Italian pride on show
The President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, this week received Francesco Bagnaia together with the Ducati Corse team and a Ducati delegation.
The meeting was also attended by the Ducati CEO, Claudio Domenicali, the Ducati Corse General Manager, Luigi Dall’Igna, the Ducati Corse Sporting Director, Paolo Ciabatti, the President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò, the FIM President, Giovanni Copioli, the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi and the President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini.
The invitation from the President of the Republic, which arrived on the day of the victory, is a source of great pride for Ducati as well as confirmation of how historic the goal achieved is both for the Company and for Italy as a whole.
Francesco Bagnaia
“I would like to thank the President of the Republic for welcoming us to the Quirinale, for us it is a real honour. This year we managed to achieve an extraordinary result, of which we are very proud: we won the MotoGP World Championship, an Italian rider on an Italian motorcycle, 50 years after Giacomo Agostini’s last victory in the world championship on an MV Agusta.
“This result is the fruit of many years of hard work, both by me and by the whole team. Together we have managed to improve our bike to make it the benchmark in the championship, and we must be proud of this. After crossing the finish line in Valencia two weeks ago, I completed the last few meters proudly carrying our flag, aware of having demonstrated to the whole world that the talent and ingenuity of us Italians are second to none“.
The Riders’ Title won by Bagnaia adds to the Manufacturers’ Title and the Teams’ Title for the Ducati Lenovo Team already won by Ducati during the championship, sanctioning a trio of world championship successes that saw Ducati dominate the category.
Claudio Domenicali – Ducati CEO
“It is a real honour today to be received at the Quirinale by the President of the Republic, whom I would like to thank sincerely for the invitation. Ducati is a global company with firm roots in our country, precisely in the Motor Valley of Emilia-Romagna, where our bikes are conceived, designed and developed.
“As proof of the level achieved by national academic institutions and the technological expertise of our country, the majority of Ducati engineers come from Italian universities. We are proud ambassadors of Made in Italy and we honour this responsibility every day by affixing a small tricolour to every Ducati motorcycle sold worldwide.
“Being here today makes us realise how much this success belongs not only to Ducati but to all of Italy. Together with Francesco Bagnaia we have achieved much more than a victory, we have written a page of motorsport history and demonstrated how Italian skills and technology are a world excellence. Thanks to the FMI and CONI for organizing this truly exciting day“.
This invitation to the Quirinale comes in a special year for Ducati which is recording exceptional results also from the point of view of corporate performance and which also added the Superbike World Championship Riders’ Title last weekend to its triumphs in MotoGP.
Giovanni Copioli – FMI President
“I thank the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, for the sensitivity and great attention that he has never failed to pay to the sporting world and motorcycling. Less than a year after the visit to the Quirinale to celebrate the careers of Valentino Rossi and Antonio Cairoli, we have once again been received by the highest office of the state to honour the title of MotoGP World Champion won by Francesco Bagnaia and Ducati, to whom I express all my compliments especially in the persons of Claudio Domenicali, Luigi Dall’Igna, Paolo Ciabatti and Davide Tardozzi.
“50 years after Giacomo Agostini’s success on his MV Agusta, an Italian rider has once again won the World Championship on an Italian bike. An extraordinary result, the culmination of teamwork and the enormous talent of the sportsman. But talent alone is not enough: Pecco has demonstrated professionalism, intelligence and a spirit of sacrifice, determination, patience but above all courage. His story is a model for all the kids who intend to approach our sport and, in this context, I can only express great satisfaction, because the goal of a Sports Federation is precisely to bring its young sportsmen to express their skills to their best level.”
