of races. His injuries meant fans were truly robbed of an epic title battle last year.
Expect Bastianini to be battling for wins from the get-go this season, as he seeks to put pressure on the two-time MotoGP champion sitting beside him in the garage. Let’s not forget, Bastianini continues to have Jorge Martin and others breathing down his neck for a spot in the factory red team. Pecco’s seat certainly isn’t going to become available.
All the signs point towards Bastianini joining Bagnaia and Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin to make it a triple threat match for the 2024 MotoGP crown. Bring it on!