In a breakout four-win season, a ride to fifth place at Phillip Island should be nothing to particularly shout about, or really emphasise in any way, for Enea Bastianini.
But if the other MotoGP riders dreaming of a 2023 title don’t break into a cold sweat when they consider his Australian Grand Prix weekend, they’re not paying enough attention.
Bastianini was under the radar through practice and suffered major setbacks in both of the main sessions. In the first qualifying segment, he was caught out by yellow flags for Miguel Oliveira’s erroneous practice start (and impeded by Oliveira later into the lap). Then, from 15th on the grid, he had a messy opening lap that apparently included being tagged by Cal Crutchlow and then had his airbag go off on the second tour, slowing him down significantly.
But from five seconds off the leader and in 20th place at the end of lap three, Bastianini was 15 places ahead and 4.5s closer to the win at the chequered flag.
“Yesterday we know I wasn’t lucky. Today, starting from 15th place was complicated, the first lap was very strange because with the other guys the bike was so nervous [in handling],” he said.
“The last corner, my airbag exploded, because I took a really good punch. And after I made one lap and a half with it open [before reinflating], and I lost a lot of positions.
“But lap by lap I brought the confidence and got back really close to the first group. And the last three laps I tried to make some overtakes but, you know, the other guys are so fast, it’s complicated to overtake all in two laps. But it’s okay, this fifth position.”
Bastianini had to reel off so many overtakes, and yet his final lap, a 1m30.661s, was the quickest last lap of all the finishers. And it included two passes – Bastianini mugged perennial rival Jorge Martin at the Southern Loop and then snuck past Luca Marini running wide at Lukey Heights.
“My laptimes stayed the same for all of the race, I think the drop was not too much. And this is okay.”
Though he’s still in the 2022 title race, he described his chances as “really, really, really small”, which actually feels on the optimistic side – at 42 points off with 50 left up for grabs and three riders ahead, it would take something absolutely seismic and freakish for Bastianini to win the crown.
But as for 2023, when he will be wearing factory Ducati red, the seeming inevitability of Bastianini’s ‘extra gear’ on Sundays could have an enormous impact.
The challenge he will face is, of course, different. Martin, who lost out to Bastianini in the fight for that works ride has been at pains to point out that the challenge of riding a still-developing Desmosedici GP22 this year for him has been very different to what Bastianini has enjoyed with the refined known quantity GP21 he’s been handed at Gresini.
If Bastianini doesn’t adjust to that well, it’s all a moot point. But if it does, and the performance trend stays the same, then there’s another factor to consider that makes Bastianini a rider to fear.
As a 2022 title hopeful, he should never have been in Q1 at Phillip Island to begin with. But it’s been clear Bastianini has benefitted from existing mileage at tracks, particularly when it comes to one-lap speed. It is the weaker side of his game, but in the three most recent races of those that were also on the 2021 calendar – i.e. the three races before the flyaway stretch – he was on the front row every time.
And the 2023 schedule is a lot closer to 2022 than 2022 was to 2021, meaning that the built-in experience advantage of many of his rivals will disappear, perhaps right when they need it most.
Bastianini’s secret
Listed at 168cm tall and 64kg of mass by MotoGP, Bastianini has been an ever-present name near the top of maximum speed data sheets. His compact frame and Ducati’s trademark grunt have naturally made it easier for him to scythe his way through the field.
But it’s clearly not just about that – and Bastianini’s growing reputation as a Michelin tyre whisperer meant that his Phillip Island charge, despite the significant setbacks, was just impressive rather than particularly surprising.
During a Motegi interview with MotoGP.com last month, Jack Miller, who Bastianini will replace in the factory Ducati team next year, shared an insightful view into what he’d gathered from looking at the Italian’s data and following him on track.
“It’s honestly one of those things I’m studying a lot, trying to understand what exactly he’s doing throughout the race to manage his tyres – but not only that, to be able to take the maximum out of the tyres at the end when he doesn’t have the edge grip,” Miller said.
“But, generally, Enea rides the bike very, very differently to all of us. He wears the centre of the tyre so much more than any of us do. And the edge is always relatively solid, you know? He doesn’t wear that very much.
“Whereas I’m maybe in the opposite area – my centre of the tyres is always one of the better ones, I pick the bike up, I get the bike to where it is, but I do that from the edge basically, from when you’re on maximum lean angle. And that in turn starts to chew out the edge of the tyre.
“And you get more wear, and that basically results in a slower laptime at the end of it, because you sort of start spinning the bike more off the edge of the tyre.
“His wear shape is very strange compared to all of us. But it works amazingly. And to try and imitate it – I don’t know if I can.
“His riding style is very different to all of us. To anybody on the grid, I think, now. With Enea especially when you’re riding with him, it kind of looks like he’s sat on top of the bike and he doesn’t really move his head all that much, his head sort of stays on an angle.
“And I mean, I physically can’t do that. Keeping my head on the angle like that, my eyesight’s sort of crossing over and I get lost. I’ve got to try and keep my head level.
“But, no, he sits on it and when the bike starts shaking or whatever and his whole body starts shaking, he just stays there and stays committed and the thing will follow him into the corner.
“It’s extremely, let’s say, deflating when you’re behind him and it kind of looks like he’s not really pushing, and it’s just going, pulling away from you, you’re there absolutely swinging off the side of the thing and trying to do everything you can to muscle it around.
“And like I said, it just looks like he’s sat on the bike floating with it.
“It’s amazing to watch, because you see a man who’s really at one with his motorcycle.”
