Let's talk MotoGP: Fabio Di Giannantonio should serve as an example

It's now official: "Diggia" will ride a Ducati Desmosedici GP25 next year within Valentino Rossi's structure, while he had an offer from Pramac Yamaha on the table. Since the end of last year, Fabio Di Giannantonio is becoming an example, a real model who could well be rewarded with enormous results in a short time. Analysis.

Passione Italia

Fabio Di Giannantonio is the very definition of a smart driver. And here is a smart choice. Its renewal with Ducati VR46 is entirely logical, relevant, and ambitious. Personally, I like it when drivers give themselves the chance to play for victories, when they bring about their own destiny. Instead of selling himself for money, the Italian prefers his ambition, because his ultimate goal will soon be accomplished: that of enjoying a factory machine.

Since the beginning of the year, he has refused nothing, not even from dreaming. He said explicitly, sometimes following average performances, that he had the firm intention of becoming a factory driver. At the time of the Jorge Martin imbroglio, he himself had mentioned his own name in the conversation, which made more than one person giggle. Now no one laughs anymore. Di Giannantonio will have the only unofficial GP25 within a seasoned team, experienced in victory and at the highest levels of our sport. He won everything, and undoubtedly understood that you always had to have the most efficient bike at the time, in order to constantly prove your worth. This is the key to longevity in MotoGP, especially if you are not afraid to believe in yourself. Many would do well to take inspiration from it.

Di Giannantonio was also injured at the Sachsenring. Photo: Michelin Motorsport

I wanted to briefly return to the state of mind of this pilot. It's crazy when you think about it. A year ago, we all sent him to Superbike, unanimously. In a few months, he was able to prove his worth to the whole world with very high-ranking performances. And today, he says he is ready to take up the challenge imposed by the GP25 and the heavy responsibility it brings. Tomorrow, perhaps he will dream of being a candidate for the official Ducati handlebars; idiots will be those who mock this design.

He is an example of passion (in the primary sense of the term, which includes sacrifice, pain). Di Giannantonio is doing his best to perfect his art, even if it means finding himself in hostile psychological territory as was the case in 2022, where a driver with disproportionate natural talent crushed him in the Gresini box. He doesn't have the panache of Marquez, not the personality and speed of Lorenzo, not the talent of Stoner, but Di Giannantonio has all the makings of a hero.

It's going to work

If everything goes well for him, I am convinced that this association will work. In 2024, he revealed himself as one of the best riders on the Ducati GP23s, sometimes at the level of Marc Marquez. Very consistent in performance, he only suffered his first retirement at the Sachsenring, and again, due to a mysterious technical problem.

Marco Bezzecchi, who was expected to be much stronger, is very often behind. Photo: Michelin Motorsport

We can doubt several parameters when studying a pilot, but the two that I am going to cite lead me to say that “Diggia” will succeed. Firstly, I know that he will not give up, and that he will run as intelligently as possible, with passion. Secondly, I know he will perform if the machine suits him because he showed, at the end of 2023, that he was perfectly lethal on the handlebars. When everything goes his way – as was the case in Qatar or Valencia, he is almost impregnable, always extremely clean in his overtaking.

He will have the advantage of having, I imagine, a very good machine, and, what is more, will be the only one from a private team to benefit from it. So, if it suits him, he will be in a position to make a sensational leap in the Ducati hierarchy, in the absence of the two Pramacs and Marc Marquez at Gresini. Could he be a regular outsider to victory like Johann Zarco in his time? Or even, even more, a sort of Jorge Martin? Humbly, I think he has this potential within him, and he firmly believes in it.

These are just guesses, as the season is still long. I will have the opportunity to come back to more precise predictions at the start of next year, of course, but I think we need to talk about these discreet profiles. Pilots like him don't look much, I admit, but they are very respectable role models that all young people can (should?) identify with..

What do you think of this pilot? Tell me in the comments!

As a reminder, this article only reflects the thoughts of its author, and not of the entire editorial team.