WSBK » Ducati Xerox confirms Haga, Fabrizio

what i want to know is who will get fabrizios place in 2010 when next season he fails to get any closer to the front runners ?

Re Shakey in 2009 - he will need to improve his starts. His starts in BSB this year have been poor. Bayliss on virtually the same bike has produced some rocket starts.

I agree with the other posters that 2009 should be Nori's year - Only the Honda and Ducati will be unchanged in 2009. I expect Kiyonari to be too inconsistent to mount a serious challenge - maybe 2010? All the other top riders, except Checa, are developing new bikes (Suzuki, Yamaha, BMW and Aprilia) so it has to be Nori's best chance. He will get used to the bike over the winter and provided he's fit and doesn't eat all the pies he should start strongly.

Depends if Nori can live without his old mate Toshi, because I think he works for Yamaha, unless he's going with him, he lost his way before.

Said it before and I'll say it again it's a mistake for him to go to Ducati. He's fast but inconsistent and this will be amplified on the Duc. However the superior Ducati electronics will probably help save one or two of his crashes but the IL 4's and V4's will beat the oversized twin. It already appears that the Yamaha has caught the Ducati twin in power and agility and this should be increased with the big bang motor. Not sure if the new guys on the Yam's next year will do it though. Hope the start up factory teams do well right off the bat.

When I first heard this speculation during Donington weekend, I can't believ why Nori wants to leave Yamaha? The R1 is the best superbike, if he hadn't had the bad first two events, and less crashes, he would have destroyed Bayliss into ruins. And if he starts crashin again, that will be a real big blow for him. Last chance for the title, youngees are coming. Considering the big-bang and Ben Spies (don't forget he qualified 8th at Donington at his first appearance and in treacherous rain...) and Tom Sykes, that would be at least interesting. Suzuki is interesting. They are fast when their bike is new - 2005 & 2007. Honda is strange - Rea is coming, Kiyo will have full track knowledge...

I think that the Ducati is a stunning bike, it has monstorous power and is as competetitive as anything. Where the V twins have always scored is the way that they drive out of corners. Also this year the Ducati,on average, has managed it's tyres better than the R1, that's why on numerous occasions TB has in the last 5 laps just pissed off and left our Dogs Borrocks hero for dead. So you can have all the big bang engines in the world, but unless they can manage the control tyre they will not win. The xerox team obviously want a committed rider who will race, brake late and deep, and give it the berries early, no mistake they have that in Nori, and they know he will be on the pace from race 1

I don't understand why so many of you are against Nori going to Ducati. Ducati are the Flammini's darlings - look at how one sided the rules are. In the Fogarty years the 916/996/998 family ruled the roost with an engine capacity advantage, then the IL4s were restricted when 1 litre 4s were allowed to enter. Now the 1098 is allowed an extra 200cc.

And that extra 200cc helps the bike fire out of bends while being relatively kind on the rear tyre. The only thing wrong with the 1098 is that it's not the quickest flat out, but how many tracks are there where that gets to happen. Didn't seem to hamper Bayliss too much did it? Next year Ducati will sort that out and the bike will be mental!

Toshi, works for Nori and not Yamaha. He will stay with him next year.

Shane Byrne will surprise a few people next year for sure. He is contracted directly to Ducati, so if Fabrizio underperforms (again) I would say Shakey is in the best position possible to slide in alongside Haga. Not only that, he'll be on an F09 himself anyway, with plenty of support from Ducati (his employers). He's not going there to make up the numbers by any means. He could have taken the easier and equally lucrative option of staying in BSB with GSE. He chose to 'go to the show' with Sterilgarda and will be pushing like a 'bar-steward' from the word go, believe me...

From what i gather (and i will try and confirm this for you over the next few days) Toshi is a Yamaha employee. I've been posting on Toshi's site for a while and he has always answered but over the last two months there has been no reply and believe me when i say it is not due to me being disrespectful in any way. I've met Toshi a number of times and have his email address
Will do my best to clarify for everyone if i get the info