Ducati is undergoing a small revolution in their racing department with the arrival of Audi and the first change was moving Filippo Preziosi to the research and development deparment while Bernhard Gobmeier take his place as the General Manager of Ducati Corse department.
They’ve confirmed Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso on the factory bikes and Andrea Iannone and Ben Spies in their Pramac satellite team looking for better race results in 2013, but another important piece of the story is the hiring Michele Pirro as a test rider, thus having not only a veteran like Franco Battaini who works on durability and reliability, but also a fast rider able to take the Desmosedici to the limit, as confirmed Vittoriano Guareschi – who looks like he’ll be keeping his job as team manager in 2013.
“We’ll be testing at Jerez in January but only the test riders.
The rules state that contracted riders can’t test before February.
Regarding Pirro it’s important that he understands the bike.
He’s fast and for us it’s important to have a rider like him that can take the bike to the limit.
Next year our test team will be very strong.
Battaini has a lot of experience and is in excellent phyisical condition [ check out this photograph of a very ripped and naked Battaini in Riders Magazine] which is important as it allows him to put in a lot of miles on the bikes.
Michele is fast rider and I think that our test team will be very good.
” Pirro gave up his CRT ride with Gresini prefering to become Ducati’s test rider and he has already been granted three wildcard rides in 2013 at Jerez, Mugello and Misano and if one of the Ducati riders should unfortunately end up with an injury, he’ll probably be called in as a substitute rider.