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Ducati World Superbike Project Leader Ernesto Marinelli was interviewed by WorldSBK.com after what was a season of contrasting fortunes for the Italian manufacturer. On one side, the scintillating performance put in by Welshman Chaz Davies gave Ducati not only their first victory of the Panigale era, but also a total of five race wins and the runner-up spot in the Championship. In the second half of the season, the former World Supersport Champion was on title form as he amassed four wins and eight podium finishes in the last ten races.

“I’m really happy how Chaz was able to further raise his level of performance aboard the Panigale R” Marinelli began. “He gave us our first race win of the Panigale era in Aragon, but later in the season he reached a level of confidence aboard the bike that allowed him not only to ride the bike to the limit at every corner, but also to do so within his own limits, too. Chaz is an incredible rider: I have never seen anyone brake as hard as he does. He has a very special talent and does an outstanding job week in, week out.”

On the other hand, Davide Giugliano’s 2015 campaign was far from what first expected after the promising speed shown by the Italian in winter testing. “It was a great shame,” he continued, “because his preparation during the winter was outstanding. He was doing very well so to suffer a serious back injury even before the start of the season was a real tragedy. Then he came back in great fashion at Imola with pole position after four months away from racing and that was incredible. Then the second back injury at Laguna resulted in an early end to his season. It was an extremely difficult year for him; normally for a rider one big injury is enough, but two in the same season is very hard to deal with.

“Having said that, we are confident of Davide’s talent and hopefully he’ll be back in great shape by the end of the year.”

With the whole team confirmed for next year, Ducati’s ambitions for the upcoming season of racing are as high as ever. “At the moment we’re really happy and pleased that we are continuing together next year”, Marinelli concluded. “I think we have a good team that is very well gelled. We are ready to go and hopefully we will start the new season as strong as we finished 2015.”