Rossi's potential tough to gauge, says Colin Edwards

Valentino Rossi’s true potential on Ducati’s new factory GP11 will be difficult to fully understand until the Italian has regained 100 per cent fitness.

That’s the view of Colin Edwards as Rossi continues recovering from major surgery on his right shoulder undertaken in mid-November.

The shoulder, which he first damaged 11 months ago in a motocross training accident, is making significant progress, it is still clearly proving a major issue for Rossi as he tries to master riding Ducati’s GP11.

And former factory Yamaha team-mate Edwards reckons judging Rossi’s potential is impossible until he’s regained full fitness.

Rossi hasn’t yet finished inside the top ten during three winter test appearances for Ducati and double World Superbike champion Edwards told MCN: “I haven’t seen him fit on the bike so I don’t know what the potential is from him. I think he will have to get more ragged and ride more out of his comfort zone to make that bike work, but he can do that. I’ve seen him ride ten different ways in one race, so that’s not going to be a problem. He can ride ragged and smooth or he can adapt to anything. But it is going to be a chore by the looks of it. At the same time, with JB (Jerry Burgess) over there and Ducati’s ability to change things pretty quick, they might be terrible one week and return the next week and lap everybody.”
The 2011 MotoGP world championship gets underway in Qatar on March 20.