MOTOGP » Hayden leads wet Tuesday test.

Mr. Bojangles. Spot on about your observations comparing Hayden & dovi. For that very reason, the Duc suits Dovi FAR more than Hayden.If Dovi was on the Duc,chances are that Stoner's main competitor would not be Rossi, but Dovi.As i noted, the duc is built for a 125-250 rider.In fact,better for a 125GP rider-whereas precision (full throttle) riding is key to make the duc "work".

MOTOGP » Hayden leads wet Tuesday test.

Joe For the longest time,conventional wisdom said:spinning leads to more wear.Until McCoy came about & shattered the decades long "engineering myth".Search for the answer: turned out that McCoy being very light,the tire could not hook up & spin.Instead of heating up,it cooled down-which was why McCoy used a softer compound & finish. Butas JB said..while watching Hayden slide the left side at the "ring" in 06..."Hayden is having a good time sliding the left side..we shall see at the end of the race..." Lucky(as usual)for Hayden,the race was red flagged...The fact is,sliding does lead to greater wear(though not all conditions)& more fuel consumption (proven studies of the obvious).

MOTOGP » Hayden leads wet Tuesday test.

Mr Bojanglese You, like maany observers - even Hayden supporters- think that Hayden has no "killer instinct" - "lays down"... but the truth of the matter is that Hayden rider more laps than anybody - Everytime, every year always. He rides Darn hard and it showed when Hayden fought Dovi (and lost). He did fight hard in Assen against Edwards (leaving behind an injured field).It may seem Hayden does not fight, because he often gets blown away.Ever try racing a much faster guy? Make no mistake Hayden rides HARD! Granted. Maybe not to the point of being reckless,or being a crasher.. after all, Hayden is Mr. Consistant....

MOTOGP » Hayden leads wet Tuesday test.

YAM46. The Duc IS the best bike out there. Valencia 06.The writing was on the wall.The ducs killed the competition.Qatar 07.Never in modern GP history had there ever been such a big difference.The japs former 500GP champs was stunned- and it was not because of stoner.After all,nobody goes from zero to hero in 1 season.Stoner did/does well because he was clueless.Riding the duc as if riding a 125/250GP bike.The Duc is designed to just wack the throttle open & ride it out.Either belief and/or ignorance will do fine.Without TC the Duc would have NO chance as it is true,it not as good as the rest-but Magnetti Marelli takes care of that..(for the most part)

MOTOGP » Hayden leads wet Tuesday test.

It is way too early to make any assesments.The fact is that Hayden did not do great -nor bad-in the dry, despite having all of Stoner's data & riding more laps than anyone.The kid is lucky in getting best rides,& rather than be on suzuki or kawa or a yamaha.Otherwise, Hayden news be as popular as Hopper's. We shall see.Further testing will reveal a little but even if horribly wrong, it wont mean rider-team solutions won't arise- as stoner did in 07. Doing well also does not mean that much, as in 07 Rossi was strong, even quite ok for the first two races.. but.... Though preseason can be intesting and speculative, not until the first 2-3 races we shall have an idea.Until then..bets???

MOTOGP » Hayden leads wet Tuesday test.

2002 Everybody started from scratch. Honda did have the better bike and Rossi kicked ass with it. Stoner won on an even clearly better bike - biggest performance difference in the last 30 years. To say Rossi or Stoner were "lucky" is hardly comparable.In 07 stoner had a much better bike and it showed, but hardly luck. 08 stoner, like Biaggi and Gibs in their time, lost despite having a much better bike and not bad luck. Biaggi crashed 3 times trying to run from Rossi and Gibs sometimes just ran off into the gravel. Stoner still kept losing points to Rossi - even without crashing. If rossi had crashed along with stoner both times,Rossi still would be champ by quite a margin.

MOTOGP » Hayden 'enjoys' Ducati debut.

Still, Hayden is running a bit slow. Slower than Dovi. 12th is not awful, but nothing to write home about. I am guessing Hayden will try a LOT harder on tuesday. We shall see. However, Hayden has always been quite fast on Q-tires preseason, and even qualifying, but that has not tranlated to a good race. Now that no Q tires everything, not only Hayden, will be a better indication. If Hayden does get up to speed fairly quickly he has a good chance, but if not, he may very well be a heap of trouble. Will Hayden deliver?