Engine Number Four for Rossi and Hayden at Laguna Seca

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According to interview from MotoGP.com to Filippo Preziosi, General & Technical Director of Ducati Corse, Preziosi confirmed that in Laguna Seca, Ducati will use the fourth engine as planned. 

Preziosi said, "In Laguna we will seal engine number four as planned. Engine number four is ready to use some additional parts we are developing. Some parts could be delivered directly to Laguna, and some other parts will be delivered in the following races. This depends on the final result, and only when we are sure that these parts give us an improvement in terms of performance."

He continue, "Monday was a half test with Valentino because unfortunately we had a hardware problem. So for safety reasons we stopped his test. So we got only half the information we need. It was a good test for Nicky, because we tested a lot of interesting things. At the end he was quite happy. To be honest, Nicky was good all weekend. Valentino did a wonderful race, starting unfortunately far back, but the pace was really good. Overall it was a nice weekend."

Press Release courtesy of MotoGP Official website


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Mugello Test Day Concludes Three Busy Weeks for Ducati Team

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The post-race MotoGP test that concluded three intense weeks of racing and testing was blessed with a beautiful, sunny day that was warm but breezy.

Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden worked together with their respective teams and the Ducati engineers on a number of updates to the chassis, in an effort to balance the weight distribution; to the engine, to improve rideability; and to the electronics.

Valentino Rossi suffered a fall at the Correntaio that was due to a small problem with the ECU. Although he suffered no physical harm, the decision was made to finish his test early, before 4:00 p.m.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 4th, 1:47.746 (49 laps)

“We didn’t really have anything major to try today, but it was important in the sense that it’s the last time we’ll test before my two home races. We tried some things with the settings, and Ohlins had a couple of ideas that we tested. We lost a pretty significant amount of time after Valentino had his problem because the guys wanted to check everything on my bike to make sure it was okay. At the end of the day I put in a soft tyre to see how fast I could go, but then I had a problem with the fuel pump. We ran out of time, but still, my best lap was about the same as my qualifying time, which is okay. At this level, as we get closer to the front, it gets harder to make big improvements, but we leave here encouraged.”

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 10th, 1:48.565, (19 laps)

“They had some things to try today, but it was mainly with an eye toward the future, as the substantial changes they’re working on at Ducati for the engine’s power delivery weren’t ready yet. So this was an intermediate step, an interim engine management system through a new ECU. We started testing it this morning, and the first feelings were good, as I immediately did a good time with a used tyre. However, when I started again after the break, the bike stalled at the Correntaio and I fell. Fortunately, I was leaned over quite far at that point so I just tipped over, and nothing bad happened. In the interest of safety, we decided to stop because the engineers have to analyze the data to understand what happened. We also had some different parts for the chassis, but we weren’t able to work with them much since we finished early. In the end, it wasn’t a particularly productive day, although the first impression with this change was pretty good.”

Filippo Preziosi, Technical Director

“This morning, with Vale, we started to try some changes to the chassis, work aimed at concentrating the mass and balancing the weight. Unfortunately, in the afternoon we had a problem with a hardware component, which we’ll have to check now. Given that safety is the most important thing, we stopped his test. Therefore, we only have his first impression, but based on that, we’ll continue with our schedule in order to bring some additional updates to the Misano test. With Nicky we didn’t have the same problem, and we were able continue the work. In the next few days, our test team will go forward with the work started by the factory riders.”

Ducati Factory Racing Press Release

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Ducati's Positive Test on Day 2

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Ducati team completes a two days test at Mugello circuit yesterday. After a rain on day one, day two was better with sun on a whole day.

Valentino Rossi did 76 laps, while Nicky Hayden did 81 to test different configurations of the engine, electronics and chassis, among which was a new aluminum swingarm. Ducati will do another test on Barcelona, June 4th after the Catalunya GP, and June 6th on Aragon.

Filippo Preziosi

“I’d say it was a very useful test because we were able to gather interesting information on the different areas of the bike for which we had planned a robust test program. We worked on different configurations of the electronics, engine and chassis, including an aluminum swingarm. Now we want to go to other tracks, which is exactly what we’ll do in Barcelona and Aragon, to test the validity of the solutions we’ve found, in order to understand if we’ve effectively taken a small step in the right direction.”

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Ducati CEO Still Wants Valentino Rossi in 2013

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Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali told that the future relationhip between Ducati and Valentino Rossi are still open. After some speculation on media, Rossi has explained that he will stay on Ducati for 2012 season. Caludio Domenicali came to Estoril last weekend, and had a meeting with both Valentino Rossi and Filippo Preziosi. 

