Estoril MotoGP: Marco Melandri gets new electronics

Marco Melandri is using new electronic software on his factory Ducati in Portugal this weekend to try and help him recover from a disastrous start to 2008.

Melandri has endured a nightmare move to Ducati and has failed to score a top ten finish in the opening two races in Qatar and Jerez.

His poor start followed a torrid winter testing campaign where team-mate and reigning world champion Casey Stoner easily outpaced him.

Team boss Livio Suppo though confirmed the former world 250 champion will run revised software in Estoril this weekend to try and help him make some progress.

“Marco will have some different software to allow him to have more confidence with opening the throttle. Hopefully he will find his confidence and he will attack,” said Suppo, who when asked if he could pinpoint why the Italian rider had struggled so far to make an impression, added: “Last year we finished 17 times in different races on the podium, of course most was Casey, but a lot of times also Loris (Capirossi) and (Alex) Barros in Mugello. So it’s difficult to see that the bike has something really wrong.

“If we know the problem with Marco we solve it. It’s not that easy to understand. For sure the bike style, the bike characteristics should fit his style.”