The Ducati Xerox Superbike World Championship team has confirmed that former technical manager Ernesto Marinelli will replace BMW-bound Davide Tardozzi as team manager for 2010, announcing the restructure just weeks before the season officially gets going with testing at Portimao in Portugal from 22 January.

With Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio both back on board their Ducati 1198s for 2010, a series of structural changes within Ducati have allowed for a certain degree of reorganization within the Ducati Xerox team.

Stepping into Marinelli’s shoes as technical manager of the squad is Marco Lozej who will also have the role of track engineer for Michel Fabrizio. With Ducati since 2000, Marco has most recently been responsible for the GP development team.

Japanese rider Haga also has a new track engineer in the shape of Luca Ferraccioli, who returns to the Borgo-Panigale factory after a four year stint as race engineer with the British GSE Racing outfit. Working alongside Luca, in the role of electronics engineer to Haga, will be Marco Frigerio who moves from the factory MotoGP team to the Superbike side for the coming season. The final change on Haga’s side is the appointment of a new tyre technician, Massimo Meneghin.

The final addition to the new-look team is Una Conway, Irish and in Italy for more than a decade, who comes on board as team coordinator and hospitality assistant.

“2010 will be a little different but I am extremely confident as well as optimistic,” commented Ernesto Marinelli, new Ducati Xerox team manager. “Despite the important reorganisation within the team, in reality most of the new members have already been working in Ducati for some time. Both Marco Lozej and Luca Ferraccioli have worked in Ducati for years and have a wealth of experience as well as great technical ability and personality. 2010 once again represents a new challenge – we have faced many over the years and in most cases we have come out victorious. We will be doing our very best to take another title this year – our riders are in great shape and the entire team is more motivated than ever. We’re all impatient to get back on track and are looking forward to the Portimao test.”