Sete Gibernau

The news that Sete Gibernau would be making a return to MotoGP aboard a Ducati run by the Onde 2000 team has been so long in coming that it barely figures as news at all. Gibernau's return had been mooted as early as June, after the Spaniard started testing the Ducati at Mugello. That news triggered a wave of speculation that Gibernau could make an early return to the series, with rumors that Marco Melandri was being retained on a race-by-race basis.

That switch never materialized. Many explanations were posited: Ducati were afraid that if they let Melandri go, he'd do better on a Kawasaki than he did on the Ducati, possibly even beating Gibernau; Gibernau's times, though good, were not good enough to take the risk; or that the Spaniard had simply made too many demands in terms of salary, and a guarantee of a contract for the factory ride in 2009. The official announcement that Nicky Hayden would be joining Casey Stoner at Ducati for 2009 finally killed any remaining speculation about Gibernau's return to the factory Marlboro Ducati squad.

But by then, most of the details of Gibernau's new project had been finalized. And on Thursday night, the Onde 2000 team, currently active in the 125 class, presented their MotoGP program for 2009. To the surprise of nobody, Sete Gibernau was introduced as the rider, while Pablo Nieto, the 26 year-old 125 racer who announced his retirement from racing at the end of the season at Sepang, will take on a management role alongside his brother, Gelete.

The team was expected to be sponsored by Onde 2000, a Spanish construction company owned by Fernando "Paco El Pocero" Hernandez. But at the team introduction, the team was introduced as the Grupo Fernando Hernandez Onde 2000 Guinea Ecuatorial team. Which suggests that Fernando Hernandez is putting his own money into the project, rather than funding it through Onde 2000. This is hardly a surprising step, as the Spanish construction industry, once one of the main pillars of the Spanish economy, is in a tailspin, suffering from both the implosion caused by the financial crisis, and the collapse of the Spanish housing bubble, which had grown to almost Herculean proportions over the past 10 years.

The question is, why did Gibernau come back? The Spaniard was widely believed to be mentally broken by Valentino Rossi during the 2005 season, Gibernau never winning another race after being bumped off track on the final lap of the Jerez season opener. Then, a string of injuries during 2006, aggravating a collar bone injury suffered previously, prompted Gibernau to retire.

A crucial meeting is due to be held at Motegi on Saturday afternoon. During this meeting of the Grand Prix Commission, a proposal is to be submitted to allow only a single manufacturer to produced tires for MotoGP. Bridgestone is the favorite to be awarded the contract, which would end nearly 60 years of open competition in motorcycle racing's premier class. The general expectation is that the proposal will be adopted without too much argument.

Or at least, that was the general expectation up until a few hours ago. Now, Spanish television is reporting that Ducati, the team that has taken Bridgestone to its dominant position in the MotoGP paddock, is in talks with Michelin to supply tires to all 5 Ducatis expected to be on the grid for next year. The deal, if it were to come off, would immediately scupper any chances of a single tire proposal being pushed through, and blow the tire war wide open again.

At first glance, the proposal may seem to be beyond bizarre: Why would a company who have built up such an incredible record of success with Bridgestone suddenly dump the tire company who helped them to win world title this year, and whose tires are certain to win the championship again in 2008? What's more, why drop what is considered to be one of the key ingredients in the magic recipe that has turned Casey Stoner from being a fast kid with a tendency to crash to arguably the most dominant rider in MotoGP?

Ever since Sete Gibernau turned up at the Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona, and spent a lot of time in both the Kawasaki and Ducati garages, rumors have grown increasingly stronger that the Spanish former GP star would be back in MotoGP next year. After testing the Ducati at Mugello, and the problems which Marco Melandri had been having, it was even suggested that Gibernau could have made a reentry into MotoGP after the Summer break.

So prevalent were the rumors, that eventually, it seemed as if Gibernau had taken over the role of "default rider" from Max Biaggi: Whenever the possible riders for an empty seat in MotoGP were discussed, it became almost compulsory to mention Gibernau's name as well. And each time Gibernau was automatically linked with a ride, the plausibility of his return diminished.

Now, though, it seems we were wrong to doubt him. The Dutch magazine MOTO73.nl is reporting that Sete Gibernau has signed a contract to race next season with Ducati. Details are sketchy at the moment, and it is unclear which team Gibernau will actually be riding for, but with the factory Marlboro Ducati team full up - Nicky Hayden's switch to Ducati is not yet confirmed, but seems almost inevitable - that would seem to imply that he will be riding for the satellite Alice Ducati team.

The Misano MotoGP round saw the paddock dive into the very heart of silly season, with contracts close enough to being signed for details to leak out, but still so many rumors muddying the water that news taken as hard fact could still easily turn out to be complete fiction.

The latest news from the Spanish sports daily AS.com is a case in point. AS is reporting that Ducati is prepared to supply a 5th bike next year for Sete Gibernau to ride. The bike would be run by the Onde 2000 team, which is currently running in the 125cc class, with Pablo Nieto and Raffaele de Rosa aboard KTMs.

Just how much fact there is in this news item is extremely hard to say. Sete Gibernau has certainly been working very closely with Ducati over the past couple of months, testing for the factory at Mugello, and rumors had emerged that Gibernau would already be aboard Melandri's bike. With Melandri now signed for Kawasaki, but showing improved form, Melandri is almost certain to see out the rest of the season, leaving Gibernau without a ride. It is not unthinkable that Ducati may want to compensate the Spanish star for his hard work in mid-season.

But there is still plenty of room for doubt in this story. Firstly, there's the sponsor: Onde 2000 is a Spanish construction company, involved mainly in residential housing. With domestic house prices in Spain going through the floor, the result of a credit and investment bubble combining with a construction boom, Spain's construction companies, once flush with cash, are struggling to make ends meet, and even going out of business. But with many of the firms in private hands, which companies are suffering and which are surviving is hard to tell. As a general rule, though, the Spanish building industry is not a solid foundation for building long term sponsorship relationships.

The news that Sete Gibernau would be returning to MotoGP to test the Ducati Desmosedici bikes raised a flurry of interest when it was announced last week. It launched a veritable firestorm of speculation about a possible return to racing, and whether the arrival of Gibernau made Marco Melandri's position at Ducati even more precarious. There was also the question of whether nearly two years away from racing would have dulled Gibernau's race reflexes so much that he would no longer be competitive. Only test times from Mugello would tell.

After two days of testing, we finally have times to base a judgment on. Frustratingly, though, weather conditions in Mugello are more British than Italian, meaning that so far Gibernau's track time has been limited to just 20 laps on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and even those laps have been ridden under track conditions which are far from ideal.

Despite the damp, Gibernau is still apparently in good shape. On Wednesday, the Spaniard set a fastest lap of 1'52.6 on the GP9, which uses the new carbon-fiber chassis. Although still 4 seconds off the pole record, and 2 seconds slower than the fastest race lap, that's a perfectly respectable time for a rider who hasn't ridden a MotoGP bike for 21 months, and has only ridden an 800cc MotoGP bike in a few tests at the end of the 2006 season, especially under less than perfect conditions.