From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

TYRE TEST TEAM AND CARLOS CHECA ON TRACK TOMORROW AT SEPANG

Shinichi Itoh to make his debut with the Ducati-Bridgestone Tyre Test Team Desmosedici. Sidelined with flu at the first Sepang tests, Carlos Checa also out on track.

Bologna, 9 February 2005 – After a fortnight’s break, the MotoGP teams are back at Sepang for a second successive test session at the Malaysian circuit.

Tomorrow is important for Ducati in that it will see the debut of the Tyre Test Team, the result of a joint collaboration between Ducati and Bridgestone with tester Shinichi Itoh. The aim of the totally new team is to specifically develop tyres for the Ducati Desmosedici and it will see Luca Gasbarro (Troy Bayliss’s former race engineer) in the role of track technical director and in charge of the Bridgestone/Ducati MotoGP project.

For this first test Itoh will be using a GP4, while from his next appearance onwards, scheduled for the IRTA tests in Barcelona, he will have a new GP5 at his disposal.

This structure will flank the Ducati Corse Development Team with Vittoriano Guareschi, which will be testing at Jerez on February 24-25.

Carlos Checa, sidelined by flu and still recovering from his minor incident at Madonna di Campiglio, was only able to test on the first day of a scheduled three-day session at Sepang at the end of January. The Spanish rider decided to make up for lost ground by opting to bring forward the start of his test session by one day.

Carlos will begin testing tomorrow in the torrid heat of the Malaysian track, where he will be joined by team-mate Loris Capirossi on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The positive results of the first tests carried out at Sepang in January, when Loris and Carlos had a GP4 and a GP5 at their disposal for eventual back-to-back tests, have convinced Ducati Marlboro Team engineers to give two GP5 machines to both riders. The performance of the 2005 Desmosedici is currently more than satisfactory and demonstrates that the bike is the result of a valid project and has a sound basis for future development.

The Ducati Marlboro Team will take part in the following test sessions:

February 10-13 at Sepang (Malaysia)
February 17-19 at Phillip Island (Australia)
March 1-3 at Doha (Qatar)