I'm really glad he has taken a holiday... Was going to just delete my ID because it was getting on my nerves! Ps... Cal crutchlow... Can't work out what's going on, is he not gelling with the Italians at the mo? He suddenly seems incredibly gracious about the bike braking again; maybe he was reminded how much it cost when he binned it last time and reminded that riders of the other manufactures don't opening slag off the team.
Cal wears his heart on his sleeve and says what he is thinking. He is a PR mans nightmare. I find his honesty and frankness admirable myself. As long as he keeps it buttoned when the thing he is riding is actually good enough to race. He is a top 10 rider and no mug. A world champion supersport rider. For us to slate him is like Einstein being berated by a 1st yr physics students. Unless its good constructive criticism. I think he just needs to keep his head down and grind out some finishes. If the bike will let him. In MotoGP youve got to 'play the game'.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blasting his ability. I do just think it's strange that all of a sudden he isn't saying what he thinks. Before the weekend he gave an interview saying that he was considering whether the Ducati would be the right bike for next year.
Will be still have a job next year is the key. It's great that the new bike will be rolling and hopefully winning some races but I'm sure there's a get out clause for Ducati Corse on performance related issues. Equally, he keeps being served a pile of crap; dodgy gps, brakes that come back to the bar, a knackered dash and electrical dramas. Surely providing kit that functions is the number one priority?! The bike might not be the fastest or the best handling but the wheels go round, the brakes work and the wiring wasn't installed by a sheet metal worker. I'd be complaining if I was him too
Don't they appreciate a picture of you sweating your knackers off in Lycra? Honestly some folk are never happy are they..... Bloody tree hugging hippies
Top and bottom of it is he HAD to go to Ducati, he wanted a factory bike.. Or the pay check of being a factory rider, I recall at Tech3 he was being paid £300K per year, Ducati are paying him £3M per year... Big leap eh??? He's never going to win a championship lets be honest, let alone beat MM or JL, with the Espagaros coming, Alex Marquez, Vinales waiting in the wings, lets not forget Scott Redding here also, if he wanted to make some money while he's still got time it had to be now. He took the money rather than stay at Tech3 he knows the score.
He couldn't stay at Tech3, that's why he had to take the Ducati ride. He refused to sign a 2-year deal, so they courted Pol instead.
Hmmm, it would seem that once again he's opening his gob a little too much in public for my taste. Surely one major outburst per week is enough? Oh no, not with Cal...... Big heart, big balls, big mouth Crash.Net | F1 & MotoGP | Motorsport News Ducati's Cal Crutchlow says he is reluctant to run the soft option rubber available to Open class and Factory 2 teams 'out of principle'. Crutchlow, who was forced out of Sunday's Catalunya MotoGP with an electrical issue, was 13th fastest during the post-race IRTA test, 1.725s down on Marc Marquez with a best lap of 1m 42.909s and the fourth fastest Ducati behind Andrea Iannone, Yonny Hernandez and team-mate Andrea Dovizioso. In contrast to the other manufacturer-supported teams, factory Ducati riders Crutchlow and Dovizioso had little to test apart from Bridgestone's new front tyre and the British rider is clearly frustrated by what he sees as a lack of progress. “I don't like running it [softer tyre] out of principle. Everyone is out for whatever advantage they can get, but I used to be able to do it on the other tyres so why can't I do it now – that's my reasoning behind it,” said Crutchlow. “I'd rather try and make the harder tyre work like the rest of them, which is their soft, and try and work with that and that's why today we never used it. “We never used the soft tyre, which I know all the other Ducati riders did. The Pramac team used it all day but we concentrated on the harder tyre because we need to look at some settings and see what direction we need to go in. “We confirmed the direction I always want to go in is the correct way, so we'll look at that and continue from now.” Crutchlow has resigned himself to the likelihood that he will have to make do with the Ducati in its current guise until at least the end of the season. “It seems strange to me as well [lack of parts to test]. There's only so much information you can give and only so many times you can give the same information – I gave it when I first rode the bike in November,” he said. “The bike is a little bit better this year but fundamentally the bike has the same problems. We need to come up with something but it's not going to happen before the end of the year and we know that already. “I'm still motivated every week but it's difficult to know that you can't compete with the other guys, nowhere near. I'm not going to change my style to suit this bike for one year. If I do that and then the bike is completely different next year then you have to change back again,” added Crutchlow. “I've learned to ride like one of the best in the championship, to go into the corner, to carry the corner speed and to get out of the corner, but the only way to gain an advantage with this bike is straight-line braking and that's where I'm weak.” The Coventry rider says he is unprepared to take any unnecessary risks with the bike and instead prefers to wait and see how the development of the Desmosedici pans out. “[Andrea] Iannone and [Yonny] Hernandez are riding it as fast as possible because maybe they need jobs and they're riding well, no doubt about that, and I've no argument saying that they're riding better than me,” he said. “But I don't think I need to take any risks any more; we'll give the info and see what they bring and when they bring it. It's not my test to fix the bike, it's my test to ride the bike and give the information. We're still too far away from the factory bikes,” he added. “Andrea does well and is able to compete with the likes of Pol [Espargaro], but he's a rookie and we should be able to beat them because we're a factory team and we should be in amongst the top six riders. But we're not able to be competitive with the other manufacturers in the championship.”
He's only doing the same as Rossi did, trying to force change. But it's blatantly obvious that Ducati either can't change or don't believe there's a problem. You can't blame him for losing heart, especially as his teammate is trouncing him every weekend, but like Rossi's outburst, it should have been said behind closed doors.
Cal is slower this year because of recurring injury that is self inflicted..he keeps shooting himself in the foot.
From what I re call, Yamaha signed Pol Espagaro and Bradley Smith had a year remaining on his contact at Tech 3 so Cal was left with out a ride in Motogp for 2015 unless he took up Ducati. The Desmo isn't that bad but it's a different bike from what he spent 2-3 years riding. It will take time. 2015 will be his and the teams year to shine.
I agree that the bike is the issue, Andrea is getting the best out of it for several reasons.... Some say that it's because he rides with more weight on the rear and isn't so sensitive to understeer. What is clear is that Cal hasn't forgotten how to ride, however the end of the last year was no-where near as good as the start. I believe that there are fundemental flaws with the bike that will be resolved for the next version, then, I think that Cal will be knocking on the door of the podium again. Whether he is a winner is to be seen. PS.. Look at what Gigi did with the RS3 Cube years ago. They struggled for a year then a completely brand new bike appeared with altered engine, positioning and frame and never got tried because the project got canned. It shows how he likes to work. It was also utterly stunning to look at!
I think anyone would have second thoughts about career choice when they realise they are chasing after 3 gay Spaniards.
That was Aprilia, and they were happy to admit they had a problem. Now it's Ducati, and I'm not so sure they're ready to accept their shortcomings. In fact I'm certain of it. The bike has a fundamental design flaw that can't be engineered out, and the same handling issues have surfaced season after season. It's broken the careers of several top flight racers. Unless Gigi can convince them of a total redesign, Cal is going the same way.
The bike is a total redesign for 2015, that's why they brought Gigi in. That's impression I got anyway
