What’s happening in Ducati’s Corse Racing teams? First we have the rumor, that’s getting stronger by the hour, that Livio Suppo will be leaving his postion in Ducati to head for Honda HRC, we have Serafino Foti that lead Ducati’s Junior Superstock team has left and now we have Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Xerox Superbike team manager that has worked in Ducati for almost twenty years, has officially announced that he is leaving Ducati.
Speaking to GPone (the official website at the moment has no news) Tardozzi explained his reasons:“It was certainly a painful decision because you can’t leave a company that you’ve worked splendidly with for almost twenty years without feeling any regrets.
”So why are you leaving?“I wanted to be completely honest with the Company that put a lot of faith in me.
I was loosing the necessary stimulus to do this job, so I thought it was appropriate to tell Ducati in time so they could have enough time to find a replacement before the new season.
”And what was the reaction?“Claudio Domenicali e Filippo Preziosi once again showed their great humanity.
They understood perfectly my position, distinguishing the personal and professional aspects.
Tardozzi has received mounting criticism over the last year when he preferred hiring Noriyuki Haga over Max Biaggi (who had an option to ride in the factory team and replace the retiring Troy Bayliss) and keeping Michel Fabrizio in the team.
Now that Ducati lost the 2009 title by only six points and not giving team orders to stop Fabrizio from taking away precious points, it looks like Ducati management is on a rampage and heads are starting to fall left and right.