Uh-oh: Rossi disses Ducati (inc Qatar spoilers)

Can't argue with any of that. Great article. My own personal thought is Rossi will end up going to Gresini in 2013. It keeps Dorna happy, it keeps the fans happy. Moto GP is saved for another 12 months. Honda can't really lose and I don't think in the current market they can afford to say 'no'.

The sad point is that it leaves Ducati, to all intents and purposes, in tatters. To ask Rossi to turn the bike around mid-season to be a serious podium contender again, (let alone Championship) is, let's be honest, nigh on impossible. Again, let's be honest here, he's going to walk at the end of the season isn't he? The curve is just too steep, even for Rossi. Who's going to pick up the pieces for Ducati?

Clean slate time, again. Oh well, so be it.

 

I wonder if Ducati could tempt Stoner back? Imagine what a kick in the face it would be for Rossi if Stoner went back and started winning on it again. Stoner would REVEL in that! Maybe enough to tempt him. Lets face it, if he wins this season he won't have much left to prove so he MIGHT consider it!

 

:biggrin:

Mate, the weather's crap here too at the moment. Rain in Sydney for the last day or so and for the next day or so too ... when it rains, it rains ...

Interesting developments over the last week or so really. The most interesting to me would be Vale hooking up with Suzuki in their return to GPs next year with his childhood hero Schwantz the team manager. I think we'd all want to see that, I certainly would.

David Emmett's article is another gem and I think it very interestingly highlights some of the transition in thinking and self evaluation Vale would have had to go through during the whole saga. I would hope that he has more respect for Casey after that and can reflect on how he created this animosity between he and Casey through the comments he made in ignorance of the reality. Regarding Ducati not listening to Vale I'm not sure that's 100% true and is probably a little more grey than that. I wonder if Preziosi made public comment on the situation whether he'd argue that they've made changes to accomodate Vale's wishes, but in line with their philosophy. Whatever the case, Ducati need to give Vale exactly what he wants if they want their MotoGP project to continue because, as David rightly points out, they're sunk if they can't. They'd likely lose Phillip Morris and no rider worth his salt would want to risk it. Don't forget that even Casey left because he didn't get the changes he wanted, I'm sure you can all believe his words on that now. The x factor here is the Audi money ... what do Audi want? They're a brand new and massive stakeholder in all of this.

Another interesting point for discussion is a comment Vale made in his book, What if I'd never tried it. He said he'd never go to Ducati because their thinking was too like Honda and too rigid..you can't say he didn't have advance warning that Ducati wouldn't listen to him!

 

I reckon there's SFA chance of that happening. After the way they treated him when he was ill and didn't give him the updates he wanted there's no way he'd go back. In my opinion he's more likely thinking that he could sit on the Honda and get as many titles as he can while he's still interested then bugger off and go fishing. Sweet as.

 

I can't help feeling something is about to happen at Ducati. Rossi is not a man prone to outbursts, his softly spoken tirade against Ducati was as calculated as everything else he has said on record throughout his career. I suspect that rather than asking for a sea change at Ducati, he is just giving them the hurry-up for changes that are already in the pipeline.

Let's face it, it's not unheard of for italian motorcycle manufacturers to be slightly late arriving with updates...

 

Whatever happens, i suspect this is Ducati's last throw of the dice in Motogp.

Get it wrong this season and i suspect they might not be in it next year. New owners may well decide all this is bad for business.

 

Disagree with the last comment, i think it more likely that VW will first underwrite what ever it takes to get back on track.

The man behind the Audi name is as fervent a ducatista as the rest of us on here and will want success.
His stated aim was to buy a prestige Italian marque and there is no more prestige Ducati can add to their pedigree than winning via overcoming this challenge.

If that monumental effort fails then i think they might withdraw but not without a fight first.

In fairness to Preziosi and especially as tyres are such a large part of the engineering of a race bike i can see why being artificially constrained by a part of that engineering outside of his control would cause difficulties.

Open tyre rules would help and if it did not bring the desired result then at least its ruled out.

 

im getting very bored with this post , i just hope rossi can tun it around we are starting to sound like the sad football pundits who tell us after match how they would have played it and then drone on and on about it , like my dad says "if the Dog had't stoped to sh1t it would have one the race "

 

They might have to wait for a natural engine change cycle otherwise they might fall foul of the 6 engine rule if they ditch the first 2 before they are out of mileage. Having said that they might not care as no one can seriously think Rossi will be a title contender unless a Tornado wipes out the top 5. (not a reference to Colin Edwards, the windy type)

 

Having seen Colin's tweeted collection of weapons, he may wipe them out after all! https://twitter.com/#!/texastornado5/status/181390769641361410/photo/1

 

Not prone to outbursts.

Absolutely correct.

I have never heard him be critical of engines or tyres or electronics or to who is team mate might be. Never once at Yamaha.but then again he is a good catholic boy, so that is what i expect.

Not like moaner. Always going on about how is arm is sore, and how he can't eat cheese, and lets remember the Seca incident!

Go Valentino, YAY!

 

I see he still hasnt dismissed totally the idea of going to WSB when he is finished in MotoGP