You know how things roll in the world of powersports: the crazier and more dangerous the sport is, the more devout fans of a certain team, sportsman, sportswoman or brand are. Remember how some year and a half ago, unnerved Ducati fans started a petition asking Borgo Panigale to just call it quits with their MotoGP business and focus on other, more successful endeavors?
The petition mentioned how Ducati “brought great embarrassment and sorrow to its loyal customers and fans” and the undersigned asked “to either make a 360 degree turn going back to the carbon or tubular frame, or to quit competing Moto GP and concentrating in the WSBK championship.”
Claudio Domenicali has not heeded the somewhat founded clamor of MotoGP Ducatisti and decided to make some changes, with the first one being the replacement of Filippo Preziosi, the general manager of Ducati Corse, with Bernhard Gobmeier who had previously worked for BMW… until a new GM could be installed.
Salvation for Domenicali indirectly came from Aprilia, as the house of Noale could not retain the services of Gigi Dall’Igna, over matters which are of lesser importance for the moment. What IS, however, important is that Domenicali gave Dall’Igna a free hand in the reformation of Ducati Corse and seemingly enough financial resources (partly Audi euros) to do whatever was necessary to wipe the shame off Ducati’s name.
After the initial 6 months Dall’Igna said he needed to assess what was wrong with Ducati, it looks like the art of the silver-haired magician is starting to show some positive results. He started working on a completely new bike, powered by a new, smaller and lighter V4 engine, in a different chassis and with different bodywork which has already been tested in races.
Whether the new frame Ducati plans to use in 2015 is only a derived, tweaked version of the actual design is yet unclear and open to numerous speculations. A carbon fiber monocoque, or a tubular trellis design like the one KTM is working on for their 2017 comeback, it’s great as long as it reduces the gap the Desmosedici bikes have been struggling with for the past 3 and a half seasons.
Obviously, the best Ducati man of the year has so far been Andrea Dovizioso, with Cal Crutchlow not getting along at all with his bike. Even more, after he decided to leave for LCR Honda in 2015, and therefore no longer getting new stuff for his Ducati, we can safely say that was about everything he could do with the Reds. Pramac’s Andrea Iannone was the best Ducati machine on the track on three occasions, and seeing him as Dovi’s 2015 team mate is no surprise
And speaking about gaps, here’s how things evolved in the current championship. The figures are rounded to seconds, as there would be no point in using thousandths of a second when dealing with such gaps. At the same time, I only took the gap between the winner of the round and the best-placed Ducati.
The first half of the season saw the best Ducati machine averaging at 18 seconds behind the winner, which is about the same as being two weeks late for a MotoGP factory bike. Qatar 12 seconds, COTA 20, Argentina 19 (Iannone), Jerez 27, Le Mans 22, Mugello 17, Barcelona 16, Assen 6 (2nd place for Dovi) and a 23-second gap for Iannone at Sachsenring, this is how competitive Ducati was in the first 9 races.
However, in the 4 rounds after the summer break, things started to move a bit differently: Indianapolis 20 seconds, Brno 17 (Iannone) and starting with Silverstone, 9 and 5.5 seconds (Misano). Though prematurely, math indicates a 12.9-second-long gap.
The last race in Misano is even more interesting, as Dovizioso was not only closest to the winner than he’s ever been this season, but he battled Dani Pedrosa for third spot and had an exceptional pace. Pedrosa was 4.276 seconds behind Rossi, who won, but Dovi was 5.510 seconds adrift from the leader. On the other hand, Iannone was 51 thousandths of a second behind Lorenzo in Qualifying 2, again one of the rather rare occasions Ducati could count during the lasts seasons. This means that the bikes are getting closer to the front runners, and this means Dall’Igna’s solutions ARE WORKING.
With the current bikes being more or less the same old thing Ducati has been using before Dall’Igna worked his magic on them and each test and race providing him and his team with even more data on how the implemented changes and new solutions work, I wonder how the GP15 will fare.
Unlike Rossi and Crutchlow, Ducati can rely on riders with a lot of experience aboard the Desmosedici, well-acquainted to what the bike can do and more important, to what it can’t do. If the two are showing solid signs of real improvement with the steering impairment the actual GP14 machines have (understeering), then solving this problem even partially would also help Ducati get even closer to the front riders.
At the same time, better steering will also help the riders manage their tires much better. Watching the early laps of each race shows a very aggressive GP14, with either Dovi or Iannone aboard, but they slowly fall back as the race gets underway, trying to save the tires. Helping with this will again cut some tens or even more off their lap times which, in the end, will make the battle for the podium a lot more interesting.
