The Ducati MotoGP team concluded three days of testing in Sepang, Malaysia. This offered Valentino Rossi his first opportunity to test the Desmosedici GP11 in full team colours.
Rossi and team-mate Nicky Hayden were able to take full advantage of three full days on the track with no rain, that enabled the Ducati MotoGP team to return to Italy with a large quantity of information and data that can be used to continue the development of the GP11.
Rossi pronounced himself very satisfied with the progress made on the GP11’s setup; “There’s no need to change the Desmosedici’s character; we need to take advantage of its best characteristics—its stability and its engine—and improve the other areas, especially the in-corner behaviour, to make it turn better. In any case, the overall evaluation of the test is definitely good; today we’re a second off the top riders, and also in the afternoon, riding with race tires, the distance stayed around seven or eight tenths. I still have to do more kilometres in order to understand other aspects of the GP11 but, although I have to change my riding style a little, I now feel much more at home with the Ducati.”
Hayden said after Wednesday’s testing: “We’re going in the right direction, and we just need to keep taking small steps. We checked a lot of fork settings, some riding positions and different geometry. It’s cool to see that the team atmosphere is really positive, not just between me and Valentino, but with the engineers too.”
The 2011 Ducati Desmosedici GP11 features new Shell branding; a Shell Pecten on the front forks of the bike and Shell Advance branding on the rear wheel guard and fuel tank of the bike as well as on the riders’ overalls.