Motorcycle Forums

Rex54 - Dovi's 18 secs over 28 laps... 0.64 secs a lap... not a lot... Lorenzo's race time in Qatar was 0.44 secs a lap faster than last year & Dovi was 0.388 a lap faster than his 2010 time... look at qualifying (where every race has been dry so far) gives more stats... all show similar improvements with the exception of Le Mans where Jorge had a nightmare (it happens, don't feel sorry for him). Picking & choosing your statistics only works if other people can't research & pick holes in 'em... & still they prove nothing.

Taming the beast..

Bultoboy, When you say 'he will be riding a different bike. He tamed nothing, he couldn't ride it and they built another one'  Surely that is taming the bike? developing it into a bike that is 'tame' and rideable.. Surely you dont expect him to tame it by talking to it nicely and rubbing it's belly pan? ;)

If i am honest, i thought Rossi would have had an easier job getting to grips with the Duke not only because of Rossi's experience on the brutal 500's but because it looked more competitive than the Yam did when he first jumped on that.. this again has a lot to do with Casey making it look more competitive than it really was... Like JB, I was totally fooled! Again, hat's off to the little goofy Aussie!

Like you say Bultoboy "Rossi can't/won't ride like that" but what would you rather do? Rag a bike to an inch of it's life to get a few wins, some DNF's and finish the last of the aliens or get the bike sorted and challenge for titles year in year out? I know what i would rather do and there is no shame in that, what is a shame is that a lot of people on here see that as a cop out and a good way to knock Rossi and his abilities..

Erm... Hugelean...

Believe it or not Rossi is actually doing better than Rossi this time last year (61 points to 68)... wtf does that prove?... the Duc is better than the Yam?... pointless! Why do you insist on picking 6 races where Stoner didn't do well to gauge Rossi's performance when the reality is where he is now in this championship... why not the 2009 series or the 2008 series or even better the 2007 series where, like Rossi, he'd only just got on the bike or more recently his last 6 races... 'cos they don't suit your argument?

wosideg

Thanks for the link.

I recomend to the Rossi haters to read the motomatthers article.

Lovell2576 - I know you didn't

All I was doing was trying to put some focus on other views that can be labelled as pathetic and that is one that is repeatedly trotted out.

There is nothing wrong with Ducati changing and developing the bike to suit Rossi. Stoner was able to get results on it so maybe they weren't willing to invest in a major redesign and thought that the problems could be solved through minor changes and set up work. Maybe - I don't know. Maybe they could to a certain extent, results still came but Stoner was still riding very close to the edge and over it.

Set up changes alone have been no good for Rossi, so they have to change the bike. As I said, nothing wrong with that.

Ducati know how to build good handling bikes, we've seen it for many years in WSB and previous years in MotoGP. They took a radical new step with the carbon frame, it doesn't work as they'd hoped so finally they have to change it. Sometimes it takes a lot for a designer/engineer to admit that their design has faults. Maybe they have at last resigned themselves to that and that a change is needed.

Why though, this should be a reflection of Stoner's 'development skills' is beyond me. Also, for those that say Stoner hasn't a clue about set up, see my earlier comment about Preziosi stating that Stoner's changes benefitted other riders as well.

I still don't buy into this Rossi will develop a bike for everyone. If you took Rossi out of the championship when Edwards was his team-mate at Yamaha, would you consider the Yam as a bike anyone could ride and win on based on Edwards' results.

Never won a race and about 4th as a best championship result. Doesn't make the bike look good does it.