Bastianini on a riders’ union: “This world cannot exist without us”

Seventh place and with it direct qualification for Q2 on Saturday – that was the pleasing outcome of the Phillip Island qualifying session from Enea Bastianini’s perspective. Not only that, but the Italian set the fastest lap time on Friday – a hair’s breadth faster than team star Pedro Acosta.

A perfect start for ‘La Bestia’, but the road to Q2 was bumpy: ‘Normally we try to avoid making too many changes to the bike, but today it was necessary. We struggled this morning.’ The biggest area for improvement on his RC16? “Riding stability. Our bike moves around a lot, especially in the fast corners on this circuit, and the changes of direction are slower than usual.” The Italian himself also had to adapt.

He had problems with a challenge typical of the Phillip Island circuit: “I had great difficulty with the wind. I had to return to the pits twice unexpectedly to find a solution.” And his fastest lap in the afternoon was also a hair’s breadth away from not happening: “I came back into the pits after my first fast lap and was in eleventh place yet again, and I thought: Bloody hell! I’ll have to get even more out of it. But after that, we did a good job.”

Bastianini beschleunigte auf Platz 7

Foto: Gold and Goose

In qualifying and the sprint race, however, the changes that enabled the lap time could become a problem. Bastianini is taking it in his stride: “We’ll be at a disadvantage on Saturday, but by then we’ll be in a different situation anyway.” As Saturday progresses, the weather – which was still ideal on Friday – is set to deteriorate, with rain looming and, consequently, different conditions for the premier class field.

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This came about following Bastianini’s arrival in Australia to gauge support for a riders’ union. The Rimini native welcomes this: “We’ve started holding talks, because it’s important to involve everyone. We began this project two years ago, but haven’t yet been able to see it through to the end.” It is important to ensure that riders have a say in decisions regarding MotoGP. The issue came up again in the run-up to the last MotoGP weekend in Indonesia, when the organisers presented a new schedule for the race weekend, due to come into effect from the 2027 season.

For the Moto2 World Champion, a riders’ union is a way of securing riders a greater say: “Power is important, and so far the teams have held the power. But this MotoGP world cannot exist without us, and we riders cannot exist without this MotoGP world. That’s why we riders need to find common ground.”