| Author | Message | ||
     Bads1 |
Because Tiny little Ducati has no complete factory efforts in other series would be my guess. | ||
| Jaimec |
Great... Blake Young gets to play "Rolling Chicane" in the three American rounds. He deserves better. | ||
| Davegess |
Because Tiny little Ducati has no complete factory efforts in other series would be my guess. And their parent is a very large and successful car company. | ||
| Jaimec |
I thought Carlos Checa was riding a Factory Panigale in WSBK? | ||
| Trojan |
I thought Carlos Checa was riding a Factory Panigale in WSBK? Checa has been riding a 'factory' Ducati for the past few seasosn, despite the badging and team structure being Althea. Ducati Corse paid all the bills, the rider and most of the tech team as well as supplying factory bikes, so it was a factory team in every way but name. Ducati and Althea fell out because the factory wanted Althea to put more into the operation than they were previously, so it made more sense to go back to a proper factory squad. Audi has been racing and winning for a long time; they know the game. Still a tough road for them. Plenty of car people have come to bike racing in the past thinking that they could change the game, including Ferrari, Cosworth, Ilmor etc. None have had significant impact or achieved success on the scale they achieved on 4 wheels. Maybe Audi will be different but I suspect that their input will be mostly finanacial and electronic. Duxcati can afford to run 4 factory bikes because Philip Morris picks up the bill for teh factory team, so Ducati don't have to  However losing 7 million per season in 'secondary' sponsorhsip is surely going to hurt them eventually, even without having to pay Rossi. All 4 riders are now on the factory payroll after all, and Pramac aren't exactly flush for cash  . | ||
| Davegess |
Matt, I agree that Audi will be good for cash and electronics. I suspect they are smart enough to know that they will not design a great bike but they are also willing to pay for it. Parmac is not paying for it. The sponsers offset the cost but I am pretty sure that both Honda and Yamaha pay out far more than they take in for the MotoGP team. Honda more so than Yamaha as they seem to have far more money devoted to motorsports. Ducati had very nice sponsership deals the last two years but not nearly the amount of cash that Honda had. They should have teh cash now. Nobody in the red garage is going to have to ask "how much does it cost" they only have to ask "will it work". | ||
| Bads1 |
Spies and his early season thoughts. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/motogp/21148085 | ||
| Jaimec |
FINALLY someone calls out "The Moaner" on his constant whining: http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Feb/130204b.ht m | ||
| Bads1 |
Good riddens.... like I said,I'll miss his riding. I won't miss derogatory comments as whole. | ||
| Jaimec |
http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-pedr osa-heads-close-opening-day-in-sepang/ Marquez is living up to the hype, Rossi is obviously comfortable on the M1. Nicky is the ONLY Ducati rider to crack the Top 10, and Dovizioso and Spies must be asking themselves what the hell have they gotten themselves into? I also wonder if Colin misses that diabolical Suter/BMW yet? | ||
| Trojan |
Meet the new boss....same as the old boss. No change at the top with Pedrosa and Lorenso carrying on from where they left off last year. Marquez is as fast as expected and Rossi seems very happy back on the Yamaha. Bradl and Crutchlow complete the top 6 and there there is a void..... Biggest surprise was the huge gap back to the Ducati contingent. Hayden may have cracked the top ten (just) but he is more than 2 seconds back from the top, so it seems that Ducati have done nothing over the winter while Honda and Yamaha have both improved. Dovi, Spies and Iannone didn't even hit the timing screens for most of the session on MotoGP.com and are struggling badly. Both are behind the CRT Apsar bikes, and Spies did relatively few laps because of his continuing shoulder problem. Even without that setback he and Dovi must be wondering what they have signed up for. 2 more test day to go so unless it rains I woudl expect the times to tumble at the top, with the gap between the factory Honda/Yamahas and 'the rest' growing further. Bradle is the only other 'full factory' bike out there so he should keep up, but Crutchlow may regret not having the latest spec Yamaha even more in the coming days. | ||
| Xb1125r |
Trojan you can't say that there won't be change. I think Anytime you put a German in charge it will improve. they are not money driven like americans. they are more about respect. i mean everyone knows the germans can do anything better then the japps. lol give them time and they will put ducati on top | ||
| Jaimec |
It's already been widely reported that the Ducatis the factory and Pramac teams are riding are essentially the same bikes they ended the season with last year. Hopefully this first DRY test in the off-season gives them sufficient information to know where they need to improve. Another rumor I've seen reported is that Spies may not test the next couple of days, as his shoulder is nowhere near the fitness level he believed it to be... | ||
| Trojan |
Trojan you can't say that there won't be change. I think Anytime you put a German in charge it will improve. they are not money driven like americans. they are more about respect. i mean everyone knows the germans can do anything better then the japps. lol Ironic then that the factory BMW WSBK team only started to improve markedly once they replaced most of the German team with Italians that Melandri brought with him. Money is what brings results in MotoGP, not respect. You earn respect by winning (That's winning, not whining) Whichever way you look at it, the Ducatis are struggling already. Bringing abike that hasn't improved over the winter is NOT the way to start a season when both Yamaha and Honda have been working hard for months on improvements. All it means now is that Ducati start even further back than the rest. On day two Hayden has improved to 9th place, and both Spies and Dovi have gone faster. However, that is putting a very postive spim on the situation. They are still slower than EVERY other prototype bike (except test riders) including Bradley Smith on the 2012 spec Tech 3 Yamaha, who is only on his second day riding a MotoGP bike! I still think Ducati are in for a very long season indeed. Sopies did quite a few laps today apparently before rain stopped play, so he is managing his shoulder injury OK. (Message edited by trojan on February 06, 2013) | ||
