Ducati’s swoop for Jorge Lorenzo has been a long time coming and part of a grand plan that began back in 2013, according to Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti, and it wasn’t as hard to persuade MotoGP World Champion to jump ship as anyone might think.
The aim is to win the world title and Ciabatti believes this is now achievable with the Spaniard on the payroll but it may have been necessitated by the fact that star test rider Casey Stoner doesn’t want to race again full time.
“We are really satisfied to have reached this agreement. It was not difficult to convince Jorge because since the beginning there was from both side the desire to find an agreement. In addition, Ducati proved to be very competitive already last year and especially at Sepang in the winter test,” Ciabatti told Bikesport News.
“Of course the motivations that pushed Lorenzo to join us are several, starting from the thrill of a complete new challenge with a company that succeeded to come out from a very difficult situation under the guidance of Gigi Dall’Igna.
“This was the first step of a bigger plan that Ducati shared with the Audi Group. The technical and financial support of the Audi Group has been crucial to develop this project. It all started in 2013. The first move was to convince Gigi Dall’Igna to join Ducati, the second was to build a complete new bike and finally to hire a world champion. Looking at the past six years, the riders who have won a world title in MotoGP are Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Casey Stoner. Considered that Stoner is already with us but doesn’t want to come back racing full time, the options were only two.”
For more on this story, download our free app from your app store