Jerez 2019 - Gran Premio Red Bull de España

Gutted for Fabs. Damn!

Dovi - smart racing - just hang in and try not to crash - continue to push Marc.
I got hopes - but making no predictions.

Vinales - I think - is unlikely to do this well consistently.

As to the Petronas hope of being on the podium . . . we all knew that wasn't going to happen. Just sad to see Fabio's race cut short through no fault of his own.

Miller's become the new Crashlow.

Tracks with longer straightaways will bring to the fore Yamaha's shortcomings.

billkar said:

What do you guys think about Rins?

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....... great! Kind of almost a certainty he would be on the podium. A narrow track with short straightaways: just what the doctor ordered for Suzuki.

gui22a said:

It's a shame Dovi could not start well to battle MM. Looking at the time table, he ran 1'38.068 at the 24th lap. For comparison, MM ran 1'38.051 at lap 15, where he told media he pushed to show his hand for opponents.

Dovizioso is Dovizioso, he always manages to make a .... somewhere, somehow, to get out of the title race. Don't know what the .... he was thinking about at the start when he decided to go off the line trying to get the lead, he should have positioned himself behind MM. At least he could make some pressure, maybe even pass and hold MM for some laps until fuel decreases and they could push.

Well, as predicted, satellite riders vanished as the lap count increased. I highly doubt Quartararo would keep the pace up for much of the time. Too bad his Yamaha breaked, I thought it was the best package, as our troll friend is typing here and there. Yes, only joking.

MM has another title in the bag. The pair bike + rider is unbeatable at least this first part of the season, I don't think Ducati will react in the time needed. As Rossi says, MM is destroying the sport, LoL. Btw, Domenicali told that MM was feeling the pressure. LoL... I think Claudio Domenicali has been one of the best crap talkers and dumbest CEO out there, always throwing ammunition to his opponents, for free.

Rins and Suzuki are doing great.
Congratulations for Vinales.
Rossi needs to qualify better.
Dovi is a chicken, never delivers when needed, always gets too late in the party. Will never be champion, better go fish with Stoner, it would form a nice pair of bottlers.
Petrux is getting better but that's is it, nothing incredible.

About, Lorenzo... well...he should sue Honda, that should indenize him. I'm talking serious. They hired him only to have one less race contender to compete with MM in some weekends, that was obvious for me. I knew since the beginning. MM knew it would be like that and so "allowed" JLo to be hired. Well, where is "the best bike" now? Not a single Honda in the near sight (top 7) besides MM. MM + Honda is much like Stoner + Ducati. I would like to see what Honda really is without a Marquez/Stoner.

About Ducati, it's time to reinvent a new package. That's the peak of Dalligna GP15 and will not get there, that's clear. Absurd lack of corner speed, it'll be impossible to be champion against MM with only acceleration. Time to send that L desmo to bin and start a new engine layout and bike project from the scratch. Currently Desmosedici iteration is showing signs of being in the top form and will not evolve significantly in corner. The problem is Dalligna seems tired and a bit frustrated, even more with Domenicali annoying the team with his loads of crap talking. Gigi is already talking about "Ducati can go well without me", something like that, so I'm feeling he will not be around for much time. Maybe he is tired of smoking Marlboro.

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Funny how folks talk endlessly about how brilliantly Dovi takes the fight to Marquez and had incredible intricate dogfights with Marquez in a way that no other rider has really done since Marquez came on the scene and has done it on a bike that still doesn't turn well in corners . . .

. . . . but then same people come out and .... on him when he takes 4th on a narrow track with short straights where no Ducati has won since Capirossi back in, what was it, 2005 maybe?

Dovi is competing against a much younger rider - who looks on track to be a greater phenomenon than Agostini or Rossi. No other rider has pushed Marquez harder or more often than Dovi. To imply that Dovi is a chicken is utter nonsense. He's not flashy like MM or Rossi - but he gets results. He's rarely focused on quali and intelligently put his energy into setting up for race pace. And no rider wins every race, or is without a bogie track. Even Stoner wasn't able to win at Jerez on a Ducati.

To talk blithely about Ducati having to "reinvent a new package" is absurd. Even big money HRC haven't done that in years. And HRC have come to the track in the past with technological breakthrough bikes (ceramic oval pistons etc etc) before that have turned out to be abysmal failures many times and they don't make those grand gestures anymore. Definitely not going to happen at a smaller factory like Ducati. It's about year to year refinement; been that way for a long time.

gui22a said:

I ain't that kind of people. Actually, before season began, I was betting in another Dovi failure.

