Facebook launch for Ducati GP12

Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will officially unveil the Ducati GP12’s new livery with a special web launch on Facebook next Monday.

MotoGP and Ducati fans will be able to watch live streaming of the event from Borgo Panigale on the Facebook page of Ducati sponsor TIM.

To follow the presentation of the new bike, click here.

The event starts at noon UK time on Monday, March 19. At the same address, it is possible to submit your questions, some of which will be selected for the riders on the same day.

The livery unveiled by Rossi and Hayden on Monday is expected to get its track debut when the pair end their pre-season preparations with a three-day test session at the Jerez circuit in Spain.

The test commences on Friday, March 23 and is the final pre-season action ahead of the first race of the new 1000cc era in Qatar on April 8.

Ducati traditionally unveils its new Desmosedici at a lavish team launch in the spectacular Madonnna di Campiglio ski resort in early January.

But the new GP12 wasn’t built in time for this year’s event with Ducati undertaking a radical revamp of the machine it hopes will help Rossi and Hayden bounce back from a disastrous 2011.

The GP12 features a revised engine position to help cure a persistent vague front-end feeling and a conventional aluminium frame.

Rossi was hugely optimistic after his debut on the new bike in Sepang last month when he set the fifth quickest time as pre-season testing resumed in Malaysia.

But a lot of his early optimism had faded at the end of a weather-hit second Sepang test when he finished only 10th fastest.

For full coverage from the forthcoming Jerez test, see the March 28 issue of Motor Cycle News.