| M1combat |
"Sopies did quite a few laps today apparently before rain stopped play, so he is managing his shoulder injury OK." That's cause I told him to stop being a wimp... | ||
| Xb1125r |
well you will defenatly not see much improvement on the ducati since the germans just took over and it takes time for any team to get to know the product and start testing. just look at Rossi and his team, apparently they were going to make some changes and start winning,lol this just shows that Stoner was the best CHAMP in GP. he won with a ducati and HONDA. no matter what he rides he wins, not like the cry baby Rossi | ||
| Trojan |
Oh dear...here we go again  Stoner won on the Ducati in the first year of the 800 class, simply because Ducati did their sums better than the Japs that year. He never came close to winning another championship on the Duc, and neither has anyone else. Rossi is back on a decent bike and at the sharp end of the filed once again, which surely must tell even you something? As for cry babies......Stoner invented that particular niche and filled it for his entire career. Now he has gone I'm looking forward to some nice peaceful racing | ||
| Jaimec |
Trojan, Don't feed the troll. First he says (on Tuesday, February 05, 2013 - 11:56 am):
Then on Wednesday, February 06, 2013 - 08:16 am he says the EXACT opposite:
Sure sign of a troll. He talks out his bunghole just to get a reaction. Don't take the bait. | ||
| Simond |
One things for sure though.........the times set by Marquez are incredible. Fingers crossed for a four way fight for the title. The Bradl/Crutchlow battle could be interesting too. | ||
| Jaimec |
No change amongst the top four but at least there are TWO Ducatis in the top ten and there aren't any CRTs in front of Ben Spies: http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Feb/130206moto gptest1.htm | ||
| Bads1 |
Jaime, It kinda look's like Rossi may have to pick it up a hair. We'll see in due time if hes still the old Rossi..... I'm hoping so. | ||
| Xb1125r |
so I take it no motoGP in Argentina or Chile this year. i guess Repsol has MOTO GP by the balls,lol | ||
| Jaimec |
Unfortunately, is the "old Rossi" up to the "new" Lorenzo/Pedrosa/Marquez? THAT is the question. Even before he broke his leg at Mugello, Lorenzo seemed to have his number... | ||
| Doerman |
Ducati is a conundrum to me. We're entering the 4th season where they don't seem to have the package sorted out. I do not believe sorting a package really happens during a season. Tweaking to improve, yes. Is Ducati so entrenched in group think that they can't see how astray their machine is? Doing the same thing garners the same result. Maybe they should hire Colin Edwards to develop the beast. | ||
| Hughlysses |
^ Perhaps they could hire EBR as a consultant.  | ||
| 46champ |
The MotoGP race was suppose to be in Argentina. I doubt there is enough real money in Argentina to fund a world championship race. Pretty bad considering Argentina 100 years ago was the 9th richest country in the world. | ||
| Trojan |
The real problem with the MotoGP race planned for Argentina was that the Argentine government nationalised the Repsol YPF oil company, which is/was a major subsidiary of Repsol. There followed threats and bad blood between Repsol and the Argentine government, so Repsol told their staff that nobody employed by Repsol should visit the country, including the MotoGP team. Without the attendance of the factory Honda team and its associated sponsorship DORNA decided to cancel the race this year, but have assured everyone that it will go ahead in 2014. The situation remains unresolved (and probably will until the current aggrerssive/reactionary Argentine governement is removed) so we won't see a GP there this year or in the near future, despite the assertions of DORNA that it will run next year. Unless they have a crystal ball even DORNA can't see when this will end. This is just one of the issues that the Argentine government is trying to get people to focus on rather than see the dire economic situation they are in (The Falklands Islands is the other of course!). | ||
| Jaimec |
Day 3 and Rossi cracks the top three. Pedrosa and Lorenzo are still 1 and 2. Hayden and Dovi are still 9 and 10. Looks like Spies took the third day off. Marquez was still a VERY close fourth and suffered his first crash on a MotoGP bike. So from this first test, it would appear as though our fourth "alien" is back and Casey has been ably replaced by Marquez on the Repsol team. The question for 2013 is... will the podium be shared by ANYONE but these four? And you still have to wonder what the hell Spies and Dovi were thinking to leave the most competitive bike on the grid to ride the LEAST competitive non-CRT?? | ||
| Trojan |
I read this morning that Ducati are happy that they have made up 1 second over the course of the test (with Hayden and Dovi at least), which is a positive spin on an awful truth...they are still 2 seconds + off the pace and barely into the top 10. I think the test has pretty much been as expected in terms of the order they finished, but the big pleasant surprise to me is Michael laverty being 2nd CRT bike | ||
| Xb1125r |
Well when a company like Repsol finds oil and does not report to its partner, the Argentinian Governement that they found more oil and keeps it a secret it does not look good on them when they take half of the findings. It is typical Spanish greed. Its not enough for the Spanish that they have stolen so much from South and Central America thru history, but their new generation continue their bad habits. Glad to see Germany making greater ties with South America. |
