Ducati to race carbon fibre chassis in 2009

Ducati will race a radical carbon fibre chassis in next year’s MotoGP world championship.

Reigning world champion Casey Stoner gave Ducati engineers the all-clear to continue development of the GP9 after his debut on the prototype in Catalunya last week.

Ducati will now focus resources and investment on the carbon fibre GP9 project, with Stoner deciding that he wants to race the bike in 2009 after only a handful of evaluation laps.

Stoner will test the bike again either in Brno in late August, or wait until the traditional first post season test in Valencia.

“Straightaway I feel more comfortable on it so I can’t say I need something better. We can only try and see how much further we can go with it, “said the Aussie.

Ducati technical guru Filippo Preziosi was arguably the most relieved man in MotoGP last week after Stoner’s glowing report.

He’s spent a year on the chassis project and he said: “We had to decide now if we were going to race the bike next season.

“This is the reason why we did this test, even if the test is public which is something we didn’t want to do. It was absolutely clear that Casey wants to race the new bike.”

For a full two-page special on Ducati’s new carbon fibre chassis including interviews with Stoner and Preziosi, see today’s MCN (Wednesday, June 18, 2008), which also includes a free 16-page British MotoGP preview.