Enea Bastianini has been backed by hi♌s Ducati boss to compete for the 2024 MotoGP 🎉championship.

He was forced to watch on last seꦅason as factory Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia edged Pramac’s Jorge Martin and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi to win a second consec▨utive title.

It was Bastianini’s first season in factory red but iꩵt was blighted by injury, the first and most severe of which was suffered on the first weekend of 2023.

But Bastianini was the fastest rider on Day 2 of the preseason Sepang test toꦫ 𒀰lay down a marker that he could return to the title picture to join Bagnaia, Martin, Bezzecchi and maybe even Marc Marquez.

“Enea is absolutely over the moon,” said Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi🌞.

“After the really bad year that he had last year - struggling for confidence with the bike, all the injuries, the 🎃acciden☂t in the first race at Portimao - it was something really heavy on his shoulders.

“He had a good race here, winning in Malaysia꧙, but he was struggling until the end in Valencia.

“Now, he’s another rider. He is the Enea Bastianini that we🦄 saw in 2022.

“We are 🐠really confident that he will be one of the contenders✅.”

Bastianini, in 2022 with Gresini, won the second-most amount o🀅f grands prix behind Bagnaia. They fought wheel-to-wheel in the c✅losing rounds to earn Bastianini a promotion to the factory team above Martin.

“I have to thank Pecco and Enea for they work in the team with theﷺ engineers,” Tardozzi said in Sepang.

“I see how many ideas they exchange between 🤡them. They talk about new parts.

“There is confidence between the two. Thi♐s helps the eng♌ineers.”

Broadcaster 🥀Simon Crafar added: “You know the Enea that we saw at the race in Qatar, he won.

“Day ꦆ1 of the official test, that was the Enea who turned up.

“💮Wow, he was straight-away on it! Some riders took half a day to get the rust off.

“Enea just turned up and bang!

“The new engine, he’s made friends with straig♔ht away. The new bike seems like it suꦛits him better.

“The big thing, for 💖me, for Ducati? They seem confident with the whole package.

“It will only be little tweaks. But it l💙ooks like it works.”

Tardozzi said about Ducati’s winter development: “We don’t want to make a revolution as we did in 2022, when we were forced to run behind the problems of the fi✨rst winter test.

“In 2022 and ‘🦹23, we struggled. Now we have learned from th🥂e past.

“Gigi and the guys did a fantastic job.”

Bastianini, Bagnaia and Martin have already insisted that the GP24 feels even better tha🌃n last year’s bike, which dominat🐼ed MotoGP.