di Giannantonio: ‘You have to trust the process’

While title runner-up Jorge Martin scored 50 points more over the final ten rounds than over the opening ten events, despite the cancellation of the Phillip Island Sprint, di Giannantonio managed an increase of 114.

Without the tyre pressure penalty at the Valencia finale demoting him from second to fourth, Diggia would have been credited with another 7 points.

The Gresini rider’s epic turnaround, which included a debut GP podium in Phillip Island, then a Sprint podium and dream victory in Qatar, carried the Italian from 16th to 12th in the final world championship standings.

di Giannantonio was notably among only six riders to score more than 100 points during the second half of the season, after Martin (239), world champion Francesco Bagnaia (216), Marco Bezzecchi (146), Brad Binder (133) and Maverick Vinales (118).

“MotoGP is about hard work and trying to make every little part of the bike and your riding style as much perfect as possible,” explained di Giannantonio, who had finished the opening ten rounds with a best race result of just eighth place.

“You are fighting against the best of the best [riders]. You are also against the best teams in the world. So, you really have to be perfect in all areas. But you have to start somewhere. So it takes time.

“For many reasons, [my 2022 rookie season] was a zero year for me. So [in 2023], I started from completely a blank page.”

di Giannantonio credited the arrival of Joan Mir’s ex-world championship winning Suzuki crew chief Frankie Carchedi, who joined forces with the Italian at the start of 2023, for plotting his path to the front.

“The arrival of Frankie helped me a lot to understand how to ride this bike,” di Giannantonio said. “We started to fix every little thing, step by step, every little detail.

“It takes time. You cannot come from being last to making podiums in two races.

“So we started to work throughout the season. If you see my growth, we started to make a little progress during all the championship.

“You have to trust the process. Sometimes I was expecting things to happen earlier and it was not coming. Sometimes I didn’t expect it and it was coming.

“So, you have to trust this process. Step by step, we arrived at an amazing level.”

The 25-year-old delivered his second half flourish despite the added pressure of knowing he had lost his MotoGP seat to Marc Marquez for 2024, who will work with Carchedi this season.

After spending six rounds with his future hanging in the balance, di Giannantonio was finally confirmed at the VR46 Ducati team after the Valencia finale.

Diggia will work with ex-Valentino Rossi and Luca Marini crew chief David Muñoz this season.