| Author | Message | ||
     Trojan |
I do not wish any of them to crash but I sure hope it gets more competitive at Jerez. Likewise, although I think we will see more of the same all season this year. Even next year we will still have a huge disparity between factorybikes/riders and the new CRT teams in the 1000cc era, so will have a 'race of two halves'. However at least we may have some kind of a race to watch even if the leaders do clear off on their own, which is more than we tend to get now. Other tracks won't be so extreme or the difference in power so noticeable, so hopefully we may get at least a couple of decent races this year.... | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Anyway , this year's Qatar race was a lot more interesting than last year's. This is a good sign for the 2011 season | ||
| Davegess |
I'm with Svh, the Moto GP race was very dull. Just like F1, technical interest and a lot of talent but very little actual racing. A handful of passes do not make a race. A handful of passes on every lap; that is fun to watch. I am reminded of an old story in CAR magazine, Nigel Roebuck goes to the Daytona 500 and quotes a team owner who is very knowledgeable about F1 and a huge fan who says something to the effect-- F1 is amazing, great cars, great drivers, great tracks "But when are you boys gonna start racin'" | ||
| Jaimec |
I enjoy watching racing when my team/rider(s) win. I don't enjoy it when the other guys do. I'm like a NY Yankee fan that way. | ||
| Fireboltwillie |
+1 Jaimec (on the yankees) | ||
| Jaimec |
I didn't say *I* was a Yankee fan, just that I look at MotoGP the same way their fans apparently do...  By the way, my favorite MotoGP team is "Anyone But Honda." | ||
| Amafan |
Last year's Qatar race was much better, the top 4 were seperated by only 1.8 seconds . | ||
| Vagelis46 |
No it wasn't. Have you watced both races ??? The major news from this weekend is that Rossi publicly stated that......"Ducati got their specific instruction of what they have to do to have a competitive bike." Isn't this great ??? Finally someone with enough "weight" to make Ducati redesign their bike. I hope they go for a full trellis frame joining the forks and the swingarm...... | ||
| Trojan |
Isn't this great ??? Finally someone with enough "weight" to make Ducati redesign their bike. I hope they go for a full trellis frame joining the forks and the swingarm...... I'll bet Ducati are kicking themselves that they didn't recruit you ages ago and saved themselves a lot of work and money I'm also pretty sure that we won't see any major redesigns of the GP11, just tweeks to accomodate what Rossi wants this year. Next year with the 1000cc bikes we could see a completely different bike of course )although it is thought so far that most of the factory teams will stick with the 800 for next season), but for the remainder of 2011 they have already said they won't significantly change the bike. Rossi is perfectly capable of changing his riding style to suit the Ducati once he is fit enough to ride it properly  Have you watced both races ??? I have. The only major differece that made last year better was that Stoner crashed out. If he hadn't then he would have won by around the same margin as this year or more. Qatar is not an exciting track for racing or spectators, but makes good TV with the floodlights and schedules. The straight is too long and despite being wide enough to allow overtaking the track gets very dirty offline, making it a 'one line' track for 90% of the circuit. Maybe things will improve at Jerez but to be honest, with a field of just 17 bikes (max) and only 3 or 4 potential winners, it ain't gonna improve that much in the short term | ||
| Gaesati |
for most of the last "golden age" there were only about four riders capable of consistently racing at the front. | ||
| Trojan |
for most of the last "golden age" there were only about four riders capable of consistently racing at the front. Depends what you would call the 'golden age' I suppose. Some people would say it was the 1960's, when Agostini would regularly lap the entire field to win with ease on the MV against old Manx Nortons..or maybe the 1980's when Mick Doohan won pretty much every race he entered and was accused of riding 'too fast'. My golden age was the early 1970's when privateers could buy a reasonable TZ350 or RG500 and go GP racing with the greats. There may have only been a handful of people capable of winning championships, but you would get quite a few different race winners in the process, and with 40 riders on the grid you got good close racing right down the field with the occasional minnow beating the top names into the bargain. Anyone remeber Jon Ekerold? | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Ducati said "no major redesigns" , but that was before they realised that Rossi cannot be competitive on their current bike. For sure, it was obvious in Qatar that Rossi begun to change his riding style and he was hanging more to the inside of the corner on the Duc than on the M1 . But even if he is 100% fit and completely adjusted to the Duc , he will not have better results than a top 4 , unless he is willing to risk crashing which he will not do. GP11's maximum potential was demonstrated by Casey Stoner in 2010. If they want something better than what Stoner did in 2010 , they have to redesign their bike. The good thing is that at the moment there are 2 very talented riders, Stoner and Lorenzo, on sorted machinery, both with equal chances for the title. Stoner moving to Honda was very significant. | ||
