levigarrett
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Is this a good thing or bad thing? Duc's been a mess for awhile, so I'm not sure how much of a contributing factor he was in Ducati's lack of competitiveness (that anyone but CS could win on a bike produced by Duc).
You don't think Prezzi was "a contributing factor in Ducati's lack of competitiveness?" That's an odd assertion. If not he than who? Losing is most certainly a team effort and I believe there's enough blame to be spread generously but how could the man responsible for design and technical engineering be blameless?
I think this appears to be an un-dignifying end to this man's career. That is unfortunate. By all account, he's a very bright guy and a gentleman. Apparently well liked by many for good reason. That being said, he most certainly deserves part of the blame for the failure of the GP project. What does this imply? It means mistakes were made, nothing more. I'm not disparaging his character, talent or intellect. I'm certain that his name will be affixed to many successful endeavor's at Ducati but the failure of their GP program must also bear his signature.
Levi, i think the man designed a competitive bike but the league moved the goal posts detrimentally on the Ducati project over time, in addition to some bad luck. The GP05 made major gains, then when they were still working with a tire that was considered inferior. In just a brief time in its existence the GP06 was on target to win the title until disaster struck at Catalunya. The GP07 won with 3 rounds to go from end of season. That would have been two consecutive titles for a tiny outfit who were outsmarting the giants. What happened next? The giants' influence turned the tables! First the dastardly attempt to limit revs that was a not so subtly attempt to slow down the screamer-desmodronic- combination. The league's focus was on harnessing the successful Ducati valve system).
Enter 08, the tire development changes detrimentally for the Italian brand, Michelin drops out after Pedro has a hissy fit mid-season and switches from Michelins to Bstones (despite Ducati requesting to work with them) and the league saw fit to introduce a spec tire in 09 (not to mention an engine rule that would have detrimental affects on the now defanged GP08 going forward). Btw, while I'm on the subject of tires, I've contended that the long forgotten tire limit introduced in 07, which limited the number of tires available to the riders (31), went a long way in exposing Michelin being caught with their pants down, but instead of rewarding the smarter competitor in a tire war, what happened? I can't underscore this last point enough brotha. The league's most vocal favorite son Valentino was more than happy to project his displeasure with the help of the Yellow Army and the always eager manipulated media to echo his whining and cry blaming Michelin which would ultimately lead to further erosion of the spirit of prototyping tires with the death of the tire war, less we also forget Dunlop exited too). The success of the GP07 is now forced to compete with a changed tire in 08 against a well sorted Yamaha M1, and a re-energized Valentino who now had more tires to learn the Bridgestones (less we forget, the league who seems to write rules in chalk amended the tire limit of 31 tires to 40 tires for 2008, where the only new rider added to the Bstone roll was a one Valentino; a decided advantage to a new rider on a new tire, but that's just probably confirmation bias on my part...right). Prezi's who at this point had managed to outsmart the giants (or as Kropo called it an 'astute guess' (admittedly, Krops is right 98% of the time...), I mean, how could this guy actually be that smart, right?...wait for it ) was now forced to fix a front end problem that did not exist prior to 2008, this came to a major change in develolment at the end of 2010 thanks to the signing of one Valentino Rossi. For a year they attempted to fix this mysterious problem still under the crushing thumb of an engine rule that was soley detrimental to the truly "prototype" DucatiGP project (this in a supposed "prototype" series. They were forced to go to a conventional solution and sell-out their prototype spirit for hopes of short term gain which signing VR demanded.) So for a year they have designed and employed a radical deviation (this cannot be overstated) of their project toward a conventional twin-spar chassis. Hell, even the experts like Krops declared it would never happen, that was until they reported the "unthinkable" had in fact occured). What has been the result? A creation in its infant stage of develoment that is close to a sec from years and years of design to the Japs' similarly constructed chassis. That to me says Prezi is of genius proportions among extremely smart men. Where i think his genius is easily overlooked is by comparing the lap times and surmising the Duc is .... (which im guilty of saying for effect). Yet the reality is the Ducati infant (in terms of creation) is near striking distance to seasoned and mature entries of Yamaha/Honda.
Think Mr. Britten. Except the signing of VR created a hell of a lot of health damaging stress, this while VR cruised around his second contract year knowing damn well the backdoor channels were in full swing. While Prezi was stressing out every night racking his brain, VR was thinking, just make it to the end of the season unhurt.
