honevo

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Qk...amNWZgjUDYjvFX test sepang day 2

Keshav

Sure my opinion matters.... to people who matter.

The Ducati statement is nothing more than hyperbolic press release chest-beating. If winning the championship was the only thing of consequence - why then do factories and sponsors pour millions of Euros into teams, year after year that have never won? To be too stubbornly pedantic to acknowledge the value of what the other teams do - is to ignore reality for the sake of being cussedly contrary.

gui22a

I don't know why I give you attention, the guy who other day said Dovi won more races than Pedrosa. It seems you don't even follow the sport but your favorite rider.

Keep your faith in your man then, I'm moving on.

Keshav

Even though I’ve followed the sport since’79, I’m fallible and may mis-speak on occasion. I’m not, however so allergic to reality that I can’t concede a mistake. I also don’t waste people’s time by diverting from a given topic by introducing irrelevancies to muddy the water.

michaelm

All true, but this doesn't change that Dovi's competitiveness is progessively declining. Sure his peak performance at Ducati was very creditable and will remain so, but Ducati are ruthless as well as stupid cf them looking to unload Stoner 3 years after he won their only title. Gigi has fairly clearly decided Dovi isn't taking him anywhere, with reports their relationship is less than cordial, and they have apparently chased both Lorenzo to return in the past and Vinales recently.

I agree he is unlikely to win races any more, and I believe Ducati do require that from their lead rider on the large salary he held out for last contract, which was not unreasonable for him to demand given how he had performed leading up to that contract.

Keshav

Agree w all above. Just weary of internet trolls who only come here to shame and denigrate riders who are the backbone of the sport they pretend to care about. That said he is still the highest scoring Ducati rider thus far. I will happily support the rider who succeeds him, without throwing Dovi under the bus.

michaelm

I am a Lorenzo fan obviously. The issue for me is not whether MM could dominate like Jorge did on a day when he really had the butterhammer down/going, and as Pedrosa did about twice a year when everything worked for him, but whether he could adapt his riding style to the Yamaha, in which case I wouldn't bet against him over a season, he is a born killer. I guess there will come a time when he is too set in his ways cf Jorge on the Honda, but I suspect that time hasn't as yet arrived. He was as dominant as anyone in history on the 2014 bike which did really suit him, and I am of the opinion in agreement with Keshav that after learning in 2015 that having a bike that was both great intrinsically and suited his style wasn't going to apply every year he has mostly been riding around the flaws of whatever Honda has been current. Sure those bikes have had significant strengths as well, but strengths which can only be exploited if you can ride around the flaws.

The thing about Rossi's Ducati adventure was that the then current Ducati was a horrible pig of a bike, and it was what Stoner could do on the thing which included even winning races which was remarkable rather than someone like Rossi, who had been demonstrating for many years pretty much the apotheosis of the conventional riding style, not being able to ride it similarly.

gui22a

Those whom have not Italian blood running inside their veins maybe will never understand.

Italians in general demand emotional intensity, thus 2nd places does not fulfill this requirement. I'm sorry for Dovi, but he is an unusual Italian.

Keshav

Minchiata. Half my family is from Napoli: and I’ve lived in Rome. In my 20s I lived in Little Italy and drove a truck for a mob owned printing supply company. Go on, tell me how I don’t understand Italian culture.

warthog1

Fab is showing scary speed yet again.
26 1:59 laps yesterday.
MM is saying the one lap testing pace is different to having race pace over the full distance.
Mav was fast on used tyres in the heat of the day yesterday.
Interesting season coming up.