Michael Scott | June 19, 2024
Cycle News In The Paddock
COLUMN
Putting The Spice In MotoGP Minestrone
Rivalry at its peak is always “bitter.” Like that stuff put on kids’ fingernails to stop them from chewing.
But who will be the biggest nail-biter at Ducati in 2025?
Marc Marquez, turning 32 next year, is a senior citizen in a class where precocious 20-year-old stripling Pedro Acosta will add a full season of experience to his threat?
Pecco Bagnaia, for whom the mantra about first having to beat your teammate has just taken on a razor’s edge? Said teammate is an eight-time champion widely regarded as a timeless racing genius.
Or will it be boss Gigi Dall’Igna, fearing that the rivalry between his two factory-team “colleagues” might cause them to knock each other off or blow each other up repeatedly? It wouldn’t be the first time.
While everyone expected Marc to get a factory bike next year, they also expected that the second factory seat would go to Jorge Martin and Marc would get a GP25 in the Gresini team, cozy there with his younger brother.
Until the day after the Italian GP, when current points leader Jorge was revealed to be taking Aleix Espargaro’s place on the ever-improving Aprilia, currently neck and neck with KTM in taking the fight to the dominant Bologna brand.
There was still another candidate, incumbent Enea Bastianini, ever-unlucky and consequently often underrated. He was Bagnaia’s stated favorite. Which might have been the kiss of death, as far as Dall’Igna was concerned.
Why would anyone want their lead rider to be comfortable when he could be edgy? A racing team is a fighting force, not a bed of roses.
This is clearly Dall’Igna’s thinking, and as a serial 250-class and Superbike winner with Aprilia before he rescued Ducati, it is not a frivolous thought.
But risky.
How should the double champion feel about his new teammate? Angry? Scared? Thwarted? Undermined? Inspired? Robbed of support?
Even more, how about his mentor? Valentino must be apoplectic.
Pecco is Rossi’s favorite, the rider he has ushered through Moto2 at the head of the hand-picked troops personally trained at his famous ranch. The objective is to wrest control of racing back from the Spanish Armada.
Marc, on the other hand, is Rossi’s long-standing bête noire—not just the rider who arrived to take over the premier class, not just the one to challenge his tally of nine titles, but much more.
It came to a head in 2015 with Valentino’s extraordinary attack at the Malaysian GP. First, he accused Marquez of some sort of conspiracy, to help his compatriot, Jorge Lorenzo. (By beating Lorenzo at the previous race?) Then, the mid-race kickboxing, when he abandoned his own race tactics to interrupt Marc’s progress, eventually tipping him off.
The aftermath, aside from bodyguards in the paddock and partisan Rossi fans attacking Marquez away from the track, was a backrow start for Rossi in the final round where Marquez and teammate Dani Pedrosa made darned sure to escort Lorenzo across the line in first place. Vale was fourth and lost his chance of what would have been his final title by just five points.
Could we see a resumption of open hostility? Here’s hoping. And maybe a return to another Rossi specialty—a wall down the middle of the pit, which separated him from Lorenzo, along with a refusal to share data.
Meanwhile, there is the rest of the season to deal with, and still a real chance that Marc might be the one to depose Bagnaia, despite having last year’s bike. There’s no question that he’ll be an even bigger threat on the same machinery.
All very tasty, even for neutrals, for whom when Marc crashes, it shows indomitable spirit; but when Pecco falls, it is because he’s unreliable.
But the prejudice doesn’t all go the way of Marc. Error-prone or not, Pecco is as intelligent a rider and tactician as his new teammate, and there are those who have already put him on a pedestal, judging him as potentially one of the truly great champions.
Now, he has the chance to prove it.
STOP THE PRESS: To spice things up, the latest news is Maverick Vinales has jumped ship from Aprilia to KTM, hoping to become the first in GP history to win on four different makes.
And there’s more. He will be joined there from Ducati by Bastianini.
After a stable spell, riders tending to stay put, Marquez’s Honda-to-Ducati started something big. The latest switch, after Martin to Aprilia, makes MotoGP minestrone. Stir the pot and you can’t predict what your spoon will pick up next.
The racing fans are agog to see who Aprilia can entice to their improved machine. Following on a whim, an Italian rider perhaps? Such as Fabio Di Giannantonio. And who will Pramac hire alongside rookie Fermin Aldeguer?
Stir the pot and make up your own answer. CN
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