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Enea Bastianini arrives at the Bugatti circuit of Le Mans after the fifth place obtained in the Spanish GP in Jerez, which placed him in third place in the championship standings at 5 points from teammate Francesco Bagnaia. The base from which to restart to return to the hunt for a major result on the Sarthe track, where the Rimini native has already achieved success in the last edition of the GP he held. "The 2022 victory was very important for me, but now it's completely different. Last year I missed the two races here, however, I think it is a track that is friendly to me," Enea commented on the eve of the weekend.
In the past, the French circuit has also proved particularly favorable to Ducati, which has triumphed in the last four editions of the Grand Prix, first winning with Danilo Petrucci, and then with Jack Miller, the aforementioned Bastianini and Marco Bezzecchi.
"I remember that when Danilo won he did it in the rain, so I think it's a very good track for Ducati. Something can always change, every year is its own story, but in recent seasons only Ducati has won here ," noted the 26-year-old, who, however, cannot explain why this supremacy of the red bikes: "I think Ducati is now a competitive bike everywhere, while in the past it was not everywhere but here it was. I don't know why it was. Maybe because we take off after the others, or because we accelerate earlier."
Braking, however, was not one of the Beast 's strong points in Jerez, where he failed to get the better of Brad Binder under braking, getting stuck behind the South African rider's KTM RC16.
"Brad is very competitive in that area and it is difficult to overtake under braking, however, I worked on it during the Monday test in Jerez and made a good step in that direction. We will see if it will be the same here. It's not easy because I have to try to start further ahead, because if you're behind it's really hard to get back up, given the current level of the MotoGP bikes ," said the Ducatista, explaining how to improve in this specific area: "There are so many variables, in the sense that sometimes you can't brake because you lock the front, sometimes because you don't have feeling, however, you intervene with the engine brake and the position on the bike. Ergonomics are very important in today's MotoGP and there are so many things that have to fit together. In the test I did not try many new elements, only one that I think is very good but it was not related to braking. But I think we can be competitive in this race, because now I have a good base."
Talking instead about the new technical regulations launched for 2027, there is only one change that was not particularly welcomed by the Rimini rider: "The fact that they took away the lowerers is the only thing that made me turn my nose up a bit, because in my opinion they were not bad. You also had to be very focused in your riding, because we riders use the lowerers differently, and also in different corners, so in my opinion it would have been interesting to keep it going. They wanted to take it out, and you adapt to it."
Asked whether the weight reduction could make the bikes even faster in the middle of the corners, Enea added, "That's a question that should be asked to an engineer, but yes, you will probably go faster in the corners. In my opinion, however, the problem is also starting to be there in acceleration on the straight, more than in the corners. MotoGP is at a level that is still manageable. We have also seen in the last few races that you can overtake, and with the tires that Michelin brought us we can do a little bit more than last year, where we were much more on the limit. Already this year it has become more fun, but I'm curious to see what the new bikes will be like. I'm having a hard time expressing an opinion on that, because I don't know what to expect from the new regulations. I don't know if the speeds in the middle of the corners will change. Theoretically we could be a thread faster, but there is less aerodynamics, so it's not certain. A change was definitely needed and hopefully it will be a change for the better, but I don't want to get into it because I don't really know what will happen."
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