Chip, chip, chip… That’s the sound of Ducati’s MotoGP crew slowly chipping away at their disadvantage to Honda and Yamaha.
It would be too soon to talk of a Ducati renaissance but Mugello was by far the factory’s best Grand Prix so far this year. Only a few months ago it seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel; now both Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden can see the way forward.
Their pace in the second half was so impressive that both riders closed relentlessly on the Bradl/Dovizioso duel for third, Hayden throwing caution to the wind as he barged past Bradl on the last lap. He wasn’t close enough to the front to be in ‘win it or bin it’ mode, but at least he had a chance of ‘podium or opprobrium’.
“When I passed Bradl I was trying to get on Dovi’s rear wheel,” said Hayden. “I threw up a Hail Mary and went for it. The thought of being on the podium on the Ducati in Italy was incredible.”
As it turned out, Bradl exacted revenge on Hayden at the next corner, the mightily impressive rookie muscling through on the inside and hanging the American out to dry. Hayden nearly ran off the track, which made him easy prey for Rossi and Cal Crutchlow who had been together for most of the race.
One moment Hayden could almost taste the podium champagne (okay, it’s Spanish cava in MotoGP), the next he was crossing the line in seventh. “It’s tough to take,” he said. “It really hurts, but I’ll get over it. Probably.”
Rossi finished fifth, one second off the podium and 11 seconds off the win. At Silverstone he had been 34 seconds down, in Germany it was 28 seconds.
“From half-distance I had a good pace,” said Rossi, sounding more optimistic than he’s been for a long time.
Mugello may be Ducati’s test track, but Rossi’s most crucial improvement came on race day, not during testing. “After warm-up we modified the front,” he added. “After that the bike was very strong on corner entry, so I could push a lot on the front.”
Is this the big breakthrough? It’s not so long ago that Ducati seemed entirely incapable of curing the Desmosedici’s disastrous front-end grip problems.
The next priorities are softening power delivery and fixing understeer. Rossi has his biggest understeer problems when he fits a soft rear tyre to go for his ‘time attack’ during qualifying. The softer rear gives him more grip than the front tyre can handle, so when he accelerates out of a corner the bike drifts out to the kerb and he can’t get on the gas as hard as he’d like.
“We struggle too much in qualifying, so I cannot get a good grid position, which makes things very difficult in the race,” he added.
Hayden was almost a second quicker in Mugello qualifying, but the American struggled with rear grip in the early stages of the race. “After warm-up Bridgestone told me the hard tyre I was planning to use for the race might blister, so they wanted me to use the extra-hard,” said Hayden. “I said ‘no way’, so we raised the pressure in the hard tyre instead.”
Increasing tyre pressure reduces temperature but also shrinks the contact patch which reduces grip.
“The rear came around on me a couple of times on the sighting lap. And in the race I didn’t have great grip until I played around with the engine map and found some traction. That’s when the guys going for third started coming back to me. It’s exciting. The bike has improved a lot in the last three or four races. We haven’t fixed all the problems but we are working in a good way.”
Rossi also advises Ducati against reinventing the Desmosedici. “It would be a mistake to restart from zero,” he said. “If we can fix these problems the bike could be very good for 2013.”
However, Rossi’s crew chief Jeremy Burgess believes significant changes are still required and is getting impatient with the rate of progress.
“This bike is still a frame wrapped around an engine, rather than an engine designed to go in a frame,” explained Burgess. “We need new crankcases because we can’t keep raising the engine because then the countershaft sprocket gets higher and higher which affects the swingarm pivot and thus handling. You’d think we would’ve had new ’cases by Le Mans, but here we are at the ninth race with the same bike we had at the first tests.
“There’s lots of other little things. The Honda gets a jump on us out of the corners because it’s smoother and the Yamaha is another step better. They’ve got primary and secondary injectors, while we’ve only got single injectors.”
Arguably the really big question is this: will Rossi be at Ducati in 2013? The Italian has been impressed by Audi – Ducati’s new owners – who seem determined to stay in MotoGP and make it work. But is that enough?
“The problem is that I have to trust that the situation will improve,” he said. “Maybe with help from Audi we can fix the problems. But it’s just a gamble.”
Meanwhile Crutchlow waits in the wings, wondering why his talks with Ducati seem to have cooled. When Rossi makes up his mind, only then will the Briton have a clue about what he’s doing in 2013.
Any bike without a front end must be horrible to ride. Understeer is as bland and boring as it can ever get. I haven’t raced bikes, but did have a go in front drive saloon cars so can appreciate the frustration.
Tail out, full throttle won’t work. To much rear tire degradation. The odd race win yes, but Championship points will be lost in the long run.
I hope it gets sorted soon.
I wonder when they are going to stop blaming the bike alone and start considering the rider. Rossi is still a genius but TBF he is at the end of his career and I cannot believe that Ducati suddenly has forgotten how to make a bike.
Mmm, what did Jeremy Burgess say? They would take 15mins to sort the Ducati out. Clock still ticking 18 months on and still nothing like a win on the cards. Stoner really is a genius isn’t he? How long is it going to take the European press to wake up to that fact? He is going to be really missed from Moto GP next year.
Dale, Ducati is constantly playing catch up to Honda and Yamaha. They simply haven’t shown any real innovation and are one step behind the Japanese teams. And I cannot believe that Rossi and Hayden suddenly have forgotten how to ride a bike.
Some very interesting comments by Jerry Burgess in that article. Seems like Ducati were not pushing forward with development of the GP12 for a few months,well at least not in the direction that Burgess wanted. Did they run out of budget or did Preziosi and his team want to take development in a different direction?
