Ducati Corse Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti says he is confident Jorge Martin will remain within its stable for the 2024 MotoGP World Championship season amid rumours he is being courted on Yamaha’s radar.
The Spaniard - who landed the second win of his career in the French MotoGP Sprint Race - is contracted to Ducati until the conclusion of the 2024 season, but has indicated his frustration at being passed over for the factory Ducati rider in favour of Enea Bastianini.
As such, it is understood he could be a target for rival teams, with Yamaha emerging on the rumour mill as an interested party. While its 2021 MotoGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo is signed on for 2024, team-mate Franco Morbidelli sees his contract conclude at the end of the season.
However, with Martin given the chance to fulfil a de facto ‘factory’ support role in the absence of Bastianini through injury, Ciabatti doesn’t expect him to leave a race-winning package in favour of getting the factory focus Yamaha can offer, quipping that ‘he likes to win’.
“Yeah sure, he has an option in the contract, we would like him to stay with Ducati,” Ciabatti told MotoGP.com. “He's one of the fastest young riders, and at the moment it doesn't look like Yamaha has the bike to win the Championship.
“I'm sorry to say, but this is what it looks like at the moment. We don't know about next year but at the moment he's on a winning bike and I think he'd like to stay because he likes to win.”
“Honestly, we didn't make any decision for the future. Unfortunately, Enea has been out for a few races so obviously, we'd like to keep all the riders with us. You know that the Gresini and VR46 riders are currently contracted to the team.
“So the contract with Pecco, Enea, Johann and Jorge. In principle we’re happy with all of them, it's a bit too early for us to say, regarding the problem with Enea and the crash, it’s obviously delaying everything.”
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