What did Burgess say before he went to Ducati? He could fix the bike in how long?
What point are you trying to make by bringing that up? But let's take a look shall we:
What does Valentino like in a bike?
“He likes a bike that has grip and that would be front and rear. But you have to maximize the package, but I can see that Casey and Nicky run quite different settings on the bike, just from observations of the geometry on the bike.”
Which would Valentino be closer to?
“Difficult to say, without knowing where the weight is on the bike and how it behaves. But, without question, I don’t anticipate any major dramas. I can watch some of these lesser riders on the Ducatis and you can see that the bikes are, in my opinion, unsuitably set for what they want to try and do with them. I’m not saying anybody’s doing a bad job. I see these things wobbling around. When I think, clearly, if we had that issue with Valentino it’d be fixed in 80 seconds, but some riders don’t like the hardness of the bike, because they don’t get the feel. But then when they’re riding around and it’s too soft they’re not going forward either. So you’ve got to be able to create the feel with the hardness to avoid all that sloppiness. I don’t think there are any issues in the bike that are a big worry to me. I think the bike is just a tool to do your job. You sharpen the tool at the race track, you don’t build it. you should be able to adjust it to what Valentino wants. And until we’ve got a race or two under belts, we won’t really know how close we are or how much better we’ve made it. but if we can make it, as it stands here today, good for Valentino, then it’s probably not a bad bike. Then we just have to wait and see what happens.”
SCOOP: Jeremy Burgess talks about his move to Ducati with Rossi | Sport Rider
So to answer your question, Jeremy explicitly states, "the bike is just a tool to do your job. You sharpen the tool at the race track, you don’t build it. you should be able to adjust it to what Valentino wants.
And until we’ve got a race or two under belts, we won’t really know how close we are or how much better we’ve made it. but if we can make it, as it stands here today, good for Valentino, then it’s probably not a bad bike."
But I like this even better which supports my statements made earlier (taken from the same article)
What about reaction time? Will Ducati be able to react as quickly as Yamaha?
“It’s about prioritizing things and if I was to put it to you in a way such that with Valentino having a direct link to Filippo (Preziosi). Filippo is then in a position to direct his engineering group. If the engineering group were working on another problem that we had and they’re a week away from completing that, he can pull that first project up and say, ‘no, no, no this has suddenly become more important—get on this first.’ And I think that’s pretty much what we’ve had with (Masao) Furusawa. Rather than going from the bottom up, through the network here of the engineering group through the various different departments and then putting it on the list to get fixed, we’ve had a man there that could basically tell the engineers that they can ‘stop project A because project B has suddenly become more important. And you’ll go back to project A when you’ve project B tidied up or if we don’t have anything coming along.’ And I would like to hope that Filippo will be sort of commanding the ship from right there. I know that Valentino will be picking the phone up fairly regularly, if not every night. And I’m sure that’s what Filippo would like to hear. And you’re dealing with Valentino Rossi. You’re not dealing with somebody you’re not sure of. What I said to Yamaha when I came here, I said, ‘I can’t fix your bike. But if you listen to Valentino Rossi, we’ll go forward. Ignore him at your peril.’ And it’s the same deal here at Ducati. They spent the money to get him. If you don’t want to listen to him, well why did you spend the money?”
You win though, they couldn't fix it (which I've acknowledged btw), but you were fishing for the 80 seconds response weren't you, as if that gives you a strong case in believing that Rossi and Jeremy had nothing to do with triggering the transition over to the twinspar frame.
Ducati were planning to upend Corse. It was not a secret, and they didn't need to convince anyone that change was necessary. Unfortunately, the did end up getting sideways with Preziosi, who was bent about the aluminum frame in GP.
I don't understand the point you're trying to make? Are you saying Rossi deserves no credit for spurring the change? Then please make that clear in your statement, but provide some evidence propagating your argument. I've stated mine pretty clearly. You're making sound like I'm saying Rossi himself designed this years bike or something.
If you don't believe that they didn't contribute to the development of the bike, linking to its current iteration (and I say that because the GP12 and the GP13 were largely the same. The GP14 began seeing the changes instituted by Gigi
https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2013/01/28/ducati-desmosedici-gp13-specs-photos-motogp/) then that's fine, but I do. If it wasn't for Jeremy and Rossi, then when would have decided much later to build a twinspar frame? If it wasn't for Rossi, bringing in Furusawa to have a secret meeting with Preziosi then when would have the change occurred? In my opinion, the program would have begun much later.
The Rossi/Burgess aluminum frame bike was not more competitive than the carbon monocoque, nor did it lead anywhere in particular. The partnership was a failure, and the Germans fired everyone, except Domenicali, who always manages to move up whenever things change at Ducati. He was fast-tracked for CEO.
The departure from the frameless design led to where they are now. The bike improved in that they didn't suffer those mysterious front-end spills anymore, which at least gives the rider some confidence in the front-end.
I ran the numbers and even if the times weren't astronomically better, Nicky and Rossi improved in terms of total race pace and reduced their time from first the place finisher.
You do have a point that in terms of results, they actually did worse on average. Both Rossi and Nicky finished at the 6th place mark in 2011 (6.36 & 6.53) to averaging 7th in 2012. Although for 2012, I will add Rossi achieved two second place finishes, and Nicky unfortunately suffered an injury at Indy and had to miss the Brno race as well.
Valentino Rossi 2011-2012 Racing Results | grandprixrankings.com
Nicky Hayden 2011-2012 Racing Results | grandprixrankings.com
