First of all, it's amusing to note that, during the post-Valencia Grand Prix MotoGP tests, all it took was a few statements from Ducati saying that they had no new features (and painting the GP 18s in the colors official instead of leaving them in carbon black) so that almost no one takes the trouble to check…
However, the GP 18s were there; one for Andrea Dovizioso and one for Jorge Lorenzo.
Of course, they haven't been driven a lot, but that at least allowed us to detail them, thus allowing us to note at least 3 important differences with a GP17...
The framework :
The frame is completely different from that of the GP17: gone are the multitude of welds with “artistic” lines and make way for a more “sober” element which has two particularities.
- Its rear part, above the swingarm mounting, seems more rigid.
- More innovative, its front part includes a bolted plate which is assumed to be interchangeable depending on the desired rigidity needs at the steering column.
It is obviously present on each side of the frame…
If this is verified, Ducati would follow in the footsteps of Suzuki and then Aprilia by producing a frame with “variable rigidity”, in order to allow more flexible, therefore faster, operation compared to a traditional frame.
The reservoir :
The reservoir has elongated forward, whether in terms of its shape or its mouth. The air box cover is therefore also modified.
Saddle:
The seat of the saddle is also modified, without us really being able to understand the reason. However, we must not forget the work carried out in this area by Jorge Lorenzo from Argentina (higher saddle).
Performances:
As we have said, the GP18s did not run a lot in Valencia. We saw each rider do a few laps with it, but none really produced any effort with this bike, Andrea Dovizioso even going so far as to stop his tests well before his teammate...
In Jerez, a few days later, the progress of the Ducatis seems impressive!
We observe that Cal Crutchlow, who is performing well there and will serve as a comparative reference for us, achieved 1'38.453 in Q2 during the Grand Prix, and 1'37.818 during the last tests in November (see here). An improvement of 6 tenths can be attributed both to the new Honda RC213V 2018, but also to the resurfacing of the Andalusian track carried out since the Grand Prix.
Under the same conditions, Jorge Lorenzo went from 1'38.910 to 1'37.921, or a second gained, and Andrea Dovizioso from 1'39.255 to 1'37.663, an improvement of 1,6 seconds!
You would therefore believe that the Ducati GP18s would seem rather well born, except that, let's be honest, we haven't found any document showing the slightest GP18 at Jerez!
We will therefore have to wait for the first MotoGP 2018 tests, at the end of January in Sepang, to find out if this new version is faster than the GP17 which already seems very efficient...
