If they are they should cease forwith
The weather is causing Ducati all sorts of problems at the moment with a lack of testing time in the dry really hampering their efforts to sort this most recalcitrant of bikes. I think the extremely hot conditions in which they tested the GP12 in Mugello recently may have also masked some of the front end problems they are again experiencing with the new chassis. We have seen evidence of this during qualifying and free practice....Suzuki, like Ducati, have also traditionally had problems getting heat into the tires and one of the few tracks they often go well at is Sepang where track temperatures are usually extremely high. I would suggest the recent inclement weather and cooler track temps at Mugello is why the Ducs front end problems have again resurfaced.
Rossi's move to team red is so far proving to be a nightmare.....his reputation has suffered in terms of not only his riding abilities but also his development skills. Both his and JB's statements pre-season reagarding Stoners riding and the ease of fixing the bike were in hindsight ill judged and have come back to haunt them.
I for one, however, feel far too many people give Valentino too much credit for the development of the bikes he pilots. I am sure he is no doubt a "genius" in terms of giving feedback but to develop a winning bike so many other factors also come into play....you need the right support personell (engineers, designers, technicians, mechanics etc) a decent budget to work with and communication between factory and rider has to be a two way street. I am sure Rossi has not lost his ability to give precise feedback but do Ducati have the ability to translate this information into correcting the current problems with the bike? The recent past would suggest otherwise.....
The fact of the matter is they have long been receiving the exact same feedback (vague front end, rear pumping etc) from many of their other riders but they chose to ignore it....however, now that the 9x world champ is shouting from the rooftops about it all of a sudden these complaints are deemed valid and they are now throwing everything but the kitchen sink at these issues in a panic striken attempt to rectify the problems....not a very smart development strategy and this along with their relience on unique and unproven technologies seem to me the main reasons why their bikes have not really progressed much in the last few years and have seemingly reach a performance plateau.
So far ALL of their riders (bar a certain buck toothed Australian) have stuggled....and this includes multiple world champions. No one else has had the balls or the ability to push past this seemingly impossible envelope....the Chuck Yeager analogy with respect to Casey Stoner, suddenly seems very appropriate.