Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi is realistic about his MotoGP title hopes for this season, saying he is aiming to decrease the gap to his competition little by little over the course of the season and working in a logical way to make the GP12 the best bike possible.

Speaking at the team's Wroom launch on top of an Italian alp, Rossi reflected on how not-to-plan 2011 went before confirming he has faith in the factory. He also said he was happy he could start the season fully fit and not with a dicky shoulder a la last year.

“We’re starting with a different spirit. When I came to Wrooom, I was still healing from my shoulder operation, and after that, the season didn’t go at all like we’d hoped. For this year, Filippo (Preziosi) designed a different bike, and they’ve made a big effort at Ducati to have it in time for the start of the winter tests," said The Doctor.

"I visited the factory and saw it on a computer, and it’s beautiful. We’re not expecting it to be immediately perfect at Sepang, but rather to understand if we’ve worked in the proper direction. We’re very realistic, and our goal is to reduce the gap to our competition, step by step, working in a logical way, and from there to be able to refine the details in order to be competitive and to try and win.

"One of the most important things for going fast is to make the tyres work as they're able to, so together with Filippo, we’ve tried to come up with a bike that will let them perform as well as possible. We’ll see if we’ve managed it. I like working with Ducati. I feel good here because there’s a nice atmosphere and we all have faith.”