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How do you know it wasn't the other way around?
You presume an awful lot in this post.
Oh, and one other question. Who exactly should Rossi be looking out for ?
The children?
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In 5 seconds Ezzy could ensure Rossi, Cal, Dovi, Bradl, Hayden all get equal or factory spec satelight machinery, by investing in their own product. I know people get pissed off at the idea of subsidising and money going to the manufacturers but if it boosts the level to 12 equal spec factory machines on the grid I think it would be far better than watching just Rossi vs Lorenzo. Ezzy has his priorities all wrong.
For example NRL and AFL put serious money back into the clubs to make sure their product continues to improve and grow, while DORNA sit on their lazy ... and wait for Rossi to save them, yet again.
Dovi has been on factory kit, as had hayden for years. Cal can't beat dovi with a full extra season on the Yamaha. Rossi and Lorenzo will still beat them regardless, maybe not by as much.
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Maybe so, but it would be nice to know for sure who is the best rider rather than who has a works bike. And if it means we get a few different winners throughout the season and some much needed unpredictability in races rather than the usual Repsol Honda or factory Yamaha then it improves the spectacle for fans of all riders, not just Rossi fans without throwing out the cool bikes and replacing them with cheap SBK refugees.
Changing the single rubber supply reg will open up opportunities for other riders, teams and manufacturers to shine by playing to their strengths, whilst spending less IMO.
If Dorna spend more time and effort ensuring Honda and Spainish dollars influence on the regs is removed then we'll have a better series, and Rossi wouldn't be needed to 'save' it.
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This is true.
BG, you're right, a lot of assumptions but that is what this place is.
Quite honestly, my ..... is not really about Rossi, and I don't blame him for looking out for himself. I think it's wrong for him to try to take Philip Morris away from Ducati, but we are talking about business, and talking about sponsorship from a pretty evil empire, so all is fair, and good luck to him.
My ..... is that DORNA and others have allowed Rossi to call the shots to the extent he now does. OK, the guy is a 7 time world champ, and probably the greatest ever, but he has been a mid packer for the last two years, and he has the strength to walk up to Marlboro and say, he ditch Duc, and come with me on a Yamaha, Honda, whatever, and gets support from DORNA.
And you're right, maybe it was Marlboro that approached him.... who knows, but it doesn't show much loyalty to Ducati to even be having that discussion.
Ducati aren't building competative machinery, they haven't looked like competing for the title since 2008. Marlboro have persisted with them for years...... How long do they need to continue being associated with mid pack finishes? TBH Ducati have had a lot of chances, but have been hindered immensely by Honda influenced regs, eventually something had to give.
It will be interesting to see what happens now with Audi, and the response. What it does tend to highlight-if true of course, is the Masao was right. If Marlboro felt that Rossi was being a lazy prick and they just had to pop a younger rider on the POS then they may be happy to stay, but it seems they've have more faith in the feedback that hasnt been listened too....
I wonder how much influence Marlboro had in bringing Rossi to Ducati in 2011, and what expectations Marlboro had.
Ducati was definitely competitive in 2008 and 2009, and still won a lot of races in 2010. I am sure all would agree the Rossi project has been a complete disaster. Made Rossi (and JB) look bad, made Ducati look bad, and by association made Marlboro look bad.
You could suggest Marlboro persisted for 2010, 2011 and 2012, but I don't think they can complain too much about results in 2008 or 2009, and on their day when things were right, Ducati were definitely competitive in 2010. Maybe you're right and Marlboro has just lost patience in the Ducati project.
How many years is it since Marlboro sponsored Ferrari won the F1 world championship - coincidentally 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen. Malboro seem still interested in Ferrari !!
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Dorna/Bridgepoint are venture capitalists. Criticising them for trying to make as much money as possible is like criticising lions for hunting wildebeest. I blame FIM or whoever else sold off the sport leaving it to the combined judgement of venture capitalists and factory racing teams who are actually competitors, with neither party likely from the get go to have much of a commitment to the authenticity of any sporting contest involved.
