FEATURE
JORGE LORENZO'S BIG ADVENTURE
P92
cording to Jarvis. "I am sure that
Ducati's offer would have been
even bigger."
Why so much? Well, the
meaning for Ducati is at least as
pressing. Since Casey's depar-
ture, results have slumped, most
conspicuously when Valentino
took over the hot seat from
the Australian. The all-Italian
dream was never anything but a
nightmare, as ever more frantic
developments signally failed to
bear fruit.
It was halfway through Rossi's
two-year tenure that Ducati
changed hands. The new own-
ers were Audi. This gradual and
seemingly unstoppable decline
did not sit well with the German
company.
After one year, long-standing
design chief Filippo Preziosi was
replaced by German ex-BMW
Superbike team chief Bernhard
Gobmeier, filling a caretaker
role for two years before Ducati
poached Aprilia's highly respect-
ed race chief Gigi Dall'Igna.
The Italian with a goatee beard
and a gaunt frame's first move
was a complete rejig of an inter-
nal management and reporting
system that had become labyrin-
thine and clearly inefficient. Logic
had taken a back seat. The new
structure was put in place during
2015, so as to harness the com-
pany's undoubted engineering
prowess more effectively.
His second was to address
the bike's design, and the 2016
Desmosedici is the result. Al-
though clearly still evolutionary,
the new bike has at last laid to
rest long-standing complaints of
understeer. And it remains blin-
dingly fast in a straight line.
It has still not, however, won
a race.
For Dall'Igna, this was a
big reason to go for Jorge. To
remove any excuses. At Jerez
he told the press, "Sometimes
I read that Ducati cannot win
a race because of the riders. I
don't think so, but anyway I don't
want this excuse. I'm here to win
the championship. It's simple."
If Ducati can't win with Jorge,
then there must be another
reason.
Not surprisingly Dall'Igna
He's got three
titles with Yamaha
already and
before he leaves
for team red,
Lorenzo could
make it four.
