Ducati Team plans to debut its twin spar aluminium frame at Valencia GP – MotoGP news
Ducati Team riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will be riding their machines with full aluminium twin spar chassis at the Valencia post race test.
It is planned that Ducati will test Desmosedici GP12 with new frames.
The Australian crew chief for Rossi, Jerry Burgess has been giving technical assistance to the Italian rider to explore the full potential of the Ducati machine.
Burgess said, “We need to understand what a more conventional frame offers. Ducati have put in place the right people to understand these concepts and to deliver to us at the race track various concepts and gain an enormous amount of knowledge that will
help the race department for years to come.”
The Ducati team has been searching to improve the front end of its bike. Rossi has also been complaining since the last winter test held in 2010. The bike tends to understeer a lot which has hampered Rossi from delivering his best.
During the last couple of months, Ducati have made drastic changes in their original concept. The engineers replaced its conventional carbon fibre chassis with complete aluminium built frame.
It also seems that the Bologna factory is keen to improve its image in the MotoGP and has implemented variety of changes through the 2011 season.
Burgess added, “We don’t want to go too radical too quickly because that could actually be detrimental to the project but there’s a long time between now and the first test in January and even longer to the first race and plenty of time to explore what designs
they feel they should.”
The post race test following the Valencia GP will be the last outing of the MotoGP season in 2011. The next official gathering of MotoGP riders will be on January 31 at the Sepang International Circuit.
It will be the first visit to Malaysia for the pre-season test, followed by a second ahead of the season’s inaugural race at Losail, Qatar.
Ducati will have to wait for a long time after the Valencia test to further testify its development in the GP12. The team is trying to slowly adapt the new ideas to avoid any steps which could hamper the progress.
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