MOTOGP » Melandri set to ride on

Belly
I agree that no rider wants to be at the back but Marco is even behind the satelite team. He has a full team of mechanics and all the same equipment as Stoner and also as other factory riders IE Rossi, Lorenzo, Pedrosa Capirossi Vermuelen and Hayden. He is behind the next lowest factory rider Capirossi by 29 points and Capirossi has missed 2 races as well. This is Motor racing and if you do not perform now, what you did in the years gone by aren't going to cut it especially if you are not a ex world champ. Marco will be struggling to be in Motogp next year. So will Nicky unfortunately Dani is leaving him way behind.Don't forget about the 250 riders that will step up next year

Am i the only one that never really rated melandri as a championship threat EVER!!

Good rider - yes, Consistant - NO the nickname Randon number generator came from somewhere and he has always been very fickle and affected by mood.

When he was Sete's team mate he was at his best without question but when Sete left in 06 he never looked threatning (ok 3 wins one of which was Turkey and the other 2 were Rossi breakdown and Wet). When he is good he is great but when something is wrong he goes to pieces and physcologically he was a beaten man by the time the season started, staying cause niether side have a choice, he will need a paycut to go back to gresini!!

but surley as world champ stoners on more than melandi otherwise this is easy money for marco. You do the work, win the world-ship and ill wobble around at the back, sounds fair to me. If this is the case i carn't see that stoners agent is doing his job!. Stoner would only havt to hint at leaving and the money would sky. and dont give me contract crap because they are there to be broken... business is business.

Ahhh, but maybe Stoner (and Ducati) knows that he (Stoner) can only win on the Duc, casue its the fastest bike with the best electronics out there. Maybe he has no choice

ZX9R Steve

You don't really listen to the fabrication and speculation on this site do you?
From a inside source seems to be a biggie. .

Darkwaknight Nope you are not the only one

As a ducati owner, this is bad news. Melandri has given up- he's not riding with any heart. What is going to change? He'll continue to ride in the back of the pack. It would be best for all, except Melandri's bank account, if he moved on to Kawasaki for the rest of this year and Sete or even Canepa stepped in. I'm pretty sure I read (I think in a Loris C interview?) where CS originally signed for 1.5 million Euros per year - not much considering, but I'd think he's making a lot more in endorsements after winning the WC. I could be wrong, but i thought he originally signed for 2007-08, then Ducati extended his contract thru 2009.

What's so funny about this site is that most people who slam the riders saying "blank rider is crap it shouldn't matter about set up or feel or whatever - it's all electronics and blah, blah, blah" are the same people WHO HAVE NEVER EVEN RIDEN A PROPER SPORTSBIKE and of course never owned one. If you have never ridden a sportsbike that you didn't trust and almost **** your pants when the front end goes vague please don't slam riders that can't get on with a bike because you are clueless. I literally had a guy say last week say that if the Honda wasn't made for Nicky's style and feel all he had to do was adjust his bars and pegs! LOL! No Kidding!

@ Raw Dawg, I think Darkwaknight is closer to the mark than you are in regards to Melandri. When he was good, he was very very good: when he was bad he was ??better?? ..no that's an old girlfriend : sorry!! (lol!!) I agree that having a vague front end is just the pits, having savage power delivery is the same, - just ask Ant West and Hopper - having a bike you don't trust is soul destroying .. and that is just on the road let alone at MotoGP committment levels. IMO he is getting another chance because of Italian loyalty and nothing more. That doesn't change my opinion of him though, and I respect that your opinion is different. Good health!!

Raw Dawg
I Agree
There are so many arm chair riders on this site that think that you can plug a computer in ( Hang on no it is just a software update) and away you go "instant world champ". To even think that Tyres suspension weight adjustment and hell all those people with tools in the garage are obsolete apparently. Forget about setting up suspension especially you don't need it now we have Traction Control.
Hell a mm of height adjustment and a change of oil or adjustment of rebound on the shock has no meaning as we have a new programme which will give us next years world champ. Raw dawg where can I order those foot pegs from I have a 1968 BSA Spitfire I want to be world champ on.

Ha!

The only thing riding a sport bike or actually racing should give you is the realization of how little you know, and how incomprehensibly good the riders in motogp are. They are so far ahead of what any of us can relate to: and to assume that we understand any of it is laughable. What is also interesting is when a little change in setup or tyre selection can take a rider from mid-pack to the front. Isn't that relying on technology and not rider skill? TC has been around for at least 30 years. There's no way software can compensate for a bad (slow) rider: but it can sure make them look bad when it's not right.