Ducati Brings a Knife to a Gun Fight
It was almost a throw away line in the Ducati Corse Release ahead of the Brno round of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship. ‘A test will take place on the Monday after the Grand Prix, and the Ducati Team will dedicate that day to working on the 800.’ Honda and Yamaha will test their 1,000cc machines.
Although Nicky Hayden will race the GP11 he has ridden all year both he and team mate Valentino Rossi will test only the GP11.1 on the Monday whilst Honda will bring out their 1,000 and Yamaha will test theirs for the first time with their MotoGP regulars. Instead Ducati plans to test the GP12 again privately at Misano. What is Ducati up to? Ducati News Today can think of three possibilities.
Ducati Doesn’t Want the Humiliation of a 1,000cc Head to Head
With Ducati’s MotoGP machines finishing races this year 20-30 seconds behind the winner the hope for the factory, fans and Rossi alike is that things will be different in 2012 with new regulations that allow for an engine capacity of up to 1,000cc. The last thing the company needs is a repeat of the 2011 racing performance in a test of new machines. Imagine, Yamaha and Honda lapping their 2012 machines at 1.5-2 seconds a lap faster at Brno.
There is already a suggestion that, as better as the GP12 is over the GP11, the 2012 Honda is faster still.
“With the GP12 I felt good right away, since the first test. I’ve ridden it three times, once in Jerez and twice at Mugello. We don’t have many references, especially compared to the other teams, so our true level of competitiveness remains to be seen. I know that Honda has been quick from the start, especially in Jerez, but we’ve continued work on the bike and at Mugello we saw some encouraging changes. More than anything it’s a matter of feeling: with the GP12, I felt comfortable right from the start, and then with each small change it was better and better. We’ll see what we can do when the time comes. I heard that Stoner went faster than us, but we’ll see how much truth there is to that information.”
link: motogp.com · Rossi doesn’t view GP11.1 as a “last resort”
At Mugello the times showed that the GP12 still isn’t as fast the 2011 800cc Honda!
Ducati’s GP11.1 is their GP12 (almost)
Through a cunning plan, the GP11.1 is effectively a 2012 GP12. The difference is that the 2012 engine has been de-stroked to displace 800cc per the 2011 regulations. As a consequence this strongly suggests what even Ducati themselves have hinted at, the 2012 Ducati Desmosedici will displace less than 1,000cc possibly as little as 930cc.
In any event testing the GP11.1 is tantamount to testing the GP12 chassis which will provide valuable feedback. However Rossi has indicated that the GP11.1 doesn’t handle as well as the GP12 presumably due to the different and greater power delivery of the larger engine. This means that the testing of the GP11.1 is less relevant to the 2012 effort than could otherwise be expected.
Ducati Plans a heavily revised GP12 and they want to Test it in Private
Another possibility is that Ducati is hard at work on some significant changes to the GP12. David Emmett provided an exhaustive analysis of Ducati’s woes and concluded that it was the 90º angle of the V4 engine that was the issue rather than the carbon fiber monocoque chassis. Although David’s conclusion is not unreasonable and consistent with the known facts it isn’t necessarily the correct conclusion.
Ducati News Today believes it is more likely that Ducati will test an aluminum monocoque chassis to try and see if it can deliver more rider front end feedback. When the carbon fiber monocoque debuted on the Ducati GP9, the factory also showed an aluminum version during testing. This development, if true, would have the benefit of being even closer to the solution chosen for the 2012 Ducati 1199 Superbike.
Ducati has already used 5 of the 8 allowed test sessions with MotoGP riders whilst Honda has used just two and Honda not a single day. The test at Brno will be the first time that all 3 major manufacturers will test their new bikes at the same time.
In many ways the Monday test will be more interesting than Sunday’s race.
Source: 2012 Testing data from Crash.net
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Emmett’a conclusion is like a surgeon who mistakenly cut off a leg on the wrong patient; and to correct things is to cut off the other leg.. The original gp bike with the trellis was excellent out of the box. No frame gp11 blows. So, the conclusion is remove another Ducati advantage. Do not kid yourself, the trellis frame was a huge advantage. This engine stressed member frame BS is crap whether it is made from carbon fiber, aluminum or tootise rolls. Honda is laughing at Ducati right now so hard for shooting themselves in the foot . Do you think the competition is sweating the new superbike or is happy that Ducati is going the way of the gp11. Honestly, has Ducati ever, had one motorcycle with handling issues in it’s history…no. Only one….and because of it, there is huge concern over the new superbike. Nobody wants to preorder it because of too many unknowns with it. Ducati corse took a gamble and may loose everything . If you look like you cannot be competitive, you start losing sponsors …no matter who you are. Ducati had better stop listening to idiot armchair experts and build bikes they know how to. The only reason they are in this mess to begin with is the media complained about too stiff of a frame.. boo hoo. I am no engineer, but look at nature. A cheetah has an advanced frame. A slug has no frame. But if nature only gave the slug a 45 degree heart it would be faster