I think it was a bit more than that. I think Xerox do all of Ducati's document handling, manuals, design stuff etc. I was quite surprised when I heard the sort of numbers being bandied around but I guess it must make sense from Ducati's end otherwise they wouldn't have done it. I think the main driver from Xerox's end was that the guy who ran Xerox Europe is a huge Ducati nut. He's now president of the whole company so I guess he may still harbour interest in returning to sponsor Ducati but that's not what I'm hearing.
Koen, some of the electronics guys have been with Ducati Corse since GSE were racing 999s in BSB. I can't see that there would be many more highly qualified people in the paddock.
The FIAMM deal signed at the beginning of this season was for 2 years. So unless it has performance clauses or something allowing them to get out then they should still be the title sponsor for at least 1 more year. My understanding was that Alstare had lost a personal Alstare sponsor rather than a Ducati Race Team one and that meant some of the behind the scenes costs would have to come from Mr Batta's large pockets. Not heard anything to say FIAMM pulled out thus far.
