Ducati plays down test expectations

Ducati will be content just to be within 1.5 seconds of the pace in the first MotoGP test of 2012 next week, according to team boss Vito Guareschi.

The Italian squad is starting from a clean sheet with its 2012 bike after a win-less '11 season, and Guareschi warned that he is not expecting immediate results.

Asked by Gazzetta dello Sport about his expectations for the 31 January-2 February test at Sepang, Guareschi said: "We'll have to see what our rivals have done: it's been said they've worked hard, especially Honda.

"A good result could be to finish the three-day session within one or 1.5 seconds off the quickest riders. With a completely new bike, that kind of result should not be scorned."

The Ducati GP12 made its track testing debut at Jerez last week in the hands of Carlos Checa and Franco Battaini, but Guareschi said it was purely a shakedown and would not be drawn on the early indications about the bike's form.

"I'm not saying anything about the results of that test," he said. "But in any case the imperative was not to risk anything, since we used the two bikes that then had to be sent to Malaysia. The objective was to understand whether everything was okay, and for that we need to be content, since they ran with no problems.

"Now it's up to the teams. Jeremy Burgess and Juan Martinez, the two chief technicians, will decide how to set up the programme. We have a completely new bike and we need to work on its complete set-up, for both chassis and electronics.

"The 1000cc bike has more power, but the important thing is to put that power down on the asphalt."