Ducati MotoGP pair against team orders as Marc Marquez nears title
Two Ducati MotoGP riders have spoken in opposition to the Bologna brand enforcing team orders.
Fabio Di Giannantonio and Francesco Bagnaia have both spoken against the idea of team orders being used at Ducati to help Marc Marquez take his eighth MotoGP title.
Reigning champion Marquez heads into this weekend’s Malaysian MotoGP 10 points ahead of Jorge Martin, who will be riding with a broken wrist at Sepang, resulting from his crash out of second place in the Sprint at Phillip Island last weekend.
Marquez is certainly in a favourable position, then, but the subject of team orders is certain to arise at this time of the year.
Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez, for example, said he is uninterested in the title fight at the moment because he is focused on the recovery of his two broken fingers, sustained in Indonesia.
At Ducati, both Bagnaia and Di Giannantonio have similar perspectives, albeit without the specific justification of an injury to fall back on.
“I am definitely thinking about my championship,” said VR46 Racing Team rider Fabio Di Giannantonio, as reported by GPOne.
“I want to try to get the most out of this season. In the end, I wear yellow and do my interests and those of my team, trying to bring home the best possible result, both for my career and for the team.
“At the moment, the closest goal, let's say, is fourth place. But never say never for the third.
“I know it will be very difficult, because beating Bezzecchi in the next races will be very difficult. But we are fighting for this and our main concern will be to try to get the maximum on every track, to try to get the maximum result achievable at the end of the year.”
Similarly, Marquez’s team-mate Bagnaia, who will move to Aprilia next season to partner Marco Bezzecchi, is against the idea of team orders being enforced by Ducati.
Bagnaia won two titles with Ducati, but says he never benefitted from team orders in 2022 or 2023.
“Honestly, I have never received any and I have never asked for them,” the Ducati Lenovo Team rider said.
“When I fought for the titles it was not expected and therefore I believe that the riders should be free to race for themselves.
“Obviously, if your team-mate is fighting for the title you try to overtake him in the best possible way, but if you have a chance to win, you win.”
Tags:
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
