Apparently after Valentino Rossi’s latest words on the GP12 and its current potential, “the truth is that in the tests with the 1000cc I went slower than today’s fastest riders on the 800’s, and this means that there is still a lot of work to be done.” have sent the Ducati test team scurrying back to the Mugello circuit on Tuesday for even more development work.

Rossi’s words caused a reaction with team manager Vitto Guareschi, who speaking to the Gazzetta dello Sport said, “Vale knows, the only real thing is that we want to be in front again. It’s true that the best riders on Sunday went faster than our 1000cc, but they were also racing all out. Instead on a Thursday afternoon, by ourselves and around 6 0′clock and on the eightieth lap we posted our best time. We already know that on this track we need to take half a second off. “

The development work GP11.1 will not stop confirmed Guareschi, “We’re going to do development work during the race weekends, and after the GP at Brno and with the test team at Jerez and Mugello. At Laguna Seca, Nicky Hayden will also have the GP11.1. We have to fix it, make it more flexible, even with extreme solutions. “

Rossi and Nicky Hayden have only three more testing days available on the GP12 and two of those days will be spent at the Misano World circuit, ” We’ll not be testing at Mugello anymore, “ reported Guareschi. “We’ll do a two day test at Misano, with both Rossi and Hayden and the third day we’ll keep free, because we’ll have to test new stuff”.

....

1 comment

Ducati is going all out in trying to give Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden a much easier Ducati GP11 to ride and their test team is currently at the Mugello circuit, that has been recently repaved for a three day testing session trying out new parts ahead of this weekend’s Estoril GP and for the post race test day.

Team manager and factotum Vitto Guareschi and test rider Franco Battaini are working on the new electronics that the riders will be using during the race weekend, but they are also testing a new and less stiffer and more flexible chassis and swingarm that will probably be evaluated by Rossi and Hayden on Monday, so as not to risk valuable practice and qualifying sessions on development.

Ducati is also continuing its work on the GP12 during this stint at the Mugello.

Source | motoblog.it

....

1 comment

If you’ve been following Grand Prix racing for a number of years, many of you may remember Franco Battaini. The Italian rider who presently races in the Italian Supersport series, may become Ducati’s new test rider, replacing the recently promoted Vitto Guareschi.

Battaini used to race in the 250cc GP Championship and in 2005 was in MotoGP with the doomed Blata-WCM team and then did a few races in WSBK’s

The Italian rider has already ‘secretly’ tested Casey Stoner’s Ducati at the Mugello racetrack last October doing 18 laps and Battiani describes the peformance of Desmosedici in that occasion as ‘impressive’ despite the bad weather that limited his testing will now get a second opportunity to try the bike at Jerez next month.

“Guareschi is my friend and I’ve known him for years and he’s the one that talked to Ducati about me and they gave me the opportunity to test Stoner’s bike at the Mugello. It was an incredible experience, even for an expert rider like myself, but the test hasn’t sealed any deal.”

Continue reading: Franco Battaini to become Ducati's new Test Rider?

....

0 comments

We revealed two weeks ago in another post that Ducati’s official test rider Vittoriano Guareschi had been promoted to play liaison between Filippo Preziosi and the Ducati riders and you saw Guareschi on the podium at Sepang next to Stoner.

The Italian started his career in the Italian 125 cc Sport Production Series with Cagiva and ended his professional racing career in 2001 after racing for Ducati in WSBK Championship finishing16th in the standings.

The iconic Guareschi whose distinctive hairstyle (his brother Gianfranco aka “il Guaro” has the same hairstyle and is also a motorcycle racer) is a favorite among Ducati fans and has a fan club on Facebook and excellent off track relationships with almost all of the Italian riders.

In this week’s number 34 issue of Motosprint, Guareschi gave his first interview to explain his new role in the team adding that he isn’t going to give up testing completely:

Continue reading: Vitto Guareschi talks about his new role in Ducati

....

0 comments