not looking good

todays race at estoril was looking good for mr rossi in the opening few laps then it all started to fade away.at least a podium is better than nowt,but i think that he may have gone out to the front too early and shot the tyres.the rossi of old was content to sit in 3 or so and let the race unfold,but now that has had to change.if he stays behind then there is less chance of catching up should a mistake happen and being in the lead from the off puts pressure on therefore using more tyre and eventually losing grip..

i think rossi is in a tricky situation.
lets wait for a wet race and see what unfolds from that !!!

I think he is choosing softer tyres than he should be as he is not fully up there with the Bridgestones yet so he is taking a safer route by going softer than he would usually intend to.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BarryMachine @ Apr 13 2008, 06:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>I think he is choosing softer tyres than he should be as he is not fully up there with the Bridgestones yet so he is taking a safer route by going softer than he would usually intend to.

WOW barry i agree, to softer compound and he cained them to hard in the begining, personaly i think rossi should have gone medium front and hard back tyre.
he may not have had as much grip in the begining but over race distance i think it would have paid off.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jazkat @ Apr 13 2008, 06:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>WOW barry i agree, to softer compound and he cained them to hard in the begining, personaly i think rossi should have gone medium front and hard back tyre.
he may not have had as much grip in the begining but over race distance i think it would have paid off.
mabe he went for a soft option because of the damp weather rather than a getting to grips with the stones issue.

Rossi used:
Front: soft
Back: Medium

Lorenzo used
Front: Medium
Back: Hard

Pedrosa Used
Front: Medium
Back: Hard

so he got out early but then his tires were shot

Looking good

Rossi picked the wrong front to day, either because they expected more rain or they missjudged the durability, anyway that was a misstake.
But I'm very confused about this tire managment talk around here. First of all, the one to really sprint away last year was Stoner. Secondly, Rossi was NOT going fast in the start of this race, in fact he was 2 sec down on the pace later in the race. Of course that was due to the damp weather and he was faster than anyone else, but that doesnt mean the tires were overloaded, the pace were in fact very slow, how is that for tire management?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (roger-m @ Apr 13 2008, 01:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>mabe he went for a soft option because of the damp weather rather than a getting to grips with the stones issue.
My thoughts exactly.

He didn't choose the wrong tire. The last couple laps he obviously slowed as he knew where he stood in the race and even if he had chosen a harder tire to have the same grip through out it wouldn't have mattered. The leaders were running in the mid 1:37's, a pace Rossi wasn't capable of all weekend. Stoner's bike isn't any worse then last year either. It was much colder this year and the Bridgestones were even further out of there element. Rossi did good to manage 3rd in this race, and Casey did well to manage 6th. All this garbage of Casey can't feel the front is his own head trying to make excuses for him not winning.

China's another race. Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo will be primed for a good showing.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (projekZERO @ Apr 14 2008, 10:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>He didn't choose the wrong tire. The last couple laps he obviously slowed as he knew where he stood in the race and even if he had chosen a harder tire to have the same grip through out it wouldn't have mattered. The leaders were running in the mid 1:37's, a pace Rossi wasn't capable of all weekend. Stoner's bike isn't any worse then last year either. It was much colder this year and the Bridgestones were even further out of there element. Rossi did good to manage 3rd in this race, and Casey did well to manage 6th. All this garbage of Casey can't feel the front is his own head trying to make excuses for him not winning.

China's another race. Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo will be primed for a good showing.
Well, he did 1:36:199" in qualifying didn't he?. After ran about 1:37's. I think it's all about "miss tyre management". He choosed soft-front & medium-rear. Not long lasting

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#46 @ Apr 13 2008, 10:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Well, he did 1:36:199" in qualifying didn't he?. After ran about 1:37's. I think it's all about "miss tyre management". He choosed soft-front & medium-rear. Not long lasting

How can you compare what he did on a qualifier? And he ran HIGH 1:37's and never strung them out like Pedrosa, Lorenzo or even Edwards could in the MID 1:37's. he also ran 1:37:975 in the race. In practice he was running the same pace where the leaders were running 1:37:400 in the race just like they had been in practice.

He was a full half a second off pace PERIOD! Yes he could have chosen harder tires and maintained a slower pace for the whole race but he gambled. he gambled to get out front and get away and hope they couldn't cach him or he could hold them up and they're tires would go off. It didnt work, but worse case senario of him choosing the softer tires is he could have ended up 4th or 5th if Dovi and Hayden hadn't binned it. And the best he could have got from the harder tires is he finnished 3rd, because he NEVER had the pace to keep with Lorenzo or Pedrosa all weekend.

So in the end it cost him nothing, even with harder tires he was at best set for 3rd, it was a good gamble, just didn't pay off.

Nothing more

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (roger-m @ Apr 14 2008, 05:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>mabe he went for a soft option because of the damp weather rather than a getting to grips with the stones issue.

