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Ductalk: What's Up In The World Of Ducati
Ducati News Roundup Curated by Vicki Smith for Ducati.net |
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Editor's Note: This continues a series counting down the top 15 stories in MotoGP in 2012, as determined by the Soup staff.
Filippo Preziosi was more than just an engineer and leading brain at Ducati's racing efforts for nearly 20 years—he almost became the face of the team.
Preziosi joined Ducati in 1994 and rode a red rocket to the top of the company's technical chain of command. He became technical director of Ducati Corse in 1999, responsible for development of the company's entries in World Superbike....
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Ousted Ducati MotoGP boss Filippo Preziosi says he is optimistic that the Bologna factory is destined for a successful future.
The Italian will no longer serve as Ducati Corse’s General and Technical Manager from January, 2013 after Ducati owners Audi implemented a major management restructure today (Tuesday).
For the rest click HERE
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Bernhard Gobmeier becomes the new General Manager of Ducati Corse
Filippo Preziosi assumes the position of Director of R&D Ducati Motor Holding
Paolo Ciabatti appointed as Ducati MotoGP Project Director
For the rest of the restructure info, click HERE
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Suter to build the Desmosedici MotoGP chassis?
Rumours of a major upheaval at Ducati have been omnipresent since the Italian manufacturer was purchased by Audi in the summer.
But today (Saturday) several Italian media outlets have reported that the team's technical chief, Filippo Preziosi, will be ousted after next week's Valencia test and that a major shift in philosophy will take place in Bologna.
Preziosi, they say, will be removed from his position as head of Ducati's MotoGP design team, but perhaps far more significant is that the factory's ideology could also change.
Since purchasing Ducati, Audi have taken stock of the team's problems in 2012 and identified key areas with which they will make wholesale changes. The most significant of these could see Suter build the chassis while Ducati concentrate on developing the engine.
For the rest of this story click HERE
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According to Italian website Moto.it, things in the Valencia Ducati Corse box are tense this weekend because much Audi ordered change is in store for the Ducati team after the race weekend and 2 day Valencia test....
For the rest of this story click HERE
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Filippo Preziosi has admitted that he wasn’t surprised that Valentino Rossi rejected a multi-million pound offer to finish his MotoGP career with the Bologna factory.
For the rest click HERE
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Ducati Corse director and Ducati's engineering guru Filippo Preziosi was a busy man at Misano. Besides overseeing the race weekend at the circuit and preparing for the test on Monday, Preziosi spent a lot of time talking to a number of journalists. MotoMatters.com was one of the lucky few who were offered ten minutes with Preziosi, and so we jumped at the chance. In the interview, Preziosi covered a number of topics: the Ducati junior team strategy, Ducati's four riders for 2013, the current and expected developments for next season were all among the subjects discussed. Preziosi also talked about the effect of the spec ECU which will be introduced for 2014, and gave the impression he was not necessarily opposed to the idea. Below is what Preziosi had to say to us:
To read the interview click HERE
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Filippo Preziosi is keeping a tight hand on the helm of the Ducati technical team, which is currently navigating in difficult waters. While the German winds blowing down from Audi have helped to fill his sails, the criticism from Burgess, indiscretions from Furusawa and departure of Rossi have been sending waves over the bow for quite some time.
Continuous Development – Jeremy Burgess has made some critical statements in recent weeks, claiming that Ducati didn't produce enough updates for the bike. Preziosi responded:"We do continuous development work on the bike, and maybe Jeremy didn't realize that. Early in the season we concentrated on the aluminum swingarm, because that is what Rossi asked of us. We made two versions, but they didn't give us any advantage and we returned to the carbon fiber units, where were also lighter."
