The first tests for the Ducati Desmosedici GP15, the Italian manufacturer’s new challenger for the 2015 MotoGP World Championship, have concluded with a good degree of satisfaction. Presented on Monday 16 February at the Ducati Auditorium in Borgo Panigale, the GP15 turned a wheel in anger for the first time on Monday morning and immediately proved to be a fast, nimble and above all reliable machine, allowing the two riders to improve their feeling, notch up the miles, lap consistently and work methodically to follow the scheduled work load throughout the three days.
Andrea Dovizioso lapped this morning in a time of 2’00.468 on his only exit with the soft tyre. The man from Forlì was however unable to improve on the time he set yesterday (2’00.250) on a hard tyre, and finished today’s session in tenth place, but ninth overall in the combined standings over the three days. Dovizioso said he was really satisfied with the outcome of the tests with the new GP15, but also admitted that something was still missing in the braking area and the feeling with the front in order to be completely satisfied.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04)-2’00.250 (9th), 123 laps

“I can but only be happy with these tests. We brought a completely new bike here and we were fast and competitive right from the start. I am particularly satisfied because we improved the key point from the previous bikes, and now the bike ‘turns’ in the corners. Back home the guys in Ducati Corse have done a great job and we didn’t have any particular reliability issues in these three days. Now we have to get to know the GP15 better, because we still have a few limits. The new bike is very different from the previous one, and so we have to try some extreme set-ups to understand it better, for example in the last part of braking and in the middle of the corner. But this is all normal, when you change a bike so much there are always good and bad points. I’m convinced that we have a lot of room for improvement, but we need time and in the next few days our engineers will have a lot of data to analyze before we go to Qatar for the tests in mid-March”

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) made further progress today on the second day of pre-season IRTA testing at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, and after just two days on the new bike he said that he was very satisfied with the progress being made.
Dovizioso improved his best lap time by more than one second, bringing it down to 2’00.250 in the morning, a time that propelled him into third place in the standings. In his last run of the day, the man from Forlì twice lapped close to his best mark, but in the end had to settle for fourth place, just a tenth away from his team-mate.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04)- 2’00.250 (4th), 58 laps

“Today was again very good: I’m pleased if I compare my lap times with those of the other riders. But in my opinion, we still need to do a lot of work, in the sense that we are quick but I can’t yet ride the way I want, and my feeling with the front is still not perfect. We are working hard and trying numerous different set-ups to try and understand how this bike is, because it’s very different from the GP14. It’s clear that there is a lot of enthusiasm because the bike has improved, but we still need more time to improve our performance”

Exactly one week after its world premiere at the Ducati Auditorium in Borgo Panigale, Andrea Dovizioso took to the track today the Desmosedici GP15 in the IRTA tests at Sepang International Circuit for the first time.

Dovizioso lapped on the GP14.3 in 2’01.355, which was tenth quickest time of the day, before focussing entirely on his new bike, with which he completed 17 laps, the best of which in 2’01.692.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04)- 2’01.355 (10th), 22 laps.

“I am really very pleased with the first sensations on the new GP15 bike, and this for me was the most important thing. Above all I hoped that the new bike turned into and went through the corners better. Already on my out lap I could feel that the GP15 had improved a lot from that point of view and I am satisfied because this was the most important aspect for me. With the new bike we can manage to work more efficiently with all the adjustments, but today was our first day and unfortunately we didn’t have much time available, so it’s normal that there is still a lot of work to do to improve in the various fields”

The 2015 Ducati Team was presented today at the Ducati Auditorium in Borgo Panigale, and the new Desmosedici GP15, the bike with which factory riders Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone will take part in the 2015 MotoGP World Championship, was unveiled.
After unveiling the Desmosedici GP15 in its new colours, the Italian rider of the team spoke about his expectations for the 2015 championship.

Andrea Dovizioso: “In a few days’ time we will be going to Malaysia for the second winter test session at Sepang and I can’t wait to test the new GP15. I am very happy with the improvements that we managed to achieve last year and so, with this new project, I can only be optimistic for the com-ing season. I think that the spirit and the desire to win that I see in Ducati are vitally important for all of us. I expect a lot of support from the Ducati fans this season: we have worked a lot and well in the last couple of years and now it’s time to reap the benefits.”

Three days of pre-season IRTA testing came to an end today at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, with Andrea Dovizioso focusing mainly on fine-tuning work on the chassis and the electronics set-ups of his Desmosedici GP14.3.
In the morning Andrea Dovizioso had been unable to get the best out of the soft tyre, and he did not complete a perfect lap on his only run, but the rider from Forlì was in any case pleased that he had reached the target he had set for himself at the end of yesterday, which was to lap under the two-minute mark. Andrea set a best time of 1’59.874 and concluded his work schedule at lunchtime, finishing these first tests of 2015 in seventh place overall.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) — 1’59″874 (7th)

“I am very satisfied with these three days’ testing because our aim was to improve the chassis and the electronics even more, as well as doing some comparative tests that will be useful for the new bike. We were quick throughout the three days, and this is always very important, and I also managed to get under the two-minute mark, which was one of my aims on this beautiful track. The only negative aspect is that this morning I didn’t manage to do a perfect lap with the only soft tyre I had available, but the rest of the work we did was very good: yesterday we even did a 15-lap long run, setting some interesting and constant times. I go back to Italy very satisfied and very curious to see and test the new GP15.”

Ideal weather conditions greeted the MotoGP riders for the second of three days of pre-season IRTA tests at the Sepang International Circuit near Kuala Lumpar. Andrea Dovizioso took just twenty minutes of the morning session to place himself at the top the standings, setting an excellent time of 2’00.015 on a soft tyre, two-tenths of a second quicker than the one set by Marc Marquez (Honda) at the end of day 1. The only rider to get under the two-minute mark today before the lunch break, was Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), but the track temperature increased in the afternoon, thus ruling out any major improvements and the leading positions remained unchanged. Dovizioso had to settle for an excellent second place, just 52 thousandths of a second behind his Spanish rival.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) — 2’00″015 (2nd)

“I am very happy with the pace I did today because we were interested in doing a long-run: we did 15 laps in these extremely hot conditions, and it was important to do some constant laps, which is normally a bit our limit. We lapped pretty well, and this shows that the guys back in the factory have been working well in recent months. I’m happy with this morning’s time but not 100% because I wanted to see a time of 1’59 on the dash! I was counting on it, it was an aim of mine here but I just missed out. Hopefully it won’t rain tonight so we can find the track still fast tomorrow.”

After a winter break of more than two months, Andrea Dovizioso started today the 2015 season with the first IRTA test session at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. Andrea’s machine for these first tests in Malaysia is an updated version of the Desmosedici, the GP14.3, in view of the arrival of the new GP15 which is scheduled to make its debut, again at Sepang, in the second IRTA test session from 23 to 25 February.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) — 2’00.617 (4th), 41 laps

“I’m really happy about today because the track was luckily in a good condition and we were able to start in the right way to test what we wanted. We tried some set-ups for the chassis and the electronics, and from the beginning my feeling was very good today. I like Sepang a lot: I always manage to go well here and our speed is really good compared to that of our rivals. I am still using last year’s bike, with several important updates, but I’m really curious to try the new bike at the end of the month. The GP15 will be quite different from this one, but all the work we are doing is useful feedback for the new bike, and so the work in these three days is very important”