Martin fought Francesco Bagnaia all the way to the final race of the 2023 season on his Pramac Ducati, but ended up 39 points short after a crash in the Valencia Grand Prix handed the title to the ltalian.
Had Martin won the championship, he would have been automatically promoted to the factory team in place of Enea Bastianini, but will remain with the works-backed Pramac squad instead.
Martin said after the Valencia GP that if he hadn’t already proved to Ducati that he deserved to be in its factory team, then he never will after the season he had in 2023.
When asked by Autosport if he agreed with Martin’s assessment, Dall’Igna said: “Absolutely. I agree with him.
“He did a fantastic job this year and he deserves the factory team, for sure. But there are some contracts in place, there are many things that are not possible to change.”
Ducati sporting director Davide Tardozzi concedes that for the Italian marque the strongest line-up it could have is Martin and Bagnaia.
But he also thinks it’s “fair” that Bastianini – who won the Malaysian GP – was given a second season at the factory team after the “stupid fucking accident” in Portugal in the opening round left him with a shoulder injury that hampered his campaign.
“The story is for sure Martin deserves a factory bike and he has the factory bike,” Tardozzi said, when asked by Autosport about the Martin and Bastianini swap scenario.
“And we proved that also with a satellite team you are able to win the title because in the end he was so, so close to winning the title.
“It’s obvious in this moment that Bastianini arrived into the factory team because of his results of 2022.
“So, for what happened, we think it’s not fair to swap Bastianini and Martin.
“Obviously, today the strongest team for us is Martin and Bagnaia. But why do we have to come back to our decision that was Bastianini deserved the factory team?
“Because of this fucking stupid accident in this first race fucked up his season. So, we think it’s fair we gave him another opportunity.”
Bastianini missed the opening five rounds of the season due to the shoulder injury he suffered in the Portugal sprint after a tangle with Luca Marini, while he would sit out three more grands prix after suffering multiple fractures in a Turn 1 pile-up in Barcelona.
All of these injury woes made his adaptation from the 2021-spec Ducati to the 2023 version much slower, with a breakthrough in understanding the engine braking and corner-entry performance of the GP23 coming in Malaysia.
