For twenty years in the world championship, Marco Rigamonti has been alongside Enea Bastianini since 2023: Rigamonti was a guest of the live YouTube “4chiacchierecon…”. Naturally, there has been a lot of talk about Enea, who is ready to return to Mugello. Here is, in summary, what the Ducati engineer said.
“I spoke to Enea these days – says Marco -: in the Mugello test with the Panigale he managed to do several laps. It’s certainly a positive aspect, because in the test preceding his return attempt at Jerez he hadn’t managed to make more than a few passes at Misano. He’s not yet 100% fit because he’s been at a standstill for a long time and his muscle tone has suffered, but there are still 10 days before Mugello. He’s charged up, he’s convinced he’s ready for the GP: in Jerez he was in a crisis especially due to the braking, he was too weak on his right arm. At Mugello he managed to do many laps and was not in too much pain: we are confident we are almost 100% ready. Having successfully passed this test, he now focuses on muscle work. Considering that he had the biggest problems in braking, it should be a little easier at Mugello, because there aren’t such violent braking points”.
Bastianini returns to the Italian GP without having done even one racewhile most of his opponents have already done five: the technical chief explains how much it can be penalizing for Enea.
“It will certainly be more difficult for Enea to pick up the pace immediately at the beginning, he may be more hesitant than his opponents in the first laps”.
In the winter tests, Bastianini didn’t seem perfectly at ease with the GP23, but according to Rigamonti all the difficulties have been overcome.
“In Malaysia the test went well: with the old bike he was immediately strongbut then we didn’t use it anymore, while the new bike took longer to set up; only at the end of the three days were we able to find the right path. It’s true that we struggled in Portugal, but that’s a somewhat critical track for Enea: we still had something to fix on the new bike, then we managed to find a good base. During the tests, we also tried to work to favor qualifying and the first laps of the race, his weak point in 2022: we tried to collect data, which is essential for understanding where to improve on the limits of the past. In my opinion we were fine, at the end of the two tests we were competitive”.
Then a comparison between the guide of Bagnaia and that of Bastianini.
“The biggest difference between the two riders is the braking: Pecco is one who takes off very hard and late from the straight, while Enea has a higher entry speed. Depending on the track, the style of one or the other is favored”.
