Davide Tardozzi

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Davide Tardozzi (born January 30, 1959 in Ravenna ) is a former Italian motorcycle racer and today's motorsport official.

Career

As a racing driver

After an unsuccessful attempt to gain a foothold in the 250 cc class of the motorcycle world championship in 1984 and 1985 , Davide Tardozzi concentrated on superbike races.

In the debut season of the Superbike World Championship in 1988 , Tardozzi competed for the Italian manufacturer Bimota , which used self-made motorcycles with Yamaha engines. On April 3, 1988, the Italian won the first Superbike World Championship run in Donington Park, UK . He achieved a total of five race wins this season, more than any other pilot, but only came third due to his inconsistent performance. In the overall standings he was only 7.5 points behind world champion Fred Merkel at the end of the season . In the Italian Superbike Championship, however, Tardozzi was able to win the title.

From 1990 to the end of his career at the end of the 1992 season , the Italian worked for the Bologna manufacturer Ducati as a test driver and competed in the World Championship on privately used machines, but was no longer at the top of the Superbike World Championship and was unable to achieve any further race wins . In the 750 cc Superbike European Championship , however, Tardozzi secured the title on Ducati in 1991.

As a team boss

After Tardozzi had withdrawn from active racing, he worked in 1995 as a team boss at Alfred Inzinger's Ducati promoter team , which started the Superbike World Championship with fully-fledged factory machines and was in direct competition with the official Virginio Ferrari factory team . In 1996 Davide Tardozzi won his first driver title as team boss with the Australian Troy Corser . After a forced break in 1997 , Tardozzi led the Ducati Performance Team in 1998 , again a factory-supported team in which Briton Carl Fogarty won his third title.

For the 1999 season, the Italian moved to the official Ducati factory team as team boss, which this year started with Troy Corser and Carl Fogarty. This task required a lot of tact from Tardozzi, as his drivers negotiated the victories among themselves on every race weekend and were rivals on the track, but still had to work together on tire or component tests and everyone should get a fair chance for the world title . Fogarty finally won the World Cup, with Corser finishing third, tied with US Honda driver Colin Edwards .

In 2000 , Tardozzi's Ducati team played no role in the awarding of the world title, as favorite Carl Fogarty had a hard crash on the second race weekend of the season in Phillip Island, Australia and subsequently had to end his career. He was succeeded by the Australian Troy Bayliss , who was sixth overall in his debut year. In the 2001 season , Bayliss won the title just ahead of Colin Edwards, and in 2002 the Australian was just as behind the American.

For the 2003 season , Tardozzi's Ducati works team started for the first time with the newly developed 999 F03 , which was vastly superior to the Japanese four-cylinder competition from the start. His drivers Neil Hodgson and Rubén Xaus won 21 of the 24 races held and made the title among themselves with the better end for the British Hodgson. In 2004 , the Ducati 999 with drivers James Toseland and Régis Laconi were similarly dominant and Toseland brought Davide Tardozzi his sixth driver title as team boss. After a difficult 2005 season , Troy Bayliss returned to the factory team in 2006 and won his second title there under Tardozzi's leadership.

When the head of the Ducati Superbike department, Paolo Ciabatti, moved to the promoter company of the Superbike World Championship FGSport in March 2007 , the Italian also took over his position as director of the entire Superbike racing department at Ducati Corse . In 2008 , Bayliss' third world championship was followed by Davide Tardozzi's eighth and so far last driver's title as team manager.

At the beginning of November 2009 Davide Tardozzi announced his departure from Ducati. He emphasized that the decision was made for personal reasons and had nothing to do with the loss of the driver's world championship title to the American Yamaha rider Ben Spies .

During Tardozzi’s tenure as head of the works team, Ducati has won eight drivers and nine constructors’s titles in the Superbike World Championship since 1999 .

On January 5, 2010, Tardozzi announced that he would be team manager of the BMW works team in the Superbike World Championship from the 2010 season .

successes

As a racing driver

As a team boss

References

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lennart Schmid: Ducati: Marinelli replaces Tardozzi. www.motorsport-total.com, November 9, 2009, accessed January 6, 2010 .
  2. ↑ Lennart Schmid: Ducati: Tardozzi justifies his resignation. In: www.motorsport-total.com. November 2009, accessed January 6, 2010 .
  3. ↑ David Pergler: Tardozzi becomes team manager at BMW. www.motorsport-total.com, January 5, 2010, accessed on January 6, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Lennart Schmid: Tardozzi: Aprilia as a model for BMW. www.motorsport-total.com, January 6, 2010, accessed on January 6, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Tardozzi, Davide
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian motorcycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Ravenna , Italy