I brought facts to discussion, not void words. Dovi ran as fast as MM with a tire 9 rounds older. He absolutely had the way to go, at least for a 2nd, which would place him exactly 4 points ahead of MM right now. He knows it. But brilliantly he always finds a way to reincarnate his old Dovi, committing dumb mistakes in key moments. It's not me who call myself "relaxed and strategist". It doesn't seem number 4 is either relaxed or strategist.

Last year was the same thing. Came Jerez, Dovi world hunt leader, MM out of the race, and what the ....? An strike because he tried to force a pass where he should not. Le Mans, another chance, another zero. You know what? I have already got it, this guy will never be WC. He is a kind of Pedrosa with a red label.

About Ducati, why absurd? Bring some stuff to table so we can check some facts. Since 2003 Desmosedici can't turn a corner as fast or faster than any opponent. That was 16 years ago (ironically "sedici"). 16 years the bike can't turn. And the only WC they got - with a pig that couldn't turn but could accelerate faster than an bullet - was with a rider with the balls like MM. Since 2013 Dovi asks for a thing that can turn, and albeit much has been improved, clearly the bike lacks a lot compared to the others. It was discovered with time that the engine designed is the problem. The bike is big, long and tall, with problems when centering mass. I know nobody can design a new motogp engine overnight, not even Honda, but as I said, 16 years have passed man.

Suzuki got out of the series, came back yesterday with 30 dollars in the pocket, and it seems they already have a better package than Ducati, even with a very basic engine output. Why? Because turning is the base of any circuit racing, not absolute engine power. Today any manufacturer can make an engine powerful enough, so they don't have that advantage anymore. I'm not saying they need a basic engine, but a new one, lighter and more compact, which will require a completely new project, unfortunately. But if Ducati wants to be serious against MM, what they have right now is not enough (both rider and machine wise). And I can't see where they should improve besides cornering. They mastered all aspects of a racing machine, except this one. And again, I can't see how they will make that bike turn without disrupting the entire project if not through disrupting the entire project. They must recommence.

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Please give examples of "dumb mistakes" and differentiate how any crash he's had was anything other than a racing incident. We've all witnessed times where a rider has done the unexpected, pulled it off and been praised for it. That's okay - right? But when a rider tries it and fails - it's a dumb mistake. Every make of bike has tracks that favor or disfavor the bike and at the latter - in a heroic moment, riders sometimes in desperation will try the impossible because it's the only chance to clinch a championship. When it works out - the rider is a hero, but when the rider is working a strategy - everybody ....... and moans that the rider is afraid to battle or that the race was processional. Duels with Marquez over the course of the last three laps of certain races, like Motegi in the rain have been some of most thrilling stuff in the last 15 years - you know the ones where Dovi made passes that seemed totally impossible, were ones where if he'd crashed people would be saying, he should have been less daring and settled for a 2nd place.

Comparing him to Pedrosa is a gross injustice. Dovi has taken many many more wins than Dani. And has done so without benefit of working with the same bike and same team for more than a decade. And Pedrosa (IMHO) was a great rider - who just didn't have the physical stature to realize his talent.

Asking Ducati to build a Japanese style engine . . . might as well ask them to change their DNA. It's their identity. And BTW - I don't hear you saying Yamaha needs a complete redesign.

Re: Suzuki - one needs to bare in mind, they have a decades long wealth of experience building inline and V-4 engines, so not such a stretch for them to build a bike comparable to other Japanese bikes and get it competitive after a few years. The primary reasons they were away for a few years was the .... economy hurt them worse than the bigger factories and the well-known problem that they just didn't have the same culture of racing mentality at the corporate level. The technology and know how was always there.

Re: 16 years - one could just as well say, why has HRC been unable to build a bike in the last 12 years that only Stoner and Marquez have been able to regularly wrestle onto the top step of the podium. Going by that equation (as many agree) the Yamaha has been a much better bike with many more points scored for the factory and satellite teams up until two years ago when the fallow period began. Losing Rossi and Lorenzo for all that time really seems to have stunted the impetus for development. They stumbled and still can't catch up.

Re: the relative competitiveness of the Ducati - look at the last few years worth of results and tote up the number of Ducatis on the podium as compared to that of Hondas not ridden by Marquez and that should tell you something. Without phenom Marquez Honda would be nowhere championshipwise. If Marquez were on the Ducati, it would be like the Stoner heydays all over again, with people saying the bike is winning the races.

Your personal disappointment in Dovi for not winning the championship doesn't make him a loser. Losers are the guys who never try.