One crucial change pinpointed in Enea Bastianini that fired him to glory

A wide open MotoGP World Championship would ordinarily leave the factories involved feeling nervous, but the reality of the 2024 season is that four riders, but only one manufacturer, can win the title.

While 2023 showed that the tension between the different teams involved in one factory’s MotoGP project can still be intense, Ducati Lenovo Team manager Davide Tardozzi says that Ducati is “so proud” that four of its riders are in title contention.

That said, that four Ducati riders are in the frame to win the title is a relatively recent revelation, as Enea Bastianini’s Silverstone double propelled the 2020 Moto2 World Champion into the fray.

“Enea is still a title contender,” Tardozzi told British broadcaster TNT Sports after the British GP last Sunday. “He’s still [49 points behind the championship lead], so it means that with 370 points to play I think that he has a huge possibility to be World Champion.”

That puts Bastianini alongside Ducati stablemates Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin, and Marc Marquez in this year’s championship battle, with the #23 now third in the standings having overhauled Marquez in Britain.

Before Silverstone, though, Bastianini was considered to be out of the championship picture, despite being only 11 points behind Marquez after the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.

“Absolutely his mental attitude,” said Tardozzi when asked what had changed for Bastianini over the summer break between Germany and Britain to fire him into title contention.

“I think that during the holidays, he thought a lot, we spoke a lot with him, mainly his race engineer, Marco Rigamonti, and I think that he’s back in [his] 2022 mood.

“After last year’s injury, he had one year of trouble in 2023, while this year he started not in the proper way, thinking ‘I have no possibility to stay here’, so he was not concentrating on his job.

“We know perfectly that he’s a very, very fast rider, and, again, he will be a title contender.”

This fresh mentality was allowing Bastianini to exploit the strengths of his riding style, which, in Silverstone, allowed the Italian to conserve grip in his rear tyre better than his rivals.

As Tardozzi explained, “His way to open the throttle is much different, and the speed that he carries on the entrance of the corner with the used tyre is unique — he is the only Ducati rider who is able to do it. So, it’s his talent.”