Sponsors are usually silent partners, but they’re are the ones that fodder teams pockets and allows them to continue racing and they often wield power that goes beyond seeing their names on the livery.
Many of you may remember Maurizio Arrivabene, he’s the Vice President of Marlboro Global Communication & Promotion for Philip Morris International and his vitriolic statement back in 2009 after Casey Stoner dropped out of the championship to recover from his illness, “I hope that Stoner at Estoril will have the decency to apologize to the team,” so you’d think that after Valentino Rossi’s extremely dismal and highly expensive 2011 season, Ducati could be on the verge of losing their long time sponsor, instead Arrivabene seems optimistic about Ducati’s future.
“We remain extremely optimistic about the project shown to us by Ducati.
We are tied together and we are continuing our partnership with them without any problems, but rather with joy.
” Last season Phillip Morris pushed for continuing development work on the GP11 after Rossi and Ducati failed to get decent results.
“I’d like to repeat that we’ve believed in Ducati’s project since the beginning of our relationship, because it is a company that has great value and outstanding potential.
Last year there were too many issues with results that were well below expectations and certainly not for a winning brand like Ducati.
We intervened several times because sometimes from a technical point of view, being on the ‘outside’ you can spot problems that can’t be seen from ‘inside’ a company.
”Regarding expectations for new season that starts with the tests in Sepang, Arrivabene stated, “Our rivals are favored, and we don’t pretend to win immediately.
We believe that you can be defeated in a championship at this level, but the important thing is to defend oneself with dignity and fight.
The marque is important and the rider is enormously talented.
We’ll wait for the second test in Malaysia before taking stock of the situation.
“The risk of another disappointing season still hovers however Maurizio Arrivabene emphazied their loyalty towards Ducati and the importance of the partnership.
“Let’s clear this up, the move to bring Valentino Rossi to Ducati was carried out directly by Borgo Panigale, then we allocated the necessary budget to make it reality and fundamentally this was Stefano Domenicali’s role.
We aren’t directly tied to the rider and we want to respect the contract.
We want to start the season in the best way possible and then we’ll see how the situation is at Mugello.
“The 2011 season closed with expenses estimated to be 40-50% higher than expected, without using the sponsor’s allocated budget.
“At the beginning of the year we allocated the budget according to the contract, the rest was done with sacrifices from Ducati.
They strictly adhered to the budget without asking us for more.