Dovizioso, Hayden, Iannone and Spies unveil the Ducati GP13 at the Wrooom

The Ducati team has held its presentation for the 2013 MotoGP World Championship season in Madonna di Campiglio, at its traditional Wroom alongside the F1 squad, Ferrari. The Italian team has unveiled its machines for the coming season of a world motorcycle championship that is expected to be full of excitement. We have already seen the GP13 that Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden will ride, and we have also seen the Ducatis that will be in the hands of the Pramac Racing riders, Ben Spies and Andrea Iannone.

The presentation was one of the most important moments of what has taken place at Wrooom 2013. Besides getting to see Dovi fully as a Ducatista for the first time, some details about the bike were also confirmed, including its changes and the direction the team will take this year after the two previous seasons, which were so “disastrous”. Gabriele del Torchio, the general manager of the brand, spoke about what 2012 was and what is to come:

Last year was important and full of big changes. A new era began with the Audi Group. A stage that gives us confidence for the future without losing sight of Made in Italy. In competition things did not go well, and we suffered. That is why we decided to reorganize the racing department, and this is where Bernhard Gobmeier comes in, as the new general manager of Ducati Corse. Filippo (Preziosi) has done great things and I thank him for these last twelve years. In addition, the welcome return of Paolo Ciabatti (head of the MotoGP Project) will take place, and of course Vittoriano Guareschi will continue as Team Manager.

We were also able to see Dovi at his first official press conference as a Ducati rider, where the Italian showed himself to be confident and very eager to get the action started, despite the physical problems he has been dragging along in recent months, but step by step he is more recovered. Therefore the first truly important test will be the one held at the Sepang Circuit soon, since in principle he will arrive physically at 100% and prepared to adapt to a machine that has caused a lot of headaches for great riders.

I have a micro hernia at C6-C5, I think. I had some problems at the Monza Rally and at the Jerez de la Frontera test, where I got stuck at the first braking point. Now I am fine, although I know the micro fracture is still there. I will need a bit more treatment, but we will be ready for Malaysia. The first impressions, however, were positive. I expected a totally unmanageable bike, judging by what people had said, but that was not the case. At Jerez the neck problem slowed me down, but now with six days in Malaysia there will be time to understand the Ducati.

Of course, Nicky Hayden was another of the protagonists of the press conference. The American knows the bike well, and he knows that 2013 has to be his year if he wants to start standing out, although he also knows it will not be easy. It will be his fifth season with the Italian brand, so his ambitions are high. Now he has to trust in all the changes that have been made and in his own potential. Everyone has to work on this machine to make it better.

I have been in Bologna these last few days. We do not have a “new bike” strictly speaking; it has not changed significantly from last year, but we are moving forward little by little. The engine regulations are obviously restrictive, but I see this year as an opportunity to start again.

The first photos of the GP13 have caused a sensation, and here we have the Italian beast. Soon we will see the Japanese delicacy of the Honda and the constant Yamaha, and all the CRTs. The Pramac Racing satellites with Ben Spies and Andrea Iannone were also presented alongside the factory machines, so expectation is at its maximum in Italy.

Source | MotoGP Official