Ducati made it official today: Texan Ben Spies has signed a contract to race with the Italian company to race in a Pramac-run Ducati team in the 2013 MotoGP World Championship alongside current Moto2 star Andrea Iannone. The Spies signing finalizes Ducati's plans for 2013, as they will run Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso in the factory team and Spies and Iannone in the "junior" team. Ducati also announced that it has renewed its partnership with Pramac Racing, which will run the satellite team. Spies and Iannone, according to Ducati, will have "a direct link with the company, and will be supplied with official equipment." "This agreement will enable additional important support in the development of the Desmosedici MotoGP project, offering a further opportunity in the process of improving the performance of the Italian bike," the Ducati statement reads. Spies, who will make his 50th MotoGP start this weekend in Misano, is currently 10th in the MotoGP World Championship on a factory Yamaha. The former World Superbike Champion stated earlier in the season that he was hopeful of going back to the World Superbike Championship. He'd signed a letter of intent with BMW, but since changed his mind and opted to return to MotoGP. BMW in turn signed Welshman Chaz Davies to partner Marco Melandri on the S1000 RRs in the 2013 World Superbike Championship.
and that is probably the sad reason why Hayden still has his seat. Nothing to do with his talent nor the fact he been the best man on the Ducati since Stoner joined HRC
Let me see now... ... excellent official Yam which currently leads the World Championship. Fails to do it justice. ... moves to dodgy-handling Italian GP effort in the hope of....er.... what exactly? He said he didn't even like Moto GP. Confused. Both of us.
I don't even like Moto GP....because I haven't got a ride, due to disappointing results, but now I love it, as it pays me big wages even tho the bike is troublesome and I will have even worse results. Is what he meant to say......
Don't think his riding style will gel with the D16 although the bike might be sorted by the time he gets on it. He shows talent from time to time and has had real bad luck this year. I went off him big time when I was watching AMA a few years ago. He crashed out in the lead and laid on the track in agony til the race so the race was stopped then miraculously recovered to race in the restart to come 2nd I think. He was leading the Championship by a big margin at the time so such tactics seemed unecessary apart from being underhand.
