A year that began with a Casey Stoner win from pole at Qatar for Ducati, but has however ensued with health issues for the Aussie, has been frustrating for the Italian factory’s executive staff although some highlights and advantages have also been accepted graciously by Livio Suppo.

On the health concerns with Stoner, he is due for a comeback to action at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal from skpping three rounds, this has been a challenge in itself for Ducati as part of improving the Desmosedici GP9 for the other competitors, however Stoner’s victory of Ducati’s initial premier class at home in Mugello in May was a special moment.

Commenting on the year so far, Suppo states, “It’s been an up and down season. We led the Championship at one stage, but we have struggled with Casey’s physical problem. We had issues with the bike at the beginning which only worked for Casey and was difficult for the others, but I think we showed a ‘never give up’ attitude, we did a good job technically and the bike is improving race by race.”

Following the choice to bring Mika Kallio in from the Pramac Racing Ducati satellite squad to substitute for Stoner and the work being done to try and improve Nicky Hayden’s challenges from the beginning of the season, which entailed the re-introduction of Juan Martinez to the side in replacement of Cristhian Pupulin as Hayden’s crew chief, Suppo adds,  “I think we’ve been able to manage a very difficult situation with Casey missing three races, but still with Mika Kallio we did something reasonable and Nicky got a good podium in Indianapolis so I'm positive about the season so far.

From Barcelona onwards, we went through a very critical period as Casey was leading the Championship when we got to Barcelona and after that he started to lose points because of his condition, so it was the most difficult point of the season.”

As for the remainder of the season and the preceding aspirations, Suppo acknowledges the contributions from Aleix Espargaró as a Pramac replacement competitor, adding, “For the final part of the season, I hope to see Casey fight again at the top like he’s done in the past and I think Nicky is improving very quickly - he could have had a top four result in Misano, for example. The bike is getting better and better - we saw that with Aleix Espargaró, who is very young and has no experience of MotoGP, but he was able to get some impressive results - he posted the fifth fastest time at Misano.”