Filippo Preziosi’s official title is Ducati Corse General Manager, but this man is much, much more. He’s the genius behind the Ducati Desmosedici and all the versions of the D16 that we’ve seen over the years.

During today’s press conference at Madonna di Campiglio, despite what Gabriele Del Torchio had said to listen carefully to what Preziosi had to say, the daddy of the D16 skating around the question if he had modified the angle of the 90-degree four-cylinder engine, which supposedly was one of the prinicipal reasons for the lack of front end feel that all the Ducati riders have lamented, Preziosi confirmed that 90% of the parts on the bike are new and that they’ll be keeping the engine angle a “secret, just like our competitors do.”

Preziosi said that the GP12 will be using a conventional twin-spar aluminium chassis and the carbon fiber swingarm and they have “significantly modified the weight distribution and size of bike in order to allow a larger range of adjustments that the riders and teams requested” and “that it usually takes two years from the initial design to the first race to have a completely refined race machine, but we accelerating the process with forced steps. It’s a courageous decision, but not impossible.”

Continue reading: Filippo Preziosi: "The GP12 is 90% new"

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The 22nd annual ddition of Ferrari and Ducati’s Wrooom Press Ski Meeting to launch the 2012 season officially kicked off tonight in the usual snow topped mountain resort of Madonna di Campiglio, Italy.

Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden posed with Ducati’s new Superbike, the Panigale 1199 with the Tricolore livery instead of the Ducati GP12, as the Desmosedici will not be presented at the event and will be revealed only at the MotoGP tests at Sepang on January 31st.

Tomorrow the two Ducati riders will face the press, and on Wednesday it will be Filippo Preziosi and Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari Team Principal) under the spotlights for their press briefs. Thursday it will be Ferrari drivers turn. The event will conclude on Friday, with the spectacular kart and auto exhibition with the riders and drivers on the town’s frozen lake, but we think that Nicky Hayden will be sitting this exhibition out as he’s still recovering from his recently fractured scapula and broken ribs, and is expected to make decision at the end of next week to see if he’ll be able to test at Sepang.

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It must be hard to be Filippo Preziosi these days. Your brainchild, that unique machine that you’ve nutured from drawing board up (okay, a CAD/CAM) is being massacred by fans this year with everyone becoming a wannabe motorcyle engineer who believes that they know how to fix your love child.

Go back to steel, stay with the carbon fibre, switch to aluminum, change the engine configuration, shorten this, make that longer, everything under the sun has been suggested all because Valentino Rossi can’t wrap his head, nor adjust his riding style around the quirky Desmosedici GP machine and to ride it to its full potential, but as matter of fact neither has anyone else, sans one rider.

Last season Casey Stoner was blamed for Ducati’s results (they’d commit matricide to have the same this year); no one actually believed that the Ducati could have some sort of basic structural defect, but this year the Italian manufacturer is taking the fall and are not enjoying it, and it looks like they’re beginning to sorely miss their former rider.

So when Preziosi says to an Italian sports daily that “absurdly I’d like to see Stoner ride our new machine (2012) and see what he thinks” you’re bound to get some sort of backlash, and it didn’t take long for a piqued Rossi, who has basically kept his cool under the difficult circumstances retort with “I’d also be happy if Stoner tried it, but then I’d like to try the Honda.”

The hyped ‘marketing marriage of the decade’ has become a dysfunctional family and while they’re still not along the lines of irreconcilable differences, they’re going to need marriage counseling pretty soon.

Source | motoblog.it and sportmediaset.it

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As we reported yesterday, Valentino Rossi carried out another test session with the Ducati GP12 at the Mugello circuit. This the third day of testing of the new GP bike after the previous two days that were carried out at Jerez by Rossi and Nicky Hayden.

Rossi did 60 laps to evalute the further developments that Filippo Preziosi had planned and Vitto Guareschi and Franco Battaini assessed on Tuesday and Wednesday, before handing the GP12 to their factory rider to have his feedback.

Unfortunately for us, Ducati has decided to still keep under wraps any photos of their new 2012 Superbike, dubbed by many as the ‘Extreme 1200′, which was also at the Mugello with Danilo Petrucci, who currently rides for the Ducati-Barni team in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, as the test rider.

