Designing a Champion

For those who follow MotoGP, the only other story on the news outside of the Clash of the Fiat Yamaha Titans is who will be riding for Ducati in 2010. Fortunately, Ducati just announced they will be keeping Nicky Hayden on the Marlboro team alongside Casey Stoner next year. That’s great news for the American rider, us American fans, and a brand that desperately needs to increase their reach with other riders.

Let’s take a look at Ducati’s strategy here and compare that with how Ducati has handled other world title chases.

When evaluating Ducati’s MotoGP program, you need to start with Casey Stoner. The 2007 World Champ from Australia has been the most successful rider in many years on the Desmosedici GP chassis. He destroyed the field in 2007 and showed up as a very consistent contender to The Doctor himself in 2008 and the beginning of 2009. Just recently, he has missed a few races due to a fever, possible gastritis, and viral infections. This has left a big gap in the standings until you see the first Ducati to cross the finish line.

Casey Stoner is an amazing rider who is not only unbelievably consistent, but he bounces back like a true champion and tries to fight through all adversity. He has been the only rider to tame the wildly rigid Ducati and doesn’t seem to be losing any pace. So, if you are Ducati, you don’t want to get rid of Casey Stoner in the near future no matter what happens.

But, but, but…. Since Stoner has been the only man agile enough to tame the Desmo GP, Ducati has put enormous effort into developing the bike to his riding style and to his needs. As a matter of fact, reports have it that the development has been so focused on Stoner that the bike has become too rigid for other riders. Casey likes to buck the bike back and forth, pull it hard out of corners, and feel it slide underneath him. Not all riders are comfortable with that kind of setting. You don’t see Lorenzo or Rossi riding their bikes that way. It doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just particular to Stoner.

Since the Stonerization of the Ducati starting in 2007, they have lined up several riders to saddle up the red monster and try to put more Desmos on the box behind Stoner. This line up included Loris Capirossi, Marco Melandri, Nicky Hayden, Sete Gibernau, Niccolo Canepa, and Mika Kallio just to name a few. The only rider who has seen anything close to consistency is Nicky Hayden this year in 2009. He has worked his fingers to the bone trying to get that Ducati to synch up. And, in the second half of the season, they have shown progress. All of the other riders have either faced miserable seasons, lost their rides, given up, or waded in the pools of mediocre finishes race after race. Through all of this, Casey Stoner is the only Ducati placing in the top three.

The stats do a fine job of validating the rumors that the Desmosedici is too hard to ride and just too customized for Casey Stoner. So, if you are Ducati, what do you do?

Well, I think they have done 2 things right. They need to keep Stoner for next year because of his iron clad consistency. The second thing is that they kept Nicky Hayden for 2010 as he has been the only other rider in the paddock to make progress on the red machine.

Going forward?

They need to move the focus of the development off of Stoner and gear it towards a couple of other riders until they can get a bike that’s overall easier to compete with. If Stoner cannot stay on the bike after that, they should consider letting him go in the future. You can’t sacrifice the success of four other bikes on the track just to have one occasionally appear in the winner’s circle. It’s just too costly. They need to get back to what Ducati is good at – making a championship level bike that can win races in the hands of a rider who is comfortable on the bike. Bring the rider to the machine, not the machine to the rider (at least not to this extent).

In World Superbike, they have done of a superior job of developing a Superbike that Troy Bayliss can win titles on, Noriyuki Haga can lead championships on, Michel Fabrizio can contend championships on, Max Biaggi can contend championships on (for Sterilgarda last year), and that Shane Byrne has seen his best season on yet. That’s a scalable and profitable bike development program and very exciting to watch.

I’m confident that Ducati will bounce back and make the right decision, especially since the absence of Stoner has shown them how dry the well really is. I love Ducati bikes, am a huge Troy Bayliss fan, am also a Noriyuki Haga fan, and look forward to seeing them win many more championships in years to come.