Buzzin MotoGP

Ducati Marlboro Team

The Ducati Marlboro team’s project manager Livio Suppo, has announced that he will be leaving the team at the end of the 2009 season to pursue a new professional project.

Claudio Domenicali, the General Director of Ducati said;

“Livio has meant a great deal to Ducati and also to me personally; he has been a loyal and valuable colleague but above all a great friend. We are very sorry that he has decided to leave the company but, in light of his correctness, professionalism and the great contribution he has made to the growth and success of the MotoGP project and the Ducati brand, we can only offer him our very best wishes as he takes on a new professional challenge. This is, however, also one of those moments in which we can rethink our organization in order to further improve, and this is what we have done in defining the 2010 team’s direction. The management of the Ducati Marlboro Team will be entrusted to, and reinforced by, two new managerial figures. Alessandro Cicognani, currently marketing manager for the Ducati Corse Division, will be responsible for the MotoGP project and alongside him, Vittoriano Guareschi, already the test rider for Ducati, will undertake the role of Team Manager, bringing to the squad a wealth of knowledge and experience that he has gained through being a professional rider and, most recently, a test rider.”

Rumours have been rife over the months that the reason for Valentino Rossi not joining the team was due to the fact that he and Suppo did not see eye-to-eye as well as the team manager not agreeing to his signing.  On the other hand, Rossi and Vito Guareschi are good friends and with his move from test rider to team manager could there be a move for the Italian rider to the Ducati team at some point.