Ducati was back on track today at the Misano circuit for another day of testing, with both factory riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden and test rider Franco Battaini who worked on electronics.
Despite his still healing hand that caused him some considerable pain during yesterday’s race, Hayden was still able to do a brief comparative test (14 laps) between his current GP12 and the new evo machine with an updated chassis and swingarm that team mate Rossi used during the weekend (Hayden was not given the new material during the Misano round because Ducati preferred not to confuse him with the updates as he was returning from injury) and the American seemed to promote the updates which will allow more configurations and even if his lap times weren’t released, he confirmed that he was able to ride faster than during the Misano GP.
“In order not to stress my hand too much, we only did two runs today—one with basically my race bike, and one with the new frame—but it was nice to get an idea of the chassis.
I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to notice the difference, but I could actually feel more than I expected.
I felt better with it, for sure.
I had more confidence because there’s better front grip for braking into the corners, and because of that, also better turning.
I think it’s certainly a step in the right direction, straight away, and I’m happy with the work Ducati has done.
Because I was able to brake a bit differently, I’ll probably need to stiffen the fork spring a bit, but already, it was a good step.
I’m quite happy, and at Aragon we’ll start to work on the setup,” said Hayden who rode only in the morning.
Even if Rossi will be leaving Ducati at the end of the season, he is still very much involved in testing new updates and parts for the Italian manufacturer.
The Italian who took a breakthrough second in yesterday’s race, took to track this afternoon and put in 53 laps, testing a third chassis that had the same geometry, only with a different stiffness and another swingarm and he reportedly posted a best time of 1.
34.
9.
Rossi also tried the new 2013 Bridgestone tire that the Yamaha and Honda riders had tested in the post-race test at Brno (Ducati decided to skip the Brno test and do a private one at Misano).
“It was a good day.
Today we tried a different chassis that had a different stiffness, but honestly, I didn’t like it a lot,” said Rossi.
“It was an improvement in some areas, but we had some new problems in other areas.
In the end, it’s not a real improvement, so I don’t think we’ll use it again.
But the positive thing is that we tried a new swingarm that I liked a lot because it gave me more edge grip and more rear grip under acceleration, and it helps the bike to stay more stable on corner exits.
So of the two things, one worked.
I think we’ll use the new swingarm starting in Aragon, so there we’ll see what our potential is on another track.
”Regarding the upcoming race at Aragon, Rossi also mentioned that it will be important to see if it was the previous test at Misano that helped them, as the rest of the riders were hampered by the mixed weather conditions and didn’t have much time to find a proper dry set-up.
Filippo Preziosi who also stayed at Misano to supervise the test said, “It was a very useful test: We had prepared a chassis that was the same as that used by Valentino in yesterday’s race in terms of geometry, but different in terms of rigidity.
Valentino gave us feedback that will allow us to design an evolution that has the positive characteristics that he noticed, and which match what we expected from the calculations we had made, but without losing precision.
We also had a different swingarm that Valentino liked, so we’ll bring it to Aragon.
Nicky did his first comparison between the pre-Misano frame and swingarm and those used by Valentino yesterday.
His initial comments were positive, but we’ll have to check again at Aragon when his physical condition is better.
Based on the data we gathered today, we’re speeding up production of the next step of the frame, which could arrive before Valencia.
”