Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi will race this weekend's Aragon MotoGP round with the aluminium chassis he tested at Mugello at the back end of last week but he is stressing it is not a switch to a Deltabox-style frame.

It seems that Ducati have had the carbon chassis design fabricated in aluminium, more than likely by FTR, to try and make the front-end of the bike do what The Doctor has ordered but it is not likely to transform the troublesome GP11.1.

"It is not an aluminium frame, the front part of the bike is a bit different, it is in aluminium not in carbon like before but stays true to the Ducati concept," said Rossi, speaking to bikesportnews.com this evening.

"It’s a question of time with the material. We have to work, to understand, and with aluminium. We need a lot less time compared to the carbon. The feeling improve a bit but this is just the first step. We need to keep working to come back to fight for the front positions."