Valentino Rossi’s has had a seriously hard time on the Ducati Desmosedici this season, as Ducati resorted to bringing out a heavily revamped chassis at Assen to try to cure the handling problems. The switch to a new chassis, which is effectively the 2012 chassis with the 2011 engine in it, hasn’t proven to be a panacea. If anything, it’s been a step backwards in performance. How much of a step backwards?
Here are some charts I put together comparing the performance of the GP11 vs GP11.1. I tried to highlight or separate rain sessions out so that it’s a more clear comparison. (Enlarge to see more clearly)
