Livio Suppo was with Ducati for over eleven years and followed Ducati’s MotoGP project since its origins along with Claudio Domenicalli and the great Filippo Preziosi, and for seven years he was Ducati’s point man making not so easy decisions and taking the flack when things didn’t always go well especially this season with Casey Stoner’s mysterious illness and three race pullout.
Suppo decided to move on and will be Honda this year, not as a team or project manager the role he had in Ducati, but his job will be to find new sponsors for the Japanese team.
Website moto.
it has a very long and comprehensive interview (also audio, but in Italian) with Suppo and we’ve decided to translate some of the most interesting parts.
The Italian manager touches a lot of bases, Ducati’s MotoGP project, to the 2003 negotiations with Valentino Rossi, the decision to send Troy Bayliss away, the other riders who’ve ridden the Desmosedici, Casey Stoner and Stoner’s 2009 season.