Former General Manager of Ducati Corse Filippo Preziosi has resigned from the company, ending his 19-year career with the Italian manufacturer. Preziosi led Ducati‘s racing program for the last decade including its lone MotoGP championship in 2007, but the 44-year-old engineer also carries a lot of the blame for Ducati’s recent struggles including the doomed Valentino Rossi era.

Preziosi held the position of GM of Ducati Corse until last November when he was replaced with former BMW Superbike manager Bernhard Gobmeier. At the time, Ducati announced Preziosi would assume a new role as director of research and development for Ducati, tasked with developing new products.

It appears that Preziosi never actually assumed that new position. Ducati says Preziosi was to take on his new role “after a period of rest”. The company now says Preziosi has resigned due to “health reasons related to his particular physical condition”. Preziosi is a parapalegic, losing the use of the lower half of his body after an accident in 2000. Continue Reading »

We expected more from Ducati at the 2012 Intermot show as the Italian manufacturer makes its first appearance at the Cologne show under its new German owners at Audi and the Volkswagen Group. Instead, Ducati chose to keep its juiciest reveals for its home market at EICMA in November while revealing a number of color updates to returning models at Intermot.

Ordinarily, we’d call this disappointing but one look at the 2013 Ducati 848 EVO Corse changed our minds. Yes, it’s just a color update to the red and white version unveiled last year, but the matte black and matte gray color of what Ducati calls its Test Team livery and red trellis frame really stands out. Look for more pictures of the Corse Edition and the base model after the jump. Continue Reading »