Throw in the wide variety of recent race winners, nine i✅n 2020, eight in 2021, seven in 2022, and pick🐽ing a favourite for the upcoming campaign isn’t an easy task.

Then there are the added unknowns of the new Saturday Sprint races and rejigg🐽ed weekend schedule.

One name firmly on the radar of new factory Ducati signing 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Enea Bastianini and reigning champion Bagnaia is Marc Marquez, whose towering 🧔record and improving fitness outweighs Honda’s🔯 winless 2022 campaign.

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“Well for me, Marꦫc is Marc,” said Bastianini, third in the last year’s champ🔯ionship for the satellite Gresini team.

“He’s won eight titles and will be at ಞ100%, because I think in the last part of last season he improved [phy💜sically]. He was fast and I think it will be so difficult to battle with him.

“But I t🌠hink we have the potential to battle. The💙 Ducati is a very fast bike and the factory team has a really good potential.

“But it’s not only Marc. It’s Pecco, it’s Fabio Quartararo, it’s Martin, it’s Mir. We have a lot of names. Let's see during the season because also the [ꦉweekend] format is different and it’s important to arrive prepared on the Saturday and change the approach a little bit.”

Bagnaia, Ducati’s first MotoGP champion since Casey Stoner in 2007, joked that the list of title contenders i🌜s so long it would be like listening to a school regi💮ster.

“It’s like when you are at school and before starting a lesson the teacher says, ‘Bagnaia?’ ‘I'm here’. ‘Marquez?’ ‘I’m here’... Because everyone has a 📖possibility to fight for the win and for ♒the title.”

'Marc will be at 100%'

In the case of Ma༺rquez, Bagnaia agrees that the Spaniard’s physical condition no longer appe🥀ars to be the limiting factor following bone realignment surgery to his right arm.

Instead, the question mark is whether the reshuffle of Honda’s technical department can transform the ൩struggling RC213V into a title-winning machine once again.

“I think Marc will be at 100% because already last year he was [physically] OK. And if Honda will be competitive, he will be at the front. If not, it will be more difficult because in the current era in MotoGP everything is very important," Bagnaia 🍸said.

“All the bikes are competi💜tive for winning races, so the level is very high so a lot of riders; Quartararo, Enea, Marquez… I think Morbid☂elli will be okay. Oliveira with Aprilia will be so competitive. I think Binder will be competitive.

“I’m for sure forgetting someone but it will be very tough, very difficu♏lt, but our objective is t🥂o be better and try to defend what we did last year. I will try to do it with all my capacity.”

The good n🐬ews for Bagnaia is that, having won the title𓄧 despite five non-scores and a single point in Mandalika, the potential for improvement is clear.

“Don’t crash!” he smiled, when asked about the most valuable lesson of last season. “I lost a lot of points because I crashed in five races, once from Nakagami [Barcelo𝓰na].

“It's also true that in Indonesia I finished 15th, so just one point. But in any case, the bigge﷽st lesson is to remain calm, think race by race and don't commit the mistakes of being nervous.”

'I have to not make the mistake of thinking I'm a champion'

Bagnaia is also keen to avoidꦺ any sense of complacency.

“I have to not make the mis๊take of thinking I'm already a champion, because it's something that can relax you,” explained the Italian. “So I will try to have the same approach, same mindset of last year and of all the years in my life.

“I think I’ve learned the lessons from last year from the mistakes, and I think I💛 can start this sဣeason in a better way. The new bike is very close to the 2022 bike, so I think we can start well from the first day of testing, but we have to go there and understand.

“The weekend schedule is different so this is also something that can♑ change thin♔gs, but I'm quite confident and sure that if we work well, we can be in the top like last year.”

Bag🍒naia will take the #1 on track for the first time during𒈔 the official Sepang test from February 10-12.