Yesterday at 11 a.m., took place in the FIM premises in Mies, near Geneva, thehearing of the Court of Appeal of the international institution which governs motorcycle racing.
On the agenda, of course, the complaint filed by Aprilia, Honda, Suzuki and KTM against Ducati, accused of having used a spoiler in Qatar which does not only cool the tire, as Luigi Dall'igna, the representative of the racing department of the Italian firm, explained it to the MotoGP Technical Director, Danny Aldridge.
Of course, the hearing took place behind closed doors in the circular building of the FIM, and the verdict is expected for next Monday or Tuesday, but it was obviously very difficult to maintain the confidentiality of the debates since many precise details leaked last night in the Italian press.
Subject to veracity, we learn that the session lasted more than six hours and that, against Ducati (Gigi Dall'Igna et Fabiano Sterlacchini) and their legal counsel, sat Aprilia (Massimo Rivola) and Suzuki (Davide Brivio) with a common lawyer, as well as Honda (Alberto puig) and KTM (Mike leitner) without a lawyer.
It then appears that, more than likely, Ducati will see its victory ratified in Qatar, above all because none of the complainants have formally called it into question. The 25 points for victory will therefore be awarded to Andrea Dovizioso, and in our opinion this is already an excellent thing for sport.
The subject of this long debate focused on the aerodynamic downforce that can be generated by the famous deflector fixed under the swingarm of the Italian GP19.
Ducati's defense was structured around two axes.
First, Borgo Panigale's lawyer argued that the spoiler was only designed to cool the rear tire and that the aerodynamic downforce generated, apparently demonstrated by the plaintiffs, was only an accidental consequence, but not wanted.
This “good faith”, which is frankly a little difficult to believe, also makes it possible to strengthen the second argument, put forward this time by Gigi Dall'Igna itself: the spoiler was authorized in Qatar by the only technical representative mandated for this purpose, Danny Aldridge. The accusing teams responded that the authorization had taken place in a “light and approximate” manner during a meeting of barely 15 minutes in the Ducati box and that a “more careful and structured technical verification” would have been appropriate. Danny Aldridge, connected via Skype, tried with great difficulty to defend his work by explaining that he had appealed to the intellectual honesty of the Ducati team. Suffice it to say that his credibility seems to have taken a big hit...
Whatever the verdict handed down at the start of next week, the accusers will not have recourse to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but are convinced that spoilers will be prohibited and, above all, that the regulations will henceforth be more precise in this area.
But in the game of cat and mouse, we know who is running behind whom...
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