I was mighty glad Audi could persuade GIGI to join Ducati. And from what we see and hear, he's already going at it even before he's actually started. things keep moving but perhaps the most important are the signs that he would have said that the pani is of such a different development model compared to the evolutional 1198 F0x that the development it needs to become succesfull requires the attention, commitment and resources only a full factory effort can bring... to me, that sounds like he's hitting all the nails on the head and knows his priorities... but then again, who am i !
It will be interesting to see who that manage to draw in as their main sponsor. Do you think Xerox could be tempted back?
no idea .. it's impossible to phathom marketing strategies of large companies... change one man/team/woman in one place and the story changes overnight..... i guess they 'll ba able to keep Marlboro on ... Marlboro started venting it's frustration on the situation in august and Audi started moving in August... with the effects we start hearing about today...
Chaz and Dave are testing today and tomorrow at Jerez with the test team. The bikes have 'new electronics' and some changes to weight distribution. SBK, Giugliano e Davies già sulla Ducati
Thank god. I wanna be cheering the Ducati on again. If the Pani starts winning I may look beyond its ugly RHS and buy one.
I think they will get there. Now the expectation is lower and they may just surprise people. If the rules do change and allow full factory internals for the twins and they get back the 20bhp deficit and with Full factory efforts things will only get better. I suspect the bike is actually better than it appeared by the end of the year. Badovini was never going to make it look good and i think after early season problems Carlos had a crisis of confidence as much s a bike issue. Much as Dovi is currently having in Motogp, getting beaten by riders he shouldn't.
it seems team recruitment is well under way... "Here we are in Jerez with the Test Team to which are added Alberto Colombo, who in recent years has worked alongside Davies and electrical engineer Michele Gadda (note Gadda was in 2009 with Ben Spies at Yamaha and subsequently followed the team Melandri BMW)". http://www.moto.it/Superbike/e-ufficiale-davide-giugliano-con-ducati-sbk.html
Great ! one of the frustrations of Neukrichner was that the electronics guys they got were not senior enough... he even blamed them openly for causing a heavy crash ... good to see that some seniority is coming in ... electronics is so damn important...
Great news...it will be great to see Ducati back at the sharp end again. Ive no doubt they will get the Pani going in the right direction sooner rather than later. Development can take time, i guess some of us ( non Pani owners like myself included ) got a little anxious as its taken longer than expected. Gigi is going to be taking a hard stance, ppl will me moved or let go I reckon. Weight distribution seems to be the way to go as Badovini had a couple of good runs.
I really can't see that happening. Ducati crapped on Xerox last time round and pulled the plug half way through the contract. They've got nothing to gain from being tied to Ducati any more, plus who wants to spend that kind of money on sponsoring a bike that so far has proved to be incapable of winning races.
Fair point. Dont Shell heavily sponsor the Audi Endurance 24hr race team? Shell and Ducati have history...could be a possibility
I believe the Xerox deal was equivalent to about £5m although from what I understand money didn't actually change hands, but services were provided for an equivalent sum which Ducati would have otherwise had to pay Xerox for.
Awesome, they paid Ducati with photocopying :tongue:. I bet email and a decent printer really fudged that one up
