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.
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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 more and more weight in sporting decisions. Now everything goes through him.
Ciabatti’s departure is particularly noteworthy because of the timing. Marc Marquez’s arrival at Gresini places him as one of the pieces on the board that is managed by the Bologna-based team, which, until now, had controlled its troops in an outstanding way. One of the fundamental pillars of this management success has always been Ciabatti, distinguished by his empathy and his ability to persuade people through dialogue.
Until now, one of his main contributions was to negotiate the Ducati riders’ contracts, usually a thankless task, but one that he always solved with hardly any conflict. If we take a look at Grassilli’s curriculum and his scarce experience in races – he only attended four or five grands prix a year – it is difficult to imagine him negotiating with Francesco Bagnaia or Jorge Martin, to name two of the riders he’ll have to negotiate with in the coming months.
“Paolo has always been very easy to work with. He is very solvent and polite, empathetic and also affectionate. He never lost his temper,” says Jorge Lorenzo, with whom Ciabatti struck up a close relationship following the Spaniard’s arrival at Ducati in 2017. “Starting this off-road project, I understand that Ducati needs someone who knows the brand and the level to lead it. With the departure of Paolo, the MotoGP division loses a lot, but the motocross division gains a…
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