- Hi, it's me, I wanted to say I miss you, let's get back together, I've changed.

- So do I. He leaves, comes back to me.

A love story.

In un mondo motociclistico distratto da eventi ben più fashion e spumeggianti (il caso Tanal/VR46, il ritorno di Dovizioso, il licenziamento di Vinales e il suo ingaggio in Aprilia), è passato quasi sotto traccia il più grande “undo” del decennio. La mossa di ritorno di fiamma più clamorosa e forse inaspettata oltre che apparentemente illogica e inappropriata: quella fra Bautista e Ducati Aruba.

In fact, those who have long described interlocutory stages, steps, negotiations, market movements, competition, even managing to be officially denied, have spoken for nothing, since there have been none.

Because at a certain moment, two entities that had never quarreled, Ducati and Bautista, magically came back together as if two days had passed and not two years in which they both suffered from each other's absence.

Bautista and Ducati, although it seemed different at the time, never argued. There was just coldness.
Lacking the world championship, lacking dialogue because of others and maybe even money, they simply did not try very hard to come to an agreement.

HIM: On the side of Bautista, the bungler.
Bautista went for the money, it is true, but he was also confused by the explicit and winking invitation from Marc Marquez, who had illustrated the HRC SBK project in Spain as a winner.
It probably is, as it is clear that Honda has committed significant resources, but it is really the bike that is wrong. The CBR is a street bike lent to racing, made by Honda to fit everyone. A bike to sell and not a war machine that works in the hands of a few.

La Ducati, invece, è una moto da corsa con la targa. Ci si sposano i rider più raffinati che conoscono il V4. I domatori coraggiosi che usano anche il cervello.
Sentendosi desiderato umanamente e finanziariamente, Bautista ha ascoltato Marc Marquez e si è buttato alla cieca in qualcosa che sappiamo tutti non aver funzionato. E’ stato proprio l’impatto con il CBR a far capire ad Alvaro, che diversamente da Haslam cerca la vittoria prima della pensione e non la pensione al posto della vittoria, che bisognava fare il percorso contrario.
Per lui è stato tutto chiaro solo dopo, quando la rossa era lontana. Rinunciare ai soldi e alla sicurezza per chiudere la carriera da vincente, è stato irresistibile ed onorevole.

 

HER: Ducati, sophisticated and fickle.
We don't know if it is the best bike of the lot. It is certainly the most prototypical of the production bikes. Like all precision instruments, it gives what it gets and needs a MotoGP rider to ride it in Superbike.
Ducati. Capricious and to be deciphered, both the bike and its people, who with riders have often made choices incomprehensible to most.

“Ci ha contattato lui – dice Stefano Cecconi, Team Principal Ducati Aruba Superbike- e ci ha colpito il fatto che non era uno che dovevamo cercare di convincere a rimanere, ma uno che ci chiedeva di tornare. Ha rinunciato ad un ingaggio più comodo del nostro per altri due anni, in cambio di un annuale a meno soldi, proprio per tornare a vincere, con la nostra squadra e la nostra moto.”

In these terms, even dark moments are easier to forget.

"Analyzing it well," Cecconi continued, "the results of the second part of the season were due more to the calendar configuration, which was very favorable in the beginning with more MotoGP tracks and more hostile in the second part, with more old-style tracks, than to actual mistakes. The mistakes have been few. We miss someone like Bautista. It is true that he lost a world championship. But to lose a world championship almost won, you have to almost win it."

A declaration of love between two entities who knew what to expect from each other and were ultimately disappointed more in themselves than in their partners.

HIS AND HER FRIENDS.
Battistella, Bautista 's manager and Ducati management side, were actors in a tragicomic misunderstanding in 2019. The result, which ultimately displeased everyone, we know but the reasons are perhaps more situational than will-related and due more to friction with the top management than with the men on the track. With the same parties to confront each other harshly on the Dovizioso issue, it was the Spaniard who lost out. Kind of like two friends who are supposed to intercede to get two people back together, but instead are fighting with each other for other reasons.

THE OTHER: Scott Redding
That urge not to stay, trying to be persuaded by asking for more money, more guarantees, more everything, stomping your feet and trying to be begged to stay, doesn't work with Ducati even when you win.
And it doesn't help if you've made it easy on arrival without then getting what you promised. The recent surge is as surprising as it is late. It was long over.

 

EXTRA STORY: Rinaldi's corner and the Petrucci option.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi, has a small corner but is dry and sure.
Never in question, he is Bologna's investment. The renewal speaks volumes and the lack of results is not attributed to the Italian.
And those looking hard for Petrucci's movement story will be disappointed.
Realistically asked, he was never in the game, neither to replace Redding nor to go in Rinaldi's place.
The Italian was waiting for KTM , and KTM somehow arrived.
The relationship with Ducati never went beyond a preliminary chat. And it's always nice to spice up and enrich stories, but some times just some things don't exist.

FINAL: to be written
Now that all the pieces are in place, how will it go between Ducati and Bautista? It will be enough to wait, and it is not important to know now whether it will work.

It was good to tell the story.