Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Ducati riders and Ferrari drivers came together in Madonna di Campiglio in Italy for the 23rd
edition of Wrooom, the annual week-long event that symbolically opens the new F1 and MotoGP
racing seasons.
Ducati riders Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso joined Fernando Alonso and Felipe *** in
meeting fans and enjoying the celebratory atmosphere in the Dolomites.
Hayden even had some time for a spot of snowboarding.
For the team principles though, much of the focus was on the forthcoming season.
Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principle, is fully aware of the need for his team to
make a strong start to the new season with a car that is as competitive as possible.
They launch their new car on 1st February and having lost the 2012 Drivers Championship
by such a tiny margin they're determined to make a fast start when the races get underway
with the Australian Grand Prix in March.
"In order to make sure that we deliver a good car for our drivers, I said to my engineers
lets face the reality - what was the gap on the technical side that we had in the race
at the end of the season. We need to prepare a target to make sure that we deliver. The
fact that the car would be competitive because the objective for us of this year is to make
sure that we start in a competitive way. I would say that we have to avoid the start
of the season of the last year and even the year before."
Over on the bikes, Bernhard Gobmeier is the new Ducati general manager.
"The challenge is absolutely great and of course everybody is very curious (about) what
we're going to do, how we're going to close the gap (on other teams) and certainly we
will have to work on all different areas of what we can influence. There are certain areas
that we can not influence like race luck and so on but there are other areas that we can
work on."