At the beginning of a crucial weekend for the Ducati Lenovo Team at the PETRONAS Grand Prix of Malaysia, Team Manager Davide Tardozzi took the time to sit down on the MotoGP™ Podcast – and it was a fascinating, honest discussion.
So much so, we’ve picked out some of his best quotes for you to enjoy, giving you a teaser if you haven’t yet managed to watch or listen to the episode. You can watch the full Podcast over on YouTube, or head over to your favoured streaming platform by using the links below:
- “Ducati has to apologise to Pecco in some way because it took a couple of races to bring the bike on the way that he deserved and that he likes. That took three, four, five races maybe.”
- “In the pre-season tests in Indonesia and here (Sepang), he was so p***** about the technical situation… but in the end, the key point is the very tight relationship Ducati has with Pecco.”
- “Honestly speaking, after a couple of minutes after the crash, we said the Championship is gone. After two hours, the words were ‘we have to try hard to bring back those points’ – and that’s what happened.”
- “We signed him before he won the Moto2 title. Our decision was on his Moto3 races, it was there where we understood he could be a top rider.”
- “There are eight Ducati bikes because the other manufacturers didn’t want to give bikes to other teams. It’s not Ducati that forced them to have the bike, the other manufacturers didn’t provide bikes.”
- “I think that what Enea did in Misano, I see that somebody said that Enea arrived second in Misano because of team orders. You finish second by 0.034s!? One metre more and he could have won? You see what Enea did in Aragon, is that team orders?”
- “It was absolutely Johann Zarco’s decision. It was his decision. It was his decision, not a Ducati decision. You can understand because we see things that are not true, we read things that are not true. We know the truth.”
- “We have always said to the riders, don’t do something too dangerous between Ducati riders. It’s obvious that if in the last race, one position gives us the Championship or not, we give the team orders. We are not stupid.”
- “Casey Stoner was very helpful to both Pecco and Jack in Portimao last year. He saw something that helps both to be faster than before and also some suggestions in Australia were very helpful.”
- “Jack is an incredibly, incredibly nice person. I love Jack. I love Australians because of their attitude. Jack is also a fantastic team player, I think at least twice this year he’s helped Pecco a lot with his words.”
- “I would like to use the words that Gigi has said a lot of times: ‘I came to Ducati and I thought it was a disaster. I found the right people and I’ve just organised the work’. Gigi was so clever to select and go forward with the right ideas, because the know how – I think that over 90% of the Ducati Corse people are the same as the disaster time.”