MOTOGP » Painful end for Rossi

Hi Nigel, I respect your views but beg to differ.
If you have to develp a bike during a race season you are in big trouble, look at Honda and Yamaha.
They do the work in off season (like now with the wintertests) and strive for a good base setup so that at the races
you just have to seek for a solution for that particular track,
We are talking about equipment that is dragged across the globe at a frantic pace, 2007 was the busiest season with 18 races.
After Caseys shock first wins (I agree with Gina) ducati focused totally on him, Loris atmitted to this and even said he understood. He was in the same situation in the beginning of the '06 season when he led the standings for a long time.

Hey matilda, its not so much that ducati is easy to ride - as we saw in the last testing - stoner has demonstrated very well - yet , when they reduced to 800ccs - the ducati was the bike with its package to produce the best fitting to stoner's setting for his riding style and physique. maybe the lack of motogp experience made him chose settings that he has - but surely everything fell in place for stoner rather than him doing it intentionally from experience. thats what its all about.
sometimes things flow in life easily without us having any INFLUENCE and without us knowing why. thas what happend here and good on stoner for not making any mistakes.
that doesnt make him a legend yet tho.

I truly believe Loris and Casey started 2007 on equal equipment,
but Loris had a DNF and Casey won in the first race, creating a gap of 25 points in one race and putting Stoner on top
the second race just before Riccardo Capirossi was born (his wife was at home instead of in the pitbox by his side)
he lost another 7 points on Stoner by coming in 12th, making the gap 32 points
Especially after the Turkish GP that Casey won Ducati was backing the new boy completely,
though Capirossi finished a credible 3rd there (released from the pressure?)
Loris suffered 4 DNF's during the season, Stoner none

I agree Morgue,
like in any job - your private life does affect it, to a certain degree otherwise your job will affect your private life instead. applies to everyone.
capirossi was starting to ride closer and closer to his best level as the season was approaching the end and certainly timing with the evnts in his private life DID have an influence.

Hi Morgue,
Yes I can relate to your comments above & likewise fully respect your views too, the only thing i would like to add is this, the 08 bike is virtualy the same as this years bike with the odd modification, the bike has been developed this year just as most of the teams do, we all know this sport is all about prototype bikes and that means constant development all year around.

I must say it's nice to have a different view about something with someone else & not have them ripping into each other.

Going onto Yamaha do you think they are going to try and bring in a new engine or just try and prise abit more power out of this one they have used this year?

They will surely stay with the inline four and put the emphasis on 'usable power' instead of high revs, so no pneumatics.
This sounds as a lame excuse but I think they know what they're doing.
Rossi may be calling or pushing for a V4 but that will not make the big diff. and certainly not in the short term.
I am a big, big Rossi fan but he is no engineer, The M1 has the most compact inline 4 in the field, they don't get any smaller.
As long as the rear wheel is spinning like mad you better be seeking for a way to get that power translated into speed
instead of making it even more brutal
I'm very curious how the new bike will run as have to develop it for two diff. tyre marks...

Gina, Casey has been wining motorcycle races for 18 years, yet you persist on stating he has little setup skill or experience or is just lucky.....
I think your singing Looney Tunes sweethart?

Want to compare a Ducati with TC with a dirttracker?

Morgue said it alright; Rossi makes only fairly sure he's got the useable tools for 2008 and that he'll become again the man to beat in 2008.

But even if I don't really like it I must also somewhat agree with Ace27. The Ducati seems, at least at the moment, a bit of a handfull for a sensible guy like Melandri who is not the crashhappy "win or bin-it" type of guy like Stoner (used to be). He'll need some time to trust the MM-TC-back-up and front-tyre grip of the Ducati. He is just slowly getting there.

I trust Rossi to challenge anyone after 2006 and 2007 for 2008.

Sure, but what it really comes down to is throttle control, but that as you know is beside the point.
So lets talk about the crux of the situation, When you race motorcycles you learn how to adjust the suspenion for the riding conditions, not somthing you would pick up riding to the shop and back.
So given Casey has been racing for 18 years and has raced road and dirt he has a broard knowlegde of suspension characteristics and the effects of applied throttle.
So it fair to assume after years of racing one can set a bike to behaive in any given manor, such as; stiff chassis and suspension for Q tyres, front weight bias for front end stabillity in corner entry and so on.
Cont,