Enea Bastianini looks back on the last of his four years with the Ducati team and explains why it didn’t work out with a serious challenge for the world title
Enea Bastianini’s four-year stint as a Ducati rider in the MotoGP World Championship came to an end in mid-November with the final race of the 2024 season in Barcelona. Looking back on the last of his four years with Ducati, Bastianini says: “My potential was probably similar to that of ‘Pecco’ or Jorge, but often I just wasn’t consistent enough. I was always missing something.”
Bastianini’s Achilles’ heel that year was qualifying. Although he did manage to get pole position in Portimao, his average starting position over the entire season was only 6.6. Five times, the Italian started outside of the first three rows of the grid.
“If I wasn’t at the front, for example in qualifying,” says Bastianini, ”then I couldn’t get to the front in the race either. In the next race it was the other way around. That’s just not enough for a title.”
Bastianini knows that he needs “a different approach” to become world champion. It is precisely this different approach, namely to prioritize consistency over victories, that Pramac-Ducati rider Jorge Martin has implemented perfectly this year.
In the 40 races of the season (20 Grands Prix and 20 Sprints), Martin finished in the top 3 an incredible 31 times. He “only” won 10 times. But his consistency was crucial in terms of World Championship points, even against the 18 victories of Francesco Bagnaia.
As for Enea Bastianini, he has won two of the 20 Grands Prix this season (Silverstone and Misano 2) and finished another seven on the podium. He has also won twice in the 20 sprints (Silverstone and Buriram). In addition, he has made it into the top 3 six more times in the shorter races. Ultimately, that was not enough for a serious chance at the title.
In fact, Bastianini not only had to admit defeat to Jorge Martin and Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia, as he mentioned, on the identical Ducati GP24 last season. He also finished the 2024 MotoGP overall standings behind Marc Marquez on last year’s Ducati GP23, albeit by a narrow margin.
After his four years in Ducati teams – 2021 with Avintia, 2022 with Gresini and 2023/24 with the factory team – a new chapter is now beginning for Bastianini. In 2025, the 2020 Moto2 world champion will not be sitting on a Ducati in the premier class for the first time in his career. He has signed a two-year deal with Tech3-KTM, running until the end of 2026. As his favorite memory of his time with Ducati, “Bestia” has highlighted the 2022 season with the Gresini team.