Stoner is coming back with Ducati = for testing
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I don't entirely disagree at all Dubs as if I was HRC I would want him to ride in the manner he was in 2011/2012 as that will give me the best publicity for my team and my sponsors.
Personally I do not buy the 'taking points of MM' side as no matter how good we want to believe that CS is, he is not MM good when MM is race/match fit whilst CS is fishing/hunting fit. IMO only here but the best he could have hoped for (without DNF's in front) was in the 5 - 8 range.
That all said, I suspect that there were distinct other reasons as to why HRC said no but I genuinely have NFI as to what they may have been (although I did hear a rumour that MM through Alzamora may have played a role, but that is only a rumour and has no substantiation)
MM was showing a tendency to throw the bike down the road at that time and they may have not wanted him to be further motivated to race Stoner as well as the others.
Looks overall like it was MM or his camp who didn't want Stoner though for whatever reason, and as he is obviously their future they would have wanted to keep him happy.
Except that he was the one that was injured and so from HRC's side had a 'valid' excuse where MM may have been 'less impressed' were CS to be competitive (as I said however, he would not have been match fit enough as whilst he is riding off road, riding and racing are distinctly different activities)
Given subsequent comments attributed to MM one may ask whether he is/was concerned
Either way (IMO only), HRC did miss an opportunity and were it allowed we may not be talking of CS back to Ducati (we may well be, who knows as after all it is CS who is a complex individual)
My thinking is that there was a risk that it could undermine Dani's incumbency. Especially since his record (for whatever reason) has never lived up to his promise.
Don't get me wrong: I really hope that the arm pump was the problem and that he can finally ride at full potential. To my untrained eye he has been riding really well since he came back from that. It seems to me that he is picking the bike up almost on the apex and his dice with Rossi put paid to some of the other criticism that has persisted about him.
But, if Stoner jumped on the bike, half fit, and delivered a positive blip in points yield for HRC, then the optics would not be good for Dani. But, yeh, I don't have any evidence to back that up: it's pure conjecture.
I thought the quote was 'over a second' but with no details (ie. a little over or a lot over) but still even at 1.5 seconds under the circumstances that isn't to bad at all given it was referencing the season starting Sepang test.
Found it - thanks to Krop's site (if an issue posting it please advise)
According to German-language website Speedweek, Marquez felt threatened by Stoner's presence as a test rider, and criticized the input Stoner had given on the project. Marquez claimed he had to test everything Stoner had already tested, to check Stoner's feedback. HRC sources also let slip that Stoner had been over a second off the pace during his most recent test, at Sepang at the beginning of 2015, and so the combination of resistance from Marquez and slow times had made HRC reluctant to use the Australian. Stoner's lack of pace was also a factor in HRC not asking Stoner to replace Dani Pedrosa when the Spaniard was out with injury, something which Stoner had taken badly.
Also, elsewhere I had read that Stoner had reported back about the engine characteristics and the likely issues but that HRC ignored them as Marquez did not agree with the feedback. Subsequently of course we know that MM has been very critical of the power characteristics - will see if I can find the article
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Surely a test program is very, very different from a race weekend? Isn't it pretty much the base of the pyramid? I mean if you look at the number of novel components they test and the amount of time and adjustment that goes into each element, it's not much. The objectives are completely different and more about relative performance of different components, as apposed to optimising a stable configuration for a particular rider on a particular track. Surely it's chalk and ....... cheese, no?
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People with potential or actual test riders or as yamaha does, any random Japanese person. But what I don't understand is why they would want a former champion to put in some glorified parade laps.
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Dr No
SPECTRE
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Your Stoner hate is periodically amusing. But do you really believe CS would do "parade laps"?
another aside:
Wildcards.
Daijiro Kato.
'kin awesome
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I'm just calling it that because he has nothing to prove. Going out and wild carding is nothing more than him going for a joy ride. He's a retired champion. How many retired champions have wild carded before?
Daijiro Kato was a great wild card. It was his shot and he was amazing. I see a big difference there, but I do like that you brought him up.
The smart play for Stoner (and the least desirable from our point of view), assuming he doesn't want to give up his family life, is to avoid all of the competitive, ego, legacy stuff and open a new chapter. Just focus on learning to be the best developer he possibly can.
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I feel the same - but Dani has had multiple arm pump surgeries. They always seem to be temporary solutions, rather than permanent fixes. Dani's had so many - he should be getting sponsorship from his doctor.
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Is the purpose of testing to set track records? Or is it to sort out the bike? Ideally it would be great to do both. Lots of punters say Stoner should be sorting the bike out in a way that will make it suitable to riders less capable of riding around design defects. Riding the bike in a way that is closer to that of those who will race it next year, might well entail being a bit off the pace.
If he's been whiling away the time fly fishing up until now, you can bet he will be training aplenty between now and the start of the 2016 season. Remember, Rossi never really seriously trained till he was much older and he managed to win a few races in the interim.
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Well lets face it Dubs.
Well not behind the 4 aliens as he would be replacing one of them, only 3 were to race
I would clearly expect MM, VR and JL to have finished above him, with Dovi, Cal, AI and Smith others that could have finished (should have) above him but I also allow for a DNF or two amongst that lot.
I do think that the only dynamic beneficial for HRC was from the view of having their two bikes nearer the front, so possibly from a teams championship perspective and perhaps also from having both bikes more visible in a television coverage as TV would have been interested in CS over and above Aoyama.
Do you reckon he had a similar upturn in form after the previous ones, or is it different this time?
I remember Alberto Puig had the same problem: maybe it's infectious.
