[IvanTT]

Stoner 'had' to adapt.

He has not been through the development cycle as many times as the Doctor. The language barrier, at that level, is a serious thing to contend with. It is hard to communicate nuances of feel and balance without a vocablary other than "better" or "worse".

Plus, remember that Rossi had a even bigger up hill climb coming to Yamaha all those years ago. Back then he was not coming to a company that had any track record for winning in the past 4 years while he was at Honda. He was coming to a bike and manufacturer that had a a huge development mountain to climb.

Ducati has a core team of engineers that speak both of Rossi's languages, Italian and Winning. He will be able to integrate his needs into their engineering and his wants into their philosophy more easily then anyone I can think of on the Grid.

As a comparison, imagine if Eddie Lawson had spoke and lived Japanese culture when he was winning. He could have won 8 or nine championships

Burgess (for Rossi) will be able to clear the decks to minimize the lead times and Nicky, who is no stranger to hard work, will benefit from it too.

When Nicky won the championship he was on a bike (arguably) developed by Rossi.

I think Ducati will have a few races next year with two bikes on the box!

Though their riding styles are different, both Vale and Nicky know how to make hard work look(feel?) fun!

I have never been a Duc fan... but I will be rooting for big red next year!