"Lorenzo gave an obvious scenario in which he would be willing to help Dovizioso. "I need to try to be in the front, and if Dovi's there, and if Marc has some problems, and I see on the board or on the dashboard, then I will try to help." Those conditions never materialized, and so Lorenzo did not feel obliged to help.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
The way the race played out PUT DUCATI INTO URGENT DAMAGE CONTROL MODE. In the final laps of the race, when both riders were back in the garage, Lorenzo went over to Dovizioso to explain why he had done what he had done. The footage on TV showed Dovizioso accepting those explanations passively, but the look on his face was not one of great enthusiasm.
After the race, as the media all filed into what is euphemistically known as "The Sponsor's Hospitality" to listen to what the riders had to say, IT WAS CLEAR THAT AN OFFICIAL MESSAGE HAD BEEN DECIDED ON, AND THE PROTAGONISTS WERE BEING BRIEFED. Journalists saw DUCATI BOSS PAOLO CIABATTI HANDING DOWN THE CORPORATE LINE TO TEAM BOSS DAVIDE TARDOZZI. BY THE TIME WE GOT TO SPEAK TO CIABATTI, THE MESSAGE HAD BEEN INSTILLED THROUGHOUT THE RANKS.
THE KEY TO DUCATI'S COMPANY LINE REVOLVED AROUND THE WORD "SUGGESTED" in the dashboard message sent to Lorenzo. [What a coincidence eh J4 wannabe Ducati insider...] "This is what we suggest to the rider based on what we can see from the pit box," Ciabatti explained. "And the rider knows because he can see the other riders, so in this case, I think if you also speak to Dovi, and he will tell you HE THOUGHT that at the beginning he was FASTER in a few corners and slower in other corners, but at a certain point, with his clean lines was helping Dovi to ride in a very relaxed way. So he said it helped me up to a point to catch Pedrosa, and then he said, unfortunately we were both at the limit, and Jorge said, yes, if he had seen that Márquez had a problem, then obviously once we catch the leading group, then I would let him pass. But we needed first to catch the leading group and try to be first and second, and then see what happens."
What you can't see
CIABATTI WARNED against judging the situation based on TV footage. [THIS IS KNOWN AS GASLIGHTING, what you clearly saw let us interpreted it for you naive gullible fools, don't believe your eye! ] "I think honestly, you can never really judge perfectly from what you see on TV, and if a rider knows that he has the pace to close the gap to the front, and other riders following him, and gaining an advantage from following some clean lines, I think it's fine. We're not upset. We would be upset if Marc crashed and Lorenzo wins, and Dovi is second. But this is not the case."
"AS I SAID," he continued, "SOMETIMES YOU JUDGE BY WHAT YOU SEE, but the rider is on the bike, he knows if he can push, if he has some margin, if is able to close the gap to the front and help his teammate. So I think there was never I think a situation where he was passing and the other one was closing, and so on. SO THE BEST ANSWER is what Dovi said, and he said it because he thinks it, that in the end he is not upset at all, just he was able to actually relax a little bit without having to push so much."
Despite this, Ducati had kept on trying to communicate with Lorenzo. "Yes, because in our opinion, in some areas he was slowing Dovi down," Ciabatti told us. "But then again, if it was like this, Dovi would come into the garage and be quite upset, but he's not. So I think we must really give credit to professional riders that they know what they are doing. And it's our suggestion because we think, OK, let him go. We think, let him pass. But then at a certain point, you saw also Dovi was losing a little bit and then gaining again."
