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MotoGP, Pernat: "A tug-of-war between Rossi and Petronas over Valentino's team"

VIDEO - "Dovizioso will have to lower his head with Ducati and accept another cut in his retainer fee. Iannone is a title-winning rider and his love for the Rossa is not over"

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While the riders have slowly started to get back on the bike for training, their managers are already working at full throttle. The rider market is in currently in an incandescent phase, with some prominent names involved in the negotiations. It’s all grist for the (rumour) mill for Carlo Pernat, who we were in touch with yesterday for our usual Live session (which you can see in full above).

Of course Rossi's future is one of the most interesting topics…

"The problem in the negotiations between Valentino and Petronas is neither the money nor the bike, but how many team personnel Rossi will be able to bring with him,” explained Pernat. “It seems to me that Petronas is giving him the opportunity to only bring two, which would be the chief engineer David Munoz and the telemetry expert Matteo Flamigni, but Valentino would like more. It's a problem relatively speaking, because Quartararo will also want to bring his team with him, so in the end Petronas is only making a show of force."

The negotiations between Rossi and Dovizioso are much more complicated…

“Dovizioso is in a Kafkaesque situation - declared the manager from Genoa - Ducati has taken Miller for the factory team, so one bike has been sorted. I think the goal is to have him work alongside Andrea, but the problem is purely one of budget. All the manufacturers have financial problems and the offer for Dovizioso is half the retainer fee of what he had before. Already once before Andrea had to accept a significant cut in his salary, when Lorenzo arrived, and that little niggle has remained in his head, he might take a dim view of another reduction in his retainer and it will not be an easy situation. I think in the end it will be Dovi who will have to bow his head."

What would Pernat do in the role of Ducati top management?

"If I were in Ducati, I would give him the money,” he said. “We mustn’t forget that Dovizioso, if his balls get busted – as they say in Romagna – might also decide to quit".

In that case, Borgo Panigale would have some big fish to fry. However, Carlo sees a solution on the horizon.

"The love between Ducati and Iannone has never ended - he underlined - A return is a possibility that exists, but first we will have to wait for the CAS ruling, which should come by the beginning of July. It is also true that Aprilia has defended Andrea to the hilt and that is a loyal person, so he might decide to stay, but it is just as true that with Ducati he would have a winning bike. "

So one could say this was one of those ‘Sometimes they come back’ scenarios...

"Ducati knows Iannone well, both for better and for worse and he could be the number one choice for Dall'Igna if they lose Dovizioso - continued Pernat - Andrea might have made the wrong decisions but he has never lost his talent, in my opinion with the right bike he could fight for the world championship title”.

The problem with Danilo Petrucci still remains to be sorted out...

“Petrucci could take the place of Iannone in Aprilia, or even go to SBK with a good contract and the chance to win the title. It would also be a choice of an economic nature for him," said Pernat.

On the other hand, it becomes difficult to heading into the unknown with a Moto2 rider, as Ducati itself did with Bagnaia two years ago…

"Two years ago the economic situation was different, if you were wrong about rider you could say ‘ah well, never mind’. If it happened today, with resources that have been cut by half, things would be very different. From what I understand, it will be difficult to get a Moto2 to move into MotoGP right now" explained Pernat.

 

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