Ducati’s Paolo Ciabatti said that the new engine would not make it to the Valencia post-race test, as Dall’Igna wants to make all the changes in a single move, so we’re most likely going to wait for the GP15 to show up in the Sepang test. Until then, if Dovizioso and Iannone, who are riding the latest version of the bike, can manage to maintain or even lessen the gap to the winners, we’re definitely in for quite a show in 2015. Cometh Aragon and let Ducati show what they’ve got!
Claudio Domenicali has not heeded the somewhat founded clamor of MotoGP Ducatisti and decided to make some changes, with the first one being the replacement of Filippo Preziosi, the general manager of Ducati Corse, with Bernhard Gobmeier who had previously worked for BMW… until a new GM could be installed.
Salvation for Domenicali indirectly came from Aprilia, as the house of Noale could not retain the services of Gigi Dall’Igna, over matters which are of lesser importance for the moment. What IS, however, important is that Domenicali gave Dall’Igna a free hand in the reformation of Ducati Corse and seemingly enough financial resources (partly Audi euros) to do whatever was necessary to wipe the shame off Ducati’s name.
After the initial 6 months Dall’Igna said he needed to assess what was wrong with Ducati, it looks like the art of the silver-haired magician is starting to show some positive results. He started working on a completely new bike, powered by a new, smaller and lighter V4 engine, in a different chassis and with different bodywork which has already been tested in races.
Whether the new frame Ducati plans to use in 2015 is only a derived, tweaked version of the actual design is yet unclear and open to numerous speculations. A carbon fiber monocoque, or a tubular trellis design like the one KTM is working on for their 2017 comeback, it’s great as long as it reduces the gap the Desmosedici bikes have been struggling with for the past 3 and a half seasons.
Obviously, the best Ducati man of the year has so far been Andrea Dovizioso, with Cal Crutchlow not getting along at all with his bike. Even more, after he decided to leave for LCR Honda in 2015, and therefore no longer getting new stuff for his Ducati, we can safely say that was about everything he could do with the Reds. Pramac’s Andrea Iannone was the best Ducati machine on the track on three occasions, and seeing him as Dovi’s 2015 team mate is no surprise
And speaking about gaps, here’s how things evolved in the current championship. The figures are rounded to seconds, as there would be no point in using thousandths of a second when dealing with such gaps. At the same time, I only took the gap between the winner of the round and the best-placed Ducati.
The first half of the season saw the best Ducati machine averaging at 18 seconds behind the winner, which is about the same as being two weeks late for a MotoGP factory bike. Qatar 12 seconds, COTA 20, Argentina 19 (Iannone), Jerez 27, Le Mans 22, Mugello 17, Barcelona 16, Assen 6 (2nd place for Dovi) and a 23-second gap for Iannone at Sachsenring, this is how competitive Ducati was in the first 9 races.
However, in the 4 rounds after the summer break, things started to move a bit differently: Indianapolis 20 seconds, Brno 17 (Iannone) and starting with Silverstone, 9 and 5.5 seconds (Misano). Though prematurely, math indicates a 12.9-second-long gap.
The last race in Misano is even more interesting, as Dovizioso was not only closest to the winner than he’s ever been this season, but he battled Dani Pedrosa for third spot and had an exceptional pace. Pedrosa was 4.276 seconds behind Rossi, who won, but Dovi was 5.510 seconds adrift from the leader. On the other hand, Iannone was 51 thousandths of a second behind Lorenzo in Qualifying 2, again one of the rather rare occasions Ducati could count during the lasts seasons. This means that the bikes are getting closer to the front runners, and this means Dall’Igna’s solutions ARE WORKING.
With the current bikes being more or less the same old thing Ducati has been using before Dall’Igna worked his magic on them and each test and race providing him and his team with even more data on how the implemented changes and new solutions work, I wonder how the GP15 will fare.
Unlike Rossi and Crutchlow, Ducati can rely on riders with a lot of experience aboard the Desmosedici, well-acquainted to what the bike can do and more important, to what it can’t do. If the two are showing solid signs of real improvement with the steering impairment the actual GP14 machines have (understeering), then solving this problem even partially would also help Ducati get even closer to the front riders.
At the same time, better steering will also help the riders manage their tires much better. Watching the early laps of each race shows a very aggressive GP14, with either Dovi or Iannone aboard, but they slowly fall back as the race gets underway, trying to save the tires. Helping with this will again cut some tens or even more off their lap times which, in the end, will make the battle for the podium a lot more interesting.
Ducati’s Paolo Ciabatti said that the new engine would not make it to the Valencia post-race test, as Dall’Igna wants to make all the changes in a single move, so we’re most likely going to wait for the GP15 to show up in the Sepang test. Until then, if Dovizioso and Iannone, who are riding the latest version of the bike, can manage to maintain or even lessen the gap to the winners, we’re definitely in for quite a show in 2015. Cometh Aragon and let Ducati show what they’ve got!
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