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Whatever helps you sleep Dovi

He keeps talking about consistency but I think it’s much easier to be consistent when you’re not pushing for wins. This year it seemed to my uneducated eye that a few of the crashes were a result of expectation and pushing for the win. Rossi is mr consisntent but he pushed for two wins this year and crashed twice.
 
I dunno. My take-away from this is:

“This year it was missing because we did not have things in place at the start of the year and we made some mistakes, which made us finish very far behind in the championship.

Seems pretty straight forward to me. They'd had such a strong finish the year before it's not hard to see that they could have been a bit overconfident and made mistakes.
 
Keshav said:
I dunno. My take-away from this is:

“This year it was missing because we did not have things in place at the start of the year and we made some mistakes, which made us finish very far behind in the championship.

Seems pretty straight forward to me. They'd had such a strong finish the year before it's not hard to see that they could have been a bit overconfident and made mistakes.
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The mistakes were him crashing out of races on a bike that was running up front in podium contention, some his fault, some not. Had nothing to do with the bike. He choked under the pressure of being on the best bike.
 
I agree with Povol. He crashed out of Le Mans 2 corners after taking the lead, and Spain can only be described as an unforced error.

I'll be open and say I'm not a Dovi fan. For too much in his career he has only passed people with a faster bike. I remember Qatar in 2010 I think it was when he sat behind Hayden for the entire race, then used the Honda power to overtake him coming out of the last corner. Even in 2017 he only ever scrapped with Marquez when he had a straightline advantage.

The 2 championship showdowns he has had he folded like a deck of cards. All MotoGP riders are heroes, but he isn't in the league of Marquez or Lorenzo.
 
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#22 said:
I agree with Povol. He crashed out of Le Mans 2 corners after taking the lead, and Spain can only be described as an unforced error.

I'll be open and say I'm not a Dovi fan. For too much in his career he has only passed people with a faster bike. I remember Qatar in 2010 I think it was when he sat behind Hayden for the entire race, then used the Honda power to overtake him coming out of the last corner. Even in 2017 he only ever scrapped with Marquez when he had a straightline advantage.

The 2 championship showdowns he has had he folded like a deck of cards. All MotoGP riders are heroes, but he isn't in the league of Marquez or Lorenzo.
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No - not true re: straight line advantage. He may have ridden that way to get to the front in races where he didn't quail well, but that only makes sense; best way to save tires till later in the race. Watch the last few races of the last two seasons. There was plenty of repeated take and re-take between him and Marquez, especially at Motegi in the rain: that was nuts.

Personally - I don't think falling is the same as "choking". Errors happen.

As to the faster bike thing, I've yet to see Marquez dominate a race on an inferior bike.
 
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Keshav said:
.......
As to the faster bike thing, I've yet to see Marquez dominate a race on an inferior bike.
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Oh, I am pretty sure you have seen him win on inferior equipment. Ya ain't too old to forget 2015, are you? :p

I am not sure why we are picking on Dovi. JLo made similar "excuses" for Ducati not doing better. He admits, however, that the Duc could be unbeatable because of it's performance advantages. Maybe Dovi needs a new tank, too. :spin:

Does anyone remember what year Andrea D. bought his own brakes at Honda? I can't remember the year, and the internet is getting useless to find anything over two years old, anymore.
 
You mean the full factory Repsol Honda on which he crashed six times due to sheer recklessness. Yeah... I remember.
 
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Iamapony said:
Oh, I am pretty sure you have seen him win on inferior equipment. Ya ain't too old to forget 2015, are you? :p

More like 2017

I am not sure why we are picking on Dovi. JLo made similar "excuses" for Ducati not doing better. He admits, however, that the Duc could be unbeatable because of it's performance advantages. Maybe Dovi needs a new tank, too. :spin:

Does anyone remember what year Andrea D. bought his own brakes at Honda? I can't remember the year, and the internet is getting useless to find anything over two years old, anymore.


That was when he was at tech3, he bought the brakes
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fixed:)
 
Dovi is awesome. Leave him alone. He and I will be good friends one day. We will talk about racing and he will teach me how to ride really really fast. I have it all planned.
 
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Keshav said:
No - not true re: straight line advantage. He may have ridden that way to get to the front in races where he didn't quail well, but that only makes sense; best way to save tires till later in the race. Watch the last few races of the last two seasons. There was plenty of repeated take and re-take between him and Marquez, especially at Motegi in the rain: that was nuts.

Personally - I don't think falling is the same as "choking". Errors happen.

