good bye Vale.

You have to remember that Ducati is a minnow, they may have decent backing but they can't simply throw manpower at the problem in terms of R&D. In the 990 era they were on a level playing field in terms of development, then they struck gold by signing Stoner. But their real performance perspective maybe should be viewed through the eyes of someone like Melandri, a top racer who's career was nearly destroyed by the bike. And he wasn't the only one.

Now with the might of the VW group behind them, we may see the improvements coming. I certainly hope so, Lord knows motogp needs it. And maybe the control ecu could play into Ducati's hands when it arrives. Perhaps they're just treading water until the motogp rulebook sorts itself out. Whatever, there's change coming to motogp and Ducati need to manage that change well.

 

Read this:
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Valentino Rossi's Options for the Future | MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

 

Nothing inciteful or of any interest at all there. I feel I wasted my time reading it.

 

Lol, just goes to show that you didn't read it then.
Let me quote one of the insightful pieces for you...

" Though the M1 campaigned by Alex Barros and Olivier Jacque did not win a single race, Barros had a significant input on the bike that Rossi inherited. Masao Furusawa had already built a completely new bike for Rossi's arrival, and the Italian's role was not so much development as correctly identifying the bike that Furusawa had expected to be best. While Rossi and Burgess have received much of the credit for developing the Yamaha M1 that Rossi would go on to win the championship on, that view underestimates the massive role that Furusawa played in understanding the weaknesses of the bike and improving it, before Burgess and Rossi got their hands on the bike to tweak it."

That better?

 

That isn't inciteful, that's Kropotkin quoting someone else.

 

I'll be sad to see him go. It should have been a dream ticket, but it wasn't to be. Not too sure about changing frames midway through a season, they maybe should have stuck with and developed the carbon frameless design. Maybe Audi money will make a difference ?

 

Wrong. Doohan used the screamer instead of the big bang motor. But you had the right idea

 

As I recall Doohan chose a chassis that was about three years old in design terms because he liked the predictability of it.