Read more: http://www.gpone.com/index.php/en/201209148199/Preziosi-the-development-truth.html#ixzz26Y1LPgTl
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Motomatters Editor's note: The news that the former head of Yamaha's MotoGP program Masao Furusawa had visited Italy to talk to Ducati Corse boss Filippo Preziosi spread like wildfire through the racing world. After initial sightings in Italy of Furusawa, rumors quickly began to spread that the legendary Japanese engineer had been contacted by Ducati to help them fix their troubled Desmosedici, in a bid to keep Valentino Rossi at the factory. The rumors turned out to be true, and so veteran Japanese journalist Akira Nishimura visited Furusawa at his Kyoto home to ask him about the visit. Furusawa explained how he visited Italy at Filippo Preziosi's request, talked of his motorcycle design philosophy, and explains why he decided to turn down Ducati's request for help. Furusawa goes on to talk about visiting Valentino Rossi in Tavullia to discuss his future, and gives his vision of Rossi's chances at Yamaha.
The interview gives a fascinating insight into a key point in motorcycle racing history. It highlights the lengths to which Ducati is willing to go to change their fortunes, and it also highlights interesting aspects of Japanese culture, and the effect they can have on the direction of racing and the individuals involved.
For the interview click HERE
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Ducati will start utilising Audi’s vast technical expertise immediately to try and improve its Desmosedici project in the MotoGP world championship.
Ducati technical boss Filippo Preziosi said Audi’s acquisition of the Bologna factory in a deal rumoured to be worth over £700m would give Ducati’s engineering group access to a huge pool of knowledge.
The Italian manufacturer is trying to close down the performance gap to rivals Honda and Yamaha and Preziosi confirmed that he and his technical staff will work closely with Audi to exchange information and ideas.
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Filippo Preziosi would have preferred that the track do the talking today, so he could carefully listen to every comment and critique from his riders regarding the latest updates to the GP12. Instead the bikes were stuck in the pit lane, held hostage by the latest rainy day. The only thing left to do was pack up the bikes and look forward to the next test session, later this month at Mugello. "The weather has ruined all our plans. We were hoping for rain on Sunday during the race, and sun today for the test, but it didn't work out like that," the Ducati technical director joked.
Read more: http://www.gpone.com/index.php/en/201205076860/Preziosi-la-soluzione-in-3-test.html#ixzz1uIg3w38M
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In a press conference held at the cancelled Estoril test, Filippo Preziosi, General and Technical Director of Ducati Corse, outlined the team’s testing plans in the quest for improved engine driveability and stated that Laguna Seca could see some big changes to the Desmosedici.
Speaking about Valentino Rossi’s seventh place at last weekend’s Grande Prémio de Portugal Circuito Estoril, he said: "I think the result yesterday is based mainly on the small steps taken between one practice session and the next, keeping the same basic bike set-up and just trying to solve the small problems that you have practice by practice. Of course the result is better than before, but it is not at the level we are expecting, so we know we have to close the gap."...more on the headline link above
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A 1m Euro (£830,000) cap on the cost of leasing a MotoGP bike in the future will make it impossible for Ducati to deliver the same high level of technology featured on its existing customer bikes.
To ensure MotoGP is more affordable in the future for independent teams like Tech 3, Gresini, LCR and potential new entries, factories could be forced to charge no more than 1m Euros for their bikes under radical proposals currently under discussion.
But Ducati boss Filippo Preziosi said it would be impossible to lease a current GP12 for that price and he told MCN: “That bike with all the technology, no we couldn’t lease for that price. It is necessary to be very clear about what the fee includes...more
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Ducati Team concludes Sepang test with sunny weather and busy schedule
Despite a negative weather forecast, the final day of the Sepang test was the only one of the three not affected by rain. Valentino Rossi stayed on the track until the last minute in order to complete as much work as possible for the Ducati engineers, who continue working on the development of the GP12. As for Nicky Hayden, despite still not being in perfect physical condition, he continued testing into the afternoon, and on his very last exit, he had a harmless low-speed fall in Turn 1.
