Cal getting his first taste

Rowan said:

Poor ........ Shoulda stayed at Tech 3.

Click to expand...

Gotta get the $$$ while you can...

another statement from Cal: (google translate, partially corrected)

Cal Crutchlow (P11 ) : " This is a positive style »
By Günther Wiesinger - 12.11.2013-20:04
Cal Crutchlow is bubbling with zest . He was long on Tuesday 1.9 sec behind the fastest time . At the end, he was eleventh with 1.5 secs behind .

Ducati rookie Cal Crutchlow circled the second day of testing at the Valencia circuit with 1:32,114 min to 0.140 seconds slower than on Monday .

But the World Cup Fifth nevertheless presented in cheerful mood .

"That was a challenging test day for me," Cal asked firmly . "We are not driven fast as yesterday. But we have much more information than elaborated on Monday . We have found a better set- up solution at the end of the day. We have now converted the Ducati very drastically in the afternoon. Today was not primarily about speeding. Sure, every time you walk on the runway , you want to go as fast as possible. But that was not possible today. We have the motorcycle comes to set-up several times upside down , from top to bottom and from left to right. But it 's always came out around the same time . Whatever we have changed the feel of the bike , nothing has changed ! "

Crutchlow continued: " But that was in the sense of Gigi Dall'Igna . He wanted to try new ways , my crew wanted that too. We have changed so much as possible. We want to find out how the Ducati behaves . But as I said you behaved the same. Only after the really dramatic change in the evening something has changed . We found a lot of extra grip , but the grip in the front faded away - and I crashed . This round would have been much faster than everyone else. But I could not finish it ... »

Crutchlow : Best time with 30 laps old tires

"Now we have found the limit. Dovi also told me that this is the limit ... We got the bike a bit so forward as I was accustomed with the previous team. I had exactly the same feeling as the front tires on my previous bike. But this bike does not give in to tidy , so we are overthrown. It is better if you do not crash . But we now know that we have the front in the wrong direction at the set-up. "

"I have set my best time before the fall with 30 laps old tires . This is a positive sign , " presented Crutchlow determined . "We wanted more rear grip , which we have found . And the stopping power of the Ducati still amazes me . But I still make many mistakes when switching ... »

Crutchlow is impressed by the expertise of the new Ducati racing boss Gigi Dall'Igna . "If you work with him , you feel what a good engineer, he is" firmly put Cal . "He is a clever fellow . Once I had to laugh . I complained about any part , he simply replied : <We build it newly.> I just said . <Good.> This is a good , a positive style »

don't look at Cal. more interesting to look at what Gigi will do shortly... forget 2014... if they stay in front of half the production bikes , it will be a succes.. 2015 is the year to watch .. and i fear that Cal may not cut the grade and could be threatened by the new MOTO2 arrivals...

more to Cal and DUCATI in general:

For many fans, the big question was how Cal Crutchlow would do at Ducati. The answer was surprisingly well, both on and off the track. Watching Crutchlow hard on the brakes for Turn 12, then flick the bike over and then on to Turn 13, he looked surprisingly confident.

After having sat at the same spot in both 2010 and 2012 and watched Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso make their Ducati debuts, Crutchlow looked remarkably good. Where both Rossi and Dovizioso were tentative and cautious, Crutchlow was flinging the bike into the corner with the same abandon which he had displayed on the Yamaha.

Of course, conditions were very different: Rossi's debut came after a long season on an injured shoulder, while Dovizioso first rode the Ducati on a track which was cold and still had damp patches. Yet Crutchlow's body language and attitude looked different, something which came through during his media debrief as well.

Instead of the informal chat with a few journalists sitting around a table, Crutchlow found himself sitting behind a table with row upon row of media in front of him. Visibly impressed by the experience, he carried himself with remarkable professionalism, yet retaining his characteristic wit, making the journalists laugh with a couple of entertaining quips.

Crutchlow emphasized the strong points of the bike, its stability in braking and strong acceleration. His first taste of a seamless gearbox had been surprising, coming in to complain that the bike kept leaping forward when he changed gear. That's what a seamless gearbox does for your acceleration, he was told.

