tactic that worked in the past. But
on this evidence the likelihood of
him matching last season's stellar
feats appear slim. Such were
their struggles with the 2020 bike
HRC engineers drafted in one
of Takaaki Nakagami's '19-spec
bikes to for him to ride on the
final day. "Of course, I'm worried,
because I would like to be very
fast on every lap at every race-
track. But in this racetrack, all
Honda riders, especially with the
new bike, we are struggling a lot
in the same point."
Even so, only a fool would
write him off now.
Lap times aside, the test's big
talking point was the latest of Gigi
Dall'Igna's radical innovations.
Ducati's new device was the talk
of the town as photographers'
pictures and rider comments con-
firmed what Rins had suspected
at Sepang: the Desmosedici's
ride height can be manually
adjusted between bends. The
rear of Jack Miller's machine was
seen to be squatting on corner
exit before returning to normal
height at the end of a straight.
Technical Director Dall'Igna
has developed a system whereby
the rear shock appears to be
locked in place by a switch on
the left of the riders' handlebar.
When engaged on corner exit,
ride remains low, working as an
effective wheelie control. As the
switch is hydraulic and doesn't
operate electrically, it was
deemed legal by series Technical
Director Danny Aldridge.
"As soon as we put it on there,
it makes a bit of a difference
in every way," said Miller, who
confirmed he has been using the
device since last October's Thai
Grand Prix. On where the differ-
ence is most pronounced, he
noted, "Accelerating. [There's]
less wheelie. [It's] like the launch
control, but out of a corner."
Bagnaia added, "The problem is
that you have a very short time
from one corner to the next on a
MotoGP bike, and you arrive at
Petronas SRT
Yamaha's Fabio
Quartararo and the
factory Yamahas
appear to be in
good shape for the
Qatar opener.
IN
THE
WIND
P32
