Looks like the Panigale might be better than people think. » Checa And Lowes Top WSBK And WSS Tests – Now It’s Race Time / Michael Hill Promotions
From what I read Carlos' lap was a one off. He did say they'd found a good base setting and keep finding improvements but with the opposition out there I'm only expecting a couple of wins and a few podiums this year at best. Hope to be proved wrong tho. The other 2 1199's are way off the pace but the riders have got injuries. I think there's a clue that top riders in WSB and BSB are giving the bike a swerve. It'll be interesting to see the bike develop during the season.
new Ducati Race management, new bike, new team... the team just had the bikes for about 2 weeks before they shipped 7 tons of material down under... would be miraculous if they won this weekend.. but it sure shows that the potential is available !
Not good news at QP1. Paddock Chatter: WSB: Fabrizio fastest again in QP1 On a positive note Max is showing same pace as Carlos. The dukes were about a second off in FP1 too. carlos 9th then.
Carlos had a really big highside in FP. Maybe why he's not up the front today. Paddock Chatter: Checa: "One of the biggest highsides of my career"
Checa may be a good bet in the latter part of the season, but for an initial pick for the FRR team, he's an expensive, but a very loyal, risk
