Losing three KG’s easy for Ducati

Ducati boss Ernesto Marinelli has told MCN that reducing the minimum weight of the 1198 to comply with the amended technical regulations will be easy.

Following the Kyalami round of the championship last weekend the ruling to balance performance between 1000cc fours and 1200cc twins was finally activated.

Speaking to MCN, Marinelli said: “Getting the bike down to 165KG will be easy for us. Up until now we’ve been running extra fuel so that the bike is above the limit at the end of the race.

“From the next round we will run our fuel load a little bit tighter and also fit a new battery. It’s actually an updated version of the battery we used on the 999 and it weighs around 700g less.

“The battery and the fuel means we will be down to our new minimum limit.”

 

The big question now is how much difference loosing 3kg from a 168kg motorcycle will make. Marinelli clearly isn’t expecting a massive leap in performance but they do accept that it can only be an advantage.

 

“If you consider that the difference between having a full tank of fuel at the start of the race to it being close to empty at the end of the race is 12KG, 3kg is not so much. But saying that weight is something that penalises you everywhere – braking, acceleration and tyre wear so it will make a difference. The rider will feel it on every lap on every track, not like the air restrictor which only makes a difference at full throttle on the straight. It’s very hard to say how much difference it will actually make.”