Rossi gets first 'test' of the Ducati !

Creating quite a stir with his switch from Yamaha to Ducati for the 2011 MotoGP season, seven-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi has consciously undertaken a big challenge and one that he and many others are most certainly looking forward to - an Italian World Champion on an Italian motorcycle. Rossi made his first appearance aboard the Ducati Desmosedici race-bike at the two-day Valencia tests and unquestionably it stirred a lot of excitement not only amongst Rossi and Ducati fans but the entire world of motorcycle racing. A similar kind of thrill was felt when Rossi switched from Honda to Yamaha in 2004 but the results of his first test astride the Yamaha YZR-M1 were far more promising and exciting despite lesser time period to setup and test the Yamaha M1.

Blame it on the bad shoulder or front-end woes on the Ducati Desmosedici, Vale's first outing on the Italian race-bike has raised quite a few questions like if Rossi will be able to deliver the same kind of performance astride the Ducati like he did in his first year with Yamaha. While the cynics are contemplating over Rossi's 15th place finish at the Valencia tests, his legendary crew chief, Jeremy Burgess who joins him at Ducati is confident that Rossi will be on the pace by the start of the 2011 MotoGP season. Validating Burgess's claim is the fact that the difference between the laptimes of Rossi and fastest finisher at Valencia tests - Casey Stoner astride the 2011 Honda RC212V, was merely 1.6 seconds.

This was Rossi's first ever outing on the Ducati and the tests were mainly about which firing order best suits Valentino Rossi's riding style. Ducati has readied two engines - one with the Big Bang firing order and the other one with a screamer configuration. Over the two-days of tests, Rossi worked closely together with Filippo Preziosi, general manager, Ducati Corse, on setting up the GP11 Ducati machine with the big bang engine configuration. From the post-test data gathered and Rossi's feedback, it is certain that the team will mostly go along with the big bang engine as it works in accordance with Rossi's riding style.
As Rossi is still under the contract from Yamaha, he was unable to provide quotes after the tests, but Preziosi was optimistic with the results and commented, "Rossi tested the GP11 with the 'big bang' engine on a standard setting, which he modified step by step to adapt it to his riding style. His first comment when he lifted his visor up was a positive one about the power delivery and then he gave some impressive technical details. We certainly have a lot to do to adapt the bike to his riding style but it is really nice and very interesting to work in this way."