Jorge Martin "laughing" after Davide Tardozzi's jibe about #1 plate
Jorge Martin responds to Ducati b🀅oss' comments on #1ꦐ plate
New MotoGP champion 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Jorge Martin continues to 🐻evade a direct answer over whether he will run the #1 plate at Aprilia next season🅠.
The provisional 2025 entry list still has Martin listed with a #89, but the final decision might not be revealed until next year’s off⭕icial team launch.
"It’s a big responsibility to have the #1. I don't know yet [if I will use it]. Not a lot of people have won again with the #1,” Martꦓin told MotoGP.com.
Francesco Bagnaia, the rider Martin defeated to claim this year’s crown, is the only person to have successfully defended the #1 plate in the ‘MotoGP’ era, courtesy of back-to-back titles in 20🧔22-2023.
🌸But the prospect of seei𒊎ng the #1 plate at Aprilia next year seemed to touch a nerve with Bagnaia’s factory Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi, who told TNT Sports:
“If Aprilia buy this #1, we wil🌺l see if they are able to carry it on…”
Asked for his response to that comment, Martin, who won the♚ title for Pramac Ducati, said: "I saw this message [on TV] just before the [Barcelona] race ꧑and I was laughing.
“Froꦕm one side, I didn't want to read this, but from the other side, if I get 𒁏the #1 plate I deserve it. I don't care if I keep it or not.
“If I can take the #1 for one year, I �🅠�will have plenty of images of it in my house.
“💝I don't care if I don't maintain it for the future... let's see what happens.”
Aprilia: ‘No pressure’ on Jorge Martin to run #1 plate
Aprilia Racing CEO Mass🅰i🦩mo Rivola insists Martin will be ‘totally free’ to decide if he wants the #1 plate.
“It ꧂will be his choice. It’s a🍌 totally free choice. He will decide,” Rivola said.
“Th♛ere there's no pressure for that. But the fac🅠t that we have the world champion is already a big motivation for us…. It’s a responsibility and an opportunity.”
Martin was e🐲leventh fastest (+1.056s) on his RS-GP debut at the Barcelona test.
“[Martin and Marco Bezzecchi] both༺ reported very similar com🔯ments,” Rivola said of Aprilia’s new rider line-up.
“They felt quite a nice bike on braking and entry, good on turning. [But] it's a bike that seems to be a bit more difficult to repeat the lap times with. So w🦄e need to work to have a repeatable bike.”
Aprilia was the only factory to defeat Ducati in a grand prix this season, cou♋rtesy of Maverick Vinales’ storming ride at COTA.
Yet it proved to be the only time that an R🌟S-GP rider finished on the Sunday podium, with Vinales and Aleix Espargaro slipping to seventh and eleventh in the final world championship standings.
“༺For sure we need to be better on average,” Rivola told MotoGP.com. “We are sometimes quite good, and some other times quite lost almoඣst. So we need to have a better medium bike, let's say.
“It was interesting also to see to hear comments from riders coming from the reference bike [Duc💃ati]. So generally we got an idea. I think we can do quite a good.”
Martin’s move from Pramac Ducati means he now has the chance to join only Eddie Lawson (1988-89) and Valentino Rossi (2003-2004) in winnin𝐆g back-to-back titles for different manufacturers.
H⛄alting Ducati’s dominance will be an extremely tough task, especially with its revised factory l🅰ine-up of Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez boasting a combined ten world titles.
However, Rivola says it’s realistic to believe that Aprilia, which has won four GPs plus four Spriꦬnts since 2022, will be close꧑r next year.
“Obviously Ducati is the benchmar💙k. I think it's realistic to expect at least three riders from Aprilia to close the gap,” he said, referring to Martin, Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez, who will have a rookie team-mate in Ai Ogura at Trackhouse next year.
“Obviously the expectation on Jorge being the world champion is quite high. But we don't want to put press🐽ure now. The priority now is to help them understand the bike.
“I think we will close the gap, so far the challenge seems t🦩o be quite tough but for sure we don’💯t give up!”
Aprilia’s new MotoGP line-up will next be on track during the opening test of 2025 at Sepang in Februa♌ry,
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen 📖Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
