MotoGP News
Date: 13/February/2013
Ducati, the ‘Ferrari of motorcycles’
that won just six events into its debut 2003 MotoGP season and lifted the 2007
crown with Casey Stoner, has a mountain to climb if it is to tackle Honda and
Yamaha this season.
The Italian factory, seeking to
rebuild its grand prix project following two miserable seasons with MotoGP star
Valentino Rossi, was left two seconds off the pace in the opening test of the
year at Sepang.
Recently purchased by German car
giant Audi, part of the VW Group, a restructured Ducati Corse arrived at Sepang
with a bike barely changed from last year and aiming to work through the full
range of set-up options.
The theory was that, in its
desperation to make Rossi competitive, too many new parts had been thrown at
the Desmosedici, without proper assessment.
Ducati hoped that they could find
further performance from the existing parts, whilst also identifying key areas
for future gains.
The reality was somewhat
different. Nicky Hayden and Rossi’s replacement Andrea Dovizioso put the bike
through a full range of settings, but remained off the pace and - perhaps worst
of all - declared the bike to be lacking a little in all areas.
The end result was that both
Hayden and Dovizioso felt that Ducati will have to roll the dice and try some
radical new parts.
“We knew this test wasn’t going to
be easy. We tried to be optimistic and hope that just building the 2013 bikes
would make us closer, but in reality it’s the same bike as last year with
different paint work,” said 2006 World Champion Hayden.
“It was wishful thinking. We got
some more data and information, but it’s clear we’ve got a lot of work to do.
“We’ve pretty much tried
everything on this bike. The next test is only two weeks away so we’re not
going to have anything drastically different to try. It’ll be this bike again
and maybe some new electronic stuff.
“We need some help. We need more
than some small set-up changes. That’s not going to be two-seconds.
“We’re missing in a lot of areas.
We need to open up our expectations and look for some big changes. Expand the
horizons and maybe in two ways, not just follow one path.
“We’re not giving up. There are a
lot of changes going on behind the scenes and we’re not giving up now. This is
just the first test.”
The second Sepang test will be
held at the Malaysian Grand Prix venue from February 26 to the 28th.
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