Massimiliano Garavini had the privilege of being able to interview Davide Tardozzi, the team manager of the Ducati MotoGP team, for the site Motoracing.
The result was an interesting, passionate and dynamic interview, from which we extracted the following three responses.
The possibly difficult management of the two strong characters that are Dovizioso and Lorenzo…
Davide Tardozzi: " Not really. Both are great professionals, two champions aware of their value. With both we found a good basis to work from and, with Gigi (Dall'Igna) and Paolo (Ciabatti), I would say we gave both technical and sporting peace of mind. We are sure to have two top drivers in the box who will try to challenge the best next year, which, at the moment, is Marquez.”
Has Valencia 2017 not left its mark?
“Dovi is a very intelligent boy. This is not debatable. It's up to us to give him the bike he asks for to allow him to play until the end. The perfect motorcycle does not exist, the perfect rider does not exist. It's clear that something happened in Valencia, but if you want to know what I think, I think that if Lorenzo had managed to get back on the top two in the last two laps, he would have helped Dovizioso. Maybe openly? Maybe, but he would have done it! Unfortunately, this was not the case. However, it is true that when the team sends you a message, you must respect it, but it is also true that only the drivers know the situation in the race.”
Will accessing MotoGP soon be reserved for riders with big budgets?
“In this sense, I believe that an excellent operation has been made with the 300 category: a choice that I approve. An accessible and educational entry category in full harmony with the spirit of competition. Thus, a new generation of pilots can be trained without excluding anyone a priori. The journey to get to the World Championship is very expensive, often too expensive for the families of promising drivers. We are not saying that to make future champions grow, the route must necessarily be that of Moto3 which requires a lot of money. Let's take Franco Morbidelli, he has all my esteem for what he did on the track, but above all for his attitude, his determination and his dedication, and he is a guy who didn't have great resources: he had to winning everything with his talent, first in Supersport (editor's note: Superstock 600), then he reached the Moto2 title. I think the pilots' stories should be better known, because it's not true that they are all privileged and live in an enchanted world. I would like you to raise awareness of these young people and the sacrifices they make for their passion, in addition to the actions of consecrated champions.”
