Ducati vow to help struggling Melandri

Melandri, joining Ducati from Gresini Honda this year, has struggled for pace since he made his debut with the GP8 bike.

The Italian rider lies in 14th position after the first six races of the season, having scored just 24 points, 52 less than teammate Casey Stoner.

Preziosi admitted the team are still unsure about how to solve Melandri's problems.

"Obviously with a rider of Marco's talent, the performance he does means he has some big problems," Preziosi told Italia1.

"Obviously if we knew the solution he wouldn't have them anymore and he would go a lot quicker. It's clear that when a rider loses confidence with his bike then he can't push to the limit anymore.

"Only in Shanghai did Marco manage to regain confidence with our bike and he did a good performance there. However we must not give up, we must carry on working, that's the only way we know."

He added: "He already has a different engine-specification done especially for him, and he'll get a new update for the race in Barcelona. For sure we'll do anything technically to help him."

Preziosi also refused to speculate on Melandri's future at the team following his problems.

"I'm a technician, I don't deal with this stuff. I don't think this is something that should be talked about, it's definitely not a way to help Marco to solve this crisis," he said.

"So I think our job is to do the technical modifications to help him do the performance he's able to do."

Melandri has not been the only Ducati rider with problems, as both Alice's riders Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli have struggled with their bikes too.