If you go just by the time it took Ducati to make the new GP15 a reality, it has to be some sort of a new record. A totally new machine is what Ducati claims the GP15 to be and that is exactly what Ducati needed. The venue for this big launch was the Ducati’s own space in Borgo Panigale. The factory riders Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone were accompanied by Ducati top brass Claudio Domenicali and Luigi Dall’Igna. Claudio Domenicali was the first to speak and he went on to tell the multitude of people present how exciting the development process has been for Ducati. He was personally involved in the project and was there for key moments like when the bike was assembled and started for the first time. He was clear on what Ducati wanted to achieve in 2015. They wanted to win and their primary goal for the 2015 MotoGP season was to aim for at least one race win. Next to speak was Luigi Dall’Igna who explained in brief how the new GP15 was different from the existing versions of the GP14.
The GP15 is an all new machine ground up. It’s much narrower than the bike it replaces and is a bike that is far more flexible in terms of adjustment. The recent GP14.3 had similar aerodynamics and electronics but that is about all that is similar. The GP15 will benefit strongly from the immense progress the Ducati have made with the suspension over the second half of last season. The bikes now will be taken to Sepang for the second test and both the riders will for the first time get a taste of what the machine is capable of. It will be interesting to see what times the riders can put in especially compared to the GP14.3. The older Ducati’s biggest problems were understeer and aggressive power delivery. The power delivery issue seemed to be sorted out by mid last year but the understeer still remained an issue. The GP15 will look to address these issues strongly and be a machine that can battle for wins.
