Paolo Ciabatti took stock in the Corriere dello Sport on the various subjects raised during the off-season: the reappointment of Andrea Dovizioso and the possibility of developing the GP18 in two different directions for Dovizioso and Lorenzo.
Paolo Ciabatti denies the rumor that Gigi Dall'Igna works on two frames according to the different driving styles of his drivers...
“There will not be two executives. In fact, it is true that Jorge has more difficulty getting a good corner entry speed and a good passing speed once he lets off the brakes, but this is also a problem for Andrea who is more aggressive in this phase. Any improvement will bring benefits to both, and the new chassis will have enough adjustment possibilities to allow for this. The GP18 will not copy Honda, and it has simply evolved. Besides, in 2017, we won six Grands Prix and we played the World Championship until the end. »
Ducati is still awaiting clarification regarding aerodynamics…
“We are looking forward to clarification on the aerodynamics, because if Yamaha comes forward with what was seen in Valencia, then we can redesign our fins to get a more competitive fairing. »
As for the pilots...
“Obviously we would like to confirm them both, but budgets are not infinite and we cannot spend everything in one area, without leaving some margin for development. Of course, we are aware that Dovizioso is expecting an offer in line with his latest results, made possible thanks to his great personal progress and his exceptional form, but also thanks to the support and competitiveness of his Ducati. You don't win six races by chance. There were a few races, Brno, Aragon, Phillip Island, where we struggled a lot and, in fact, the goal is precisely to improve where we were weak, in order to allow the drivers to bring home as many points as possible in difficult situations. We will start talking to Andrea soon. He expects a commitment in line with that of other high-level drivers. We will discuss economic issues, but also technical ones. He is right, it will be a complicated negotiation. We will start talking from the Sepang test at the end of the month. »
Traditional technique, we throw out other names to try to calm the enthusiasm of those interested…
“We hired Jack Miller, who is in his fourth season in MotoGP at just 23 years old, by inserting him into the Pramac satellite team. Then, apart from Franco Morbidelli who won the Moto2 World Championship and who will make his debut this year in the premier category, Francesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir, who dominated Moto3 and who we will see this year in Moto2, we like. »
As Dovizioso recently stated (see here), it is clear from this interview that Ducati intends to arm wrestle with its leading rider, despite his exceptional season.
We can easily imagine the feeling of injustice that the man from Forli must feel when thinking about the salary of his teammate who earned nothing in 2017, around 10 times higher than his own...
