This year, Paolo Ciabatti embraces a new challenge by becoming the general manager of Ducati Corse Off-Road: the manufacturer’s new division dedicated to motocross. But can off-road expand in the future and enter rally-raid and the Dakar?
This was one of the questions that the Italian answered in an interview with AS newspaper, in which he began by recalling the achievements in MotoGP in 2023: ‘Last year was incredible in MotoGP with 17 wins, 17 pole positions, all of this with six different riders’.
‘You reach a point in your life where you need something new to do with more enthusiasm. At 66 years old, although MotoGP has given me a lot, especially because winning two World Championships was a great success in my career, I like to put my experience into a completely new project in which Ducati will start in a world that did not exist in our history and where we also hope to achieve the successes we have had in MotoGP’, he emphasized.
Ducati will take advantage of the internal competitions in Italy to start this project in the world of motocross, gradually making its presence felt in the MXGP World Championship and AMA Supercross. And a possible entry into the Dakar?
‘We do not have a plan at the moment to enter the Dakar, but when you have a 450cc bike… the most likely thing is that there is that possibility to consider. But it is a plan that does not exist at the moment. The Dakar is an interesting event to consider and in recent days I met with David Castera for him to tell me how everything works so that I can have some experience’, he concluded regarding the meeting he had with the director of the legendary race.
