EDWARDS & CAPIROSSI TO DUCATI?

RUMOURS in Europe are that Texan Colin Edwards and Italian Loris Capirossi are both looking at Ducati rides for 2011 - Edwards to spearhead the Italian company's Superbike effort and Capirossi to join the satellite Pramac MotoGP team.

Edwards won two Superbike World Championships on 1000cc V-twins, in 2000 and 2002. This was after Honda decided to make a limited run of VTR1000SP machines specifically for the championship. Edwards was gutted when Honda then chose a Kentucky rider over him to join Valentino Rossi in the Repsol Honda MotoGP team in 2003.

If Edwards does go to Ducati, the questions then are, who will be his team-mate and who will take over his vacated seat on on the Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP team?

On the former, it seems both Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio will struggle to keep their rides with the Ducati Superbike team, so that could leave the door open for one of the younger riders in Superbike to join. You can bet Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea will both be prospects.

As for Capirossi, the Italian veteran may struggle to do any better on a satellite Ducati to what he has already achieved on Suzuki. He didn't exacly cover himself in glory when, after helping develop the 800cc V4 Ducati, Casey Stoner showed him how to ride it. A lesson he never really seemed to learn.

As for the Suzuki MotoGP ride that would leave vacant, the question has to be, who would want it? The Rizla Suzuki MotoGP operation has been a graveyard of hope for many young riders, Chris Vermuelen being merely the latest casualty.

- Michael Esdaile