I can't see why rossi shouldn't get his cut of anything on offer, and him having recurrent success for a year or two might well have a halo effect for the sport when he retires. He will still likely be at worst the second best rider out there next year, and still capable of offering a threat to the incumbent imo. I have no objections to a seat being procured for him as long as results are not contrived, which I don't think has ever happened or is likely to happen just yet.
It is actually possible that audi don't want to have any part of their corporation sullied by cigarette associations, with Europe the centre of anti-smoking sentiment and marlboro's existing sponsorship of ducati testing the fringes of legality there in any case. I am adamantly opposed to cigarette advertising but didn't call for stoner not to take the ducati seat when it was the only competitive ride open to him, so I won't be pointing fingers at valentino if marlboro yamaha does re-incarnate with him. Much as I hate cigarettes the cigarette sponsorship did result in some of the best paint jobs/best looking vehicles both in gp bike racing and F1. I somehow don't see marlboro man sponsoring young racing programs in any case if marlboro are not sponsoring valentino.
There definitely needs to be a new model though. Dorna can't develop a new rossi as I have said, he is/was a phenomenon and such phenomena cannot be cultivated. I would be very happy for gp bike racing to go back to a smaller scale thing with less money involved concentrating more on racing and run by actual bike guys. If someone like him comes along again, he should be employed to promote the sport but I hope we don't see the sport again be quite as much of a personality contest as it has been recently.
I can't see why rossi shouldn't get his cut of anything on offer, and him having recurrent success for a year or two might well have a halo effect for the sport when he retires. He will still likely be at worst the second best rider out there next year, and still capable of offering a threat to the incumbent imo. I have no objections to a seat being procured for him as long as results are not contrived, which I don't think has ever happened or is likely to happen just yet.
It is actually possible that audi don't want to have any part of their corporation sullied by cigarette associations, with Europe the centre of anti-smoking sentiment and marlboro's existing sponsorship of ducati testing the fringes of legality there in any case. I am adamantly opposed to cigarette advertising but didn't call for stoner not to take the ducati seat when it was the only competitive ride open to him, so I won't be pointing fingers at valentino if marlboro yamaha does re-incarnate with him. Much as I hate cigarettes the cigarette sponsorship did result in some of the best paint jobs/best looking vehicles both in gp bike racing and F1. I somehow don't see marlboro man sponsoring young racing programs in any case if marlboro are not sponsoring valentino.
There definitely needs to be a new model though. Dorna can't develop a new rossi as I have said, he is/was a phenomenon and such phenomena cannot be cultivated. I would be very happy for gp bike racing to go back to a smaller scale thing with less money involved concentrating more on racing and run by actual bike guys. If someone like him comes along again, he should be employed to promote the sport but I hope we don't see the sport again be quite as much of a personality contest as it has been recently.
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The reality is that Rossi ain't getting any younger. He doesn't have four or five more seasons to wait until Ducati makes a competitive bike.
As far as the .... all he's done; this just brings up the now well-dispelled myth of the value of any rider's development skills for the Genesis-like creation of a new bike for any of the big makers. Rossi's contribution at Honda and Yamaha were essentially his actual skills as a rider - upon which was tacked on, the myth of his enormous contribution to the building of a new bike. It bears repeating that rider after rider over the years have complained about the Intractability of company engineers and their arrogant insistence on depending on computer models designed by themselves or their predecessors and design concepts created by company group think whilst blaming deficiencies on the rider. That Yamaha gave so much credit to Rossi in the early days was just so much media puffery, and a way to stick their tongue out at Honda after stealing their star rider. But the Rossi Faithful read these puff piece media pieces and bought it wholesale and repeated it ad nauseum till it was accepted as gospel. There should be an episode about this on Myth Busters.
Goatboy
The Worlds Forgotten Boy
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Tinfoil hat for Kesh.
I was thinking of disabusing you of the idea that the earth is flat - but I don't think you're ready for that one yet. BTW - FYI - it's aluminium foil. Apparently the folks at Myth Busters will have to do an episode on you as well as you hang to on to the false belief that wearing a yellow Rossi wig will protect you from Ideas that are not already subscribed to by other frenzied fanbois.
