well, i cant say im sad that he's leaving Ducati. the entire deal has been a debacle from start to its rain soaked finish, and has been a wonderfully disasterous piece of PR for Ducati..There simply isnt an upside for them. Personally, i cant wait for Rossi to get back on board the Yamaha..yes, i wish it was a Ducati, but lets face it, that bike is a dead duck..always was...in fact, its almost a joke, regularly mixing it up with CRT's..and dont forget, thats with a pair of world champions on board. If only Ducati could make a bike as competitive as the M1, which has dominated the sport post 500cc racing (once VR developed it) and is the only bike to even come within 100 miles of the awesome NSR500...Wouldnt it be great to see Vale on a Duke that you KNEW was in the same league as the Hondas and Yams? i think he'd have had more success on a broomstick. I cant wait to see what happens next year..the final phase of his career, and i truly hope he has an end befitting his unrivalled ability. Goodbye Ducati and good riddance.
Sad to see him go and sad to see the last 2 years like that. My only worry is ducati merchandise with 46 is not going to do the brand any good now. I hope next years GP is going to be better......this years BSB was awaresome and that's what GP needs again.
I'm sorry that it hasn't worked out for Vale or Ducati. But neither him nor Nicky have been able to get the bike to work, which suggests to me a fundamental error somewhere in the design. With all the changes within the team and Audi on board, lets hope that next year will give us all something to cheer about.
Well I'm not sure that that is correct either. Surely it would depend on whether Ducati followed the development direction that he had suggested that they should go in - which may well have not been the case considering all the comments about the lack of updates.
It wil be interesting to see how well he does on his new bike. At 33 years old, it might not be the bikes performance that keeps him off the podium. A strong comparison would be Michael Shumaker, with his mostly mid pack finishes. "There's a last time for everything" Something I painfully learned on the motocross track at 50.
I don't doubt that there's a good chance you're right, but I can't help feeling that Carlos Checa, Max Biaggi and Troy Bayliss all do/did pretty well over that age though. It's going to be an interesting season
Personally I think you're dead right here - Rossi can develop a bike better than most but if people like Preziosi don't listen then Rossi can hardly be blamed. Take the case of end of season last year where Rossi asked for a smoother less aggressive power delivery even if it meant less outright power....and Preziosi delivered a snarling aggressive sledgehammer even by Ducati's standards. Rossi likes smooth power delivery which is why he did so well on a relatively under-powered Yamaha originally. I'm sad that the 'dream pairing' didn't work out for both of them and for MotoGp as a spectacle but the buck stops with Preziosi and Audi for one have seen and acted upon that....
That doesn't add up though,because if Rossi wanted a less powerful bike albiet a smoother one ,then I would have thought that would be an easy thing to do with an ECU remap, something the factory could do and deliver the next day. To blame just Preziosi for the last two years doesn't figure either ,I was under the impression that Rossi and Burgess were hired because they were "the best" so to therefore hire them and not listen is frankly pig headed if that is what happened, so I dont believe it was that extreme. No I think Rossi and Burgess tried and failed - along with Ducati - simple as that.
NICKY ---howdy dude welcome to Ducardee. Dovi --- hi for sure Nicky , what has Rossi done for development. Nicky --- Hey I could have used that for the caption comp.
As Stoner often complained about a lack of development, and Rossi complained about a lack of development, I reckon it'd be a fair guess that there was a lack of development. The departure of Prez may also confirm this. If Dovi does nothing with the bike it'll prove it for sure - let's face it, only Stoner and to an extent Capirossi have ever been able to do anything with the bike. But if Dovi leaves Hayden for dust it'll only prove that rider style is more important, it'll take regular top 6's from both riders to show that any progress has been made at all. In the meantime Rossi will be podium-bound for sure.
ducati is expected to make a no ducati bike.. they will have to tebuild the engine to get it into an alu frame... something they know very little of in the first place... its like Ferrari buidling a diesel...
Rain spoils Valentino Rossi's Yamaha return in Valencia testing - MotoGP news - AUTOSPORT.com BBC Sport - MotoGP: Valentino Rossi abandons Valencia test
The idea of Vale winning races on a Ducati would have been awesome! In reality, as each race passed the whole thing became more painful/futile for the whole world to see. Goodness knows how he stuck it two years!! Whatever the true reasons for the failure (which I probably would not fully understand anyways TBH), Rossi fully deserves to be on a decent bike for sure!! For the doubters out there he will be performing at the highest level next season, age is immaterial in this instance!
I don't doubt it Peter but it has been well and consistently reported that Preziosi took things in the direction he wanted by and large a little nod to VR and JB and then largely develop the way he thought best. You can't blame him in some respects, he had Stoner to thank for his self ,belief maybe not realising as many of us didn't appreciate either that Stoner was a one off. Dovi won't do anything better unless the bike is changed significantly. I can't claim clairvoyance with that prediction! Preziosi out, Audi and their approaches and technology in and then Dovi has a chance.....don't forget TB21's swan song on the Duc though, now that was class ;-)
We're into the 3rd iteration of the Desmo now... 990 where Capirossi won in the first year, and nearly won the title until that fateful tangle with his team mate Gibernau a year or two later, then as LP says Bayliss won the last 990 race. Then the 800 era and we all know how that went and now back to the 990's. The constant has been a few people not naming names...
