Valentino Rossi: Ducati GP12 Test Wrap

2011 MotoGP Post-Season Test

After two days of experimenting with the Ducati GP12 at the traditional post-season Valencia MotoGP tests, Valentino Rossi pointed out the prototype’s strengths and weaknesses.

Rossi worked tirelessly with Ducati Technical Director Filippo Preziosi to gather as much data as possible for the development of the GP12, which has the 1000cc engine that will be allowed in 2012 MotoGP.

Throughout both days, Rossi put in over 14 hours. But although the Valencia tests official wrapped the 2011 MotoGP season, the Ducati team immediately traveled back to Bologna to further develop the GP12.

Out of both days, Rossi set the sixth fastest overall time 1:33.332, which was 1.525 seconds behind MotoGP test-leader Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda).

As for Valentino Rossi’s teammate, Nicky Hayden, he had to miss out on the testing due injurying his wrist during the first-lap crash at Valencia.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team GP12 MotoGP) says: “These were two important days of testing because we needed to collect a lot of data for the next few months of work, which will be crucial. The positives of this bike are certainly the engine, which I like, and the fact that it handles a bit better than the previous one.

“It’s definitely more fun, in part because you can get sideways more. The frame isn’t bad, but it needs work. We have to improve the braking, because I need to brake harder and later, and we need to improve traction under acceleration. Filippo has many ideas, and now we have a little time to apply them before next year’s tests.”

Filippo Preziosi (Ducati MotoGP Technical Director) says: “We were lucky to have sun and generally much better conditions than what we had over the race weekend, and this allowed us to take full advantage of both test days. Unfortunately, Nicky wasn’t able to ride, but at least he’ll have plenty of time to recover before the first test at Sepang next year.

“We asked Valentino, Franco (Battaini) and the other Ducati riders to carry out a series of comparisons between different solutions, as there are still chassis parameters that we have to define for the project we’re working on. It has been really hard work, but we’ve collected a lot of information that we’ll now use for the design that we’ll be doing in the coming weeks.”

Valentino Rossi and the Ducati Team will return to action with the first winter test, planned in Sepang, Malaysia, from Jan. 21 to Feb. 2.

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