If they treat him as another Dani, they leave themselves badly exposed to a Marquez defection to Ducati. Puig is too smart to let that happen.
2018 Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana Predictions and Race Chat
- Thread starter Keshav
- Start date
If they treat him as another Dani, they leave themselves badly exposed to a Marquez defection to Ducati. Puig is too smart to let that happen.
Sometimes you have to ride the bike in a different way, depending on bike set-up, track and weather conditions, tyre wear, tyre grip, etc.
The Ducati is even more stop-and-go than the Honda, so Lorenzo should theoretically find the Honda to be a little closer to the Yamaha than the Ducati is (though the Honda is still obviously closer to the Ducati than the Yamaha is).
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NJ
He isn't going to go to KTM when he is trying to break every record in the book.
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Tennessee
I don’t think so either. KTM has hit the wall in finding that last second as many predicted. Zarco said the other day his goal next year was top 5, I think he is kidding himself. The bike isn’t ready for prime time and probably won’t be until another major rules change makes Yamaha, Honda and Ducati have a pause in development while adjusting.
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Chertsey, Surrey, UK
In 2 years KTM will be almost there, 2021 will be the year they start to get the better at certain tracks and I think that MM will like that challenge regardless of what us armchair experts say.
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Stratosphere
I don't know why you're obsessed with KTM. MM wants to win. It's reasonable to think he might go to Ducati for a big paycheck and to show he can take championships on multiple makes, but given their lack of progress thus far, it would just be perverse to to shoot himself in the foot by signing up to ride an inferior bike.
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Tennessee
It’s looking like rain for the weekend. The only session that looks possibly dry is qualifying. Sunday is 80% light rain on and off. Could be a flag to flag.
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So lets say you think the KTM will always be a 2nd string bike, I can't see that when you look at their efforts in other types of competition. In 2021 I do believe that after 4 years they will be far better than they are now, and as we all know Dorna like mucking things about.
Then of course you have to consider how the bike is, the Honda has a fair bit of flex from what I see when MM is riding it, its the same with KTM, Ducati looks far to rigid.
Also consider 2019, no more internal/external wing modifications at every track they go to, the 2 biggest losers there will be Ducati and Honda, personally I'd like to see the banning of any aerodynamic additions. However the only person I can see who will benefit from these changes is MM, there isn't one other rider who does what he does with a bike and if they tried to emulate him they'd fall off their bikes.
Then of course there is the change in the emu/ecu, no more tweaks allowed through these 2 items to alter how bikes perform, yet again this will give MM an advantage that they think they have shut.
Seeing as MM is the number one rider for Honda, any fittings to his bike will have to be applied to Lorenzo's, how will that affect him?
I'm not obsessed with KTM but |I'd like them to give the Japanese a headache.
I do however have 2 soft spots for 2 KTM riders, Zarco and Oliveira I'm hoping they will do great things for KTM.
I'd say why is everyone obsessed with MM and Ducati ffs he's Spanish not Italian, why go and ride a bike that I expect next year will be mid field.
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Stratosphere
I do not think KTM will always be 2nd tier. However, think on how many years it took Ducati to reach parity, and that, despite ship loads of money being thrown at them.
How do you figure Honda and Ducati, with all their resources and foreknowledge of rule changes will suffer the most?
Nobody AFAIK is obsessed with Marquez. He is a phenom who captures the attention of the public; his nationality is neither here nor there. Though, if we're talking Dorna/influence then logically being Spanish should work in his favor.
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Italy
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Chertsey, Surrey, UK
Because they've had the most to gain from the current aero packages. There again I don't think that will faze MM in the slightest, I expect he'd win the odd race on the Aprilia or KTM at the moment.
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