Quote:
Originally Posted by chunder
For the win he will push that last bit, Casey pushed all the time and won, but also crashed a lot especially in 2010 when the bike was good.
Casey is closer to God, but if the bike can't work can he fix it without crashing?
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first things first, let me just put it out there that im a big Stoner fan, have been since the early days ( anyone whos family sells the home and everything, moves to Europe to follow to follow a dream is OK by me). i don't really care much for Rossi but i do acknowledge him as a mega talent and as good as if not better than Rayney, Doohan, Roberts etc. the results speak for themselves.
was the 2010 bike any good? i dont think it was, for me it was the worst bike duc had brought to GP, at least in the 800cc era. both Hayden and Stoner couldnt keep the front end sticky side down, with it obviously affecting stoner more, perhaps because of style, or maybe that he was just faster and pushing it harder. going back and forth between 09 and 10 forks, then the hybrids probably confused the matter more, but at the end of the day, the bike had to be ridden and the rider needed to feel he could at least get some kind of time out of it.
how much input did Stoner get in the Duc? the Italians are a funny bunch and at least in the 1st year he wasn't their intended favored son, it was more by chance than good management he ended up on a Red bike, hell after throwing it down the road so many time sin the 1st year i didn't think hed be back for a 2nd.... what he did prove in that 1st year was that even on the lowest of the low Hondas he as putting it up there with the Repsol boys and on occasion showing them up (while he was upright).
Then on the Duc he put that bike in positions no one else could, Capirossi and Melandri can hardly be classified as slow riders (although Melandri's ego was probably a little bigger than his talent allowed) Melandris recent WSBK results have shown hes no slouch when the bike is OK, as with his time on the Hayate.
Rossi on the other hand has had nothing but the best of the best while in GP, best teams, best bikes, arguably best engineer team, best grid girls and undisputed no 1 status in any team (except for perhaps the last 2 years). now he finds himself injured and on what is evidently the 3rd best bike on the grid. Rossi and JB need to get their **** togeather and sort out whats going on. did they underestimate how bad the bike is? i think so.
what im interested to know is with Duc shutting down their WSBK team to effectively get Rossi, have they left themselves enough budget to fix the bike? or did they just think Rossi > Stoner therefore bike should just fly! evidently not.
the electronics argument goes round and round. Everyone would have similar gear, TC wise - or access to it. 1st it was stoner uses too much TC. i dont know about you, but i wouldnt expect a bike to be bucking and weaving like that with too much TC. now its that he didn't use that much and this is effecting Rossi.
I think where Rossi will get it turned around is he and JB seem to wrk very well with rider feedback and interpretation. its entirely possible that Stoner is pants at dev work. Either that or Duc were too concerned on fixing the bike for the other rider.
I think whats been shown so far is that perhaps Stoner has been rather underestimated as a rider and the Duc has been flattered by a great rider. the ball is now in Rossi's court. both he and Duc have a lot to loose if they cant get it to work