Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso gave the team’s new aerodynamic fairing a run-in during the second day of the Qatar test on Saturday, and heaped praise on the Italian marque’s engineers’ work.
The Italian rider stole the headlines on Friday after topping the time sheets with a lap underneath the circuit record, and hinting at a much more competitive Desmosedici than was seen at the Phillip Island test.
Twitter: Something new in the aerodynamics field from #DucatiTeam being tested now by #AD04 #forzaducati https://t.co/JVLCgNh1Ig (@DucatiMotor)
On Saturday, Dovizioso worked on various different things on his GP17, not least the new fairing which is a radical take on what Aprilia debuted in Australian last month.
Though not giving too much away, as has been the norm when discussing new fairings this winter, Dovizioso did at least say the design gave a similar feeling to the now-banned ‘winglets’.
“In my opinion, our engineers have done a great job because it wasn’t easy to create a certain aerodynamic downforce without using the winglets,” he said.
“Now we are weighing up the pros and cons before we take a decision and also work out the tracks where this solution can give the biggest advantage.
“It was nice to feel the effect of the new fairing, because it was very difficult to create a good fairing, with a similar downforce like last year with the new rules.
“I think (the fairing’s effect compared to the wings is) very close. Not the same, but very close.”
Dovizioso completed 42 laps of the Losail Circuit last night, and ended the session 13th on the time sheets with a 1m55.583s.
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