Rossi fitness fears for Ducati boss

Added on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Ducati sporting director Filippo Preziosi has conceded that he has concerns over Valentino Rossi’s fitness ahead of February’s pre-season test in Malaysia.

Rossi, who has joined Ducati for the new season, has been struggling for much of the season with a shoulder injury, sustained in a motocross accident early in 2010. The former World champion underwent surgery in the post season but despite that, Preziosi admits that he is concerned that testing could be disrupted by Rossi’s fitness problems.

“At the moment, the thing that worries me the most isn’t a technical issue,” Preziosi told Italian magazine, Motosprint.

“I can’t figure when he will have the physical condition to really push on the track. Valentino will come to Sepang fully recovered from a medical point of view, but physically he will have a big gap to make up. After all, he’ll come from a winter not dedicated to resting, but to working out to recover.

“Valentino will not have the chance to rest, while for riders at that level it’s important to pull the plug a bit. Luckily he his super strong mentally, so he will come to the races in a strong psychological state of mind.”

Rossi struggled with the injury in the post-season test in Valencia and Preziosi admitted that his star man may need to limit the mileage in Sepang in the New Year.

“We’ll have to be very able in asking him not to run too much,” he added. “Temperatures are very high in Sepang and conditions are extreme.

“The priority is for him to recover 100 per cent during the winter, so for February and March it’s fine to sacrifice some extra information from running on the track.

“We must be able to do without all the testing we’d like to do, otherwise we’d force Valentino into a hyper-activity on track that may slow down his recovery.

“We’ll have to make him run just as little as needed to develop the bike. I don’t want to risk having Valentino under 100 per cent in the races because he got too tired in testing. We must save him energy during the winter.

“It’s clear, however, that we will have to hold him back because he will want to understand and develop the bike as much as possible. To do that, he’ll want to run plenty.”

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