Rossi seeking 'race by race' improvement

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FOLLOWING the launch of the Ducati Desmosedici GP12 Valentino Rossi has said that he is hoping for 'race by race' improvements over the course of the 2012 season.

After a difficult debut aboard the Desmosedici last season, which saw Ducati try to deal with their poor performance by dropping the carbon monocoque chassis for a more conventional aluminium twin-spar, Rossi showed some promising form at the first winter test at Sepang but suffered from corner entry and riding position issues in the second.

Speaking at the official launch of the 2012 bike, that features new a livery, Rossi said: "Our first test of the year was excellent because the feeling I had with the bike was positive and at the end we were very happy because we achieved what we meant to do. Maybe we had some little problems when exiting the corner. Then in the second test we tried to solve the problem, but actually we weren't able to do this so it wasn't as good as the first one and we lost some in terms of final position."

Rossi is remaining optimistic for the Desmosedici GP12 and believes it may take a while before it shows its true potential. The nine-time champion said: "We still have many things to test, and more will arrive during the season. Our objective is to improve constantly, race after race, which we didn't manage to do last season. The new bike helps us make faster adjustments and modifications, and this is important with practice sessions of just 45 minutes each."

He added: "The bike has changed so much compared to the model we had last year. I think we just need some extra time to establish a sort of friendship with this bike and familiarise ourselves with the new concept."

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