From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

POSITIVE TEST FOR THE DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM AT PHILLIP ISLAND

Phillip Island (Australia), Tuesday 19 October 2004 – The Ducati Marlboro Team completed a successful two-day testing session today Tuesday at Phillip Island, the venue for Sunday’s Australian GP, a race which finished with the first podium of the season for the Italian manufacturer.

The Italian team used the fast Australian circuit to test a new version of its distinctive tubular frame, which has been designed to improve the stability of the Desmosedici and its reactivity, in particular in fast changes of direction. New swing-arms with different levels of stiffness were also tested with the same purpose in mind.

Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss expressed their satisfaction with the changes, both riders recording interesting times right from the start and both improving the quickest time (in race trim) set by Capirossi during Sunday’s race (1:31.102). During the two-day test, Loris and Troy also lapped in an excellent pace, often under 1:31, and both ended the test with a quickest time of 1:30.6.

The commitment and the work being done by the Ducati Marlboro Team and by Ducati Corse have led to the much hoped-for results: development work is continuing and the team is preparing for 2005 with renewed enthusiasm.

“We are really satisfied with the test. We were able to work for two days in superb weather, accumulating interesting data and setting some excellent times” declared Livio Suppo, director of the Ducati Marlboro Team. “A big thanks to everyone, both within the company and in the team. Putting us in a position to test such a large number of components has involved a major effort from our designers, our suppliers and the entire team, who were really tired after three successive race weekends, but who worked enthusiastically for an extra two days. This is a demonstration of how much we want to have more days like Sunday! Despite the good results, we won’t use the new components in the race because they didn’t do enough kilometres during the tests to guarantee the necessary reliability. We will continue to test these new parts immediately after the last GP of the season in the week after Valencia”.

Apart from a few gusts of wind which disturbed Monday’s activities, testing was carried out in excellent weather conditions (air 20°/track 32°).