Iannone leaves Sepang impressed with GP15

Andrea Iannone continues to make progress with the new Ducati GP15 and spent this week adapting to the new bike and adjusting the setup to allow him to get closer to the potential of the new bike.

“I am so happy because my GP15 improves a little bit more,” said Iannone. “I tried a different setting and I pushed a little bit more my limit. It was not so bad and the feeling in this moment is really good but I think it is possible to improve. I think the GP15 is better in the agility and I think this is really important for me because the GP14.3 is really difficult in this point. It is more easy for the race and I want to continue with the GP15 and I want to go with this bike.”

The main issue for Ducati over the last few years was understeer and while that has been improved with the GP15 Iannone felt that braking stability was an area that the team needed to focus on in their development.

“I am not so bad in the braking point, but yes I want to improve a little bit the stability of the bike in the braking, but [it is] not so bad. I prefer to try a little bit deeper the traction in the last part of the corner for the better acceleration, but I don’t know if this is possible. I think at this moment the bike has many problems but it is completely new and the character has completely changed [from the GP14]. I don’t completely understand the character of this bike [in relation to] this problem [stability in latter part of braking.] But step by step the bike is improving and my feeling is coming better.”

For a full look at Ducati’s new GP15, see this Wednesday 4th March’s Motorcycle News.