Ducati management

Standard Italian management, just like Ferrari. Plenty of emotions on decision making resulting in big mess, year over year. Italians are the best at it, they administer things purely with the heart. Dalligna seems to be the exception, an oasis of reason circumscribed in a sea of dramatic tears.

I don't think they should have a plan to stop MM. There is simply nothing to do, MM is a two or even three step ahead of any other rider. Once you managed to get anywhere near him, he sacks a new tricky from his hat and put 1/2 second per lap over you without you even noticing.

the thing about motorsports at this level is that the stuff you see today is based on decisions made 6-9 months ago. also, for many of the teams the fiscal years start and end in the summer, so many of the decisions are made before the end of the year.

over the last couple rounds Jack has been the clear #2 with Ducati, thats is results based and on how many times we saw Gigi in the Pramac garage over the last couple weeks. Jack should have been offered Petrucci's seat last year in my opinion, however he is still on the best available bike at least for now.

Hollywood said:

the thing about motorsports at this level is that the stuff you see today is based on decisions made 6-9 months ago. also, for many of the teams the fiscal years start and end in the summer, so many of the decisions are made before the end of the year.

over the last couple rounds Jack has been the clear #2 with Ducati, thats is results based and on how many times we saw Gigi in the Pramac garage over the last couple weeks. Jack should have been offered Petrucci's seat last year in my opinion, however he is still on the best available bike at least for now.

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He might even have a better bike just now than Petrucci who seems to be on the outer currently, although this could also be down to Petrucci and crew being unable to sort theirs. I do think they got fairly equal equipment early in the season when they were deciding who should get the factory team ride next year, but I had my doubts about what equipment Jack was getting for a time after Petrucci’s race win, which was very creditable of course, Petrucci being re-signed to the factory team and the brief talk of a Lorenzo return which would I think have been at Jack’s expense.

Fundamentally you are correct of course, if Jack had ridden with the maturity and smarts he has shown in the most recent races he would be on the factory team next year. He is in imo a better long term prospect for Ducati than Petrucci. I had my doubts he was ever going to get it together and cease being a crasher, but Cal Crutchlow has opined in the past that he was the second most talented rider on the grid, although that was prior to Quartararo’s advent. I think going straight from moto 3 to the premier class on that horrible Honda customer bike did him no favours.

The tires and setup are so heavily contributing to weekend results that it's difficult to put a reliable finger on what's happening with Petrucci. He did comment that he and his crew needed to go back to the setup philosophy they had in use earlier in the season since he seemed to be doing better with it.

Even then, I agree that Miller seems to be the rider with more potential. Like Lorenzo when he discovered how to make the Ducati go fast, he would scamper off into the lead at the beginning of races only to rapidly fade as the tyres gave out. Lorenzo then realised that the tyres required a different approach that Dovi had long ago adopted. Miller seems to have caught on.

Miller has definitely figured out the race craft of the ducati... as for Petrucci, he looks a bit out of shape to me, maybe he put on some weight over the break.