Our commitment to the World Superbike Championship
is unchanged. We can see the positive effect
of the development in the Superbike machine
directly in our Ducati production bikes. It's
clearly visible in the 999R and the 749R we
have produced for this year and therefore
we continue to use racing as the best 'dyno'
to test and check the development and evolution
of all the Superbike family. Once again considerable
development work has been carried out with
our technical partner, Shell Advance, to improve
the performance of the bike.
In particular with this year's Ducati 999F04,
we can find a lot of detail improvement, especially
with internal modifications that further improve
the global performance of the engine. Really
the bike is the same but there are a lot of
tiny modifications, which are the normal development
of a bike that has already proved to be a
winning concept last year. It didn't need
any major changes to continue to improve its
performance.
We are happy with the level of performance
we achieved during winter tests with our new
tyre partner and this new configuration, together
with the big names that are the newcomers
in this year's championship, will surely produce
some exciting and competitive racing.
The results obtained by Ducati in 2003, on
their debut in the MotoGP category, amazed
the entire world. A podium finish in the first
race, pole position in the third, second place
in the fifth race and a win after just six
races. At the end of the season, the Ducati
MotoGP Team had accumulated one win, two second
places, six third places and three pole positions.
Thanks to these superb results, Ducati finished
second in the Constructors' standings and
fourth and sixth in the Riders' championship
with Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss respectively.
The results were achieved with a totally
new prototype bike, the Desmosedici, which
took to the track for the first time just
a few months before the start of the championship.
The result of a project developed entirely
within Ducati Corse, the Desmosedici on numerous
occasions achieved the highest top speed on
the track, demonstrating a power output that
many people consider to be at the top of the
category.
Now in 2004 the Ducati MotoGP Team is expected
to be amongst the outright contenders, capable
of fighting for the podium in every race with
both its riders.
