Far from the projects that Yamaha and Honda have embarked on, Ducati made do with adjustments during the Jerez test. The brand at the top of all the championships had no real novelty to test for drivers with the 2024 model, and Pecco Bagnaia was thus able to concentrate on adjustment work, particularly for tracks with little grip, a real challenge since the grip level was very high the day after the race.
“Most of the things we had to test, we tested on Friday, so it was just a day to reanalyze everything, retest, and everything we tested worked well.”said the winner of the Spanish GP. “I’m happy. We focused on different settings that could help us on a track with less grip. We used the last stints just to test these kinds of settings which, on a track like Barcelona, with less grip, could offer an advantage.”
“It was very difficult to test something with this level of grip, it was quite impressive. In the morning, when I took to the track the sensations were incredible, much better [qu’en course], and it was easy to ride in 1’36. Fantastic feeling but not very useful.”
Jorge Martín’s day was livelier. The Pramac rider stopped at the side of the track in the morning, with a fire starting on his motorcycle, and suffered a crash at the end of the day, but he was also able to improve the behavior of his Ducati.
“We didn’t start in the best way but we worked well, we made good progress”Martín said on the official MotoGP website. “We understood two things that are very useful for balance in the next races. I think we improved our base a little. We tested something for vibrations and it was good.”
Jorge Martin
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“At the end I was trying something new and I fell but I made a mistake because the wind was shaking the bike a bit. I didn’t brake well so I fell and we ended up like that. I I think the performances were good, the pace was good, we were focused on improving our bike.”
Vibration problems are gone…for good?
The rear vibration problems mentioned by Martín have troubled him since the winter tests and then occasionally affected other Ducati riders, mainly those with the 2024 model. The brand worked to correct this problem in Jerez and it experienced a weekend without any shock, but Bagnaia estimates that it will be necessary to go to other circuits to be sure that the problem is corrected.
“It seems that the less grip there is, the more vibration we have”explained the Italian, who logically did not have this problem on Monday, and said he was encouraged by the discoveries made on Friday: “Normally, in a race weekend, on Friday we just get the feeling and we try to improve the driving and adapt, we don’t make big changes. On Friday, we changed a lot of things to improve my sensations, to improve the situation with regard to vibrations.”
“This weekend we had none so we may have solved that problem but we’ll have to wait [d’autres circuits]. I think we could have vibration problems on circuits like Barcelona but we haven’t tested any new parts.”
Martin “think” that Ducati has corrected the problem for good, and believes that it has solutions whatever happens if it presents itself again. “This track was perfect because we didn’t have any vibrations, it came back to normal”underlined the championship leader. “Maybe we’re getting used to the bike, maybe the bike was adapted to the track. If that’s not the case, we have solutions. We’ve tested different solutions that can help, which make us even faster. I am really happy with the performance and the progress made.
