Danilo Petrucci has been leading the bad days in the Ducati stand for some time now. But in Misano this weekend, it seems that we have reached the threshold of tolerability. Usually quite cheerful, Petrux appeared on the banks of the Adriatic in a black mood under his red suit. The recent death of his grandfather has not helped matters but it does not explain this procession in the race which did not even allow him to score a point. While taking stock, he lets go by revealing a weight problem. Literally, and this is not the first time…
The air of the country is always good for Danilo Petrucci who is for eternity a conqueror on his lands on a Ducati. It was at Mugello. A route which this time is not on the calendar. But there is Misano, and on two occasions. A visit that does not look good. The first one was depressing. There will be tests this week before doing it again this weekend. A period during which the team member Dovizioso hopes to find a solution to get out of this slump. It's very simple, if Dovizioso experiences problems, his are the same but increased a hundredfold because of his... Morphology.
A situation that is not new for Petrux. It will therefore not be easy to manage it, once again: “ it was one of the hardest races of my career » blurted the Italian. “ At the beginning I suffered, but other drivers also suffered. I hit someone and lost positions. But afterwards, the bike was difficult to understand, I was riding behind and I couldn't do anything, I couldn't push. It's hard to explain, but it seems like everything we do on the bike isn't working. At the start of the weekend, things didn't seem so bad. ».
He then explains his problem: “ my extra weight is a problem, I weigh a little more than many other drivers. When you are at the limit, it becomes a problem to stop the bike with this extra weight. I also realized that maybe my position on the bike needs to be different, I'll have to work on that during testing because with our current setup we can't do much more ».
“My excess weight is a problem”
« The bike was really tough, but in the end I was pretty fast and I think I did my fastest lap in the last few laps, doing laps like the fastest riders on the track. This means that it also depends on the weight, because the motorcycle with less fuel is better. I have this excess weight that I have to manage very carefully and finally I realized that in these conditions it can be decisive. We have to try to change something, but at least we have testing on Tuesday and we will try to understand which direction to take with the bike settings ».
« We have to change the way we ride, that's the goal. How we rode in 2019 and also the previous two years, it doesn't work today, yet I have always made podiums with the Ducati. The bike was still pretty similar and we knew how to make it go fast, maybe sometimes we couldn't do it, but we knew what to do. This doesn't work now, you need to figure out what to do. The whole world, all the fans would love to ride the factory Ducati. So a factory Ducati going so slowly pisses me off. I work hard, I like it when I go hard and it's hard to have fun right now »Assures Danilo Petrucci.
« In my career, I have tried at other times to lose weight and the difference has always been minimal. I'm definitely not fat, but I could lose two or three pounds, which doesn't make a huge difference. It's about knowing where to put that weight, why in certain conditions it also helps, gives you more traction, allows you to put more weight up front when braking. But the tires have changed and we no longer have the references we had before. In testing we will experiment on this, because I want to find a solution as soon as possible ».
« It is clear that I want to end my Ducati adventure with a smile, because doing these races to fight for only points is a terrible thing » Petrux finishes. We will remember that he will be a pilot Tech3 KTM in 2021. In view of the Italian's presentation, the question will be how he can adopt the settings generally defined by the jockey Dani Pedrosa on its future RC16…
MotoGP Misano1 J3: classification
