Three weeks have passed since Jorge Martin surprisingly announced his MotoGP move to Aprilia after the Italian Grand Prix. The reason was obvious: Ducati had previously informed the world championship leader that Marc Marquez would be given preference for the factory seat alongside Francesco Bagnaia from 2025. The world championship leader had already revealed his disappointment at Ducati’s rejection on Thursday. On Friday he went even further.
Jorge Martin: Problems in Assen training
After the big headlines of the last few weeks, the training in Assen saw the team return to the MotoGP track. The Pramac rider was not yet able to repeat the impressive form of the first seven races of the season. In fact, he was even surprised by his direct entry into Q2 after fifth place in training in the afternoon. “I don’t know how I managed it,” the ‘Martinator’ explained in his media round in the evening. “I had a really hard time today and thought that I would probably have to get into Q1 for the first time in years.”
However, Martin was able to avoid this. On his fastest lap on the TT Circuit, however, he was almost half a second behind his competitor Francesco Bagnaia. “The feeling for the bike was just bad today, I couldn’t find stability in the fast corners. It was also difficult to stop the bike and find confidence for the front. Hopefully we can improve tomorrow. The good thing is that we can remember Pecco [Bagnaia] to find a way. But at the moment he is two levels ahead of us.”
Jorge Martin: Strange atmosphere in the Ducati box
The events of the last few weeks have not only left their mark off the track. Now Martin must show a significant improvement in performance on Saturday in order to keep Bagnaia and Marquez at bay in the World Championship. But the relationship between him and the Ducati bosses and engineers seems to have become very strained.
“I’m still doing my best and pushing like hell on the bike,” Martin clarified. “But of course it’s strange now to talk to Gigi Dall’Igna and the engineers. They ask me a lot of things and want to know how it feels on the track. I try to be honest with them because I think they just want to help me. So I’ll try to keep being honest so we can improve. The most important thing will be that we give each other the information. But as I said, it feels strange when they come into the box to talk to me.”
Jorge Martin: Ducati would not have chosen me anyway
At least Martin can now fully focus on his sporting goals. The future is clear, and the 26-year-old now has his sights firmly set on the world championship title. “In the last few months I was obsessed with proving to Ducati that I was the right man for the factory seat. I don’t have to do that anymore, so I’m much more relaxed,” Martin said. “It’s now just about being an even better rider every day, that’s my goal.”
“I don’t have to prove anything to Ducati now. Even if I had a 100-point lead, they wouldn’t have chosen me. So I’m just riding to show myself that I can believe in my abilities and achieve the goals I set for myself. I want to keep working on myself and keep getting better until the end of the season so that I can be even better next year,” announced a highly motivated Martin.