Why the new Ducati winger irritated his MotoGP rivals after Qatar – MotoGP



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While the race against Ducati at the Qatar Grand Prix was quickly toned down, it's easy to understand why its rivals are attracting – explains Oriol Puigdemont.

The case is centered around a winglet at the bottom of the Ducati, in front of the rear tire. It was tested by factory rider Danilo Petrucci, then used by Petrucci, his victorious teammate, Andrea Dovizioso and Jack Miller of Pramac during the Losail race in Qatar.

Ducati defended the legality of the part as a method of cooling the tire, but the teams that protested have many reasons to say that this piece creates support, which would make it illegal under the rules designed to control the proliferation of winglets in recent seasons.

The main reason for the complaint was Massimo Rivola, newly appointed Race Director at Aprilia and a man with more than 20 years of experience in the Formula 1 paddock; he worked for Minardi and Toro Rosso before landing at Ferrari.

In early March, a few days before the start of the season, MotoGP technical director Danny Aldridge sent a note to the teams explaining the use of additions such as the one used by Ducati in Qatar.

In the previous version of the regulations, it was clear that such a deflector could only be used in wet runways, as its main function was to drain the water around the tire to ensure safety. of the runner.

The new ruleset paved the way for its use in dry track racing, after Ducati warned that such a piece could then be used to cool the rear tire.

In the eyes of other manufacturers (Yamaha decided to stay out of this because it had used a similar device during the wet track race in Valencia last year), it is more than obvious that the winglet has an aerodynamic advantage.

These concerns were expressed to the Race Direction with the help of an important technical brief prepared by Rivola, which put strong emphasis on the supports created by Ducati.

"A few weeks ago, Ducati went to the technical director with an appendix for the rear swingarm and a cover for the front tire," said Davide Brivio, Suzuki team leader.

"He claimed that his main function was to decrease the temperature of the rear tire.

"The technical director gave his approval and set rules for the teams on March 4th."

Before filing a formal complaint, as provided by the protocol (ie after the start of the race), Rivola and Brivio made contact with Ducati's general manager, Gigi Dall & Igna, to let him know that, in the event that one of his bikes ran the baffle, they would make a claim.

And they made it fully aware that the ambiguity of the regulations would oblige the stewards to dismiss the complaint at first instance, and convinced that this case would be decided by the FIM appeal, Governing body of the biker racing club. And that will be the case.

"Ducati provided new additions to the racing bikes of his three riders, which made us complain," Brivio added.

"We did it because we wanted to clarify the situation once and for all."

For Aprilia, Suzuki, Honda and KTM, the reasons given by Ducati for his new piece are not only wrong, they are also full of contradictions.

Ducati is skeptical about the baffle's insistence on tire cooling because the track temperature has not reached 25 degrees Celsius in Qatar. The main challenge was to heat the tires sufficiently rather than keeping them cool.

And since, just like in F1, reducing excess weight is essential on a MotoGP bike, they are also convinced that the piece must have a substantial performance advantage to be worth the extra weight it adds.

A verdict of the FIM is expected in a few days.

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