| Jaimec |
Apparently, Vagelis believes Ducati has an unlimited source of income that can pay for the miraculous total redesign of a motorcycle including all R & D, testing, and manufacturing changes in less than a year... | ||
| Trojan |
Ducati said "no major redesigns" , but that was before they realised that Rossi cannot be competitive on their current bike. That is still an unanswered question though isn't it. if vale can actually get another 0.5 second just through his recovery from injury that would put him into a reasonably competitive position straight away, and in a position where could fight for race places rather than just let them go. All Ducati have to do is solve specific issues relating to front end grip rather than redesign the whole package (which would not guarantee any improvement). It could be a small matter of adjustment or it could be a big redesign, but it certainly won't be a complete change of track for them. | ||
| 46champ |
Isn't this great ??? Finally someone with enough "weight" to make Ducati redesign their bike. I hope they go for a full trellis frame joining the forks and the swingarm Even if Ducati had the money to build a complete new bike how are they going to test it? They (the FIM, Dorna, the manufactures) or who ever wrote the rules on testing have made it impossible to bring a new bike to the races during the season. The test riders only seem to be able to get 95% out of the bike if the could get more they would be racing. Everyone remembers when Nicky got his world championship, do you remember how, he tested after almost every race. That is now illegal. | ||
| Jaimec |
Actually, the official RIDERS are banned from testing. Ducati, with their theoretical "bottomless budget" could hire Troy Bayliss out of retirement to test their new bike all they want. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Hayden seems to have become Rossi's test mule. He will test the new bike at race weekends, good or bad, and he will test anything that Rossi-Ducati throws at him.He tested and raced the "flex package" in Qatar, but it is showing no promise at the moment. And of course Hayden had a bad race......... That is a shame for Hayden, because he was very competitive with the GP10 in Qatar in 2010 and almost got a podium. He also showed much better pace last year. Now he is Rossi's bitch , and he had to ride a *scrwed* bike so that he tests another possibel direction , and most importantly .....Not finish ahead of Rossi !!!!! Ducati's AXIOM No 1!!!! As far as budget for redesign, Rossi could donate some 5mil Euros from his 15mil Euros 2011 paycheck , so that he gives a chance to Ducati to redesign their bike , so that he does not finish 7th in every race this season. I think it sounds fair. He will not miss e few mil Euros, will he ??? On the other hand, if Rossi continues to finish 7th in every race from now on with the existent GP11, which I think will be the case unless they redesign the bike, he will loose more money from deserters of his yellow army, unwilling to buy his merchandise.  (Message edited by vagelis46 on March 22, 2011) | ||
| Blake |
Dude, delusion is not pretty. | ||
| Trojan |
Now he is Rossi's bitch , and he had to ride a *scrwed* bike so that he tests another possibel direction , and most importantly .....Not finish ahead of Rossi !!!!! Ducati's AXIOM No 1!!!! Hmm, did you watch the same race as us? Hayden fluffed the start (his clutch overheated apparently) and then got caught up behind De Puniets accident which left him dead last and at a standstill. he then fought his way back up to 9th, which is actually pretty good considering where he had to come from. Nothing to do with testing anything, riding a 'screwed' bike or using a flexi chassis I'm afraid, just bad luck and wrong place wrong time  Also, it seems that Jerry Burgess disagrees with you on the Ducati redesign. He says in this weeks MCN that the chassis isn't the problem and won't need to be changed. The problem stems from the engine power delivery and it is this that will need to be addressed rather than the carbon 'chasis'. I don't think Burgess will be toeing teh company line just yet and usually speaks his mind pretty honestly, so I think I would tend to believe what he says | ||
| Jaimec |
