Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 11 MARCH 17, 2015 P139 for Ducati. But Stoner's genius- level talent disguised growing shortcomings with the bike, as designer Filippo Preziosi essayed ever more adventur- ous "solutions," culminating in the carbon-fiber mini chassis, which served double duty as the airbox. Not even Stoner could over- come the ever-increasing un- dersteer problems. He still won 10 more races over the next two years, but often as not would also lose the front and crash. His previous successes and continuing race wins, however, meant that any logic that had prevailed at the racing depart- ment had been swept away by the tide of passion. And it was passion also, on both sides, that saw Rossi step in to take the Australian genius' place in 2011. It was an all-Italian dream team. The phrase "dream turned to nightmare" soon became an overused cliché as optimism turned to despair and Rossi's usually cheerful counte- nance became drawn; likewise those of his faithful Jeremy Burgess-led pit crew. From their side, after years of working with both Honda and Yamaha (where passion was only used as a driver for logic and method) the exercise started out with confidence that they could soon solve the understeer problem, but swiftly changed to frustration. Mechanic Alex Briggs de- scribed to me how much more complicated it was to work on the bike: different-sized special bolts for different locations was just one such problem; while an inaccessible rear suspension link cost them time that would have been better spent with the bike out on the track. These problems proved insoluble, because of the dislocation between those working at the races and those at the factory. Communication was mired in politics and pride, and passion didn't help. It remains an intriguing ques- tion: whether Rossi would have been able to make something of the Duke, had the situation been different. Had the factory squad listened to the mechanics. Had designer Preziosi throttled back on his thirst for innovation to make the most of what he already had. Instead, gigantic reputations were tarnished, and it looked very much as though Valen- tino's career would end under a cloud. Being the rider he is, he's managed to redeem that in the couple of years since. But only thanks to passion-free Yamaha. Which brings us to the 2015 season, with a new and equally intriguing question for what is once again an all-Italian squad. Wheelchair-bound Preziosi was finally axed at the end of 2013, after Audi took over Ducati, to be replaced with the successful Aprilia race chief Gigi Dall'Igna. The engineer with the demonic goatee took his time, after saying last year that his first task was to open effective communication between factory and track. At the same time, the Desmosedici was redesigned. Dall'Igna said from the start that he would not be bound by Ducati tradition. Neither the company's trademark 90-degree V-angle nor even their unique desmodromic valve gear would be sacrosanct. His new bike finally appeared for the second round of tests, and it turned out that both of those aspects had been re- tained. The 90-degree architec- ture perhaps not so surprising, since it is the same configuration used by dominant Honda. The GP15's engine's orientation had been changed, tilted backwards Honda-style, but the lineage remained clearly Desmosedici. It was clear from the first laps ridden by the Andreas—Dovizio- so and Iannone—that one tradi- tion had fallen by the wayside. For the first time, in post-ride debriefs, the word "understeer" was not mentioned. Has logic prevailed? Has pas- sion taken a back seat? Can Italy again pose a serious challenge to the Japanese? The forthcom- ing season starts soon enough. And then we shall know all. CN

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