MotoGP News
Date: 5/March/2012
Valentino Rossi’s optimism ahead of next month’s start to the 2012 MotoGP season wilted in the Malaysian heat during the second pre-season test of the year.
The Italian megastar looked to have regained some of his old swagger as he spoke of aiming for an opening-round podium, after finishing his debut test on the new Ducati in fifth place.
But the dejected Italian was thwarted in his efforts to improve during the second Sepang test and plummeted to tenth place as a result.
Rossi, who suffered his first winless MotoGP season after moving from Yamaha to Ducati in 2011, said: “The only positive is that the distance to first place is a bit less. But unfortunately our position is a lot worse.
“Being just behind the factory Hondas and Yamahas after the first test was positive, but everything we tried here to fix our biggest problems didn’t work.
“We are closer to the top (1.0s), but now we also have the satellite Yamahas and Hondas in front of us. We are very worried for this reason.
“Unfortunately with this bike I’m not able to go faster and faster like the guys on the other bikes. We have to understand why.”
Ducati has made massive changes to its MotoGP racer to try and unleash seven-time champion Rossi’s enormous potential, including switching from carbon-fibre to a more conventional aluminium frame.
Rossi said: “I think we have improved from last year because I had two or three moments where with last year’s bike I would have crashed!
“But it is not enough….unfortunately we didn’t fix anything.”
Indeed, despite the radical technical changes for the new 1000cc MotoGP era, Rossi seems to be struggling with disturbingly similar issues to last season’s 800cc bike.
The 33-year-old is battling to turn the bike, using the brakes too much to compensate and is too slow in the corners as a result.
Confusingly, team-mate Nicky Hayden - the only manufacturer rider slower than Rossi - is facing different issues.
The American, able to test properly for the first time this winter after undergoing recent shoulder surgery, is losing time on the way out of the turns.
Hayden said: “The bike feels better for me on braking and into the corner, and I like the feedback it gives me. Now we need to work on some vibration and on corner exits.
“The bike has different problems to last year I would say.”
The third and final pre-season test will take place at Jerez, in Spain from March 23-25.
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