Pedro Acosta has voiced the commonly-held paddock belief that Ducati would prefer factory rider Francesco Bagnaia to win this year’s MotoGP world championship over Aprilia-bound Pramac man Jorge Martin.
Acosta made the remark as he reflected on a stunt engineered by MotoGP promoters, in which KTM’s 20-year-old rookie asked a question at the pre-weekend press conference featuring the two title protagonists.
His question (via video) tackled the possibility of favouritism for either rider on the part of the Italian factory.
Acosta’s invitation to contribute the press conference question; “Will the manufacturer influence this championship battle?” - his exact wording - was the result of his remark a few weeks earlier that press conferences between Pramac’s Martin and factory rider Bagnaia lacked “spice”.
To his credit, Acosta did earn two significantly different responses from the friendly rivals, who go into the Australia weekend split by just 10 points with Martin in front.
Adamant there would be no preferential treatment, Bagnaia said: “If Ducati wanted to help me in some way, then I could have had something better than [our current package] at Misano already.
“We tried a new chassis, but it’s not ready for everybody so we’re not using it. It’s more correct like this.
“I think Gigi [Dall’Igna] was always clear on that, ever since I started riding for Ducati and even more in the last two seasons, the factory teams have the same package.
“If I have something new, everybody has something new. I don’t believe we’ll change anything until Valencia.”
Martin, on the other hand, dodged taking a clear position on the question.
“For sure I hope not!” he said. “But I’ll focus on what I can control: riding at 100% and trying to be fast.
“I understand why people ask this question. If they ask it, it’s because they’re thinking about it! But I cannot control that so I won’t focus on that. I will focus on riding.”
Acosta was underwhelmed with the results of his brief flirtation with journalism.
“I found the answers a bit bland," he told the working media. “But it’s normal, they have contracts that tie their hands a bit, especially Pecco.”
After a little equivocation, Acosta was happy to give his thoughts on the matter.
“I don’t have an opinion on the subject, I’m [just voicing] popular opinion. [But] I think it would hurt [Ducati] a lot if Martin took the title to another factory.”
Asked in his own press conference whether he thought Martin or Bagnaia was the favourite for the title, Acosta replied that his money would be on Martin.
