Desperate times for Ducati with loosing Marlboro if the upgrades fail to impress Rossi and he signs for yamaha or Honda at Bruno. Not surprised Honda and Yamaha changed their minds on supplying factory bikes when Mr Philip Morris's right hand man steps in :wink: Rossi did say it's the rider that counts! especially when the team refuse to listen until it's all to late
Rossi has an offer to ride the Factory M1 which is why Spies has not yet been confirmed in the 2013 team. Philip Morris are staying with Ducati. If they withdraw from Ducati then Ducati will leave Motogp straight away as they have no way of funding the team.
BTW i was chatting to the guy from Alto Performance who designed the Vyrus yesterday. He has had some input into the design of the new Ducati Motogp frames (26 different ones to date according to him) and he says they should have stayed with the carbon airbox frame as it has potential but it needs a rider with a completely open mind and ability to change the way the ride to make it work. Just for comparison his Vyrus does not dip on the brakes when running into a corner due to it's design but they have to dial in 11mm of dip because that is what all riders expect when they brake and if they don't feel the front dip they think the brakes are not working and so add a bit more brake and end up slowing to soon. Interesting stuff.
That sounds the same as the Hossack front end discussed earlier. Unless tyres are engineered for it and a rider comes to the technology suitably able to adapt then this will probably not get used at Moto Gp level, unless.... An incentive to use alternate chassis technology is provided to the teams. More engines,revs,fuel or capacity ETC. Ducati now have VAG money, if they can access it and thats a big if, so an immediate exit is not a foregone conclusion. I would not doubt though that there are plenty of brands that would relish the opportunity to link up with Bologna even in these troubled times.
An interesting reply to an article written by David Emmet on mottomatters.com .Not written by me (im to tick) but an intersting appraisal of rossi........... The article says "His reputation of being able to ride around problems and still win on an inferior bike has already been damaged irreparably". Yes, Rossi has this reputation but what was it built on? Fans saying it on message boards so it must be so? Rossi is a great rider yes, but let's not act like he's been winning on Suzukis and Kawasakis during his career. He came into GP's on the NSR 500 Honda which just had won the previous 6 titles. He then went to one of the greatest bikes in GP history on the RC211V. Even the Yamaha he went to wasn't a shopping trolley or "worst bike on the grid" as some have said. The Kawasaki, Aprilia, Illmor, Suzuki, KR Roberts, etc were the worst bikes - not the Yamaha. And then the articles says "then another part of his legend - of being able to develop a bike, and turn an uncompetitive machine into a winner - will also fall by the wayside, deservedly or undeservedly". He's "turn an uncompetitive machine into a winner" exactly how many times? Once at best? And I can argue that the M1 (which was winning races in the 935cc carburetted form and finished 2nd in the title with Biaggi) that was "turn around" was done by Furusawa (not Rossi) who was working on the bike before Rossi even tossed a leg over it. Any rider is only as good as his factory support and designers and engineers around him. At Yamaha and Honda, Rossi had the best support and the factories who wrote blank checks to get things done. At Ducati we have learn that even if Preziosi was as brilliant as Furusawa he can't be Furusawa- he doesn't have the funds or the man power at his disposal to be Furusawa. This Ducati episode has made people realize Rossi like every other rider on the grid is dependent on others. He's not the one crunching the data and coming up with solutions and he doesn't design anything or fabricate any parts. So yes, this part of his "legend" should deservedly go away like the "win on inferior machine" myth. Not because of anything Rossi has or hasn't done but because just like the other myth it was just fanboy talk on the message boards in the first place.
I think there are a few Italians who might beg to differ on who designed the Vyrus, and Bimota Testi before it. Alto have done a great job developing it though. Ask mr Alto what tyre pressures he has to run to make that Vyrus work, you'll be suprised. Modern GP rubber has such a narrow window in which it works that, unfortunatly, it will never be possible to run a non-conventional set-uo under current rules. I agree the carbon supframe could of worked, but Ducati have ended up with a bike so far out of the current Bridgestones operating window, that they had to look to more conventional designs for a start point. Sadly they're still a fair way off.
I do fucking hate that term 'fanboy' which seems to have been brought in by people who are inherently jealous of someone's popularity.
Spies becomes just another statistic in the list of riders whose reputation has been destroyed by an idiotic tyre rule. I'm certain if you placed all the MotoGP riders on Moto2 bikes then Spies would be back up the front ....... the 'bikes' are simply a mess of over-rigid frames/suspension designed to torture a tyre into giving grip in a very narrow window - absolutely useless for developing anything other than electronic rider aids to prevent the engines putting power to the back wheel and destroying the tyre. We are not seeing the best riders win; we are seeing the best technical innovations to a ludicrous problem win races.... and that was the point where I (along with many others) stopped watching F1 ....the driver became irrelevant in a technological war. What will be Dornas' next genius move? Compulsory ground-effect (with DRS zones to counter it!!!) on bikes!
I do thinks it's an apt description of certain elements who fanatically (with little knowledge) support individual riders. Yes, it is a derogatory term - if the cap fits wear it.
Why is that a concern of anybody elses? We are all different in this world. It's just lazy journalism IMHO.
Lazy.......... you've just described your own repsponse. The peice I posted was a reply to an article.......therefore not a response by a journalist, so obviously not a lazy respose by a journalist. It was just someone like us, a spectator of motogp with an opinion. The term fanboy I would think is an americanism. Personally, I dont like the term fan at all. Unless it's one in a A/C split keeping me comfortable in a hot environment.
