Ducati Speculates Increased Focus on Aerodynamics in MotoGP

General Manager of Ducati, Gigi Dall'Igna has said that just like last year during the MotoGP the focus was on winglets on bikes fairing. This year, Aerodynamics is likely to be the main technical focus.

Dall'Igna further suggested, "The aerodynamics are one of the areas in motorcycle racing where we didn't think too much in previous years. I would like to focus on it, and I'm quite happy about the improvements we did during the year."  

In 2015, Ducati was the first brand that introduced small winglets on front bodywork  and later Yamaha also got on the bandwagon. The winglets of Ducati were first witnessed while testing at Losail in pre-season and later increased in July at the Sachsenring race. During the Motegi practice in the month of October, an  auxiliary pair was also included. First time in the history Yamaha presented the winglets at the Misano race in September.

One of the major reasons to increase the use of winglets in MotoGP is to escalate the downforce at the front wheel of the motorcycle to reduce the chance of a wheelie happening while accelerating.

However, GM of Ducati has predicted that there will be an increased focus on improving the aerodynamics in MotoGP. But according to him, it will be just a matter of improvement instead of bikes getting larger or getting more wings.

Gigi Dall'Igna said, "I think we arrived at the final set-up of the aerodynamics, so I don't expect that we'll increase the [number of] winglets in the future. "Maybe we can adapt them a little bit on the racetrack, or find some small details we can improve on."

MotoGP has changed its technical specifications for the year 2016 and has specified a "minimum radius of 2.5mm" for the edges of all "wings fitted as an integral part of the fairing".

Also Read: All You need to Know about MotoGP - A Beginner's Guide

Also Read:  6 Best MotoGP Riders of all Time