Petrucci: Mugello difficult for Ducati, not like ‘17
As though witnessing Michele Pirro’s horrific crash on the approach to turn one in MotoGP FP2, as well as Andrea Dovizioso’s engine blow up soon after was bad enough for Ducati, satellite rider Danilo Petrucci believes the manufacturer is struggling to get Michelin’s tyre allocation working for the GP18 around Mugello.
As though witnessing Michele Pirro’s horrific crash on the approach to turn one in MotoGP FP2, as well as Andrea Dovizioso’s engine blow up soon after was bad enough for Ducati, satellite rider Danilo Petrucci believes the manufacturer is struggling to get Michelin’s tyre allocation working for the GP18 around Mugello.
As though witnessing Michele Pirro’s horrific crash on the approach to turn one, as well as Andrea Dovizioso’s engine blow up soon after was bad enough for Ducati, satellite rider Danilo Petrucci believes the manufacturer is struggling to get Michelin’s tyre allocation working for the GP18 around Mugello.
Petrucci, a podium finisher last time out in Le Mans, experienced excessive sliding from Michelin’s tyres on corner entry and believes bike set-up is currently too rigid to merge well with the rubber. “The bike is very, very unstable when we release the brake,” he said.
Ducatis finished first and third at the picturesque Tuscan venue a year ago, but Petrucci was the first GP18 in Friday afternoon’s second free practice session in ninth place, with team-mate Jack Miller – riding a GP17 – fifth.
To add to his difficulties with set-up, Petrucci also revealed he had a similar engine issue to Dovizioso with one of his bikes.
“[It’s] Been a difficult Friday for all the Ducatis,” said Petrucci, widely believed to be in line for a promotion to the factory team in 2019. “It is not like last year, maybe last year we got something more. This year we struggle a little bit with the tyre.
“We started with a setting very similar to Le Mans, but we are just a little bit too slow, because I think the tyres are harder than we expected, or maybe the asphalt is getting worse year by year, and we struggle a lot in Ducati when there is not so much traction on the asphalt.
“We understood this when the Hondas started to use the soft tyre, and even the Suzuki, because usually they use always the hard or medium tire and this time they have been very fast with the soft, so it means we have been able to work for try to be as fast as them.
“Anyway, in Le Mans we only found the setting in FP4. So we have still some time for sure in FP3, it's like a qualification. We have to check very well the data, because the bike of last year was very different to ride, we saw Jack very fast. So we have to understand why and we try to fix our problem.”
On what the main issue with the GP18 is, he explained, “It's like the bike is too rigid, and we are not making the suspension work, so immediately when we go into the corner, both front and rear tyres start to slide, and the bike is very, very unstable when we release the brake. So we have to let the bike work a little bit more, because now we are only letting the tyre work, and this makes us slide a lot.”
“I got more or less the same problem [with the engine as Dovizioso] with one bike but I was able to save the engine, because I was just lucky to close the throttle a little bit before and my engine goes into protection mode.
“But the problem is that in that point, where we keep the maximum speed, even the rear tire is not touching the ground, and then the revs go up two, three, four, five times, and I think we have to talk about the bump in that point, first of all for safety, because we saw the accident of Michele.”
And his thoughts on the crest before turn one? “There is a crest, but on the top of the crest there is a bump, so it's like a double bump, and this means that the bike starts to wheelie, and then hits the bump, and the rear tire goes up for just a few seconds, and we are already on the limiter. And then the bike is very, very unstable.
“First of all, we go at 350 km/h with one wheel, and then there is the wall very very close. In that point, you hit the brake, and you have to brake very, very hard to stop the bike, and you don't have so much time to understand what has happened.
“Because you go the maximum speed of the championship there, so it's quite crazy. I think we have to talk in the safety commission, but when we are in a group on the first lap, it's very, very dangerous. Like Dovizioso last year, just for half a meter, he goes wide.”
