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It sure looks like Paolo Campinoti has chosen Yamaha. We've been talking about it for months but the first to put it as certain are our friends at Sky, who usually don't announce something in vain.
The reasons, official ones, are undoubtedly better financial treatment, plus other benefits that Paolo Campinoti surely negotiated with Lin Jarvis.
But was it a real choice, of the head, or rather of the gut? A decision made without any other alternative? Already because after the clash with Marquez at Mugello for Campinoti, frankly, it is not as if many other choices were presented. Having lost the opportunity to land the eight-time world champion, having lost Jorge Martin, what other first rides could Ducati have offered, if not Aldeguer, who is under contract with Borgo Panigale anyway?
Here, it seems to us that in a way Pramac would have had no other way out than this one which greatly downsizes what Campinoti's team had in fact become: an absolutely first-rate outfit that, for the second year in a row, is fighting for the world title. Something that perhaps Ducati, and its wealthy Chinese sponsor Lenovo, did not particularly appreciate.
Can it happen next year? It's difficult to say, not least because there are only rejects left on the market, with all the delicacy we can muster to describe them. Certainly not riders capable of aiming for the title.
So Campinoti and Prama return to the role they are (were) entitled to: that of a satellite team.
There is another question to ask: will sponsor Prima, which had recently confirmed its agreement with the Sienese team, be happy with this initiative?
The second question is really about the choice of riders: who is free on the market? More importantly, who will face the (risky) move to Yamaha, which is barely better off than Honda, but probably without even having the economic resources to entice a rider to make the jump? Even one who is currently without too many alternatives?
We will know more at Assen. The (attempted) embrace with Marc Marquez at Mugello turned out to be that between the frog and the scorpion, which by its very nature cannot avoid stinging.