With what i understand to be record sales in North America for Ducati, it would surely be logical to keep Hayden in the team no matter if Rossi stays or goes ?
Plain and simple, Ducati dont have the budget everybody thinks they have, now Audi have arrived this may change but rest assured if results do not improve, heads will roll under German management! and that includes Valentino!
Very interesting article.
Rossi & Hayden are both world Champions, riding Bikes from a small factory which has always punched above it’s weight.
The Japanese teams just seem to be able to respond & make changes quickly at the factory?
Stoner is awesome, no doubt he has courage and ability on a bike.
Stoner lacks charisma from a “promotional” & advertising point of view, which is what AUDI will be looking at… Rossi & perhaps Hayden add glamour & Romance to a sport centred on branding and image cultivation.
Rossi has more value potential than David Beckham because he has won 9 titles. That keeps him in the game a while yet.
Lorenzo copied Rossi’s PR stunts and he has ability. Stoner isn’t happy being a performing Monkey off the bike, prefers to do his talking on the bike. When Stoner quits, there will be three generations of Riders, racing three evolutions of bike. That’s why Rossi & AUDI are in & Stoner is out… Ducati will be faster, no doubt, in 2013?
In Rossi’s first year at Ducati I was lucky enough to be at a fundraiser during the mid-season break where Burgess spoke for about 2.5 hours and fielded all manner of questions. On being asked about the quality of the Ducati GP bike he responded with a wry laugh saying “What quality?”.
He then went on to expand how even the simplest things like having a standard range of nuts and bolts attaching things seemd to be too hard for Ducati to organise, and how changing a rear wheel on the Ducati required 3 more spanners than on the Yamaha, and hence in practice they generally had one less tyre change available to them than the competition.
This is just one example of the complaints he had, but it says a lot about their approach.
Please… The Ducati boutique are rubbish. All they go on about is their historical roots. For years they won wth bigger capacity twins in wsbk until Hondas switch to twins. Honda rolls out a new bike to test. Ducati bring injectors and a junk ECU! Ducatis are finnicky POS on the road and in MotoGP. Don’t mention “casey could ride around the problem”.. He could ride around it and crashed most of the time. No older experienced rider is going to ride a bike like that.
Ducatis days are numbered.
Ducati forgot how to make a bike in 2008 when they dumped the steel trellis frame and came up with the carbon disaster for Stoner. He could not ride it and Hayden, Rossi and Ducati are still dealing with the fallout. Rossi is towards the end of his MotoGP career but it is daft to thionk that he could still not qualify in the top 5 and be on the podium once in a while. he may not be young but he is smart. As for Hayden he is not a start but has been ir is able to be consistent. MotoGP simply cannot afford to lose Ducati and Rossi for the next 2 years at least.
Lol…’ Stoner could not ride it, and Hayden and Rossi are still dealing with the fallout ‘
Really ? I guess 13 wins, 27 podiums from 2008-2010 on that same carbon ducati, really means he could not ride it. Um, yeah, right.
Quite right Pooch, Stoner always rated the c-f ‘monocoque’ to be a major advance on the trellis frame. I guess the reality is that Ducati are getting there slowly. Have to say I’m surprised how long it’s taken them. They could do with taking more not of JB’s pragmatism a bit more. Perhaps pride stops them. I’m most surprised by the engine – I could forgive the 800 for being too spiky at low rpm, but there’s really no excuse to have a 1000 that’s not sweet at the first touch of the throttle. I’ve just had an 1199 Panigale on test and really enjoyed it – a major leap forward from the trellis-framed 1198.
Ducati’s design engineers have, really since Capparossi rode for them, not directed they development based on rider inputs. Stoner had the ability to ride above the machines problems but Melandri was referred to a shrink when he couldn’t make the bike perform. Hayden and Rossi get respect and lip service but Burgess sums it up nicely, Ducati’s engineers go their own way. They have only two good tools, the desmodromic valve train and the political savvy which has kept them at the top of WSB up to the present. Ironically, their success in WSB has blunted their adaptation and exploration of the technical cutting edge of racing technology, resulting in their present position in MotoGP, and WSB competition.
@Jonathan Settle – very true, but that’s only good if you assume that no rider is bigger than the sport itself! Other riders may be sacked, but there is no way that Rossi will ever be dropped as Dorna would have a hissy fit. Germans may be able to tell the Greeks what to do with their money, but there is no way they’ll have that level of control over Valentino. Engineers however…
I think it’s fairly obvious with Bens departure from Yamaha that Valentino will go back to his beloved bike. Cal’s contract signing with Ducati is pending confirmation of Valentino’s decision. Yamaha need a the big sponsorship Vale will bring..and I’m certain he has big sponsorship lined up without difficulty. It’s clear reading between the lines that Ducati are not responding to JB’s requests…and Audi involvement is too little too late. Watch this space – Vale to Yamaha.
Big Big Big Rossi Ran, But when Stoner raced in the Uk on 125′s a guy I know bought his Championship winning bike thinking that it must be good! It was total crap! so thats how good a rider Stoner is! I dont think the Ducati has ever been a good Bike Just look at where all the others were in Races that Stoner was winning! I think Ducate need a clean slate if they want to ever win Races again, Very please that Hayden gets annother Term at Ducati very talented Guy (but they all are) If Rossi stays with Ducati it will be for one reason the chance of racing cars for Audi after his MOTOGP time is over! Much the same if he returns to Yamaha it will be for all the Publicity that he can bring them!
Motogp technology is constantly envolving and and i think has left ducati behind, they have not been willing to inject the money thats needed to keep the bike up there.