Carlos Checa on being Ducati's MotoGP test rider

In an interview with Spain’s Marca website reigning Superbike champion Carlos Checa talked about swimming with sharks, skiing and the Dakar rally and being Ducati’s test rider for their 2012 MotoGP project.
Checa has already ridden the GP0 twice and will be back on the bike in mid-January to give it another shakedown test and give more feedback ahead of the official Sepang tests where Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will test the new bike.

Here’s an extract from the interview that we’re sure you’ll find interesting.
And you’re Ducati’s test rider.
Being Ducati’s MotoGP test rider is a great experience for me.
This is a bike that starts from zero and gives me other sensations.
It’s an important moment and I’m helping them as I can and trying to give them best information possible.
I am delighted to collaborate on this project.
The million euro question, will this bike help Rossi get ahead? “I do not know, it’s hard to say because I haven’t tried the other bikes.

I’d have to race the bike against others to see where we are.
What I feel is that this motorcycle moves a lot, I see some limits on the chassis and this is what they’ll have to work on.
I can’t give out other details because I’ve been forbidden to talk about it.
Will this Japanese style deltabox help Rossi? Everyone talks about the bike and the chassis, but what really defines the category are the tires.
They are super rigid and it is difficult to feel their limit and it’s around the tires that the bike is designed.
If this doesn’t change, the motorcycle won’t be fun, it’ll be confusing and easy to crash with.
To me this is ruining the show in MotoGP, with riders crashing without knowing why.
When you don’t know where is the limit on the tires is, it’s very difficult to develop a motorcycle.
The problem is not the chassis, Ducati changed it four times and the result is always the same, the tires are the problem.
What do you think of the arrival of the CRTs?“It’s a way to save the championship, because you can’t have a world championship with only 12 bikes.
It’s a necessity to survive.
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