Sete Gibernau to Ducati?

All rumours innit!

I am surprised that Ducati would want to keep Melandri for that long.

Especially if Melandris heart isn't in it.

I thought a quick goodbye would be in everyones interest.

I think Melandris move to Kwak smacks of get what ya can while ya can.

Grab a granny stuff! Don't expect miracles but it better than the dole queue.

Not to bovvered with Elias disappearing. He has had his 15 minutes and not used it well. Although his race win was summat special.

Kawasaki arnt doing that bad in my book. I mean they are in a similar state to Suzuki. They do need to develope the bike more but having 3 people racing can only help... right?

I really do hope that Sete does get the ride. I really think it would be great to see him back in it, and if he can get .5seconds off of stoners pace he will be a top 6 finisher EASY!

Kawasakis racing efforts in all road racing disciplines has been crap. They've had nothing since 2001 when Andrew Pitt won the WSS title.

Given Melandri's performance on the Duke it would appear he is a rider who cannot adapt his style to different machinery or cannot develop a machine/give appropriate feedback. I don't know that the move to Kawasaki will be beneficial in the long run but if they do run 3 bikes for the rest of the season one can only hope it improves their R&D to improve a bike that is the better part of a season behind the rest of the field in development.

Dunno about Kwak running three bikes.

The are spending the budget in short order!

Depends if they have the dough and resources to cover 3 bikes.

Plus Melandri's big wage!

I like Melandri really but to be honest I tend to agree with you guys in that he can ride well when a bike really suits him but he cannot ride 100% a bike which he don't like and the pity is that he doesn't seem to know how to improve the bike to suit him. The advantage of Rossi and Stoner seems to be that they can adapt to any bike and in short time, even in a single race manage to understand it's limits and benefits and use them to their advantage. Edwards on the other hand is a great bike developer and I'm sure that Rossi still benefits from his input. When he was with Honda on the SP-1 which he won WSB on he pin-pointed out several frame design poblems which together with his engineers fixed to bring out the better handling SP-2. He is a consistant rider who is always there, maybe not a fighter but a very intelligent rider. Hope he stays with Yamaha, especially now that he seems to be climbing up the ladder. I know you guys don't see him as a winner, but I say this again, he'll win a race yet, even with such stiff competion he's got this year.

I think Edwards has a win in him! He has been close a few times. Donnington Assan. Assan especially. That at the end was just daft from both of the Yanks. Sigh.

According to MCN (I know we cant trust it and all) he is lined up to replace melandri should he leave after the break. Only 0.4s off of stoners mugello time! Great stuff considering!

From what ive read this week it is looking more and more likely to happen

No real surprise, but his contract will end at least 1 year early. BBC interviewed Livio Suppo today and he confirmed this is correct but wouldn't answer when asked at what point the ride would be terminated.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...es/7503841.stm

The hot update on Sete reads as follows,(all confirmed by Gilete Nieto the son of Angel and former 125 racer himself.)

A project is being put together,(which is well advanced.) to get a 5th Ducati GP9 on the grid next year. The team will be headed up by Angel/Gilete Nieto and will have a major Spanish sponsor,(Repsol?Or a bank I suggest.

They have ready to join them 3 "of Ducati's top men") No doubt a relationship was forged by Sete when he raced for the factory team and when testing the bike a little while ago.


Ready to rejoin Sete is his former chief mechanic Martinez who is preently with Kawasaki.


Watch for confirmation within the next 10 days.