Just finished reading an article that is already putting Casey out as the title favorite. The only rider (the author felt) capable of challenging him is Lorenzo and that's IF Yamaha can crank up the horsepower he needs. Casey is apparently capable of riding the wheels off of anything you put him on (either that, or crash). What he apparently CAN'T do is take a bad bike and make it better, and that's where Rossi is head and shoulders above anyone else on the grid. Remember, before Rossi and Burgess got the M1, it was running about where the Suzuki is today. Casey got a REALLY fast bike in 2007, but the bike never improved while he was with them. The M1 is pretty much accepted (up till now, anyway) as the best, most sorted-out bike on the grid. Of course, when you really DO have a bottomless development budget (like Honda), you don't NEED Rossi. As the saying goes, throw an infinite number of typewriters at an infinited number of monkeys and eventually you get Shakespeare... | ||
| Trojan |
Of course, when you really DO have a bottomless development budget (like Honda), you don't NEED Rossi. That's what they thought when they let him go in 2003....they haven't won a world championship since Maybe 2011 will be their year at last. | ||
| Blake |
Will Aprilia be back in 2012? | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Burgess also said that he would need 80sec to fix the Duc. So, he is not always right. | ||
| Jaimec |
Blake, don't know about Aprilia... but NORTON has been making noises about joining the grid! Will there be as much excitement on putting a British rider on a British bike as there was putting an Italian on an Italian bike? | ||
| Crusty |
Um; Didn't Nicky Hayden win the championship after Rossi left Honda? | ||
| Trojan |
Will Aprilia be back in 2012? Apparently not in an official capacity, although the RSV4 engine could power a privateer CRT 1000 entry. BMW however have changed their tune and are actively looking at MotoGP for next year allegedly. Their new Motorsports boss was at Qatar speaking earnestly with Dorna and taking a lot of interest in the current GP bikes Rumour has it that Leon Haslam and Stefan Bradl would be the two riders for an official BMW MotoGP entry. Marc VDS team/Suter already have a chassis built and in testing with a S1000RR motor fitted and it is pretty much certain that they will run Scott Redding & maybe Mika Kallio next year as another CRT team in MotoGP. All this with the proviso that Dorna manage to get the production engine rule accepted and that the Flammini brothers/WSB don't take them to court over it Burgess also said that he would need 80sec to fix the Duc. I don't think he actually said that, although the remark seems to have been attributed to him now for some reason. | ||
| Jaimec |
Yep, riding the bike Rossi and Burgess developed. The 800cc bike was essentially the bike Nicky helped develop (but was actually built for the Spanish midget). | ||
| Amafan |
The facts are that Nicky Hayden tested the Ducati flex chassis in testing,and he did not like it. After looking at Nicky's data, Rossi's team decided Rossi would not test the flex chassis. I got these facts from the MotoGP.com twitter page. In a interview on Motomatters.com Ducati team manager Vito G.,said both of Nicky's race bikes for Qatar would be useing the new flex chassis that he did not like . Nicky Hayden last year at Qatar useing the standered Ducati chassi finished 4th only 1.8 seconds behind Rossi who won the race, and he finished the race in 42min51sec.975. This year Nicky Hayden finished the race in 43min5sec.985 with the flex chassis, 14 seconds slower then last year .looking at the anlysis by lap chart,the bad start cost him 3 seconds at most, so he was 11 seconds slower then last year, so about .5 seconds a lap. his best lap last year was a 1:56.1,and his worst lap after the 1st 2 laps was a 1:56.8, this year his best lap was a 1:56.6,and his worst lap after the 1st 2 was a 1:57.7,but that was a bad lap,and all the rest of his laps were in between a 1:57.2 and a 1:56.6. Rossi by the way had a race time of 42min55seconds even,a little more then 3 seconds slower then Nicky Hayden's time from last year . Nicky also raced a different spec bike then all the other Honda riders in 2006,Honda forced him to race it,since all the other Honda riders wanted to race the 2005 spec bike, and Rossi had nothing to do with the 2006 bike Nicky raced. | ||
| Blake |
>>> looking at the anlysis by lap chart,the bad start cost him 3 seconds at most Ya think having to pass all the riders ahead might have slowed him down some?  Rossi had nothing to do with the 2006 bike that Nicky raced? Huh? It was based almost entirely upon the championship winning 2005 bike, no? "Nothing to do with" it? Impossible. | ||
| Amafan |
The 2006 bike Nicky raced,was the only Honda bike different then the 2005 bike,and he wanted to race the 2005 spec bike,but Honda made race the new 2006 bike. In 2005 after he won at Laguna seca ,he was on the podium on almost all the remaining races,and in testing he preferred the 2005 spec bike,to the all new 2006 bike,but Honda made him race the new spec bike not based on the 2005 bike. Even when Nicky had a clear track,when he got in 9th place 5 seconds behind Edwards he was faster.but still.5 seconds a lap slower then last year,and last year he was in a battle with Dovy the whole race,with alot of posission changes between them . |
