Ducati's Alstare World Superbike team have adopted the same strategy as their MotoGP counterparts and constructed a laboratory bike which Carlos Checa tested briefly yesterday at Misano.

The MotoGP team, now in the hands of ex-WSBK chief Paolo Ciabbati, has run the test mule all season, usually with Michele Pirro in the chair, but hasn't made much progress (click here for story).

Now, it would seem, the WSBK team are adopting the same tactics, hopefully with more success, and running a mule in an attempt to get Checa, and team-mate Ayrton Badovini, somewhere in the ballpark.

“Yesterday we worked on the general setting of my bike and then I also rode the new laboratory bike that has a different weight distribution. We were short on time so only really had chance to collate some initial data. My initial impressions were good, as was the feeling I had with the rear of the bike. We’ll need more tests in the future of course but this first approach was a positive one," said Checa.