So unless I'm mistaken ...... And that does happen once a year......... Isn't today the day where Ducati have to make the decision whether they stick with factory status or go open class? surely it has to be open class..... Please go open class
Yes indeed it is today BUT there is some ambiguity around which time zone the decision has to be made by!! Interesting that Dovi and Iannone have been testing the Open class bike, and Dovi was in 2nd place just 0.068s behind Rossi in today's test. Crutchlow has confirmed that he is testing only the Factory class bike and is (currently) in 8th place 0.791s behind Rossi. Don't expect those times to improve as the fastest part of the day has now passed.
Dovi's said he hadn't used the softer open class tyres either....... Although more grip isn't always a good thing unless you can set the bike up. Hopefully that wouldn't be a problem but the Ducati isn't renowned for being easy to alter is it. If I was ducati I'd be getting those soft tyres on ASAP!
Dovi also said that there is still a problem with "turning" the Ducati; this seems to be the major flaw that goes all the way back to the Stoner days and the monocoque chassis design, even though it's now running a Y̶a̶m̶a̶h̶a traditional frame design. This will not be affected by going Open or Factory... Interesting that Dovi thinks the difference is in the throttle response which comes from the 24L of fuel available. I guess the this allows them to be a bit more fuel heavy (and get more power) and that helps them get out of the corners better and make up the time. It's tough to say whether they should go Open (and lose face - and Honda will spit the dummy!) to fix their immediate problem and bridge the time gap, or whether they can now take what they've learnt from the Open tests, apply it to the Factory bike and bridge the gap. Either way they still have the steering (geometry?) to fix...
They should go open, the steering could be engine and this would give them more engines which means different configurations to play with
Linky - Official: Ducati goes Open class for MotoGP 2014 | MotoGP News I think it's a great move personally
Yeah, Open Class is a good decision. They absolutely need to develop and play around with engine mountings etc and get themselves competitive otherwise they will spend another year like last year with 5 engines they can't change and no testing. Dovi's comments about fuel could relate to the more 'weight transfer' on brakes from having more fuel weight (although it's mostly sat above the swingarm), or the fact that being able to have a 'softer' throttle connection when coming on the throttle in a corner reduces the bikes tendancy to 'push wide'. Interestingly one of the things that Rossi said was that with the bikes running so 'lean' they are more aggressive on the throttle, not something that will make Ducati's issues better. PS.. I am no engineer, but the above is just stuff I have picked up from reading a lot of the 'technical' journo stuff from the likes of Spalding etc.
From Moto matters, he no lie.........bit fishy....... Ducati had already caused a bit of a stir prior to the second Sepang test. A new software update was made available to all of the Open teams ahead of the second test, which was such a large step several of the teams had been daunted by its complexity. The file containing the specifications of the software which Magneti Marelli sent out to the teams still had the words 'Ducati Motor Holding' in the header, Magneti Marelli having neglected to delete the name from the file. There is nothing in the rules preventing Ducati making their software available to Magneti Marelli, the only proviso being that the same software is available to all teams equally. However, as a factory, Ducati has both the experience and the electronics engineers to get the most out of the more sophisticated software, something which the smaller teams simply cannot afford.
Unfortunately i think its slighly underhand. The whole reason of open or CRT was to help the smaller or non factory team in season testing to bridge the gap to the factory teams. Not for a factory bike or backed satellite teams to do that. Now imagin if Honda or Yamaha did the same - in season testing, more fuel, more engines, softer tyres..
I agree completely, but it's not Ducati's fault, it's Dorna's for creating the ruling in this way, I don't personally like having any class where it has sub classes, it's messy! I think they should follow Ben Spies suggestion of making tyres the limiting factor, reduce the grip by 25% and stop the teams having to completely rebuild the bikes around them every year
I think its great. They are working with in the rules (rumour has it that Honda have a massive hand in how these rules are written) and are being completely fair. It's basically Ducati thumbing their noses at Honda/Dorna and playing them at their own game within their own rules. Good on Ducati having the confidence to give other teams their software and trust that their engineers will do a better job. The only thing I hope for is that the racing is still close. Wouldn't do for an Open class bike to be 20 secs ahead of the factory bikes now would it. I just want to see close racing within the rules........isn't that what everyone wants?
I don't think anything underhand happened with the software - Ducati are simply providing feedback to Magneti Marelli on their product so that it can be improved. Those improvements also went out to the other Open teams regardless of make, so there is no benefit in it for Ducati. If anything they are actually helping the other teams! Ducati are competing with the rules and have worked out their strategy to take advantage of those rules - exactly what any team should be doing. They did it before with the 800s and I think this will get them back to where they need to be in the future. I bet the Japs are not happy though...
Got to wonder how much of the grey time is due to the extra power available and those two big long straights to take advantage of it? What will the story be at somewhere like Jerez?
