Ducati to test new aluminium frame in Valencia

Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden are expected to give a public debut to Ducati’s new conventional twin spar aluminium frame during the traditional post race test in Valencia next week.

The factory Ducati pairing have both tested the new frame in separate sessions at the Jerez circuit recently as Bologna factory engineers desperately seek to improve front-end feeling with the Desmosedici which has hindered Rossi and Hayden throughout 2011.

Ducati technical guru Filippo Preziosi has been forced to abandon Ducati’s carbon fibre concept for the time being with Rossi losing faith in the innovative concept because it lacks the front-end feel he wants.

The Italian has been pushing Ducati to build a conventional frame for months and his crew chief Jerry Burgess said it was an avenue that has to be explored.

Rossi started using an aluminium version of the carbon fibre frame from the Motorland Aragon round in mid-September.

But the version to be rolled out in Valencia next Tuesday will be a full conventional twin spar frame like the chassis employed by their Japanese rivals.

Burgess told MCN: “We need to understand what a more conventional frame offers. Ducati have put in place the right people to understand these concepts and to deliver to us at the race track various concepts and gain an enormous amount of knowledge that will help the race department for years to come.

“The fact that in the last two or three months Ducati have changed so much and so quickly is an indication of how keen they are to get the project to the pointy end.

“We don’t want to go too radical too quickly because that could actually be detrimental to the project but there’s a long time between now and the first test in January and even longer to the first race and plenty of time to explore what designs they feel they should.”