“I’m pleased, because it was a positive test,” said Valentino at day’s end. “We took full advantage of the time we had, because the track and weather conditions were perfect. I liked the new asphalt a lot. The surface is smooth, those holes that I knew so well are now gone, and the grip is fantastic. I must say they’ve done a great job, because if it’s possible, riding here at Mugello is now even better than before. I’m happy to have come back here to test after my injury last year, because it was a nice feeling and a good day. We started around 11:00 this morning, and we completed sixty laps in all—many kilometers without any problems, either physical or with the GP12. We tested everything that Filippo had planned to try, and we’re satisfied because, although we’re still at a pretty early stage, we’re going in the right direction.”

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi and Filippo Prezioso pleased with 'positive' test at Mugello

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Wow! We certainly didn’t expect that Ducati would reveal photos and a video with sound of the GP12 and Valentino Rossi in action to the watchful eyes of competitors and fans when they tested today at Jerez, but they did and kudos to them and their publicity department for doing it. They certainly know how to grab the attention.

So how did the first test go after putting in the first 50 laps? Here’s what Valentino Rossi had to say, “I’m happy. I like the GP12. In my opinion, it’s more enjoyable, more fun to ride. It was the first time we had it on the track, so we had some work to do, but the engine is nicer. It’s a lot of fun, and you can do some nice slides. It’s the bike we’ll ride next year, so it was very important—and also very nice—to be among the first to take it on the track.”

Also on-hand was the daddy of all of Ducati’s GP bikes, technical director Filippo Preziosi, who couldn’t miss seeing his newest born in action.

“We chose to have our factory riders, today Vale, tomorrow Nicky to try the bike beginning with its first test, because we think their feedback is essential for starting us on the right path for the early development. To be able to work with Vale for a full day is more than any technician could ask. We gathered considerable feedback that we’ll translate into further design and development for next year’s bike. The positive thing is that the technical choices made for the GP12 in the initial planning phase, in 2010—and I’m referring primarily to the engine, which is still a big-bang, and to the rear end—were endorsed by Valentino. This gives us great satisfaction, and we’re optimistic about the work that still remains to be done. We know that our competitors are also working hard and developing their 2012 bikes, but that just makes the challenge better.”

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi on the Ducati GP12 - video and pics

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Ducati has wrapped up their three day testing schedule at Jerez and the test team seems satisfied with the results they obtained. However the true test will be at Sepang test at the beginning of February, when Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will try out these improvements on their GP11’s and find out if the chronic front end problems have been definitely resolved.

Improvements included work on the chassis, electronics and suspensions with Rossi’s Ohlins tech Mike Norton also present to learn the workings of the Desmosedici.

Ducati Day 3 Press Release:

The Ducati Test Team’s third and final day of testing at Jerez (Spain) began at around 11:30 this morning, allowing Vittoriano Guareschi and Franco Battaini enough time to complete the GP11 setup test planned by Filippo Preziosi. The Italian bike’s next outing will be at the hands of the Ducati Marlboro Team riders February 1-3 at Sepang, in Malaysia.

Continue reading: Ducati wraps up 3 day test at Jerez

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Filippo Preziosi (preziosi btw means precious in Italian) has called the GP11 in these pics ’step zero’ because as he said during yesterday’s press conference “it represents the initial level from which we plan to evolve.” So that could mean that Ducati will be developing during the season, something that Casey Stoner lamented (at least according to Wayne Gardner) that he didn’t get while he was with the Italian team.

What have they changed in this year’s bike so far? Read what Preziosi and his team of engineers have come up with and re-watch this video from Sportmediaset that we posted on Christmas Eve.

“The principal characteristics are the evolution of the motor and of the throttle body thought to obtain, fundamentally, a flatter and more useable power curve. As for the chassis, the aerodynamics are completely new, with the goal of improving top speed, reducing consumption, and also reducing front lift as much as possible. Other aspects we’re working on for the Malaysia tests in February are the new frame, which has already undergone various tests of rigidity and flex—for torsion and under braking—a swingarm with different rigidity characteristics, and a fork that combines the 2011 hydraulics with the 42mm tubes, instead of 48.”

