With Martin and Bagnaia locked in a tight championship battle, rumours have been swirling for a few weeks that the former could step up to the factory Ducati squad next season.
Bastianini, having won four races in 2022 on a year-old bike, was chosen over Pramac’s Martin to replace Jack Miller at Ducati’s factory squad for this year.
But the Italian has had a difficult year, missing eight grands prix in total due to two injuries, which severely limited his time to adapt to the 2023-spec Ducati, prior to his comeback victory at the Malaysian GP last weekend.
During the Sepang weekend, Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti told motogp.com that promoting Martin was a possibility despite Bastianini having a contract with the factory for 2024.
“As everyone knows, we confirmed Enea for the official team at end of August,” Ciabatti said.
“It’s true with Martin’s current level of performance it’s a reality we should consider but no decision taken obviously, but let’s see. We cannot ignore this level of performance.”
Source: Autosport