Sete Gibernau deal not under threat insist Ducati

Ducati has denied Sete Gibernau’s persistent demands to be reunited with former crew chief Juan Martinez threaten to scupper his plans to return to the MotoGP world championship.

Gibernau wants Martinez, who worked with the Spanish rider when he won his nine premier class races, to be part of the new Onde 2000 squad spearheaded by Spanish legend Angel Nieto.

Ducati though has vetoed the request and wants its own factory personnel to run Gibernau.

Factory team boss Livio Suppo confirmed Onde 2000 bosses had been informed of their intention not to bow to Suppo said: “We have nothing against Juan and we believe he is a very good technician. We just believe that to give a satellite team factory support, we need the bike to be run by our engineers.

“We suggested to our teams that if they want to run a factory bike, Ducati guys, especially in terms of all the electronics, must manage it. This is nothing against Juan at all; it is simply that this is how we want to approach it. I don’t believe this will cause any problems with the deal.”