Tardozzi has been working for Ducati since 1999, first as Team Manager and more recently, since 2007, as the SBK project manager. In total Tardozzi has won eight Riders' Championships as a Ducati team manager.
Having almost won the first ever WSB Championship for Bimota, Tardozzi was a seven times Italian Superbike Champion as a rider, and four times a winner in WSB races.
It appears that Tardozzi will be replaced by Ernesto Marinelli, the team’s current technical director and the track engineer for Troy Bayliss.
"Davide has been part of Ducati's recent history", commented Claudio Domenicali, General Director of Ducati, "a friend and, at the same time, an important presence that has allowed Ducati to achieve significant successes, particularly in the World Superbike Championship where, in recent years, he has project managed with passion, competence and professionalism. We are sorry to announce that Davide will not be part of the 2010 team but, at the same time, we wish him our very best wishes for the new challenges that await him, and thank him for the many years of service during which we have won and lost together.”
“It was certainly a painful decision because you can’t leave a company that you’ve worked splendidly with for almost twenty years without feeling any regrets,” Tardozzi was quoted as saying by Gpone. “I wanted to be completely honest with the Company that put a lot of faith in me. I was loosing the necessary stimulus to do this job, so I thought it was appropriate to tell Ducati in time so they could have enough time to find a replacement before the new season.”
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