Burgess claims that Rossi will be ready
Added on Monday, December 6th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor
Burgess claims that Rossi will be ready
Valentino Rossi knows exactly what he wants from the Ducati Desmosedici and he will be ready for the opening race of the new season, according to crew chief Jerry Burgess.
Burgess, who has moved with Rossi from Yamaha to Ducati, has claimed that there is no panic in the Ducati garage after Rossi’s post-race test results in Valencia and that the former champion should not be written off for the championship.
Instead, Burgess has insisted that the team were impressed with Rossi’s showing, given the stresses that a full race weekend had put on his shoulder injury, and that the Italian had surprised the Ducati mechanics with the level of feedback that he was able to provide from his first ride with the new bike.
“The two things at the top of the job list are fixing Valentino’s shoulder and analyzing all the data from the test,” Burgess told Speed TV. “Five days of riding at Valencia (GP race + test) really took it out of him; at the end he could do just three or four laps – he couldn’t do much.
“I will be back in Bologna for meetings in December to meet with Filippo Preziosi and Valentino. We will check the data and tap into Valentino’s mind to further understand what needs to be done.
“Our focus is to make the bike better for everyone and we gathered a lot of information. Valentino is the man for that.”
Burgess also added that the riding style of the Ducati, a bike that has proved notoriously difficult for some established riders in the past, put added stresses on Rossi’s injury, affecting his impression on the timesheets.
“The Ducati is more physical to ride than the Japanese bikes and turning the bike is one of our issues we need to improve,” Burgess explained. “You have to force it a little more and that probably added some stress that we didn’t expect to be there. We didn’t want to push into any areas of risk.
“But Valentino said the bike has fantastic rear grip and that the engine is terrific.
“We would have loved to have been further up the time sheets. Everybody loves to be on top. But Valentino just wanted to ride and understand the bike. He didn’t want to push as hard as he could have.”
