At Ducati, the remark is so redundant that it has become a refrain. A refrain that Andrea Dovizioso sings every season: the Ducati has trouble at the point of apex in the turns. It seems that in Borgo Panigale we are drying up on the subject while from an engine point of view, we knew how to do it. An idea refuted by the technical director of Ducati MotoGP, Davide Barana, who assures on the contrary that his troops knew how to turn the corner...
Returning from the summer break, Andrea Dovizioso did not wait long before putting the cover back on the behavior of the Ducati Desmosedici in the turns. He even insisted on the duration of the pitfall: four years he waited for a solution to the problem. He added that it was undoubtedly less complicated to find engine power and that we therefore focused on this point at Borgo Panigale. If we summarize the argument, nothing is less certain that what comes out of it is a compliment...
The technical director of Ducati MotoGP, Davide Barana came out of the woods to respond. With first of all this caution which befits its level of responsibility: the improvement of the main weakness of the motorcycle in corners is thus a “ long process » which takes a lot of trial and error he elaborates.
Ducati has made progress in recent years, emerging as a challenger for the title over the past three seasons. But there is still this problem of handling in the middle of the corner which makes the red bike vulnerable to its opponents.
Dovizioso won the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, but he predicted in Germany that some of the upcoming races would be better for the team, starting with this Red Bull Ring which has fewer long turns than most circuits. In fact, there was still work to be done.
Unlike the position of Dovizioso that the team should only focus on their cornering problem, barana warned that it was still important to focus on other areas of motorcycling. “ We realize that cornering performance is where we can gain the most " said barana. But it is important to remember to continue to improve the areas that are our strengths, because if you focus on just one area, you risk losing the advantage you have over others ».
« So getting better cornering performance is quite a long process. Unfortunately, these days it's still a process of trial and error. It takes a long time because you have to test to prove that it's really effective before you move on to the next step. It takes a while to reach certain levels » assures the engineer on Autosport.
Ducati is also renowned for its powerful engine, which for several seasons remained unmatched in the top speed rankings by other manufacturers. But Honda is proving to be almost at the same level this season. Without the defects of the chassis in the curves.
barana admits that Ducati's engineering history meant it was effectively " easier " to develop a powerful engine, but when asked if Ducati had focused too much on this area, he said: " I do not think so. Certainly, at the very beginning of Ducati's time in MotoGP in 2003, we had very different solutions to our competitors when it came to chassis design. At that time, it was difficult to compare yourself to others because of this big difference ».
« Since 2013 the chassis concept was quite similar and since then we have continued to develop the chassis together with the engine. Maybe with the engine we have more experience, there is a long history of engine engineering at Ducati. It's probably much easier for us to develop the engine than to develop the chassis, maybe that's true » he admits. But he immediately adds: “ the effort we put into developing the chassis is still the most we can do ". Not sure that's reassuring Dovizioso.
