Michele Pirro is participating in the first 2019 MotoGP test at Valencia and he’ll be the sole Ducati test rider after Casey Stoner’s farewell. About the Australian: “He performed just 40 laps at Sepang…”
Ducati is facing first 2019 MotoGP test with a different line-up: Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner have left, Danilo Petrucci is experiencing is first “date” with factory Ducati and Michele Pirro will be the sole MotoGP test rider of the Italian manufacturer. Pirro, who missed the podium for just one second in last Sunday’s race, has already tested the Ducati Desmosedici GP19 and, at the end of today’s session, he’ll give his feedback together with Dovizioso and Petrucci: “We’re starting from this year’s Ducati, but we’ll test some solutions, that should make GP19 better.”
Last year the debut of GP18 was postponed to Sepang test due to some technical issues, but things seem to go better for GP19: “Last year’s Ducati should have debuted in Valencia, but I wasn’t very confident and maybe the results scored this year reflect it – said Michele Pirro to Sky Sport Italy. “The problems we had made us expand our horizons and so, we worked on different aspects of the bike“. From today, Pirro will collaborate with Danilo Petrucci, but they’ve already known each other for a long time: “It’s easier to collaborate with a compatriot and now me and Danilo can work and compare our views very often. It’s a new beginning for him, but at the same time he continues a long process started in 2015. Tonight we’ll talk about today’s testing, also with Andrea Dovizioso.“
Ducati will line up for 2019 season a completely Italian trio and this would make any success very special to Ducati. The three riders get along very well: “Sometimes I train together with Andrea and I already know Danilo. Our opponents are very strong and we need to find the best way to work together, if we want to beat them all. We must enhance ‘made in Italy’“. Pirro has also said his opinion about Casey Stoner’s farewell: “He just performed 40 laps at Sepang and so it’s hard to determine his real contribution. In any case, most of the work on GP18 was done by someone else.”
Photo Credit: Mirco Lazzari
Translated by Alessandro Palma