Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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INTERVIEW I FRANCESCO MILICIA AND SALVO PENNISI P84 ter shareholder: they are leaving the autonomy and Italian flavor to the company, providing financial stability and they have a long- term approach common to the German culture. And we still continue to keep a lot of young professionals and en- gineers. The average age of the board of the company is also very young, especially for Italy. I think this is a value of the company. We are working now with pas- sionate suppliers that are always available to support our new ideas in product development, or our activity on the track at the races. But we also have dealers that are very passionate, plus collectors. These all combine to make what we call Ducatista. We have every year the global dealer conference, soon in Sardinia, where we meet all the dealers and we share with them, listen also their advice, and work on the strategy of the company. But now even with the custom- er, we talk more and more. We are in close contact with them. We invite them to participate in the events of the company. The confirmation of it has been the last World Ducati Week in Mi- sano, which was the best ever. World Ducati Week this year was massive. Francesco: Yes, the passion was incredible. We had also some new content, because the off-road section is bigger, and all the new bikes were tested. We had a specific event, like the Race of Champions, that was unbelievable. There is no other manufacturer that puts all their riders on a track one against the other—it's very risky! We have been able to leverage this special event to take care of our top customers, because only the top customers have been able to bid on the bike of their favorite rider after the event. This is something that gives us ideas for the future. More and more, we want to be a company that generates emotion, that creates Pennisi says it's vital to keep the two identities of Pirelli and Metzeler separate while still being able to collaborate on future projects. "THE REAL NEW FRONTIER FOR US WILL BE TO CONNECT THE TIRES WITH THE MOTORCYCLE, TO CONNECT THE TIRES WITH THE SAFETY SYSTEM. WE ARE CALLING THIS PROJECT CYBER TIRES." – SALVO PENNISI Nevertheless, during the years of 2003-2004 we lost a bit the focus on the product, but thanks especially to the strong leadership of Claudio Domenicali that took over R&D and Product Development of the production bikes, on top of Ducati Corse that he was already managing, we started a positive trend that is still lasting. Since 2012, we have been part of Audi VW Group, and I have to say, I couldn't image bet-