MotoGP 2014

[jasonu]

I too was right there. Great work wannit!

and I bet you still have wood from seeing it live.

[Drew]

When I saw it well after the fact, I was inspired to see if my K2 gixxer thou would do it. Short answer. Yes. But I never got game enough at it to get the back bag smoking.

[Crasherfromwayback]

and I bet you still have wood from seeing it live.

Yep. Tis truly one of those things that gets burnt right into the old memory banks never to be lost!

[Shaun Harris]

Yep. Tis truly one of those things that gets burnt right into the old memory banks never to be lost!

My best Grand Prix memory comes from a few Brazillian women when I was managing a 250gp team years back- DAM, I neally fired again thinking about them, they loved the big 40ft motor home, O, and getting very Drunk with Kevin S one time. Name dropping maybe, but Im proud to have done it with such a hero as him

[Reckless]

Two Podiums?? Cal cant even ride the bloody thing? Hoping for rain? Calls it a good season????

Doesn't Sound very Positive to me???

Ciabatti: "Big improvement for GP14 in second part of season"

Ciabatti Halfway Ducati 2014
2014 - MotoGP - Half Season Interview - Paolo Ciabatti
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Following numerous ups and downs for the Ducati Team in the first half of the 2014 season, motogp.com caught up with the Italian manufacturer’s MotoGP Project Director Paolo Ciabatti to gauge his opinion on the year so far.
He commented: “It has been quite a good season in terms of results because we’ve had two podium finishes. Dovi was third in Austin and second a couple of weeks ago in Assen. So scoring some good results and is actually standing fourth in the championship, which is good.

“On the other side, Cal had a lot of bad luck with technical problems, with the crash. And also his feeling with the bike is not so good at the moment, so we are trying to help him to understand better the bike and show his potential, because we think Cal is a great rider, but so far he hasn’t really been able to show that he can ride fast a Ducati.”

Much talk had been about the improvements on the notoriously tough-to-handle Desmosedici since the arrival of technical guru Luigi Dall’Igna.

“Gigi joined the company last year in Valencia, so at the beginning of November. So obviously the GP14 was basically already designed as a bike. But Gigi brought some ideas, we made a lot of changes, some changes we can no really see on the bike…but also working on software, and other features of the bike. The bike has improved.

“Obviously we still have this under-steering problem, and probably to solve that we need to work a little bit harder in terms of engine design and position of engine in the frame. It’s not up to me to say exactly what we should do. We’re both working on the new bike, the GP15 for next year, but we will bring also a big improvement on the GP14 in the second part of the season.”

With regards to his expectations for the second half of the year, Ciabatti concluded: “On some tracks I think we can be quite competitive, also in dry conditions. Obviously we will not be so sad if it’s raining on a Sunday, because our bike has proven to be quite competitive in rainy conditions. And as far as Cal is concerned obviously we want to help him get the confidence on the bike because we know once he can get the confidence he will push hard and will be close to the other riders.”

[pritch]

A journo once asked Burgess a question that implied a superior quality of the Ducati. JB in reply pointed out that to remove a wheel on the Ducati involved several additional fasteners, the nett result of that was that Ducati could do one less wheel change per practice session than the Yamaha.

It would now seem the "quality" problems went beyond that. Then there were the ego problems.
http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/ra...lem-at-ducati/

[DidJit]

Insightful piece, that.

[Mental Trousers]

Great article that one.

I've always believed that there were 2 things Ducati had to fix before they could create a bike that would win. They are

• change management
• change the attitude in key positions

Audi bought Ducati and after a short while realized things weren't changing and the person they had in there wasn't the right man for the job so they hired Gigi. He seems to be working very well with the crew at the track, but it's the designers and engineers attitudes that need to be changed.

The GP15 will be very interesting as we'll get an idea of just how much things have changed.

[roogazza]

I thought if anyone could get some changes it would have been Rossi, for who he is and being Italian.
They did do a few changes in frames etc but not that much that showed in results.
Now,it looks like things may be moving forward. Hope it goes good for them in 2015 and for Dovi.

[Asher]

http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-...ogp/25345.html

And if Aprillia joins too we may finally have a decent sized competitive field

[DidJit]

Cal’s on the move next season. Riders for Ducati will be Dovizioso and Iannone.
Wonder what Bradl’s gonna do next year... Forward Racing?

[roogazza]

Cal’s on the move next season. Riders for Ducati will be Dovizioso and Iannone.
Wonder what Bradl’s gonna do next year... Forward Racing?

Hell DidJit, He'll be spewing if Doocarti come out fighting with the new bike and Iannone kicks his arse.
But hey, Iannone does that now !

[Shaun Harris]

Cal’s on the move next season. Riders for Ducati will be Dovizioso and Iannone.
Wonder what Bradl’s gonna do next year... Forward Racing?

That is a bombshell

[Drew]

That is a bombshell

I don't think so. The self absorbed loud mouth is just trying to keep a pay cheque coming in as long as possible. He's never gonna win a race, and was only gonna get one more year out of Ducati because he kept slagging it.

[BMWST?]

So what is happening with Bradl?