As to the faster bike thing, I've yet to see Marquez dominate a race on an inferior bike.
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Nice to have sensible debates again, I've missed that. You make a good point regarding the straightline advantage but I still stand by my point. He isn't a fighter like Marquez. Look at Austria 2017. Most people would have mortgaged their house on Dovi running away with that, and Marquez frankly put his Honda in a position it shouldn't have been. I've yet to see Dovi able to demonstrate pushing to that level. Sure, as you say, he rides around the tyres but he has 0 championships in GP and Marquez has 5, the numbers don't lie.

Look at Austria 2018 too. When it came down to a tooth and nail fight it was the Ducati of Lorenzo, not Dovi, who took it to Marquez. What happened to Dovi? Again he outbraked himself and choked/made an error in turn 1. He has made too many mistakes under pressure imo. I'm not saying he isn't a great rider, they all are. But as I say he isn't in the league of riders like JL and MM.

I suppose as Iamapony said, 2015 is the best example of Marquez on an 'inferior' bike of which there are races he dominated, but the Dalligna Ducati's are hardly Aprilia's are they? Even the early ones.
 
#22 said:
Nice to have sensible debates again, I've missed that. You make a good point regarding the straightline advantage but I still stand by my point. He isn't a fighter like Marquez. Look at Austria 2017. Most people would have mortgaged their house on Dovi running away with that, and Marquez frankly put his Honda in a position it shouldn't have been. I've yet to see Dovi able to demonstrate pushing to that level. Sure, as you say, he rides around the tyres but he has 0 championships in GP and Marquez has 5, the numbers don't lie.

Look at Austria 2018 too. When it came down to a tooth and nail fight it was the Ducati of Lorenzo, not Dovi, who took it to Marquez. What happened to Dovi? Again he outbraked himself and choked/made an error in turn 1. He has made too many mistakes under pressure imo. I'm not saying he isn't a great rider, they all are. But as I say he isn't in the league of riders like JL and MM.

I suppose as Iamapony said, 2015 is the best example of Marquez on an 'inferior' bike of which there are races he dominated, but the Dalligna Ducati's are hardly Aprilia's are they? Even the early ones.
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I agree that Dovi seems to lack that extra strand of DNA that separates great riders from greatest riders. MM, Lorenzo and Rossi have it. Dovi, much as I like him seems destined to be the bridesmaid. Still as bridesmaids go, he’s one of the more admirable ones. Beating Marquez more times than any other rider over the last three seasons is nothing to sneeze at.
 
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Keshav said:
No - not true re: straight line advantage. He may have ridden that way to get to the front in races where he didn't quail well, but that only makes sense; best way to save tires till later in the race. Watch the last few races of the last two seasons. There was plenty of repeated take and re-take between him and Marquez, especially at Motegi in the rain: that was nuts.

Personally - I don't think falling is the same as "choking". Errors happen.

As to the faster bike thing, I've yet to see Marquez dominate a race on an inferior bike.
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He dominated the 2016 and 2018 season on an inferior bike. In 16 Yamaha was better and 18 the Ducati was better.
 
There's no shame in not being as good as Marc Marquez. He's, after all, one of the best ever. Dovi rides the Duke very, very well.
 
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povol said:
He dominated the 2016 and 2018 season on an inferior bike. In 16 Yamaha was better and 18 the Ducati was better.
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Now we're getting into semantics and hair-splitting. Reasonable minded people will I think agree that in those seasons the Yamaha and Ducati had measurable advantages in either set-up/handling or top speed but to call the Repsol bikes "inferior" is slipping into hyperbole territory. The KTM and Aprilias would be sufficient a downgrade as to be called inferior.
 
Keshav said:
Now we're getting into semantics and hair-splitting. Reasonable minded people will I think agree that in those seasons the Yamaha and Ducati had measurable advantages in either set-up/handling or top speed but to call the Repsol bikes "inferior" is slipping into hyperbole territory. The KTM and Aprilias would be sufficient a downgrade as to be called inferior.
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By definition, the Honda was inferior . never did I say it was grossly inferior, or that the Ducati was outlandishly superior,but nonetheless the Ducati was the better bike and the championship was a rout. It simply cracks me up that he wants to share the blame with his team for his mistakes.
 
RCV600RR said:
There's no shame in not being as good as Marc Marquez. He's, after all, one of the best ever. Dovi rides the Duke very, very well.
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Well said. He does extract the strengths of it very well. In a way I'd have liked to see what Lorenzo could have done with it this season.

povol said:
By definition, the Honda was inferior . never did I say it was grossly inferior, or that the Ducati was outlandishly superior,but nonetheless the Ducati was the better bike and the championship was a rout. It simply cracks me up that he wants to share the blame with his team for his mistakes.
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He was too engrossed in his contract negotiations early in the year and took his eye off the ball. With a rival like Marquez you cannot do that.
 

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