@texastornado5: Figured it out, 1 year on a factory Yamaha or Honda is 1 year of ur life... One year on Ducati is 3 years, one year on Suter BMW....10 years
No I havent read about Edwards comments on Suter so have no Idea wheather he's for or against, but I seem to remember people in the know (julian ryder and the like) saying things like Edwards is the one you'd want for your development time and time again. Now forgive me if it's getting boring, but again I'm saying " well if he's that good how come his CRT team is doing so crap , you see I dont, and never will believe that riders develop bikes ,the development comes from the factories or frame manufacturers or suspension companies , riders just give feedback which these industries have to translate into stiffer/ flexier products . I stand to be corrected if in Rossi's next biography he says he has told a-n-other bike manufacturers racing division to put x amount of tension into the right-hand crossmember into the second generation frame , and this is comfirmed by Mr xyz of said manufacturer.
Colin's CRT team are doing crap because Suter couldn't sort the chassis and BMW's help was 0%. Colin has been working with FTR this year along with support from Kawasaki. They tested the new FTR/Kwacker at valencia with good results hence his pop at Suter/bmw!
As I understand it a rider needs to be able to sense what a bike and even its different components are doing and then explain what he is sensing and feeling to the engineers in a way that they can interpret and understand so that they can make the right engineering decisions. The general opinion seems to be that Rossi (and others like Edwards) are particularly good at doing this - in contrast to Stoner for instance who's strength is his extraordinary ability to ride around problems with the bike.
Stoner is without a shadow of a doubt, the one rider who has the ability to adapt his style to any machine put under him (Hailwood esk) Rossi has been a great rider (as the history books will show) but I think he's had his day. As for Marques !!! Blindingly quick but he is going to find out the hard way in moto gp. If he continues to ride in the same manner as he has been he might find he's in hot water with authorities and riders alike.
Surely it's obvious that a rider's input is only part of the equation and no matter how much input they provide, it's always down to the multi million dollar development enterprises of the manufacturers what or indeed whether, they do anything to change the bike based on the rider's input. Sadly GP is not like the good old days when the riders would rebuild their own bikes on the grass in the paddock and if necessary, get the file out and make a few changes. Now it is all wrapped up under the power of the manufacturers. Rossi and Edwards are well respected for their ability to provide FEEDBACK to the teams in order to make changes. If you're expecting Rossi to understand torsional forces in frame construction geometry, you're quite frankly being a bit silly about things. What he can and does do better than most is explain what is happening from the rider's view but it stands to reason that it's always down to the manufacturer and their qualified engineers to interpret and make the change. I refer back to the comments made on Eurosport between the two Ducati seasons where Rossi asked for smoother less aggressive power delivery and Preziosi delivered more aggression and more power. Why was that? I struggle to believe it's because Ducati tuned an engine not knowing what the effect of their tuning would be until it ran (in general terms) so maybe the reliably reported disagreement by Preziosi in producing smoother power and subsequent delivery of a fire breathing motor is the only tangible explanation? After all a sledgehammer can crack most nuts! You have to cut Ducati some slack as well in expectation terms. they cannot be expected to deliver change on anyone's agenda at the rate HRC can, they are tiny fish by comparison. Witness the three new frames last season compared to 27 frame changes for Pedrosa. It's easy to knock Rossi, Stoner and to a lesser interest extent, Hayden, Melandri, Capirossi, Bayliss etc for not developing the bike but ultimately, the decisions, the direction, the product, the BUCK stops with the guy who is in charge of the race effort. So many world champions, only one success story?....if a project fails the project manager carries the can, not the users, the testers, the designers, the developers. Preziosi is the reason why the last two years delivered nothing but woes for Ducati in MotoGP, not Rossi....
I'm not to sure this will be start of a recovery for Ducati. I think Ducati have been slow to respond with the problems they've had with the bike. However, is this due to the man or the company ? More importantly, was it due to lack of money given the wage demands of Mr. Rossi.
Think it was plain to see that even with stoner on board the bike was getting worse every yr all you have to look at are his results in his ducayi yrs, they got steadilly worse and thats with someone who knew the bike better than anybody else. even in his champ yr the thing was shite in corners and was making all its time up on the straights, read his comments on his best races about his win in spain against rossi
"read his comments on his best races about his win in spain against rossi" Have you got a link for the comments?
Was in thus weeks mcn, big bit about stoner , basically said he was loosin time all over the track in the corners and was tmakin all the time up in the straights. remember the race he is on about, every lap rossi would get to the straight 10 bike lengths in front and he would be 10 lengths behind by the end of the straight
Ducati just confirmed Bernard Gobmeier is now head of Corse, Preziosi now running R+D and Paolo Ciabbatta will lead the MotoGP project
People knock Rossi for getting special tyres made but make no mention of Stoner and Bridgestone in their championship year, I think it's fair to say it wasn't so much the Ducati 800 was better but that the Japanese 800's were worse, they took time to catch up and when they did the Ducati didn't win another championship. I don't doubt Stoners amazing talent tho and would have loved to have seen a young hungry Rossi on the Duc but the timing of his rides on the Ducati was wrong, if you listen to Stoner commenting on what Rossi was requesting from the Ducati you hear that he was also asking for the same and they ignored him too. I doubt Ducati in motogp at least will catch the Japanese out again but we can hope, for wsb I really hope the Panigale does the job tho
