Ducati unveil 2010 MotoGP contender

This is the bike Ducati hopes will end Yamaha’s recent domination of the MotoGP world championship in 2010.

The GP10 was officially rolled out at Ducati’s 2010 team launch at the spectacular Italian ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio today (Wednesday).

The biggest change to the new Desmosedici V4 is a revised firing order, with the 2010 Ducati featuring a Big Bang configuration.

Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden have already tested the bike at the traditional post-season test session at Valencia back in early November.

Australian Stoner, who is seeking to end Valentino Rossi and Yamaha’s domination of the premier with the Italian triumphing in 2008 and ’09, talked about the GP10 and his early impressions after his Valencia debut.

Stoner and Hayden will be back on the GP10 when winter testing resumes on February 4 at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

Stoner, who has won 20 races in the 800cc era, said: “We changed the engine configuration to try and make the bike a bit easier off the bottom end and get a bit more traction and it was a big improvement.

“I hope it can help us at circuits where last year we were lacking a bit of grip. At the last test we got the carbon swingarm working again but we still have a lot of things to test before the first race.”

Stoner said it was still too early to properly gauge the potential of the new motor, particularly given the infancy of its development.

He added: “It is an undeveloped engine now. For the last three years all the manufacturers have had the same configuration and they’ve been able to develop the, engine.

“We’ve been developing one engine and now we’ve changed and that’s going to start a new development. I’m sure Filippo (Preziosi) and the guys will come up with something.

“We are losing a little bit with top speed but at Valencia I was coming out of the last corner a bit faster with the extra traction, so I actually ended with the same top speed.

“I don’t know whether we will lose or not. Maybe we will lose a little bit on the long straights but what we will gain in other areas.

“Where it is more driveable we should be able to make the bike a lot easier to handle.”