Rain hampers Ducati’s first MotoGP test of the year – MotoGP news
The unofficial start of 2013 MotoGP season was quite dismal for Ducati as continuous rain spoiled the team’s first MotoGP test in 2013.
Along with the new Ducati boss Bernhard Gobmeier, Ducati test riders Michele Pirro and Franco Battaini stayed at Jerez from Saturday until Monday but could not manage more than a very laps
few as track time was minimal due to bad weather conditions.
“Unfortunately we had some bad luck with the weather, and for two days we were able to do almost nothing. It rained almost the whole time,” Gobmeier said.
On Monday however, Ducati’s test riders did manage a few laps in the afternoon session. According to both Gobmeier and Pirro, Ducati were able to gather useful data for developing the Ducati
bike.
“Today we squeezed three days of work into about five hours, which obviously required skipping some of the steps we had planned. Anyway, some interesting and positive results emerged, in
terms of both the chassis and electronic strategies that we tried,” Gobmeier said while talking to press reporters after the last day of the Jerez test.
Gobmeier claimed that even though the team could not get much out of the test, yet the morale of all team members was very good.
“I was very pleased to see how concentrated the guys on the test team worked. Everybody was very motivated,” the Ducati boss said.
As a team, it is imperative for Ducati to improve their performance in the upcoming season. It has been more than 2 years since a Ducati rider won a Grand Prix round. It was Casey Stoner
who won the Australian Grand Prix in October 2010. Since then, no Ducati rider has won a MotoGP round.
For the Ducati riders, the next chance to test their 2013 bike comes next month at Sepang in Malaysia where most MotoGP teams will be attending the first of three pre-season test sessions
organised by The International Road Racing Teams Association (IRTA). At Sepang, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden also get their share of testing the Ducati bike.
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