Martin: If I haven’t proved to Ducati my worth in MotoGP already, I never will

The Pramac rider came into the Valencia Grand Prix finale on Sunday trailing Francesco Bagnaia by 14 points, but crashed out on lap six while battling with Marc Marquez.

This handed the championship to Bagnaia, who would go on to win the race.

Insight: The key moments in Bagnaia’s 2023 MotoGP title defence

Ahead of the grand prix, Autosport revealed that Ducati would promote Martin to the factory team automatically if he won the championship.

This now looks unlikely, but Martin thinks he has already done enough to prove his worth for this chance – and if Ducati hasn’t already seen this, it never will.

“I don’t think so,” he replied when asked by Autosport if he felt a factory team move was likely for next year now.

“I’m happy where I am. I think even if I won today, it’s no sense [to move me up] because if you win you are in the best team and we are in the best team.

“I think, sincerely speaking, if I didn’t show yet my potential for them to be in red, I will never be in red because making more than this is quite complicated.

“And arriving into the last race, finishing second, I think if they didn’t put me there, they won’t put me anyway.”

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Martin feels like he “didn’t lose” the championship on Sunday, given the task he faced in actually beating Bagnaia, and believes he was “the strongest” rider in the second half of the season.

“I want to congratulate Pecco,” he added. “I feel like he deserved this championship a lot also, he did an amazing job this season and I’m happy also for Ducati.

“And about myself, for sure today it feels like a day to cry. I did already, it’s a day to forget.

“But now I don’t feel this way. I fee like it’s a day to celebrate what we achieved from being in a satellite team.

“I mean, I think we did history and I’m happy about the 13 wins, I don’t know how many podiums, how many laps leading. I think it was an outstanding job this season.

“The target I feel like was to be in top three and we did much more than that.

“When you get so close to getting it, you don’t want to lose it. But I think we didn’t lose the championship today.

“The thing was, arriving 21 points behind was a big problem. But I feel like we were the strongest from the second half of the season to now.”

Martin’s race became harder on lap three when he ran off at Turn 1 when he got sucked into Bagnaia’s slipstream, while he also didn’t take kindly to what he felt was Maverick Vinales being overly aggressive with him when they were briefly battling for sixth.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing crash

“Well, I was trying to overtake Pecco,” he said of his Turn 1 scare.

“Was a really complicated place but I think it was the best option to move the race a little bit.

“Then I saw it was complicated, too risky, then I tried to be behind but I was sucked in by the slipstream. I thought I was going to push him out and it would be a great crash.

“So, I tried to avoid it, it was really slippy on the outside and I tried to come back. I think I had a great pace, pushing but managing the tyre.

“I didn’t understand exactly what Maverick was doing because I’m battling for a championship, he was battling for sixth.

“So, there was no sense to overtake me back I think. And then I was feeling much stronger than the other ones.

“Maybe I was too… I had to be patient after overtaking Maverick.

“I tried to overtake Marc straight away. I thought I had the position, but he released the brakes and when I was passed already into the corner I feel like he closed the line and I couldn’t do nothing.

“I’m sorry for the crash, because it was a contact.”