MotoGP: FIM Court of Appeal Case Against Ducati – Delayed

On Friday the 22nd of March at 11:00 CET (10:00 GMT) the FIM MotoGP Court of Appeal began in Switzerland. With a panel of three lawyers ready to make a decision on the protest that the four manufacturers of Honda, Suzuki, KTM and Aprilia made against Ducati and the spoiler that the three GP19 bikes of Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller ran at the season opener in Qatar. They suggested it was being used for aerodynamic purposes, Ducati denied this stating it was used as a cooling devise.

After MotoGP Technical Director Danny Aldridge rejected the protests (twice) on Sunday night in Qatar, the issues was put forward to the FIM MotoGP Court of Appeal.

After a long day the court session ended at 6pm (5pm UK time) without a verdict. The court is believed to make a decision on the matter early next week, with the earliest decision either coming on Monday or Tuesday. The delay on the decision seamingly coming from the amount of data which was presented during the hearing and the in depth nature of the issue, it will take a few days to examine all of the information presented.

According to sources (GPOne.com) all the top management from each manufacturer was present at the hearing with Gigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Course General Manger) representing Ducati, new Aprilia boss – over from Formula 1 – Massimo Rivola, Alberto Puig from Repsol Honda and Davide Brivio of Ecstar Suzuki.

Reports coming from the hearing reportedly say that Gigi Dall’Igna was furious that he had to present data about the Ducati, him telling Gazzetta dello Sport “If it was up to me, I would never have revealed what this element was for”. It wasn’t just a displeasure at showing the data but he was also unhappy with his second factory Ducati rider “I was furious with [Danilo] Petrucci” for telling the media that the spoiler was used for cooling.

There are many outcomes that could come from what the court decides. If they side in favour of the four manufacturers appealing the Ducati’s spoiler, they could take a number of actions. Firstly, they could ban the device and disqualify all three riders and Ducati from the Qatar results, making Marc Marquez the winner. Alternatively, they could leave the riders including Dovizioso in the results, meaning that Andrea Dovizioso keeps his win at Qatar and his points but they could exclude all the points Ducati picked up in the season opener. The least drastic action would be, leave the results as they are and ban the device from Argentina onwards. If the court decides against Ducati, then they may take the matter further to the Court of Arbitration.

If the court sides with Ducati then the matter could lie and the manufacturers move on and try and develop their own devise – like in 2016 with the winglets. The most likely outcome would be that they would bring the matter up to the MSMA (Motorcylce Sports Manufacturers Association) or they to could take the case to CAS.

Whatever the outcome may be, this could be the start of a more pressing issue within MotoGP with the teams fighting amongst each other and trying to get a technical advantage over the others. It is something that Formula 1 is used to, and this appeal comes after former Ferrari Sporting Director Massimo Rivola made the switch to MotoGP becoming CEO of Aprilia. F1 has seen a number of similar cases, with parts being banned by the governing authority and this could set a precedent for the future of MotoGP.