---
title: "Pramac launch 2017 season in Italy"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/02/28/pramac-launch-2017-season-in-italy/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "MotoGP News"
published: "2017-02-28T17:47:00Z"
modified: "2017-02-28T17:47:19Z"
---

# Pramac launch 2017 season in Italy

As the 2017 MotoGP World Championship edges ever closer, Octo Pramac Racing has become the latest outfit to unveil the colours their 2017 challengers will run.

The satellite Ducati squad come into their third season with Danilo Petrucci and their second with Scott Redding at the helm, the latter of the pair taking to the podium in 2016 at the Dutch TT.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/02/642229866.jpg)

2017 is a big year for Pramac, as on Petrucci’s side of the garage they will have the all-new Desmosedici GP17 at their disposal. They will act as something of a test team for Ducati, but will also be out to maximise the opportunity a full factory bike offers.

Petrucci, who won an inter-team battle with Redding in the second half of the 2016 season, is proud to be running in Pramac colours once again and is relishing the challenge of riding a factory bike.

“If I’m not mistakes I am the rider who has raced the most consecutive seasons with the team, and this fills me with pride,” the Italian said at the team’s launch at the Castel dell’Ovo in Naples today.

“I’m glad to be here also because this is an important year: I was rewarded with the official Ducati and I have to do well. I want to improve the results of 2015 and finish the races in which I was leading during the 2016 season.

“We are still working to discover all the potential, but one thing is for certain: the 2017 version of the Ducati Desmosedici GP is the most competitive bike I’ve ever ridden.”

![Robert Cianflone/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/02/635363478.jpg)

Testing has proven tough for both Petrucci and Redding, with neither making it into the top 10 on the testing time sheets at Sepang or Phillip Island.

2013 Moto2 World Championship runner-up Redding admits that things haven’t gone quite to plan this winter, but is confident of being competitive on the 2016 Desmosedici GP when the season starts.

“It is clear that the hope for the 2017 season is to improve our results,” the British rider stated.

“I must confess that the beginning was not the easiest. In the first two tests we tried to work to resolve some technical issues that could have created problems later. It was a different job from last year when we focused on setting the lap time.

![Robert Cianflone/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/02/635347976.jpg)

“Our goal is to be able to do well from the first few races and I am very confident because the Ducati Desmosedici GP 2016 has been shown to have a good pace and reduce tyre wear compared to the 2015 version.”

Pramac will head to Qatar next week for the final pre-season test of the year on March 10-12, where they will be hoping to get on top of their current woes before returning to Losail two weeks later for the first race of 2017.