Domenicali said on SpeedTV.com , "We have had some long meetings (in Estoril) that have involved both Filippo and Valentino and I think there is now a common direction for the future." The meeting was looked seriously, because at the same time, Monza was celebrated 25th anniversary of the Superbike World Championship. Domenicali attended the Estoril race rather than the celebration.

He also told, ""There is a strong possibility of this and a little later in the season we will sit down and talk about this with Valentino". Rossi recently complaint about the understeer and aggressive power delivery to Filippo Preziosi. From this meeting point, Domenicali believe that the new engine development project will be a trigger to make Valentino Rossi stay on Ducati.

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Valentino Rossi will get Complete Package on Laguna Seca

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Preziosi told that Ducati will do tests at Mugello in May, June and July. They will test new engine with changes of driveability to give Rossi and Hayden more confidence. The engine will be used on Laguna Seca race July 29th.

Preziosi says, "We have different items we think will be good, so we are optimistic. We have three tests at Mugello in May, June and July and we will test this package in order to be ready for Laguna Seca. We are working in two different areas. One is to improve engine driveability. We have a lot of steps planned. We think that we will end up supplying a complete package for the Laguna race."

Preziosi also said that the target with this new engine is on top five of this season. The new engine will help rider on lean, as Rossi's complaint about the GP12. "We believe that the engine driveability will help when you are at full lean and you open the throttle," said Preziosi.

Preziosi continue, "To have a smoother response could help in avoiding that, when you are on the edge, you start to spin up and the bike starts moving and to understeer. But we are doing some other different activities on the chassis side in order to reduce the understeer. For the engine we have now, we have a lot of torque even at low rpm, and in fact we are not opening the throttle body at low rpm, because the torque is more than what the chassis is able to use"

Let see if the target from Ducati can reached on this season. The championship is still long and chances for both Rossi and Hayden are still open.

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Filippo Preziosi: Estoril Result is Not at Ducati's Level

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After the Estoril MotoGP test was cancelled, Filippo Preziosi told on the interview that the Sunday race result on Estoril circuit was better than before, but it was not the level of Ducati.

Filippo Preziosi says, "Of course the result is better than before, but it is not at the level we are expecting, so we know we have to close the gap."

For him, the race result is also solve small problem on GP12. He continue, "I think the result yesterday is based mainly on the small steps taken between one practice session and the next, keeping the same basic bike set-up and just trying to solve the small problems that you have practice by practice."

He also told about the desmo characteristc on the interview. He told that Ducati will improve driveability of desmo. "One of these items is an engine that has more torque at low rpm and less power at high revs. Usually this kind of engine gives better driveability. For the engine we have now, we have a lot of torque even at low rpm, and in fact we are not opening the throttle body at low rpm, because the torque is more than the chassis is able to use." said Preziosi.

Ducati have a big question for the riders, if it makes sense to add more torque and less top power, even with this kind of engine? The answer will come after the new engine testing.

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2nd Day Ducati Test is Worse

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After struggle with rain on the 1st day private test at Mugello Circuit, Nicky Hayden and Franco Battaini spend another waste time on garage on the 2nd day of test.  As Hayden update on his twitter account @NickyHayden69 "No action yet today. Weather is worse then yesterday", Hayden and Battaini couldn't do better than day 1.

Nicky Hayden:
“We came here looking to make up time lost due to my missing the Valencia test and having limited time at the Malaysia and Jerez tests, but it was pretty much a wash,” Hayden said. “It’s a shame because Ducati gave me the opportunity to come and had a race-spec GP12 here, along with my whole team. Yesterday we made two exits with slicks and also did a bit of riding in the wet, but today the conditions were wet but also cold and windy, completely unmanageable. With two back-to-back races coming up, there wasn’t much to be gained by risking testing in the wet. I’ve learned during my career that you can’t control the weather, so there’s no need to complain. We’ll just look forward to the race at Jerez.”

Filippo Preziosi:
“We had very unstable conditions at Mugello. We tried to optimize our work by doing some setup tests with Nicky, including some rain settings, given that he rode so little during the first two winter tests. With Franco, particularly on the relatively nice first day, we started doing some tests that will be useful for preparing updates for Vale and Nicky to try during the post-race test in Estoril. I really hope we get sunny weather in Portugal!”

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