The idea of Ducati pulling out their factory team from the World Superbike championship has not gone down well with Italian Ducatisti and they’ve put the blame of this decision squarely on the shoulders on Gabriele Del Torchio, Ducati’s CEO and especially on Valentino Rossi.
Del Torchio avidly chased after Valentino Rossi and finally bagged the Italian rider with a 2 year contract and the Ducatisti are convinced that the pull-out is to pay Rossi’s deal with Ducati’s MotoGP team and as a result there is no money left to pay for an official team in World Superbikes, despite reassurance from the CEO that this isn’t the case.
Still upset about the decision, several Ducatisti displayed this controversial banner yesterday at the Imola race track which reads: Ducati SBK, 46 reasons for the pull out.