Ducati Team's Nicky Hayden (Photo: Ducati Corse)

3. Fix The Front

The quickest way to make up a gap in MotoGP is to get a really good rider. It’s always been that way and probably always will be.

Ducati has Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovisioso on the factory team and Ben Spies on the B-team. Even though none of the three stood on top of the box in 2012, all three men have proven they can win. It’s true the team doesn’t have a Jorge Lorenzo or Dani Pedrosa. What they do have are riders who will put in strong effort and are motivated to do better.

That means the team has to give their riders a machine they can ride hard. A perfect example is the Yamaha. Even when Honda can outpower the Tuning Fork boys, the M1 is a sweet-handling bike that a guy like Lorenzo can push and steal some victories.

Ducati needs to find the answers that have eluded them with the Desmosedici such as its mysterious front-end issues.

4. A Game Of Leapfrog

The technical side of MotoGP is always evolving. We’re in a stage where the systems are under constant scrutiny for improvement. Honda's “seamless shift” effort is a good example of this. The engineers had an idea and implemented it and the riders made it work.

There are a lot of smart people at Ducati. They need to cook up something good and get in front of Honda and Yamaha on it.

5. It’s Never As Good – Or As Bad – As It Seems

Ducati has seen both sides of the coin. Were they as good as it looked when Stoner dominated the 2007 season and won the brand their first championship? No. The same has been true the past couple of seasons when even getting on the podium seemed impossible at times. They are closer than it looks.

It is easy to get disappointed when things go bad -- even more so when the company sets its identity in racing. There are stories of secretaries crying on Monday at Ducati after a bad race weekend.

It truly is a new era at Ducati with Audi here, Rossi gone, and new management of board. The key to turning it around is to keep moving forward.



The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED