Livio Suppo to leave Ducati Marlboro

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http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2009/Livio+suppo+leaves+ducati+marlboro

"The Ducati Marlboro Team have announced that the final round of the 2009 season in Valencia will be Livio Suppo's last race as Team Manager, with Alessandro Cicognani and test rider Vittoriano Guareschi combining to replace him."

and from http://www.motomatters.com/news/2009/11/04/livio_suppo_to_leave_ducati.html

"To a very large extent, Suppo IS Ducati's MotoGP program, as the Italian has run the program from the very start. With Suppo out of the way, Ducati's MotoGP team would be likely to undergo a radical shakeup.

The reasons for this change are unclear, but the rumor mill has been in overdrive since September that these are all the first steps in a courting dance aimed at tempting Valentino Rossi to join the Italian factory. The conspiracists say that Suppo and Rossi have no real affection for each other, and that Suppo has been arguing against signing Rossi, as he is believed to fear it would disrupt Ducati's MotoGP project too much."

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and more - Tardozzi is also leaving.

"Tardozzi, on the other hand, handed in his resignation without any alternative destination to go to. Tardozzi told GPOne.com that his reason for leaving was that he felt he had lost the drive he needed to keep him motivated at this level, at least with the Ducati team ... "

"Suppo, according to GPOne.com and the Corriere dello Sport, has been lured away by Honda to run their racing program ... There are also other perfectly rational explanations why Ducati and Livio Suppo should be parting company. Casey Stoner's three-race absence this summer was a PR disaster ... Phillip Morris made their dissatisfaction with the situation very public, their sponsorship boss Maurizio Arrivabene demanding an apology from Stoner. It is entirely conceivable that Suppo has been offered as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of the tobacco giant."