Probably the biggest disappointment in the last pre-season test at Jerez was Ben Spies, with his 18th best time, two seconds off the pace and behind five CRT riders.
The new Pramac Ducati rider seems to be still struggling with shoulder recovery following the surgery he had last October and still isn’t quite fit, despite words of the contrary from the rider who said, “the shoulder’s actually improving quite a bit and I didn’t struggle with it, so I’m pleased with that and it’s a relief,” but Spies sat out the third day of testing to “preserve his shoulder without taking risks which could compromise the full recovery.
” In a long interview with Omnicorse.
it Ducati’s Paolo Ciabatti also talked about the American rider and the Italian manager seems highly sympathetic towards the struggling rider.
“I found a rider who’s been struggling from all of last year’s crashes and couldn’t race in the final race of the 2012 season.
He had surgery where they attached a tendon in his shoulder.
Ben needed to recover from a series of blows, and accidents like his leave their mark: and their consequences go away only if you have time to recover.
Spies has had time, but during the Sepang test there was still a risk of a relapse.
When you have a shoulder and a weaker arm, you have to force yourself to use the other one more.
I think Ben is an enormously talented rider.
I’ve known him since he was 16 years old and was racing in the States and years ago I wanted to bring him into Ducati to race the AMA Superbike Championship … “.
“Ben has proven to be a winner, both in the AMA, where he won three consecutive times and in the Superbike World Championship, he won in his debut year in 2009.
Two years ago at Assen he won and and a Valencia lost the race by just a few thousandths of a second, but then he experienced a very difficult 2012, not only regarding the crashes, but also how he lived out his entire season with Yamaha.
At one point he decided to raise the white flag, tweeting that he wouldn’t ride in MotoGP again.
Spies is returning from a highly plagued season and he’s also a very particular person, rather introverted, but he expresses himself on track what he doesn’t show off track ““If Ducati chose him, and I wasn’t back with them then, it’s because the company believes he’s a rider with a very high potential.
He demonstrated that in WSBK and in MotoGP, especially in 2011.
I hope we can put him in a condition so that he can give his best.
I can’t believe that with the talent Spies has, that it’s disappeared.
There are situations where a rider has to have the time to pick up the physical pieces and then maybe even the psychological ones that can be the result of a deeply frustrating situation.
He’s the first who wants to return to the front.
Ben must first heal 100%, especially if you want to ride bikes that are so powerful and physical as ours.
I think that in the second half of the season, he’ll prove to be the rider that we all know.
”Ciabatti has a lot of faith in Spies and the rider in an interview with the official MotoGP website said,”It’s not as bad as it looks but we definitely need to work really hard.
We’re just kind of sitting on top of the bike and not doing much, so I just want to be able to feel what the bike is doing a little bit more.
We know we’re still behind and will still be going into the first race, but that’s just the way it is and we’ll keep plugging away.
”Pramac’s team manager Francesco Guidotti, told Italian website GPone.
com that the team for the first two races with useJerez set-up and then slowly they’ll receive development upgrades from Ducati, however there is no fixed date when they will receive them.