MotoGP: Ducati looking to regain confidence

The Ducati MotoGP team has lost a little confidence over recent grands prix, admits its general manager Gigi Dall'Igna.

Still attempting to end a win drought stretching back to the 2010 Australian GP, Ducati started 2015 strongly and had at least one rider on the podium in five of the first six races. But since Andrea Iannone's runner-up spot at Mugello at the end of May, the Italian team has drifted away from Honda and Yamaha.

"I'd say that up to Mugello it was extremely positive, then there have been a few more problems that have not allowed us to get the results we had hoped for in the latter races, and a bit of confidence and feeling inside the garage has gone missing," Dall'Igna told Gazzetta dello Sport. "But the balance is satisfactory. We have a rider in third place in the championship and we have scored several podiums."

Asked if he was worried by the decline in confidence, Dall'Igna replied: "Absolutely not. It's clear that when you believe you can reach certain results and then you don't, you are not happy, you see things less positively."

He denied that Ducati benefited from the likes of Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo having problems and Dani Pedrosa missing several races after arm surgery.

"I don't think [the podiums] came from particularly favourable circumstances," said Dall'Igna. "OK, Pedrosa wasn't around, but besides positions, our gap to the leader was small. That means that the rider-bike package was competitive.

"At Austin, Marquez dominated, but [Andrea] Dovisioso finished a little more than two seconds behind; in Argentina Marc crashed, but we stayed with [Valentino] Rossi for almost the entire race."

Dall'Igna also believes that some of the recent tracks have hurt the GP15's remaining weak points.

"With the GP15 we have solved the most negative points in the GP14, now the bike runs a lot better than last year," he said. "There's still a problem with managing sideslips and with grip at maximum leaning angles.

"It was a weak point with the 2014 bike too, but not as bad as the fact that the GP14 wouldn't turn, and we had to pick priorities in order to adapt the new Ducati to most tracks. At Barcelona and the Sachsenring, where there are many long curves, you lean for a long time, and with the gas open we have suffered."

Originally on Autosport.com