First pic: Ducati’s new twin spar aluminium frame

This is Ducati’s radical new twin spar aluminium frame that Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will test on the GP12 Desmosedici MotoGP bike over the next two days in Valencia.

The Bologna factory has introduced a conventional frame to try and improve front-end feeling after a disastrous final 800cc campaign saw Rossi and Hayden score just one podium finish each in 2011.

MCN revealed that Ducati was working on a conventional twin spar aluminium frame at the Misano race in early September when CAD drawings of the chassis were spotted.

During a press briefing yesterday (Monday), Ducati technical guru Filippo Preziosi said: “The bike is not the bike we will use for the first race. The bike you will see tomorrow is an experimental bike, a real prototype to give to our designers the targets to design the bike for the future. We don’t expect that at the test we will have a step in performance because the bike is more or less the same as the current bike but with a different technology. But this is really important for us to grow up our knowledge of this technology. We strongly believe we are moving in the right direction but our competitors have an advantage and it is not easy to say if and when we will join them but for sure we will give all our energy to try.”