From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM SET TO OPEN A NEW ERA IN MotoGP

The Ducati Marlboro Team opens a new chapter in Grand Prix history at Suzuka this weekend. The legendary Italian marque, which has dominated World Superbike for the past decade or so, now embarks on its first attempt at conquering GP racing’s premier championship.

The 2003 MotoGP season will be a period of development for the brand-new Desmosedici, even if the machine has already showed stunning speed in preseason testing and looks like being a real force when the racing starts on Sunday. Last month, Ducati Marlboro Team rider Loris Capirossi topped the official MotoGP prologue test session at Catalunya in Spain (time 1.44″634; all-time record at 328.2kmh/203.9mph), with team-mate and MotoGP newcomer Troy Bayliss also showing impressive speed (time 1.44″ 893, 322.8 kmh/200.6 mph).

But, as team personnel are keen to point out, testing is not racing, which is why the sense of anticipation around this year’s season-opening Grand Prix is arguably greater than any other. Everyone is waiting to see how the Desmosedici performs in anger for the first time, an extra gravity attached to the event because the race will unfold on Japanese tarmac.

While Ducati’s involvement has sparked new interest in MotoGP, there’s also unprecedented interest in Japan, with more top-grade riders contesting the championship than ever before. This year there are ten world champions fighting for MotoGP glory – current MotoGP king Valentino Rossi, former 500 champ Kenny Roberts Junior, World Superbike winners Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss, 250 champs Max Biaggi, Loris Capirossi, Marco Melandri, Daijiro Kato and Olivier Jacque and World Supersport winner Andrew Pitt.

Sunday’s Japanese GP is the first of 16 that constitute the first all-four-stroke MotoGP World Championship. The fixtures continue with the South African GP on April 27 and then the Spanish GP, which starts the European season on May 11.

DOMENICALI’S EARLY SEASON PREDICTIONS
Months of anticipation end when the Ducati Marlboro Team lines up for its MotoGP debut this weekend at Suzuka, one of the fastest tracks on the GP calendar. The squad’s Desmosedici bike has already proved that it lacks nothing in the way of speed – at Catalunya last month, Capirossi and Bayliss headed the top-speed charts, the Italian establishing an all-time record at 328.2kmh/203.9mph, Bayliss not far behind at 322.8 kmh/200.6 mph.

The bike’s 220-plus horsepower output will be vital on Suzuka’s two long straights, but Ducati Corse managing director Claudio Domenicali isn’t making any great predictions for Sunday’s race, because he knows his crew is only just embarking on its long journey down the MotoGP road.

“All I can say is that we are reasonably happy and that our engineers have good reason to be very proud of what they’ve done so far,” says Domenicali. “We are only at the start of this project and we are already at a reasonable level of performance. We’ve done some good development work and we know that the bike has a very high potential, but we need more time to fully understand it and to extract its full potential. At the moment I’d say that the engine is only at 80 per cent of its capability.”

The Ducati Marlboro Team have been helped in their successful search for speed by fuel and lubricants partner Shell, who have worked closely with Ducati Corse since 1999. “The Desmosedici’s incredible speed at Catalunya was helped by Shell,” reveals Domenicali. “We used a new fuel called V-Power RD 0502, which had already showed promising results on the dyno, with an increase in peak power of almost one per cent.

“Every month we should be able to make the bike faster, but others are also getting faster. Our results will also depend upon how much room our rivals have for improvement, so it’s very difficult to predict results for the first few races.

“At the moment there’s no clear area in which the bike is lacking, it’s just a case of achieving a good overall balance, which will only come with time. The bike is still very young, we still need to achieve the best-possible balance and then learn how to achieve that balance at every track. We are on a steep learning curve, we still have a lot of small steps to take before we are really good!”

And yet the pre-season mood in the Ducati Marlboro Team is high expectation tinged with optimism. Most of all though, the mood is happy, as team director Livio Suppo points out: “It’s a happy team and that’s important to us. We have a tough season ahead, so we need to enjoy ourselves, we like to have a good feeling about the way we go racing.”


CAPIROSSI’S FIRST FOUR-STROKE RACE
Three-time World Champion Loris Capirossi hits the big ‘Three Oh’ at Suzuka on Friday – the day he officially commences his first-ever four-stroke GP season. The Italian’s 30th birthday provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on his career so far, as well as taking a peak into his future.

One of only a handful of riders to have won GPs in three classes – 125, 250 and 500s – Capirossi has been a major-league star since 1990 when he won the 125 world title at his first attempt, aged just 17. Over the past two seasons he has fought bravely on now uncompetitive 500cc machinery – in 2002 he was one of only two riders capable of running with the four-strokes on his ‘old’ 500 two-stroke. This year he is finally back where he deserves to be.

Some people wondered whether Capirossi would be able to adapt to the four-stroke Ducati Marlboro Desmosedici after a career spent exclusively on two-strokes, but he soon dispelled those doubts, breaking lap records within weeks of his first ride on the Italian V4.

“The four-stroke is great – much more comfortable than the two-stroke, so you can have a lot of fun spinning the rear tyre!” smiles Capirossi, who’s never ridden anything as powerful as the 220-plus horsepower Ducati. “The bike is already at a very good level, our lap times from winter testing tell us that, but we have a lot more work to do before we can properly claim to have the best bike. Anyway, it’s coming better step by step, and I’m really excited because I think we can fight for some good results from the very first race.”

