Valentino Rossi will be at Jerez de la Frontera on Thursday to test still another version of the GP12 1000cc (does that make it the GP12.
2 now?), thus making it seven testing days of the eight allowed, that Ducati has already used to prepare for the upcoming 2012 season.
Despite having tested with their contracted riders more times than Yamaha and Honda put together, Ducati is still way behind on developing even a final prototype to seriously work on, as apparently they’ll be trying out still another type of aluminium chassis and bets are on that it will be very similar to the twin spar/Deltabox used by the Japanese manufacturers.
Rossi has had horrific season so far.
‘The Doctor’ was once known as also being excellent development rider, but trying to ride the GP11 which has understeer and front end problems and trying to correct these problems with different solutions thrown at it, has shot down even this reputation.
Ducati’s latest attempt of introducing a partial frame in alluminium for the Aragon GP was a disaster and when Rossi say’s that “nothing they’ve tried is working” and that he still has to “adjust his riding position“, you damn well know that they are still in deep trouble and it may not limited only to this year.