Davide Tardozzi rejects rumours about leaving Ducati

Ducati MotoGP team manager Davide Tardozzi has denied rumours that he could leave the team in the coming years. He said the stories are false and that his relationship with Ducati’s top management is very strong.

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Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi has strongly denied rumours that he is planning to leave MotoGP. He said the stories are not true and described them as absurd and without any base.

Over the past few days, some reports in Italy suggested that Ducati could face big changes in the future. One rumour claimed that Tardozzi might step down from his role after the 2026 MotoGP season. Another report said he had a disagreement with Ducati’s general manager, Gigi Dall’Igna, about how the team handled Francesco Bagnaia’s difficult moments during the season.

However, Tardozzi made it clear that none of this is true. Speaking after attending Ducati’s Campioni in Pista event at the company’s headquarters in Bologna, the 66-year-old said there have been no talks at all about him leaving the team.

“There have been absurd and unfounded rumours,” Tardozzi explained in an interview for GPOne.com. “We even asked ourselves why these stories appeared, because there was absolutely no reason.”

He also said that the rumours did not upset him.

“Not at all,” he said. “I know very well my relationship with Gigi Dall’Igna, Mauro Grassilli and Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali. We laughed about these stories because there is nothing behind them.”

Tardozzi added that when people talk about internal rumours, it does not make sense.

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Příspěvek sdílený Ducati Corse (@ducaticorse)

Ducati also joked about the situation on social media. The team posted a photo of Tardozzi and Dall’Igna together before the Bologna event, with a playful caption suggesting a divorce. This showed that Ducati itself did not take the rumours seriously.

Tardozzi said the photo was just a bit of fun.

“There is no reason for this story, but it’s nice to get people talking,” he said. “My relationship with Ducati is absolutely solid.”

Davide Tardozzi has been the manager of Ducati’s factory MotoGP team since 2014. Under his leadership, Ducati has enjoyed huge success, including multiple MotoGP world titles in recent years. Before MotoGP, he was also very successful with Ducati in World Superbike.

For now, Tardozzi has made it very clear that he has no plans to leave Ducati.

Eliška Ryšánková

Eliška is a journalism student at Palacký University. She specializes in sports journalism, focusing on the worlds of MotoGP and Formula 1. Her goal is to make motorsport content relatable, engaging, and easy to follow.