MotoGP News
Date: 5/February/2012
A collective sigh of relief emanated from the Ducati pits during a crucial first test of its radically revised MotoGP bike, at Sepang in Malaysia.
Following a miserable 2011 season in which superstar home-signing Valentino Rossi managed just one podium finish, Ducati has made major technical changes to ensure they can be contenders in 2012, the first year of new 1000cc rules.
Nothing, bar the company’s iconic desmodromic valve system, has been left untouched.
Out has gone the unique carbon-fibre frame and use of a ‘stressed’ engine to be replaced by Ducati’s first ever aluminium beam frame. The engine is now ‘carried’ in a conventional manner within the frame (unstressed) instead of being part of it.
Ducati’s first attempt at a full aluminium frame for its grand prix bike was only seen in public at Valencia in November, with major revisions then made for the first test of 2012 at Sepang.
Tension was sky high as Rossi left the pits for the first time, but by the end of the day the seven-time MotoGP champion felt confident enough to give the new machine a resounding thumbs-up.
Rossi told reporters: “I am so happy because we fixed a lot of the problems that we were not able to improve in the whole of the 2011 season. Braking, corner entry, agility. The bike is a lot better.
“Ducati have done a great job in a short time. Now I can load the front tyre and I can ‘use’ the front of the bike. It is a big, big step compared to last year in that area.”
The wayward front-end characteristics, so important for a motorcycle racer, had long been an Achilles’ heel for the Ducati grand prix project, with only 2007 world champion Casey Stoner - now at Honda - able to overcome the often vague feedback felt by the rider.
“We have learnt that the ideas we had, regarding why the bike was not giving the rider the correct feedback and turning in the right way, were correct,” stated Ducati Corse General Manager Filippo Preziosi.
“We have a lot more to do, but at least the part that is most important in terms of feedback for the rider is done. The next priority is to concentrate our efforts in exiting the corner.”
With team-mate Nicky Hayden still recovering from a broken shoulder in a winter training accident, Rossi was the only factory Ducati rider to put serious mileage on the new machine at Sepang - the first of three pre-season tests.
The Italian’s results of fifth (+0.74s), seventh (+0.99s) and fifth (+1.22s) at the end of each day mean a 2012 title challenge presently looks unlikely.
But Rossi believes only two riders - reigning champion Stoner and Yamaha’s former champion Jorge Lorenzo - are currently out of reach, as he also underlined the difference in ‘life-span’ between his GP12 and the Japanese bikes.
Rossi said: “Stoner and Lorenzo are maybe too far and they also ride better than me, but with Pedrosa and Spies maybe it is not impossible. For us to fight for the podium would be a good start this year.”
Rossi finished seventh in last year’s championship, having endured his first ever winless season in grand prix. Yet he insists it was the lack of progress that hurt the most.
“Last year was quite frustrating. Not a disaster in terms of the results, but we worked a lot and didn’t improve anything. Sometimes we got worse!” he smiled. “But this week we worked for three days and improved every day. That is very positive.
“We were 0.7sec behind Lorenzo on the first day and on the last day it was the same difference. So I'm happy, especially because we still have two or three problems to fix.
“The potential of this new bike is high. Considering also that Honda and Yamaha have been working on their new bikes for a minimum of one year, where for us this is the first time.”
The second pre-season test will be held at Sepang later this month.
“Ducati were already working on improvements even before this test,” revealed Rossi. “So we should have those new parts for the next test and then the modifications from the data and information this week should be ready by Jerez [the final pre-season test].”
2012 will be Rossi’s 17th season in grand prix racing and 13th in the premier-class.
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