Valentino Rossi consults with his crew chief, Jeremy Burgess (Photo: Ducati Corse)

Crucially Ducati needs to respond with something to maintain Rossi's motivation.

"The ball is in the court of Ducati and what I can see is a frustration in Valentino," Burgess said. "The other Ducati riders may point out that they are going better than Valentino at the moment but Valentino's vision is to be at the front whereas the other guys' vision is just do as well as they can and a decent result.

"Valentino's focus is the podium."

Burgess remembers another era when he worked at Honda with five-time world champion Mick Doohan when there was a focus on top-end power.

"At Qatar the Ducati top speed showed if you are winning in the final 200 meters of the straight you are losing in the first 200 meters and that also means losing out on acceleration at many corners." Burgess said.

"I was involved with these top-end bikes at Honda in the late 1980s and at Honda we went to the big bang two stroke in '92 and picked up all that acceleration that we had lost giving the bikes too much top end.

"In Qatar when Valentino was complaining about the engine that was a good sign because he is not complaining about the chassis.

"To make every good motorcycle you need to maximize both the corner entry and exit and for the short straights between the corners. The main straight only turns up once on a lap. The rest of the track is where you can make a gap or pass riders."

A crucial benchmark for Ducati will be this Sunday's Spanish GP at Jerez. All MotoGP teams tested at Jerez in late March before the season started.

moto2 spain

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