Do you know them all? More than half are Italian. They are well-known characters, but let’s find out what role they play in Ducati, Aprilia, Ktm, Honda and Yamaha
February 2, 2023
They are all notable faces, surnames heard hundreds of times. Hate, the Japanese a little less, harder-to-pronounce names and far less media exposure. We took a short trip to the five official teams to review, for us and for you too, who are the reference figures for Ducati, Ktm, Aprilia, Honda and Yamaha.
We spotted in total 18 key figures. In three teams we have identified four key figures (Ducati, Honda and Yamaha) while in Aprilia and Ktm three. There are those who stand closer to the pilots such as Tardozzi, Guidotti, Puig, Jarvis and Meregalli.
Instead, there are those who take care of it motorcycle development first, i.e. Dall’Igna. Similar but different figures like Domenicali, Bierer and Rivola o hybrids like Ciabatti. Then there are the Japanese, a bit unfathomable, though Kawauchijust arrived at Honda from Suzuki, is recommended by Livius Suppo.
Kawauchi will have the task of linking the parent company with the MotoGP team and guiding development: “Ken was Suzuki’s technical director – said Suppo – and this means that all the team’s technicians had to send him their reports after each test and after every race. As technical director he will help everyone at Honda to go in the same direction, which is very important. I say the same direction and not the right direction because there is a big difference, and only if everyone works in the same direction will you be able to understand if it is the right direction”.
Curiosity: of these 18 figures are 10 Italian ones, 5 Japanese, one English, one Spanish and one German. Each team has Italians, except Honda.
Below are all the teams and their reference characters.
