2011 Brno MotoGP Testing
Following Brno MotoGP, the Ducati Team of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden remained in the Czech Republic to do some testing aboard the GP11 and GP11.1 prototypes.
Rossi and Hayden were both happy with the Monday test results, as the Italian and American placed most emphasis on the GP.11, which incorporates the chassis being developed for 2012 by Ducati’s engineers.
Following is an MotoGP interview with Filippo Preziosi, General Director at Ducati, as he discusses the progress of the GP11.1.
Filippo Preziosi says: “The changes we made during the weekend at Brno were finalised to make a faster bike for the race, and now we are working for the mid and long term in order to define the target for the designers for the new generation of bikes. For that we need huge modifications in the set up to evaluate bike behaviour when you do these things.
“I’m happy that Nicky is confirming Valentino’s ideas. We know that introducing a new bike during the Championship usually produces a worse performance in the short term for a couple of races, and you must accept that because it is normal. But if you have a small advantage you can gain from it and stay with it, and it is especially important for the development of next year’s bike.
“For me aluminium is not the key point – what is necessary is to find some stiffness. We are working a lot and in the future we will test new solutions because we want to improve the performance and our knowledge, so as usual we will run new solutions back to back with the standard one and we will decide which one the rider prefers.
“I think we took a small step in the right direction in giving Valentino more feeling and more feedback,” said Preziosi when reviewing Round 11. “We know Valentino is a winning rider so it is up to us to put him in the condition to be able to realise his potential.”
