MotoGP | Francesco Guidotti (Ducati Pramac) talks about the rider market

MotoGP 2019 MotoMercato – During the weekend of the Le Mans Grand Prix, held last Sunday, we started talking about the drivers' market. There was a meeting between Team Pramac and Emilio Alzamora, Alex Marquez's manager, to test the waters for a possible move for Marc's brother to MotoGP.

This would trigger a domino effect especially within Ducati, because it is known that Jack Miller, current Ducati Pramac rider, wants the "saddle" of the internal team's GP19, places currently occupied by Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci, with the latter having a contract year only.

In this regard, here are the words of Francesco Guidotti, Ducati Pramac Team Manager, released to MotoGP.com.

“The situation has gotten bigger than it really is. We met with Alzamora to understand if there was a possibility of having Alex come here. It's standard procedure, when a driver's team manager asks to speak to us, we do so. And in any case we have other meetings scheduled.”

Guidotti then continued: “Jack (Miller, ed.) doesn't have a contract for next year and we have to evaluate other solutions if he wants to go to the factory team or somewhere else in case we can't satisfy his needs. We need to have a general picture of the market and of those who want to move from Moto2 to MotoGP having what it takes to do so. But we are not focusing on one rider in particular and we want, if possible, to stay with the current lineup. We and Ducati do not have the riders' situation in our hands, they could be the ones to decide and choose to leave."

On Alex Marquez he then specified: “Alex has no priority compared to other riders, while our priority is to maintain the current lineup with Pecco (Francesco Bagnaia, ed.) and Miller. But Miller doesn't agree with me, because he aims for the official Ducati team.”

On the Petrucci Vs Miller discussion he said: “Ducati plays the part on this. It's clear that Jack wants that job, but we need to see if that job will happen. It could be that Miller makes 'the sacrifice' of staying with us if Ducati doesn't free up that saddle for him or, perhaps, that he prefers an official team and abandons Ducati."