The key Ducati MotoGP figure stepping aside when it may need him most
Ducati recently announced a major shake-up of its sporting leadership. With immediate effect, Paolo Ciabatti is stepping down as sporting director of Reparto Corse, the racing arm of the brand, to lead the new off-road structure from the position of general manager. His vacancy will be filled by Mauro Grassilli, who until now was in charge of marketing and sponsorship. The element that best explains the nature of this move appears in the statement sent to the media but is somewhat camouflaged. In his new position, Ciabatti will no longer report to Dall'Igna, global general manager of the Borgo Panigale company, but directly to Claudio Domenicali, its CEO. In other words, this change only further strengthens Dall'Igna's position, whose area of influence goes far beyond the purely technical facet. Apart from the first three years since his arrival in 2014, in which Domenicali wanted to closely follow his signing, the engineer has been gaining ...