Jorge Martin has issued Ducati with a stark ultimatum by saying he will seek an alternative factory ride for the 2023 MotoGP World Championship if he is overlooked for the vacant works Ducati seat in favor of Enea Bastianini.
Martin had long been considered the favorite to join Pecco Bagnaia in the factory Ducati Corse, the Spaniard’s aspirations spurred on by a sparkling maiden MotoGP campaign with Pramac Racing in 2021 that yielded a win and four pole positions.
It was a groomed status he carried into the initial rounds of the 2022 MotoGP season despite his spotlight within the Ducati camp being stolen by Enea Bastianini winning two of the opening four races on the privateer year-old Gresini Ducati GP21.
However, the turning point came during the French MotoGP when Martin slumped to a fifth crash in seven races as Bastianini romped to his third victory. Though the Spaniard recovered some favor last time out in Catalunya with a second podium of the year, Ducati has made the telling call to delay making a decision on who will fill KTM-bound Jack Miller’s vacant seat until the summer break.
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While Martin’s hopes of a reprieve have been boosted by Bastianini crashing out of the last two grands prix himself, the Italian remains Ducati’s highest-ranked representative in third overall, whereas the Pramac rider sits in 12th.
An exasperated Martin admits from the outside Bastianini is more deserving of the ride, but contests he is riding a strong bike producing results he already achieved last year.
“If you look at the results, Enea deserves the place and I don’t, but if you look inside I think it is a different story,” he told MotoGP.com. “He has a really good bike, with that bike I did those things last year, but I won’t think about this.
“The situation was clear but now we need to understand where I can be next year. Sometimes thinking about the future is difficult to control the pressure and be focused 100 per cent.
“But I learned the things you can’t control, you don’t need to be nervous about them. So I am trying to concentrate on riding and forget other things.”
In the event he doesn’t land the ride, though Martin says he is ‘really happy’ at Pramac Racing, he throws down an ultimatum that he will seek an alternative factory ride elsewhere if he doesn’t get the nod from Ducati.
“Pramac is the best team I have ever been in so I am really happy here, but if I am not on a factory Ducati, I will look for a factory ride. I will just try to focus on myself and my team.”
Where could Jorge Martin ride in 2023 MotoGP?
While it is possible Martin ‘could’ consider a factory ride as being a factory machine in a satellite team, this is something he already has at Pramac Racing and, looking around at the options, this is comfortably the most works ‘satellite’ bike on the grid.
In terms of full factory rides, Martin’s options aren’t just slim, they are funneled down to just one with Yamaha, KTM and Aprilia having now firmed up their line-ups and Suzuki heading for the exit door.
This berth is at Honda and it is plausible to imagine HRC sitting up and taking notice of the Martin, not least because a young Spaniard would fit their ideal mould.
Or at least it would be if team lead Marc Marquez wasn’t facing an uncertain future through injury, meaning 2020 MotoGP World Champion Joan Mir – with whom Honda is expected to announce soon – represents the more logical choice.