With the notable exception of victory in Qatar, Ducati hasn't had much to smile about so far this season - and arrives at round four, in Shanghai this weekend, on the back of tough rounds for even its reigning world champion
Casey Stoner.
Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix could be a crucial race for the all four Ducati riders since, if the powerful Desmosedici isn't competitive at a circuit known to favour top speed and Bridgestone tyres, it will send a worrying signal for the remainder of the season.
"On paper the Shanghai circuit is one that should suit our package quite well so I'm sure that we'll be strong," said a confident Livio Suppo, project director of Ducati's
MotoGP project. "Vittoriano [Guareschi] has spent three days testing some new things at Mugello, in particular with the electronics, and we're satisfied with how the GP8 is continuing to evolve. Bridgestone are also putting a lot of hard work in. Casey had a really good test himself after the race at Estoril and I think we'll also see some encouraging signs from Marco soon."
Stoner exploited all of his Ducati's awesome top speed to inflict a memorable defeat on
Valentino Rossi one year ago, but heads for Shanghai on the back of eleventh and sixth place finishes in the last two rounds - dropping him to fourth in the title chase, 21 points behind joints leaders
Jorge Lorenzo and
Dani Pedrosa.
"After such a great start in Qatar the last two races in Spain and Portugal have been tough, and to be honest a little unlucky too, but we made a few set-up changes in the Estoril test that should prove helpful in China," said Stoner.
"At Shanghai we should also have some new tyres available from
Bridgestone. Our package worked really well at this track last year but there's no point looking into the past - we have to look to get the most out of what we have available to us right now. Shanghai is a really nice track, quite flowing, even though I'm not too keen on the first two turns.