No he did the exact same thing in Qatar. In Jerez he held in much longer into the race than both Estorl and Qatar, so I assume he was more confident with the Vridges at that temp.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (projekZERO @ Apr 14 2008, 03:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>he NEVER had the pace to keep with Lorenzo or Pedrosa all weekend.

the bike just isnt quite ready for the stones, wasnt rossi was atually quicker and more consistant than peado in FP sesions?

edwards had best overaul time all weekend and hayden was faster than dani it didnt happen for colin in the race so how do know know the outcome if rossi had the setup rite or different tyres?


at the end of the day what goes on in testing doesnt really transfer to race day, but i agree rossi didnt have the pace in the race, i think rossi will be good for bridgestone giving them good feedback to create better race tyres

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BarryMachine @ Apr 14 2008, 04:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>No he did the exact same thing in Qatar. In Jerez he held in much longer into the race than both Estorl and Qatar, so I assume he was more confident with the Vridges at that temp.
yes but that was a cooling track and estoril was a damp track so he went for the soft option. mabe in hindsight a wrong choice but an understandable gamble wouldn't you agree.


by the way, your on probation, i feel compelled to read your posts now stoner is on the back foot. would hate to miss out on your back peddling

Thats funny, I didn't realise there are so many Bridgestone tyre technicians on this board!

It is all very well to say that Rossi chose the wrong tyre and because he went with a soft, it went off at the end and caused him to loose ground on the leaders.

But the fact is that no one on this board was there in Rossi's pit garage with the data and experience necessary make a decission on what tyre he should use.

Also you can't compare the compounds that the Michelin riders were using. It's not like they just look at the temperature and say 'I will use a soft Bridgestone tyre please'.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (projekZERO @ Apr 14 2008, 03:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>How can you compare what he did on a qualifier? And he ran HIGH 1:37's and never strung them out like Pedrosa, Lorenzo or even Edwards could in the MID 1:37's. he also ran 1:37:975 in the race. In practice he was running the same pace where the leaders were running 1:37:400 in the race just like they had been in practice.

He was a full half a second off pace PERIOD! Yes he could have chosen harder tires and maintained a slower pace for the whole race but he gambled. he gambled to get out front and get away and hope they couldn't cach him or he could hold them up and they're tires would go off. It didnt work, but worse case senario of him choosing the softer tires is he could have ended up 4th or 5th if Dovi and Hayden hadn't binned it. And the best he could have got from the harder tires is he finnished 3rd, because he NEVER had the pace to keep with Lorenzo or Pedrosa all weekend.

So in the end it cost him nothing, even with harder tires he was at best set for 3rd, it was a good gamble, just didn't pay off.

Nothing more
In QP he did manage just as many race tyre 1:37s as Pedro, and only Lorenzo had more. See my post from the race thread for more info.

Rossi's best race tyre time was 1:37.540, so it did appear that he had similar pace to Pedrosa for sure and Lorenzo possibly during QP on race tyres.

So to say that he never had the pace to keep with Pedrosa and Lorenzo all weekend is incorrect. He was actually faster than Pedrosa in FP1 and FP3, slower by 0.04 in FP2, slower by 0.062 on race tyres in QP. He was faster than Lorenzo in all three FPs, but slower in QP on race tyres by 0.195

In the race, as you say, he only managed one very high 1:37, implying that either the conditions were worse than in QP, or that his tyre choice might not have been optimal. Whether he should have chosen a "harder" tyre is, as #36 Fan states, a pointless discussion. None of us know what tyres were available and there are significantly more compound possibilities than "hard" "medium" and "soft" - that's just dumbed down journo speak.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#36 Fan @ Apr 14 2008, 05:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Thats funny, I didn't realise there are so many Bridgestone tyre technicians on this board!

It is all very well to say that Rossi chose the wrong tyre and because he went with a soft, it went off at the end and caused him to loose ground on the leaders.

But the fact is that no one on this board was there in Rossi's pit garage with the data and experience necessary make a decission on what tyre he should use.

Also you can't compare the compounds that the Michelin riders were using. It's not like they just look at the temperature and say 'I will use a soft Bridgestone tyre please'.
Well of course no one here knows what's going on. That's not going to stop anyone from voicing their opinions. If everyone kept quiet because they didn't know exactly what went on in the garages, this forum would be non-existent (OK, it may consist of one or two people).

The fun of this forum is taking the knowledge we have at hand and making educated guesses at what is possibly happening. Just how I think Rossi thought that it was a cool track, potentially cooling and becoming wet and went for a softer compound and it never worked out as he had planned.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#36 Fan @ Apr 14 2008, 02:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Thats funny, I didn't realise there are so many Bridgestone tyre technicians on this board!
Thats because you haven't been paying attention. We also have Michelin techs, chassis techs, suspension techs, and Yamaha techs, Honda techs, Ducati techs, Suzuki techs, Kawasaki techs...etc. We even got a few psychologists, mind-readers, marketing executives, lawyers, and rocket scientists here.

Just stay away from the ....-site techs.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Austin @ Apr 15 2008, 11:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Well of course no one here knows what's going on. That's not going to stop anyone from voicing their opinions. If everyone kept quiet because they didn't know exactly what went on in the garages, this forum would be non-existent (OK, it may consist of one or two people).

The fun of this forum is taking the knowledge we have at hand and making educated guesses at what is possibly happening. Just how I think Rossi thought that it was a cool track, potentially cooling and becoming wet and went for a softer compound and it never worked out as he had planned.


Yea I know that and I enjoy reading other peoples opinions on what were the reasons behind the happenings in the race.

But it does get tiresome when people claim certain things as though they are fact when in reality it is just wild speculation.

If memory serves me most if not all stoner's wins last year were on the hard compound bridgestone tyres which basically haven't come into play this season yet.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#36 Fan @ Apr 14 2008, 07:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Yea I know that and I enjoy reading other peoples opinions on what were the reasons behind the happenings in the race.

But it does get tiresome when people claim certain things as though they are fact when in reality it is just wild speculation.
That is understandable.