The challenge of the new MotoGP category meant that Ducati Corse had to make use not only of all its internal resources, developed in years of motorcycle racing with four-stroke engines in the World Superbike Championship, but also qualified experience from outside in other sectors.

Our aim was to build a prototype capable of taking on the opposition at its own level, by exploiting our know-how to the full and by being able to give outlet to new ideas.

Innovation in tradition, which has always been a winning characteristic of Ducati, has been taken to the extreme in the Desmosedici project. The new bike is at the same time very innovative and very ‘Ducati’. We have kept all the typical characteristics of the red bikes from Borgo Panigale, taken their concepts to an extreme limit and built what definitely a Ducati right from the very first glance.

We have faced up to this challenge with passion and the Desmosedici is the result of great efforts by everyone in Ducati Corse.

Some numbers, rather than words, are useful to describe the size of this project in more detail:

• 30,000,000 Euro is Ducati Corse’s expected budget for 2003.
• 50,000 hours of design work so far and 150,000 before Suzuka 2003.
• 20,000 km of track tests will be completed before Suzuka 2003.
• 18,000 rpm is the highest rev limit ever reached by a desmodromic engine.
• 3,850 square metres of space occupied by Ducati Corse structures within the Ducati factory in Borgo Panigale.
• 1,000 hours of tests will be carried out in the engine test bay before Suzuka 2003.
• 100 people work in Ducati Corse (45 engineers – 40 mechanics – 10 commercial and marketing – 5 administration) out of a total of around 1000 people currently employed by Ducati. This means that almost 10% of the total resources of the Ducati Holding are devoted to competition.
• 80 hours of wind-tunnel tests have already been carried out. The figure will become 120 by Suzuka 2003.
• 40 days of track tests are scheduled before the start of the 2003 MotoGP championship.
• 24 CAD workstations used for design.
• 16 types of CAD-CAE software used for structural design and analysis.
• 10 different circuits will be used for prototype testing before the start of the 2003 season.
• 5 riders have carried out testing in the wind-tunnel.

Ducati Corse would like next year to be a season in which we will learn all the secrets and intricacies of a new championship, but the aim is to immediately reach a competitive level which will live up to the expectations of our fans. It will be a debut year during which we expect to be able to aim for the podium.

We know that it will be the most difficult and toughest challenge that we have ever faced: it will surely be very exciting for all of us.

Ducati’s history in production-based motorcycle racing is one of success, and the commitment with which we are tackling this new project is enormous because our dream is to continue this tradition amongst the MotoGP prototypes.

The experience accumulated in Superbike over the years has taught us a lot about racing with large-capacity four-stroke motorcycles and this will be fundamental for developing and running the MotoGP project.

An analysis of the Desmosedici highlights one of the main reasons that have convinced us to accept the MotoGP challenge: the possibility of research, sometimes extreme, into new design solutions both for chassis and engines.

An intrinsic feature of the prototypes that characterise MotoGP is the possibility of being able to define innovative solutions that are totally free of homologation constraints.  This experimentation is the real new exciting challenge that awaits us.

We believe we have built a competitive motorcycle. We are however ready to carry out all the modifications that may prove to be necessary during the track tests.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine - Four-stroke, four-cylinder ‘L’ (V 90°, horizontal front cylinders)
• Capacity - 989cc
• Timing System - DOHC, 4-valves per cylinder
• Power - Over 220hp @ 16,000rpm
• Top Speed - Over 325kph
• Front Suspension - Fully adjustable Ohlins upside-down pressurised forks
• Rear Suspension - Ohlins single shock
• Brakes - Brembo carbon discs
• Weight - 145kg
• Fuel Capacity - 24 litres