Not looking good for Ducati, 1.7 off. No surprises there then. Marquez right up there with the aliens along with the refugee(VR46). Bradley and Cal doing ok.
Can't fault that, Rossi could surprise us all and still have it though. I think that Dani and Jorge will be consistently quicker over the season but you just don't know. By ze Germans I meant Audi and their new appointments in MotoGP. And I'm happy to see Alstare running the factory team in WSB, Corser had nothing but good words to say for them and so did Haslam. If the bike is competitive they'll do well. Tru dat! Loris was desperately unlucky in 2006, he could have easily have won that title and imagine that, an Italian winning the Italian manufacturer's first title - Italy would have gone batshit! I reckon you're on the money with MM too, he's blisteringly quick. I'd like to see how he shapes up to Casey's first year in MotoGP, there's a lot of parallels, apart from the control tyres and Marquez being on a factory bike. He's got better equipment but I think it might be even harder for him to win because of the level of Dani and Jorge. Casey didn't win in his first year, Dani did, but Casey got second in his 3rd race (overtaken on the last corner of the race to lose the lead) and got pole in his 2nd race.I'm expecting MM to beat that actually, I think he'll get a win this year. Remember Jorge's debut?! Sets pole at the first three rounds. Comes second in his first race, third in his second race and wins his third race. Then a 4th in China, another second in France and then proceeds to dramatically crash his brains out, a few lunar landing attempts!, and smash his ankles to pieces. Then more drama as he hobbles on crutches to the bike, gets lifted on and then bags himself a couple of 6th places! Hard as nails. He showed us everything he's got in the space of half a season, talk about spectacular!
I think the season may have a lot to do with Honda and Yamaha's development. The Yam was as good as if not better than the Honda at the start of 2012 but stayed much the same where as the Honda improved steadily as it went on. I think MM will bin it or win it given a sniff and we may see some fireworks, Rossi close enough in test times to be in with a shout but likely at certain tracks more than others. Ducati - more of the same this year. When your that far off it's unlikely to radically change and they certainly don't appear to have taken any leaps post Valentino. Yet
This year will hopefully bring some epic Honda/Yamaha, Honda/Honda, Yamaha/Yamaha battles and the Ducati's mixing it up with the CRT's as per usual. I think we will see good things from Cal, I dont care much for his ginger team mate though.
As expected Rossi back at the sharp end which I was hoping as I didn't want to see his twilight years ruined on the Ducati, MM straight up there again no suprises but this is only testing lets see what happens when the flag drops I think he'll have a bit of a wake up call but I also think he'll win one or more this year. The Ducati's... very dissapointed, to be honest the bike looks no different to what they had last year so my expectations were already low but to be hovering around 10th place and beyond isn't the start the team needs and it goes to show how far off the pace that bike is, 2 years with Rossi/Burgess and they haven't learnt anything. It's going to be a long season for the Bologna boys..
If I was Ducati I just would have pulled out of MGP, lets face it its not really going to effect bike sales. Bikes sales on the back of MGP wins vs Cost of MGP. Im guessing at a loss. Stick to WSB and why not get back in to BSB
The new German team manager said the bike was pretty much as last year. He said also that many of the new parts last year were never tested properly. Well i hope they give a bigger improvement than he expects as if the bike is still so far off the pace by mid-season they can only blame themselves.
I reckon that once Spies has his strength back, and I had no idea just how bad his shoulder was, he'll regularly be the fastest Ducati. I think he has more raw speed in him than Nicky and Dovi. It just depends on how long it takes him to get his strength back. I read an article recently, I think on Cycle World, where they describe the surgery and how pretty much everything had to be reattached and they used parts of a cadaver!
Yeah, he'll keep trying though. I hope the bike comes good for him, he's a genuinely nice guy I reckon. That's how comes across to me anyway. Which I think is part of his problem, there's just nothing ruthless about him. He needs a bit of mongrel about him. A bit of Baylisstic!
Why the pessimism. Lets play the numbers game because that is pure logic and never wrong. 7 times world champ, Mr Valentino Rossi was 15th after his first session on the Desmo, so 12th for Dovi is a 20% improvement. Therefore, this kind of logic dictates we are on for more podiums than the past 2 years. Progress!
Whatever else happens this year, my interest lies with jorge vs rossi... Motivation for both of them couldn't possibly be higher
Nothing to do with Ducati, but Yamaha have released this little video from today SEPANG TEST 050213.mov - YouTube
Rossi is already 0.8 quicker today (day 1) than he was a year ago after 3 days, says something, but times are still a second off what they achieved last year..
Just been watching all the interviews on MotoGP.com. Poor Bradley Smith sounds like he's bricking himself a bit! (And so would I on an M1, mind you!)
Yamaha really need to liven up their media, they have decent stuff shot and play some crap music along with it as ever with no raw M1 sounds or any attitude. me thinks they should be looking to the company that produces ktm videos, that's what people want. give us bloody M1's on full chat ya bastards! thanks for the link though
