Winglet ban means a step backward, says Ducati boss

Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall'igna insists that the MotoGP is taking a backwards step with its ban on winglets for the 2017 season.

MotoGP's Grand Prix Commission announced the ban last year on safety grounds: although they helped to keep the front end of the bike down under acceleration, there were concerns about the possibility of injuries if a winglet struck a rider during an accident, as well as complains about the amount of wake that the generated for bikes running behind.

Development of Ducati's new bike is still underway, but Dall'igna told sportrider.com that overcoming the winglet ban is the biggest challenge that all manufacturers faced during the winter.

"No one has a solution for this," he said. "Frankly speaking, for me the bike will take a step backwards without wings. That is absolutely clear. So everyone is now trying to find out the best compromise, but for sure it will not perform like it did with wings.

"In Qatar the difference will not be so huge, but at some other tracks, like Jerez for example, the situation will be a lot different than last year."

Three riders will use the new Desmosedici GP17 this year – Ducati's standard-bearers Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovisioso, along with Pramac's Danilo Petrucci – which Dall'igna says will be critical in helping getting the bike up to speed.

"We will have more data, and this is really important to develop the bike and also to set the bike up properly during the race weekend, because the time that you have during the race weekend is not enough to set up a bike properly," he said. "So you have to find a compromise and with more riders I think we can be close to the real limit of the bike."

Ducati is scheduled to resume testing at Sepang next week.