Continue reading: More Pics of Rossi, Hayden and the Ducati GP11

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The beginning of this video by Sportmediaset is really stupid, because they have Italian MotoGP commentator Guido Meda, who pretends to steal Valentino Rossi’s letter to Santa Claus, reads it and then delivers it directly to Ducati’s Filippo Preziosi, and naturally Rossi’s Christmas wish is a better front end on his new GP11.

The interesting part of the footage (around the 1.50 minute mark), is actually Preziosi showing the technical solutions they’ve come up with to solve the front end issues, that Rossi complained about at the Valencia test, and that will be used in the upcoming Sepang test in February.

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Heaven forbid that if we would be forced to give up on the love of our lives, motorcycle riding, but in the case of this heart breaking event, would you think of buying a Ducati sports car equipped with two Desmosedici RR engines?

This concept car isn’t from Filippo Preziosi, Ducati Corse’s General Manager and the engineering genius behind the Ducati D16, but from Anthony Collard, a young independent designer who came up with this idea.

Collard’s concept as he describes it is based on a two seater sports car made up from high performance motorcycle parts, with
a mixed tubular and carbon body structure, the engine is in a central front position, just behind the front wheel axis, and it is a V8 made of two L4 Desmosedici engines that develop 420hp. Ohlin suspensions and Marchesini wheels complete the concept.

Source | local-motors.com via ducatinewstoday

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Here’s a small pictorial evolution of the Ducati Desmosedici GP bike designed and developed by the creative genius of Fillipo Preziosi, from it’s debut in 2002 to the current 2010 bike that will contest this season’s MotoGP championship with Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden.

Before the jump the GP2.

Continue reading: A Pictorial Evolution of the Ducati Desmosedici from the GP2 to GP10

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After Valentino Rossi’s interview with BBC2 about going to Ducati and subsequently saying that his words were wrongly interpreted, now Ducati has come out with their own statements.

Filippo Preziosi, Ducati’s General Director and genius behind the Desmosedici, which we know that Rossi highly appreciates the Italian engineer and that the sentiment is reciprocated by Preziosi.

Interviewed by the Gazzetta dello Sport during the Valencia tests, Filippo Preziosi, said that it was too early to think about 2010 (when Stoner, Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Rossi’s contracts are all up) but admitted that he wouldn’t mind having Rossi in his team.

“I think that it’s premature to starting talking about this, because Valentino has already said that he won’t decide his future until June 2010.”

If I would like to have him with us? I think that any manufacturer would like to have on their bike a rider that’s the 9 times World Champion. I’m not saying something that no one knows, he’s very strong. I think that our bike goes well with all the riders and it’s not that object that used to frighten riders. Stoner went very well all weekend and in the tests with this new bike. Hayden was fifth in the race and in the tests.”

Continue reading: Ducati – Filippo Preziosi: “Who wouldn’t want Rossi?”

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While Marco Simoncelli was in the media limelight with his two day test on the Aprila RSV4, Mattia Pasini was quietly concluding his three day test on the Ducati Desmosedici GP9, despite two spills, one yesterday and one today. The Italian rider today registered a best time of 1.51.9 out of 40 laps , while test rider Vittoriano Guareschi, testing different updates for the 2010 bike, posted a best time of 1.51.7.

Pasini has received several offers to race in next year’s new Moto2 class, but has yet to decide for which team he’ll be riding for, because he may get an offer to rider in MotoGP from Pramac Ducati.

Mattia Pasini:

“It was really a great and positive experience and I think I could have recorded a faster personal best.Unfortunately I fell this morning at the “Correntaio”, having made a strong start to the day with a good feeling due to the changes we had made towards the end of yesterday’s session. The changes made a difference as today I immediately went a second faster in the first exit. I didn’t injure myself too badly but hurt my neck which perhaps affected my riding; I think that otherwise I would have been able to drop another second before the end of the day. Anyway, I repeat that it has been a fantastic experience and I thank Ducati and the team who have looked after me during these three days. We will see each other again at Estoril next week.”

Continue reading: Mattia Pasini Concludes Testing with Ducati

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