One day after the Desmosedici GP8's official launch on the snowy slopes of Madonna di Campiglio, Ducati Corse CEO and product director of Ducati Motor Holding, Claudio Domenicali, has revealed the technical changes made for the new bike - with which
Casey Stoner will aim to defend his
MotoGP crown.
But first, Domenicali looked back on 2007, when Ducati won 11 of the 18 races (ten for Stoner, one for Loris Capirossi) en route to a clean sweep of the riders', manufacturers' and teams' world championships.
"The very special feeling created in 2007 between our rider and our bike and tyres resulted in a fantastic season for all of us," said Domenicali, speaking at the 'Wrooom' MotoGP Press Ski Meeting. "I could sum it up by saying that Casey was able to perfectly interpret our GP7, which had been impeccably built and maintained high levels of competitiveness and excellent reliability throughout the season. The
Bridgestone tyres also took a step forwards in terms of performance consistency, thanks to our successful joint efforts which had begun in 2005 and allowed us to basically close the gap with Michelin."
"Our 2008 bike is an evolution of the 2007 model, how could we have done otherwise? There was so very little wrong with that bike," stated Domenicali, before analysing the new bike's technical characteristics. "We worked on all areas. In terms of chassis set-up, the new frame is lighter with optimised torsional and flexural rigidity to solve the rather minimal 'chattering' that we experienced on a few occasions last year.