Suzuka is a particularly special event for Capirossi for two reasons: firstly because it’s always a privilege to race an Italian bike in Japan, and secondly because he adores the high-speed circuit with its unique figure-of-eight layout. Capirossi started the 2001 Japanese GP from pole and was second quickest in qualifying last year, even though his 500 had 30 less horsepower than the fastest four-strokes.

“Suzuka is a lovely track, one of the best in the world,” he affirms. “And, of course, it’s a very important race for Ducati, like Ferrari in the Suzuka F1 car GP! I think it could be good for our bike because it’s not the kind of circuit where you get a lot of wheelspin. Everyone can see that we’ve got a lot of horsepower, so we are working to reduce wheelspin, and we’re making good progress with different solutions, both on engine and chassis set-up.

“I don’t have any big expectations for the first race. Much will depend on how the pre-race tests go. They will be especially important for us, because unlike the other factories, we haven’t been to Suzuka before. If we can fix the set-up during the tests, I think we can have a good race.”


TROY’S BIG NEW CHALLENGE
The Ducati Marlboro Team isn’t alone in opening a new chapter in racing history at Suzuka this weekend – rider Troy Bayliss is also embarking on a new adventure. After five years on Superbikes the easygoing Aussie is making the move to MotoGP, and he’s not underestimating the magnitude of the challenge.

Winner of the World Superbike crown in 2001 and a nail-bitingly close runner-up last year, Bayliss may have shown great promise during winter testing with the Desmosedici, but he’s got plenty to learn once the racing gets underway. Not only has he got to learn a whole new class of racing and get to know a grid-full of new rivals, but he’s also got to compete on 13 tracks where he’s never raced before, starting on Sunday.

“There’s no way I’m going to go to Suzuka and win,” says Bayliss with refreshing frankness and honesty. “Then we go to Welkom, which is another racetrack I haven’t seen, so I just want to get a couple of half-decent races under my belt, see what I can do, then hopefully my real season will start when we get back to Jerez, where I’ve tested a bit and where I feel pretty comfortable. The bike’s starting to come good, it’s just a matter of taking it step by step.”

Bayliss had never even see Suzuka before he rolled up for the all-team test session on March 30 (when he celebrates his 34th birthday), at least not in reality, but he had ridden a few laps on his PlayStation, racing against his seven-year-old son Mitchell. “Anything we do that’s not to do with racing he beats me!” smiles Bayliss. “I usually do a few laps on the PlayStation before I go somewhere new, it just shows you which way the track goes.”

Renowned for his awesome on-track aggression and radically spectacular riding style, Bayliss can’t wait for the racing to get under way for real. “I’m excited, after all, I’m a racer!” he adds. “I think a lot of riders feel the same way after a long winter of testing. But I know the first few races won’t be easy because it’s hard to find the limit at any track you don’t know. At tracks you do know it’s easier to find little things with the bike, so you can improve its performance. The Desmosedici is already not too bad, we’re pretty much where we expected to be at this stage. Early on, we know we’ll have some good days and some bad days, but we’re making progress and that’s what we want to do.”

Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix will be the second GP of Bayliss’ career – he made his GP debut with a one-off ride in the 1997 Australian 250 GP.


THE TRACK
Suzuka was constructed by Honda in 1962 as Japan’s first international-standard racetrack and still rates as one of the world’s best motorsport venues. The circuit staged its first World Championship rounds in ’63, ’64 and ’65 but those events only catered for the smaller-capacity classes and it wasn’t until 1987 that Suzuka hosted a premier-class GP.

Since then the fast, varied and supremely challenging track has gained a reputation for serving up some of the closest, most thrilling GP encounters. Suzuka is the longest circuit on the GP calendar and unique for its figure-of-eight layout which gives a good mix of left and right-handers, varying from fast sweepers to the dead-stop chicane and hairpin. It is also one of the few current GP tracks where MotoGP riders can give full rein to their 200-plus horsepower machines.

The track has undergone several safety improvements in recent years, including two major changes carried out for this weekend’s race. The daunting 130R corner at the end of the back straight has been modified, as has the chicane that precedes the start-finish straight.


DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM DATA LOGS

TROY BAYLISS
Age: 34 (date of birth March 30 1969)
Lives: Monaco
Bike: Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici
First GP: Australia, 1997 (250)
World Superbike victories: 22
World Championships: 1 (Superbike: 2001)
Suzuka 2002 results: DNS

LORIS CAPIROSSI
Age: 30 (date of birth April 4 1973)
Lives: Monaco
Bike: Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici
GP victories: 22 (2×500, 12×250, 8×125)
First GP victory: Britain, 1990 (125)
First GP: Japan, 1990 (125)
GP starts: 184 (14xMotoGP, 59×500, 84×250, 27×125)
Pole positions: 33 (5×500, 23×250, 5×125)
First pole: Australia, 1991 (125)
World Championships: 3 (125: 1990, 1991, 250: 1998)
Suzuka 2002 results. Grid: 2nd Race: 9th