The General Manager of Ducati Corse racing team talks MotoGP racing.  

A year ago, BMW World Superbike rider Marco Melandri indicated his conviction that motorcycle development cannot be exclusively directed by data, as is Formula 1. Because a good lap time on a motorcycle is so strongly dependent on rider confidence, all development must be rider-centered.

“There are always two sides of the medallion,” said Bernhard Gobmeier, who worked with Melandri at BMW and now manages Ducati’s MotoGP program. “I agree 100 percent with Melandri—or with Andrea Dovizioso, in our case. At the end, certain things we don’t see in the data.”

Gobmeier went on to say that if a rider’s lap time is a second away from the front, if technology can make up half the difference and gives the rider greater confidence at the same time, that confidence can make up the other half second by “unlocking” the rider’s skill. You can ride faster when you no longer feel that your motorcycle is trying to hurt you!

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