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I do find it a bit of a shame that people are gagging to put Vale down. He is simply the best rider of a generation and just because Stoner could ride a bike as well and quicker than he could apparently he is a has been!
Now, if Casey WAS told to just get on with it then that shows two things.
Firstly, he is a pure natural talent in the way that a Schwantz, Gardner or Roberts was. In that he could get on any bike that was near the pace and wring its neck to win, but he will also crash a lot. Give him a good bike and he will stay on, win bags of races and win them by miles. Rossi is natural, but as developed a superb way of making a bike better aswell as this talent, which is why he was so dominant.
Secondly, Stoner was maybe unable to give the engineers the feedback necessary to unlock the issues. Gardner was like this, as was Spencer. Bit like Ronnie Peterson in F1, Chapman once said he reckons he could have put the rears on the front and vice versa and Ronnie would have been within a second!
Rossi is analytical, he is trying to work out what is wrong, fix it step by step and then go for it. He has nothing to prove by riding for a podium and crashing, not at his age. And I can GUARANTEE you that Prezizizo and the engineers involved are delighted with this feedback, ideas and input. Far more than they were from Stoner.
Ducati are recalcitrant, it's why Rossi never signed for them in 2004 after all, he always knew he would be in the same boat as he was at Honda, in that he was just a tool, not the main thing. It's why he signed for Yamaha. This year, he simply had no chioce, he had nowhere else to go!
Anyone could win on that Honda, and I include guys like de Puniet, Bautista, Gibernau, Barros, Biaggi, Edwards Hayden. If Stoner or Dani were not on it, those guys would be able to be up front too, and anyone that can't see that is naieve!!
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