Dovi speaks of Rossi

there is probably more than a ring of truth in what he said. Though I don't see Dovi as a development rider. They could have kept Hayden in WSBK and let him develop the GP bike, a two for one kind of thing.

he couldnt develop the bike and gave up nothing to see here.

mark419ny said:

he couldnt develop the bike and gave up nothing to see here.

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Well except that the inference is that he not only failed to develop the bike..but actually took it backwards... that's what I get from this...

that's good:

< Dovizioso and new recruit Cal Crutchlow will ride what is being termed a "reset" bike at the Sepang test next month. >

and furthermore, let's hope for Gigi-magic

Stw said:

Well except that the inference is that he not only failed to develop the bike..but actually took it backwards... that's what I get from this...

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that is also true but you know bashing rossi is not allowed.

mark419ny said:

that is also true but you know bashing rossi is not allowed.

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Lol....Well In a thread such as this it is... I am not bashing him..Dovi is..

Stw said:

Lol....Well In a thread such as this it is... I am not bashing him..Dovi is..

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He can bash all he wants, but until I see him doing better than Rossi and Hayden on the bike I'll chalk it up to what it is. The bike is a POS.

Capt CF said:

He can bash all he wants, but until I see him doing better than Rossi and Hayden on the bike I'll chalk it up to what it is. The bike is a POS.

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Not arguing with that.... But I guess the larger question is why it didnt get better under the Rossi regime???

Stw said:

Not arguing with that.... But I guess the larger question is why it didnt get better under the Rossi regime???

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That's a valid question/point, but what mystifies me is that it seems to get no better or no worse no matter who is currently piloting it. It seems like it takes riders who are genuine podium threats and places them solidly in 8th-9th no matter who they are. Every time somebody I like moves over (Cal, Dovi, etc.) I get excited and then, sure enough, they end up getting beat by a CRT.

At this point, I'd argue that Ducati just needs to stop ....... around and sign de Puniet. At least then within the space of a few races he will crash all the GP1X bikes and Ducati will be forced to build from the ground up or redirect all the GP funding into SBK.

Capt CF said:

That's a valid question/point, but what mystifies me is that it seems to get no better or no worse no matter who is currently piloting it. It seems like it takes riders who are genuine podium threats and places them solidly in 8th-9th no matter who they are. Every time somebody I like moves over (Cal, Dovi, etc.) I get excited and then, sure enough, they end up getting beat by a CRT.

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Well the bike needs work..that's a given..But it appears (from what I read/understand) that its a handling issue not necessarily a lack of power issue.???... therefore accurate/technical rider feedback to the techs is absolutely vital... It would seem that past riders simply failed in this regard...Can Cal do this?? No idea but I do believe that the podium is currently beyond Ducati..but improvement is not....and this is a must for them this season... no more 8/9th consistently.... Being behind the HRC and YFR team is ok with me...these are factory teams after all..but being behind the Tech 3 and LCR teams is simply unacceptable...so Ducati should be placing 5/6th with consistency .... Of course I want them to win but being 3rd to the Japanese factory teams is no disgrace....

I read somewhere that one of the major problems was lack of communication between Ducati's MotoGP team and the factory back in Italy. The two were not talking and basically functioning completely on their own.. I believe that's one of the first things that Gigi addressed and now engineers will be rotating from GP to the factory.

Eleven 99 said:

I read somewhere that one of the major problems was lack of communication between Ducati's MotoGP team and the factory back in Italy. The two were not talking and basically functioning completely on their own.. I believe that's one of the first things that Gigi addressed and now engineers will be rotating from GP to the factory.

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I read that too, the guys at the factory would get the data from the track and work with that. There wasn't any collaboration with the guys riding the bike and the guys building it. Seems like a pretty archaic way to engineer a motorcycle.

I think it's really hard to blame the rider for lack of development success with a bike. All the rider can say is what is lacking for him to go faster on the bike, it's usually "I don't have enough power", "I don't have enough grip", or "I can't get it to turn" and then the engineers try to figure out how to solve that problem or problems. Often they solve one problem but make another one worse. For 2 years Rossi said what his problem was, and the engineers went round and round trying different ways of solving the problem within the parameters of what they were capable of given their budget, the bike's basic design, and their engineering limitations. They were virtually never able to make progress in solving the problem for whatever reason, even after making radical changes to the chassis design. I guarantee you if they could have gotten the grip and feel that Rossi was after, he could have gone a lot faster on that bike, but they couldn't and he failed, just like everyone else failed on that generation of the bike. Hopefully the 2014 bike will be a new start, no more chasing their tail in a futile effort and a real renewal of the team. I think both Dovi and Cal are capable of running in the top 5 of a MotoGP race on a consistent basis, the only question is whether they'll have the bike to make that happen.

stoner seemed to ride the bike just fine. oh am i not suppose to say that?

mark419ny said:

stoner seemed to ride the bike just fine. oh am i not suppose to say that?

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Stoner rode a different bike, it's all speculation on what he would have done in the succeeding years if he had stuck around. The rules continued to evolve, fuel allocations continued to go down, tires continued to change, everything was different from Stoner's glory days. Not to take anything away from him, he rode the wheels off the Ducati and got results in his seasons with the team.