‘Alvaro understands the bike now’ says Ducati boss Ciabatti

Just like the good old days Ducati’s top brass came to Misano, which gave us a chance to speak to Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti about Bautista, balancing rules, customer programmes and 2023 riders…

BSN: As in 2019 Ducati has signed Alvaro Bautista and after the first few rounds he is leading the championship. It all went wrong back then, so what have Ducati and Bautista learned from their previous mistakes? PC: “Honestly, I think that the difference is that when Alvaro came on the Ducati in 2019, he was immediately fast. He got kind of a natural feeling that made him go very fast in the first races, and then all of a sudden, things started to go wrong, a few crashes, and he lost that feeling. But I think now he knows exactly. I don’t want to say that he didn’t know what was happening before, but kind of now he understands the bike better. The bike has evolved. So there is really a confidence based also on the understanding of the bike and its pluses and minuses. I think 2019 was just like a magic thing which happened. He just came, everything was good, going fast, winning and winning and winning, without really a full understanding of the whole thing. Again, after ’19, ’20, ’21, ’22, it’s four years now, we also improved the bike in some areas. He’s fast, confident. He knows what’s going on. In 2019 he was super-fast but maybe without the full understanding of the bike.”

BSN: Your WorldSBK customer program used to be incredible in WorldSBK and now it’s getting back there. How close are you to the final plan here? Would you like more teams? Is there a maximum number? PC: “Being a production-based bike, we could even supply more. Now we have Barni who has been with us for ages. We have MotoCorsa with Mauri who has been