MotoGP: Paolo Ciabatti: “Jack Miller will surely be one of the contenders for the Championship”
Paolo Ciabatti has pipped Jack Miller to be one of the MotoGP title contenders this year.
In an interview with Sky Sports ITA, Paolo Ciabatti praised Jack Miller and his 2020 performances and feels that the Italian is strong enough to fight for the title this year. Miller was given the promotion to the factory Ducati squad for 2021 following a run of podiums and form in 2019, he paid back Ducati for their faith in him with 4 podiums in 2020, coming incredibly close to victory at Valencia battling with Franco Morbidelli.
Ciabatti said, “I think both Jack and Pecco have the characteristics to do very well. Jack finished the 2020 season in an exceptional way, if he manages to start 2021 in the same way, he will surely be one of the contenders for the World Championship.
This does not mean that Pecco is not able. He started very well, then he had an accident that kept him out for several races and in Misano, he did two spectacular races. He has a little less experience in MotoGP, but we also expect great things from him.”
Ducati have on average one of the youngest rider line ups in 2021, they have hired 3 rookies from Moto2 with all 3 of them being 23 years old or younger, this gives Ducati the advantage of being able to develop and nurture their talent in the coming years whilst riding Ducati machinery. If the rookies can perform on their bike it will help them to sell more motorcycles giving off the impression of ‘if these rookies can do well on our bikes, so can you.’
Ciabatti touched on this saying, “We focused on young people because in the Factory team we have two experienced riders, especially Miller, but let’s not forget that Jack is just 26 and Bagnaia is 24. Then we have the three most promising rookies, who are Bastianini, Marini and Martin.”
“Both Enea and Luca had an excellent Championship, proving not only to be fast but also to have the necessary maturity to manage difficult situations”.
With Ducati focusing on Miller and Bagnaia in their factory team, they opted to slot the experienced Frenchman Johann Zarco into the Pramac team alongside rookie Jorge Martin. Zarco’s wealth of experience and 2 x Moto2 World titles will reflect on the whole team and will help Martin to grow using advice and data from Zarco who has 7 MotoGP podiums to his name including 1 for Ducati at Brno 2020.
In the Avintia team Ducati will run Moto2 runner up Luca Marini and Moto2 World Champion Enea Bastianini in Avintia’s strongest line up in history. With this 6 rider line up, Ducati have secured the current and upcoming talent and will have more than enough ammunition to fight for titles for many more years to come.
Featured image – www.motogp.com
Source – Sky Sports ITA
