Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/858916
IN THE WIND P40 DUCATI'S NEW FAIRING D ucati has taken the plunge half a season after its rivals; homologating a new "no-wings"- ducted fairing that Jorge Lorenzo hopes will improve the front-end feeling in the same way as last year's wings. He used it almost exclusively at the latest MotoGP round at Brno, August 6, and reported "80 percent positive, 20 percent negative" after just a few laps, with expectations of more to come, as the team refined bike settings. Ducati Corse chief and design head Gigi Dall'Igna said that the box wings achieved perhaps 40 percent of the effect of last year's wings. The bodywork, the most overt example of any this year, was kept behind screens until late in Friday afternoon's FP2 session. The next day fellow Desmosedici GP17 rider Petrucci ran a few laps with it. As the lowest-scoring GP17 rider, Lorenzo has been given the role of test dummy. Leading factory Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso has yet to use the new fairing, preferring the old version. This keeps his options open, should Ducati produce a more refined design. Upgrades are permitted per rider, not per team, so while Lorenzo and Petrucci must stick with their choice, Dovizioso remains free. There is no subtlety to the cur- rent "box-kite" design, although it is marginally less extreme than the so-called "hammerhead" that was tested but not homologated earlier this year. Again, there are large boxes either side of the nose, with a slit down the side as well as at the exit. The previous version, larger and with closed sides, was deemed to offer minimal benefit at the cost of too much drag, and was ditched. According to Lorenzo, the second attempt is better. "We tested it in the break and I like the feeling," said Lorenzo, confirming that he was seek- ing to improve "front contact. It feels different, and I like it a lot. So hopefully it will improve our position." It had that effect in the dry afternoon session, cutting eight- tenths of a second off his previ- ous lap time. Things would get better in qualifying at Brno, with Lorenzo challenging for the front row and ending up a close sixth, a tenth slower than fourth-fastest Dovizioso. He was losing some five mph on the straight compared with Dovi, he said, "but you can accel- erate better with this fairing. We need to make more kilometers and to work on settings. We need more rear grip with the wings." He added that direction changes had not been much affected. Predictably, the Ducati solution was greeted with suspicion from rivals, with several suggesting there were safety implications. "I wouldn't like to get my hand caught in there," said Dani Pedrosa—a notion poo-pooed by Ducati. But Rossi concurred: "For safety, the new rules don't work, because we arrive at the same position with the Ducati as be- fore. But…I don't think it is very important." Michael Scott Plenty of people had something to say about the new Ducati MotoGP fairings at the Brno MotoGP, although it didn't help Jorge Lorenzo in the race.