Moto GP testing after the shuffle

[throttlemeister]

Much more interesting tidbit:
Wayne Gardner on the last race

Read the last paragraph.

[Guest24]

Originally Posted by roger albert

Amazing how running well off the pace will smooth the rough edges.

This is true Roger; but, Stoner was doing it well off race pace at times. Did you watch him in the FP sessions? He was 2 and 3 seconds off the pace and skiddering all over the place. And wearing out those high $$ leathers.

[bradzdotcom]

testing is testing....is testing.

that's why they call it testing, not racing.

love this quote: Preziosi said: I would also like to change the (chassis) stiffness, weight distribution, and geometry.”

translation to american: "we be starting over".

[cageyar]

Now we know where the money is going after the pull out from WSBK.
It going to cost a lot of lire to get the bike setup for 46.

[Highlander179]

Originally Posted by signit98

Rossi will have trouble getting Ducati to fit the bike to his riding style ....

Really? All the quotes lead me to believe that Preziosi is totally smitten with Rossi and will build him exactly what he wants. Do you really believe that Rossi is going to be riding around on a year old Stoner bike?

[roger albert]

I think reality is somewhere between. He was so far off that it looks like it wants darn near a clean-sheet design. That's a lot between now and Feb. Will be very interesting to see.

[Guest24]

Originally Posted by roger albert

I think reality is somewhere between. He was so far off that it looks like it wants darn near a clean-sheet design. That's a lot between now and Feb. Will be very interesting to see.

I have a feeling that's why Rossi got them 141 laps of data, Roger.

[signit98]

Originally Posted by Highlander179

Do you really believe that Rossi is going to be riding around on a year old Stoner bike?

Nope, I believe (much like it has been suggested before) they they won't go through the troubles of making the bike fit to his riding style, thus offering a patch-work-effort... they will probably start over! Good luck on that one.
Fact is that out of all the riders they have had in recent past, only Stoner found it in him to adapt to the bike and made it work... and rather well, I might add. AGAIN - READ: STONER ADAPTED TO THE BIKE! Rossi expects this to go the other way around... it will be a problem and it will be trouble... especially in such a relative short time frame.

I am not saying that Rossi CAN not adapt... the question is, WILL he want to adapt?

As for BMW and Aprillia coming to MotoGP in 2012... naturally, it will be easier and more worth of an effort to them, being that they won't have to come up with a complete new engine concept, etc.

BMW, however, still has ways to go and will have to show some success in WSBK, or the mother ship will not be as easily convinced that this might be worthwhile... and not easily dispense more money to throw away.

[Chris Canning]

Having just spent a week in Valencia for the GP and the 2 day practice,I'll do a posting when I recover from 16 hours travel to get home

[roger albert]

Look forward to it Chris.

[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!

[signit98]

Originally Posted by IvanTT

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

Arguably?... when Nicky won, Rossi was already with Yamaha for 2 years... if the development of the bikes would have been stagnant for 2 years (which it has not EVER been), that would be arguable. Maybe.

There is no question that Rossi will be on a different level of communicating with the Italians, the question is will they have enough time to implement all the changes he is asking for... i.e. a new bike!

[IvanTT]

Well Ralf I knew you would argue the point....

What I mean is that I do think Nicky did a lot of development on the Honda's but there had been talk of Nicky walking into sweet setup.

I believe that he did not. I have read that he had worked on a number of different setups chassis and engine designs sometimes to the determent of his own points chase.

Now that they are they are on the same team and both have done so much development riding there should be some good communication and hopefully good results

[roger albert]

There is no question that Rossi will be on a different level of communicating with the Italians, the question is will they have enough time to implement all the changes he is asking for... i.e. a new bike!

It's a pretty tall order, but doable. Also, is Rossi as young, hungry, and adaptable as he was 6 or 7 years ago? The answer to _at_least_ one of those is, no.

[signit98]

Originally Posted by IvanTT

Now that they are they are on the same team and both have done so much development riding there should be some good communication and hopefully good results

I do believe that they get along very well... that ought to help the cause as well.

[Highlander179]

Originally Posted by signit98

Nope, I believe (much like it has been suggested before) they they won't go through the troubles of making the bike fit to his riding style, thus offering a patch-work-effort... they will probably start over! Good luck on that one.
Fact is that out of all the riders they have had in recent past, only Stoner found it in him to adapt to the bike and made it work... and rather well, I might add. AGAIN - READ: STONER ADAPTED TO THE BIKE! Rossi expects this to go the other way around... it will be a problem and it will be trouble... especially in such a relative short time frame.

I am not saying that Rossi CAN not adapt... the question is, WILL he want to adapt?

What had surprised Preziosi most on the second day of the test was Rossi's incredible calmness and positive attitude, the Italian remaining calm despite such a "bad test" as the Ducati MotoGP boss put it. At least Rossi was providing a lot of feedback, Preziosi said, and giving them a lot of work to do. Back in Bologna, the design team would have a meeting with Rossi's long-time crew chief Jerry Burgess, and run some models to help improve the front-end feel. The list of changes would be long indeed, altering rider position, weight distribution, chassis stiffness and geometry before the next test at Sepang. "Now we need to adapt the bike to Valentino," Preziosi explained.

Rossi expects what?

[Highlander179]

Originally Posted by roger albert

It's a pretty tall order, but doable. Also, is Rossi as young, hungry, and adaptable as he was 6 or 7 years ago? The answer to _at_least_ one of those is, no.

part of his poor performance has to do with strength... which he has been lacking while hes been on the mend.

here's a tweet from Alex Briggs;
On Wednesday 10th November 2010, @Alex__Briggs said:

H 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.

[signit98]

Originally Posted by Highlander179

Rossi expects what?

What exactly does "Now we need to adapt the bike to Rossi" tell you?

[Guest24]

Originally Posted by signit98

What exactly does "Now we need to adapt the bike to Rossi" tell you?

We know that the ergos will change drastically, Ralf. But, I 'd bet money that Rossi/Burgess will bring in a winner if Ducati pays close attention to the details. And we know that they WILL listen. That's why Rossi is there to begin with. This is certainly not an Italian "swan song".

I think that they will be looking for a way to get the weight distributed for Rossi's riding style.

[Highlander179]

Originally Posted by signit98

What exactly does "Now we need to adapt the bike to Rossi" tell you?

you say its going to be a problem and trouble and rossi wont have the want. i say your wrong because the facts say otherwise.