Yes, the bike was weak in turning, Crutchlow said, but that had sometimes been the case with his Tech 3 Yamaha - or rather the "˜other manufacturer's bike' as he carefully phrased it. Crutchlow's attitude is overwhelmingly positive and open minded, and that will surely stand him in good stead.

When Casey Stoner was interviewed by the BBC ahead of Phillip Island, the retired world champion said that the most important part of riding a Ducati was the mental aspect, coming in without expectations of how the bike would behave. Crutchlow appears to have that part right, and has benefited, ending his first afternoon on the Ducati just a tenth of a second behind his teammate Andrea Dovizioso. Crutchlow faces a long and difficult path ahead, but he starts on his journey in the right frame of mind, at least.

The question is, how long will his positive attitude last? His patience will be sorely tested in the first year of his two-year contract with Ducati, as became clear when new Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall'Igna spoke to the media. Dall'Igna was at pains to impress upon the media that he had only just arrived and had no clear strategy for changing the bike yet.

He had much to learn, much to study, and much to think about before he could say anything sensible about the direction the bike may take, making it clear that while nothing was sacred - L4 layout, desmodromic valves, aluminium twin beam frame vs carbon frameless chassis - he was nowhere near making a decision on which direction to pursue.

His priority, Dall'Igna said, was first and foremost changing the organization. The race team and racing department were two completely separate entities, and that was his first priority to fix. Personnel from the race team could be sent to spend time in Ducati Corse, and vice versa, as one of the biggest problems was the communication between the two groups.

Fixing the organization had his highest priority, he said. Asked whether Ducati's biggest problem was technical or organizational, Dall'Igna answered that they clearly had problems in both areas, but that he couldn't begin to fix the technical problems before he had sorted out the organizational issues.

Dall'Igna made it clear that he had come to Ducati to succeed. He had championships in every other class and series, but a championship in MotoGP eluded him. He had taken the job as the head of Ducati Corse because it was his best chance of winning in motorcycle racing's premier class. It would not be easy, but he believed that he would be able to build a bike capable of winning the championship within two years. Hopefully, Audi and Philip Morris are prepared to wait that long.

Though he would not be drawn on how and what he would change, there was some kind of timescale. The bike currently being ridden by Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow would be discarded in favor of a new bike currently being designed and built back in Bologna. This bike would make its debut at the Sepang test, Dall'Igna said. Only after that bike was on track would he start to work on a future version, though he said he had no idea what that might look like.

That Dall'Igna meant business was clear from his very first actions. He explained that he had both complete freedom and complete control at Ducati Corse, and was free to change what he wanted. His first move was to appoint Paolo Ciabatti, head of Ducati's MotoGP project, as sporting director of Ducati's MotoGP and Ducati's World Superbike projects. Though MotoGP was the priority, success in World Superbikes was crucial, he said. There would be the necessary focus to help make a success of Ducati's WSBK program, Dall'Igna promised.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Dall'Igna's answers concerned the Pramac Ducati being ridden by Yonny Hernandez. That machine is being entered under the Open rules, which mean it uses the spec Dorna software and is allowed 24 liters of fuel and extra engines in returned. What was Ducati's interest in this project? "The Open class will [be] the future of MotoGP," Dall'Igna said. "So it is important to start as early as possible with this project, to be ready when these are the only rules."

Would Ducati vote with Honda to prevent spec software from being imposed on all MotoGP bikes? "For sure we would like to develop our knowledge of racing motorcycles as much as possible, and electronics is one of the most important parts of that development," Dall'Igna said.

The knowledge gained would be used in both racing and in production bikes, Dall'Igna said, with electronics systems for road bikes being developed based on experience obtained in racing. But they were not opposed to only racing using spec software, the Ducati Corse boss said. "˜This is not the best solution, but we have to play with the rules that will be in place.'



all:
Monday Summary at Valencia: Rossi?s New Crew Chief, Crutchlow?s Debut, & Gigi Dall?Igna on Ducati?s Future