Revealed: Bagnaia made suspicious comment about Bastianini
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia found that Gresini Racing’s Bastianini was his biggest threat at stages of late-2022 as he won his first MotoGP championship.
Bastianini knew at that stage that Bagnaia was his future teammate and, as the 2023 season looms with both riders now wearing red, the newly-released footage is a reminder of old tensions within Ducati.
Bagnaia was angrily returning to the garage after crashing during FP3 at Sepang last year when he erupted, as shown by MotoGP Video Pass' 'There Can Only Be One'.
He said: “Morbidelli, Quartararo, Bezzecchi and Fernandez in the middle of the track!
“And Bastianini? With me or against me? What is he doing?”
Ducati general manager Gigi Dall’Igna told him: “Let’s have a reset and think about FP4. We’re doing alright. We’re working well.”
Bagnaia: “We’re fast and we’re doing well.”
Dall’Igna: “We need to focus on the things we can control. End of story.”
Another voice in the garage told Bagnaia: “If their intention was to annoy you, they win if you get flustered.”
An angry Bagnaia said: “They don’t care if I’m nervous, they just want me out of Q2.”
The dynamic within the garage will be a fascinating aspect of the 2023 season given that Bastianini won the second-most races last season, behind Bagnaia.
Bastianini must deal with more pressure this season as part of the factory line-up.
How Dall’Igna and co will manage their hyper-competitive riders remains to be seen, particularly if both are, as expected, in the hunt for the championship.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
