Rossi rides Ducati!

[johan]

Next year they'll have to do it all again, with the 1000cc engine I'd assume.
I'd almost be better for Rossi if he made the switch when the engine capacity changed as well.
Or being involved early in the 1000cc machine's development could work to his advantage, of course.

I'll be great to watch their progress over the season.
The executives have probably already sent out the internal memo of "failure is not an option"

That GP11 still got those funny winglets and new interesting gill designed fairing.

[roogazza]

http://motomatters.com/news/2010/11/...y_2_notes.html

Interesting reading.

[denill]

In the 'Comments' of Gaz's great linked article - Alex Briggs, one of Rossi's team's is quoted as saying:

"Hi guys. I'm compleatly smashed, I have not worked that hard @ a test for a few years. Accomplished a lot. Result was crap but not representative of what we have learnt. The poor old rider was compleatly stuffed also. Big part of the time was just the riders body letting him down. But we kept lapping & testing. End result is the engineers have a long 2 do list courtesy of us! But they r the best guys. Its going 2 be fun. At yamaha I guess in the end I felt like we just were tuning. At Ducati I feel we are really working. Its going 2 be great 2 see the end result. May the force be with us"

I think Gaz and you other Rossi fans you may have more reason to be very worried than I at first thought after 'The Man' finished so far back.

Burgess will be the key. He will be full on now till Sepang. and if he can't make Rossi and Ducati gel - no one can.

[denill]

And this on the Big Bang or Screamer:

Question: I know you're leaving at the end of the season, but it looks like Ducati might be revisiting the screamer engine concept over the winter. Have you given any thought about whether it is worth having another look at that concept, or if it would be better to stay with the big bang?

Casey Stoner: If they can learn to control it, then yeah, it could be a great thing, because we lost a bit of power this year. Not so much lost from last year, but they brought an evolution of the screamer engine to the Valencia test, but the thing was just ridiculous. It wanted to rip my arms out and spin up and try and spit you off, and buck and weave. I did a few laps on it and decided I didn't want to have anything to do with it. So we rode the big bang engine, and it was quite similar to the other one, maybe a little less bottom end that first bit, but there was just so much more torque and progression through the revs.

As we've shown, it was the right decision: once we got the chassis to work a bit better, the engine was capable of winning races. We just missed the mark a bit. Considering we had one engine down after the first race, I think we've done pretty well. We're going to have no problems finishing the season. So we've basically done the whole season in five engines, and I think that's pretty good, compared to everybody else. We've managed it well, done everything right.

And we definitely chose the right engine for this year, we just weren't on the money with the setup, so, we took a little too long with that. Should be interesting to see what they can come up with for next year. But yeah, I rode whatever I had for this year, and it was the same from start to end, so I really had to work hard on it.

[denill]

http://motomatters.com/news/2010/11/...y_2_notes.html
Interesting reading.

Great read Gaz.

Did you read the comments?

Some good comments there too.

Cheers
Bill

[k14]

If I remember rightly Stoner was a bit of a crasher last time he was with Honda, but if he has that sorted and stays out front as the quick guy then he might just win the championship again. I'm certainly not counting out the Rossi/Burgess combination this early in the testing.

According to Stoner that was partly because Michelin wouldn't give him the same selection of tyres the other riders had. He was a satellite rider and only got the left overs from the other guys.

[Cleve]

Great read Gaz.

Did you read the comments?

Some good comments there too.

Cheers
Bill

I agree - was thinking that it would be nice if many on KB were as well thought (well written) and intelligent

[denill]

I agree - was thinking that it would be nice if many on KB were as well thought (well written) and intelligent

Yeah Cleve. The very same thing went through my mind, but I couldn't think of a tactful way of saying it.

There are some here whose opinions I value but there are others who don't think like me, lol.

[DidJit]

http://motomatters.com/news/2010/11/...y_2_notes.html

Interesting reading.

Great article and comments.

[Reckless]

Great article and comments.

Cheers for that article I bloody enjoyed reading it well thought out and presented! Cheers!!

[slowpoke]

http://motomatters.com/news/2010/11/...y_2_notes.html

Interesting reading.

Great read Gaz.

Did you read the comments?

Some good comments there too.

Cheers
Bill

+1

Great article and the comments are just as good.

I particularly like the point one of them made regards the opportunity missed with testing: imagine the worldwide audience if this test had been televised. Surely an opportunity lost?

[roogazza]

Great read Gaz.

Did you read the comments?

Some good comments there too.

Cheers
Bill

I agree - was thinking that it would be nice if many on KB were as well thought (well written) and intelligent

Yes Bill, thought you'd enjoy that, looks like Ducati are going to make a lot of changes. Obviously they now have someone who doesn't want to try and ride around perceived faults.
Mind you they paid big $ to have that ability !!!

Cleve, spend most of my time elsewhere for that very reason. Gaz.