Wroom 2012 Press Meeting

As it’s been for 22 years now, Wrooom 2012 was an invitation-only gathering of the world’s MotoGP and Formula One media in the picturesque Italian ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio, a mile up in the Italian Dolomites of northern Italy. For a working journalist, this is a week that’s eagerly anticipated, not only for being the first news event of the new year, but also because there’s plenty of time for other diversions. Where else might you have a chance to snowboard with Valentino Rossi or ski with Nicky Hayden, Fernando Alonso, or Felipe Massa? Like everything else this week, skis, helmets, goggles, and lessons are provided through the generosity of Philip Morris, the sponsor of the Ducati and Marlboro world championship teams.

Why wasn’t the bike unveiled? Simple: it wasn’t built. While part of the Ducati Marlboro team was enjoying a winter ski vacation, crew chiefs Jeremy Burgess and Juan Martinez, and their crews, were in Bologna building the motorcycles that wouldn’t be seen in public until the end of the month, at the opening MotoGP test of the year in Sepang, Malaysia.

Monday
Madonna di Campiglio is about a three-hour drive from Milan, depending on the transport. Monday is reserved for checking into the Relais des Alpes, a grand hotel facing the frozen lake that serves as the center of the village with magnificent views of the Dolomites. From the des Alpes it’s a short walk to the Palawrooom Convention Center, where the journalists work, where the press conferences are held, and where local delicacies are served all day in the lounge bar. It’s not all work.

Then comes the opening night party back in the des Alpes, the first time anyone gets a glimpse of the riders and drivers. This year’s party was much calmer than last year’s, when photographers and videographers fought to get the first photos of Rossi in Ducati clothing. On Monday night, Rossi, Hayden, Massa, and Alonso showed up en masse for an appearance onstage. Almost immediately after the photo op the principals disappeared, with the exception of Hayden, who mingled with the crowd.

When asked what he knew of the new bike, Hayden deflected the question to Preziosi, who was scheduled to speak on Wednesday. Hayden dutifully answered questions about his shoulder blade, what he’d asked for in the new GP12, about the Claiming Rule Teams, about the Bridgestone tires, about a possible 20-race season, about his expectations for 2012, and also about what it was like to race as Rossi’s teammate, among other things.

Asked about his future, and the possibility of returning to a Japanese brand, he said, “Not now, because of course I would like to do at least another contract, so I would still like to sign a further two-year contract.” And to go back with the Japanese bike? “It’s not very likely, but who knows? Not that I can say today that it’s impossible. But we started with this project and at least we would like to become competitive and we would like to win something.”

This would be the only chance for the media to officially question Rossi, other than several television broadcasters, who were each permitted to ask three questions. Hayden was a bit more accessible.

More than once he stressed the problem wasn’t machinery, but money; there is none, and none on the horizon. He has a championship to run and it can’t be done with only 12 MotoGP machines, which, for the satellite teams, are getting increasingly more expensive to lease. His proposal is that the factories produce and sell CRT machines at a fixed cost of €1 million (about $1.28 million).

Asked about Ducati’s future, he said, “Maybe they can make a bike for €1 million to sell in the future. Or just they will have the two bikes,” he paused, before returning to his No. 1 theme, “We have two kinds of problems. One is to make the CRT more competitive, but this is the smaller problem we have, because having things given to them, more things, is easier. And, two, if you have a championship at a high level, one is trying to work at a lower level and try to interfere that the top group can’t raise the level. And just limiting the cost is the only way to do it.”

(In response, a day later Ducati Corse CEO Claudio Domenicali would say, “So in the MotoGP championship, it’s very much more important to find a good balance between the possibility to develop technology and to have a good number of participants. I think still there is a lot of thinking to be made in order to reach a reasonable solution.”)

“In the past, the tubular frame, the carbon fiber frame and now the aluminum frame is completely calculated, designed in every single detail by Ducati Corse, so the supplier is just a partner that has the best machining and welding technology to produce the part that is completely developed by Ducati,” he said. There is a supplier that is “very good in machining the parts [for] some components, there is a supplier that is very good in welding the parts, and there is another supplier that is very good in the final machining of the steering axle and the pivot.” The aluminum perimeter frame permits the engine to be moved, an important consideration missing from last year’s chassis.

“Winning is our primary objective and I believe we are preparing ourselves in the right way for this,” Domenicali said.

Thursday
For the motorcycle set, Thursday was a day off. In the past, Ducati would unveil the new model atop one of the mountains in an elaborate display that included performance art of some kind, New Age music, and props. In 2010, it was hidden under an igloo of helium-filled red balloons. Last year they said the bike was in a remote area that photographers couldn’t access — a reason no one bought. This year was easier — no bike, no photos.

Thursday the F1 crowd got to hear from the drivers. Felipe Massa had his press conference, with Fernando Alonso next.

The ski race was something of a disappointment for the motorcycle crowd. Hayden comes from the flatlands of Kentucky and skis once a year — at Wrooom. Still, he’s game to take part in the race, which former Ducati rider Casey Stoner never was. And Rossi, who prefers the snowboard to skis, also didn’t hit the gates. That left Ducati to be represented by team manager Vito Guareschi, who snowboarded his way down the mountain. After the usual sumptuous lunch at the Fiat Chalet it was time to get ready for the car races.

Rossi led much of the race in the Fiat 500s, but not all of it. Again there was a waving yellow, but this time Massa took advantage of it. The Brazilian cleanly passed Rossi in the first turn on the 17th lap and sped to victory. Alonso was third.