Bagnaia did in fact ride Morbidelli’s bike as VR46 spills the beans about the Misano test
VR46 team director Uccio Salucci has confirmed that Francesco Bagnaia rode Franco Morbidelli’s Ducati GP24 at last month’s Misano test.
After weeks of speculation and rumors that had not been confirmed by either Ducati or Bagnaia himself, Salucci has stepped in to shed some light on the situation and reveal what Ducati was trying to hide.
In search of a solution to the headaches that had been plaguing him for months, causing him to lack confidence in the front end of the bike, Bagnaia turned to last year's Desmosedici to try to make sense of the situation.
It has been confirmed that the Italian borrowed the GP24 assigned to VR46 rider Morbidelli during the official Dorna test at Misano on 15 September - something Ducati did not want to confirm at that time.
Not even after Bagnaia staged a miraculous recovery at the following round of the season in Motegi last weekend, where he claimed his first double win of the season, did Ducati reveal what specification of bike he was riding.
“Explaining what happened is of little importance. What really matters is that Pecco was fast, that he took pole position, that he won the sprint and also the race,” Ducati general manager Gigi Dall'Igna told Motorsport.com after the Motegi race on Sunday.
However, even Dall’Igna’s wish to keep the matter strictly confidential did not stop Uccio from revealing the transfer of Morbidelli’s bike in the Misano test.
“Ducati asked us so we helped Pecco a little bit. He tried our bike, Morbidelli’s bike at the Misano test. And after that, I don’t know [what bike he has been riding since],” Salucci said during the FP1 broadcast ahead of the Indonesian GP.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
White it waited until the Misano test, Ducati could have easily run last year's bike earlier in the year.
The regulations only require riders to use the same engine specification for the entire season. That means Bagnaia could have used the previous-spec bike, with the current engine, whenever he or Ducati wanted.
In any case, the two-time MotoGP champion will have to wait until the end of the Indonesian GP weekend to confirm his breakthrough, considering he ended first practice in Mandalika as the slowest Ducati rider in 17th place, more than a second behind team-mate Marc Marquez, who finished fifth.
During August’s Hungarian GP, Bagnaia was asked if he was considering going back to the GP24 at the Misano test to get rid of doubts in his mind about whether he could be competitive again.
“If I could go back, with my current experience, I would obviously choose to race with the GP24. But at that time [in the pre-season], I couldn't see the difference,” he said in Hungary.
“I am absolutely certain that the GP24 felt better than the GP25; I don't need to prove it. There's no point in testing the GP24 because I wouldn't be able to use it anyway.”
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Category: General Sports
