Ducati News Today

2010 marks the first year since Ducati went MotoGP racing that an Italian rider doesn’t feature on the team. Ducati CEO Gabriele del Torchio is well aware of this, telling the Italian press at the Ducati team introduction today that it makes sense for Ducati to have an Italian rider on an Italian team. And what of the most famous and fastest Italian of them all?

del Torchio continued the rhetoric of recent months remarking “Why not?” in response to questioning about a possible Valentino Rossi move to the Ducati factory in 2011. Ducati current riders, Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner, both have contracts that expire this year and Rossi’s Yamaha contract expires at the same time.

Ducati News Today believes that Rossi will be Ducati bound in 2011 in order for him to overhaul Giacomo Agostini as the greatest of all time by number of GP victories on an Italian machine. This achievement would likely take at least 2 more seasons after 2010. Rossi commented in India recently that he still has time on two wheels.

Whether Rossi will actually move will in part depend on:

• The relative performance of the Ducati and the Yamaha
• What happens with his rising star team-mate Jorge Lorenzo
• Whether newly hired HRC man Livio Suppo will entice his former charge, Stoner, to HRC. This becomes more likely if Dani Pedrosa doesn’t come good on the Honda this year.

We live in interesting times where the silly season for 2011 is alive and well before the 2010 racing even begins!

Source: Superbike Planet

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