Valencia Tests.

Jumkie said:

Did anybody see this picture from Valencia. It made me do a double take.

11019:Val Grid Girl.png]

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povol said:

i saw a shadow of a straw, what did you see

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Jumkie said:

What straw?



I know this doesn't mean anything, but food for thought. The fastest race lap at Valencia GP was by Dani Pedrosa on a Repsol Honda 1m 32.914s. Today Casey Stoner lapped 1m 32.066s. Make of it what you will.





BTW, I hope the Faithful are not losing Faith.

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Tom said:

full combined times Here



I know it doesn't mean too much, but Rossi was barely faster than Abraham

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Tom said:

full combined times Here



I know it doesn't mean too much, but Rossi was barely faster than Abraham

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Tom said:

full combined times Here



I know it doesn't mean too much, but Rossi was barely faster than Abraham

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J4rn0 said:

Hmmm.

I think it means a lot. Nobody was expecting Rossi to be top 3, but this is too low. That can mean only one thing: Vale and the Ducati do not gel. They'll have to turn the bike upside down now, and certainly they have the potential to sort it out eventually, but it'll take time. They will not be competitive before the half of next season, so the title race in 2011 will be between Lorenzo and Stoner.

I had predicted Stoner fastest, btw, and I'll surely root for him next year

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J4rn0 said:

Hmmm.

I think it means a lot. Nobody was expecting Rossi to be top 3, but this is too low. That can mean only one thing: Vale and the Ducati do not gel. They'll have to turn the bike upside down now, and certainly they have the potential to sort it out eventually, but it'll take time. They will not be competitive before the half of next season, so the title race in 2011 will be between Lorenzo and Stoner.

I had predicted Stoner fastest, btw, and I'll surely root for him next year

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J4rn0 said:

Hmmm.

I think it means a lot. Nobody was expecting Rossi to be top 3, but this is too low. That can mean only one thing: Vale and the Ducati do not gel. They'll have to turn the bike upside down now, and certainly they have the potential to sort it out eventually, but it'll take time. They will not be competitive before the half of next season, so the title race in 2011 will be between Lorenzo and Stoner.

I had predicted Stoner fastest, btw, and I'll surely root for him next year

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J4rn0 said:

Hmmm.

I think it means a lot. Nobody was expecting Rossi to be top 3, but this is too low. That can mean only one thing: Vale and the Ducati do not gel. They'll have to turn the bike upside down now, and certainly they have the potential to sort it out eventually, but it'll take time. They will not be competitive before the half of next season, so the title race in 2011 will be between Lorenzo and Stoner.

I had predicted Stoner fastest, btw, and I'll surely root for him next year

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notabikerther4useless said:

Will you please cut that .... out right now? You're supposed to tell us that, "it's only testing" or, "he's sand-bagging, he's too smart to show his hand" or, "he was just doing engine comparisons" or even, "he's got surgery next week, so he's not risking anything...."



You are absolutely not supposed to suggest that he might have tried to go fast, even for just a few lap, y'know, to find the limit.



It's five months till the season starts - what the hell am I gonna do till then if I can't read the "discussions" on here?

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Jumkie said:

You are absolutely right bro!



Now here is some more speculation on my part.

It’s too bad we can take very little from this first test. I was thinking about this on my way to work and thought, man, these guys are given so little time to work out the machine issues. It reminds me of those ridiculous reality shows where they make the contestants do some stupid challenge that is very unrelated to their craft. I'm first impressed that they actually get anything done in such little time. Seriously, the manufactures come out with multimillion dollar variations and then say, here, tell us what you think, but do it quickly, you have 20 laps to decided, even though our engineering department just spend 6 months thinking about it. Oh, and while you are figuring out what best engine to use, try to pay attention to what the forks are doing, because we have three sets, and even though each has been created by the finest materials and engineers second only to Nasa, we want you to tell us the nuances of each. Try not to let the damp track and wind gust distract you.



Anyway, I'm still impressed by Stoner. Though as I said, these lap times are of little consequence. I'm just wildly speculating in comparison to the other Honda riders. Again, Honda seem to be rather secure in which way they are going and what they brought to the table, where as Ducati is in starting from scratch mode. I don't doubt come the last test of the season that you will see Rossi in the top three. BTW, Mr. Shupe, I know you were exaggerating, but Rossi is not 10x the rider of anybody, certainly not Nicky. Better, yes, but not even twice as good.

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Talpa said:

No Excuses here, Rossi's WAY too slow, whatever the reasons its not looking too good at present.



I do not doubt they will sort it, but to what degree........and Valencia is not happy hunting ground for Rossi.



I did like like the comments from Flipio on how calm VR was even at the bottom of the timesheets, interesting POV no doubt aimed at the former employee. And if Preziloslyiliy is happy then there's obviously more to the story.

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FILIPPO PREZIOSI, Direttore Generale Ducati Corse:



We would obviously have liked to give him the opportunity to go faster today but even though that wasn't the case he has impressed everybody over the last two days with the way he works, his calm approach and his positive attitude towards everything.

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Keshav said:

Have I missed something? I haven't seen any statement indicating Ducati's 2011 bike will be a more substantial departure from the previous years as compared to Honda. I actually understood the 2011 bike would be relatively unchanged from 2010 and that all the real R&D time and money was focused on the 2012 bike.

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Jumkie said:

No, you haven't missed anything bro. I'm just projecting. I'm thinking they are gonna scrap alot of .... and start from scratch. Regardless that nobody wants to admit the white red elephant in the room, that Duc even in its present evolution would have been top 5 with Casey onboard right now. I'm thinking they will build a Ducamaha from the schematics Burgess stole. And rest assured they will accomplish the mission of creating a winning bike, their reputation hinges on it. That's the risk you take went you have the "greatest" rider in the world. If he doesn't win straight away, what does that say of the brand to the casual spectator? We've already gone over this before, but had you taken Stoner out of the equation the last few years, Ducati would look on par with the Suzukis. Stoner was so good that he masked many of the bikes glaring problems. There is no way anybody is gonna convince me that if Rossi could run fast laps straight away that he would have been impeded to do so. Ducati have real passion for racing and will build a rocket ship with the help of Nasa if need be.

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