Both riders found the new electronics that were introduced at this test to be a breakthrough, although they didn’t find the ideal setup for improving their lap times and ended the day in tenth and eleventh positions. Still, they both reduced their gap to the front considerably compared to the first test.
The next winter test is scheduled for March 23-25 at the Spanish Jerez circuit.
Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 10th, 2:01.550 (57 laps)
“One small positive note to the day is that we reduced the gap to the front a little bit. It was 1.2 seconds, and now it’s 1 second. It’s also nice that the new electronics work well, but it hurts being down on the timesheets compared to all the others. We tried a bunch of things in order to take a step forward from the first test, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to do it and were actually worse. It was harder for me to ride well compared to three weeks ago, especially my corner speed. It’s true that this test was more difficult in terms of weather and track conditions, but it seemed to affect us more than the others. Honestly, I expected to do better than tenth. We were also unfortunate because at the best part of the day, when I did a 2:01.5 and we had some tyres to try to lower the time further, we had a problem with the fork that cost us some time. Maybe without that we would have cut another three or four tenths and been further up, but our pace is still about seven tenths back. Honestly, that’s not a huge amount, but anyway we’re still behind. We’re not pleased with how it went this time, but we have to try and work hard and see what happens at Jerez, where the track is very different than this one, with much different weather and temperatures. We’ll see how we do there.”
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 11th, 2:01.609 (44 laps)
“Of course I would prefer to have been closer to the front, but it’s my first real test of the year. The bike feels better on braking and into the corner, and I like the feedback it gives me. Also, the lap times don’t seem as affected when the track gets hot and greasy. We need to work on some chatter and on corner exits. We have plenty of ideas, as there are a lot of things we didn’t get to try this week because of the weather. Toward the end, I lost the front end in Turn 1 and crashed, but it was an easy one and I’m fine. I’m happy with how my shoulder is coming along. I hope that with three more weeks of recovering and rehab, it should be close to 100 per cent for Jerez.”
Filippo Preziosi (General Manager, Ducati Corse)
“It was sunny for the last day of the Sepang test, and after almost completely losing the first two days due to rain, we had to concentrate a lot of work into a relatively short time. Clearly, situations like that make it more difficult to achieve maximum performance because the setup changes continuously. Today Valentino is tenth and Nicky is eleventh, and obviously we would prefer to be further up. Anyway, they both liked the new electronics package that we had for this test. We’ll keep working hard between now and the next test at Jerez, where we’ll try to put everything we have together and optimize it.”
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Ducati general manager Filippo Preziosi believes his team has made a step forward after three days of testing at Jerez.
Test rider Franco Battaini rode on all three days, focusing on honing the electronics and setups of the new 1000cc GP12 bike.
Preziosi said that he was was satisfied that the bike has made a step forward and is keen to give race riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden a go on the updated machine at the official Sepang test.
"We were lucky because we had three days with very good weather conditions," Preziosi said. "And that enabled us to do quite a bit of work. With Franco we continued with the test programme that was planned for the test team over the winter, trying some aspects of the electronics that we'll keep working on with the factory riders at Sepang....more
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The annual Wrooom event in Madonna di Campiglio held its traditional press conference on Ducati’s new MotoGP bike on Wednesday, wherein Ducati Corse boss Filippo Preziosi previewed the technical details of the 2012 Ducati Desmosecici that Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will ride this season.
Preziosi announced that the GP12 is a complete redesign of bike tested by Rossi in Valencia, but warned that it will look deceivingly similar. It will still sport an aluminum perimetric frame and carbon swingarm, but they are new editions and the only components that actually remain the same are parts of the front (forks and steering components). He assured that the rest of the bike is completely redesigned, stating: "Ninety percent of the parts are brand new."
He continued: "We significantly changed the distribution of weight and the bike dimensions to be in the middle of the adjustment range." This suggests that a greater range of adjustments will be able to be made according to rider preference and track condition....More
