I clearly remember one of Kropos comments early in the season, from one of his real insiders that Yamaha had already succumbed to letting Honda win this years title to at least give them 1 800cc title. A Japanese thing apparently. IMO this decision was made mid-way through 2010 when they boned Rossi on the pay-cut issue to re-direct the dollars to Jorge instead of development. Knowing full well that they would lose Rossi to Ducati and then subsequently would not have to face the horrendous and additional cost of competing with Honda whilst having Rossi in the factory team with the expectations/history/influence and all......and hey thye've won plenty of titles this last decade anyway
I wonder how both parties (Rossi/Yamaha) are now feeling about the divorce last season? Spies has failed, Ben has amazing guts but will struggle/never be on terms with Jorge, Stoner, Dani or Sic with the current regs, Jorge has failed (however valiantly) to defend his titled and has lost Yamaha the titled that they had coverted for 3 years and Rossi's Mighty all conquering M1 has been reduced to the predictable first loser behind the incredible Honda or 2 or three of them. Was it a corporate favor for the triple tuning fork?
Though I feel the other party is feeling much more despondent about the divorce, Rossi seems to be holding faith with Ducati at this stage but will this last? The feeling out there is increasingly that the exit clause will be used and the contract will be terminated for next year. Could Rossi be back on a factory Yamaha in his own team in 2012 if the final tests don't show dramatic improvement........I doubt that he would as its not in his nature, the question is 'should' he?
You now demonstrate why there are "boners", as you call them/us, since this post suggests rossi not winning is a large part of your problem with current motogp. As others have said, the individual riders don't have to come into a discussion about the viability/appropriateness of the motogp formula. Rossi winning/losing should not supervene all other priorities any more than honda doing so. I think povol's position as well as birdman's on the other thread are philosophical ones and independent of stoner winning, and I have largely had the same view for most of the time I have followed the sport, and you have seemed to be an advocate of prototype/development racing as well in the past, as far as tyres are concerned anyway. I have come to the reluctant conclusion that some restrictions are necessary as kropotkin argues though.
Rossi is where he is entirely by choice. Yamaha were still prepared to pay him as much as any other motogp rider, and a situation where a defending world champion is paid half as much as his team-mate doesn't seem fair or reasonable either. Yamaha are also entitled to plan for the future, and while they should be grateful for rossi's contribution to them he is not physically immortal and I don't see that they were obliged to make no future plans until he decided when he was retiring, or to lose for 10 years again after he left as a tribute to him. I have a feeling he may have more or less decided to retire, he was saying things such as that the winning of the 2009 title would decide things between him and casey, and then changed his mind, whether to beat ago, because of his tax problems or whatever. I agree that if it was purely a business decision by yamaha it may not have been a sound one, since fiat departed when rossi did.
I think most other than a few extreme stoner fans would like to see rossi back battling at the front where he should be.
