Rossi to Yamaha?

It is no secret Valentino Rossi has 2 options available: 1. stay in Ducati and hope Audi's cash injection can help tame the beast, or 2. go back to Yamaha and what he knows is a great bike but perhaps not the most attractive team mate.

Option 1 sounds good but Rossi has been with Ducati for nearly 2 years now and they have thrown the kitchen sink, in terms of human resources and cash at trying to win an all Italian World title. They have failed miserably to  give VR46 the bike he needs to be competitive. Throngs of cash will help but unlikely in the short term, and Vale's career only exists in the short term. He will have to move Filippo Preziosi sideways because this is the man who's technical vision has failed Ducati. The time required is not there to spend another year developing with Ducati. And Valentino's body wont enjoy another season of crashes. Bottom line losing hurts, crashing allot hurts, going from 1st to 10th hurts.

Option 2 back to Yamaha means admitting failure on Ducati and having to square up directly to a red hot Lorenzo, no excuses. 


In option 1 Rossi will escape any culpability for failure with the old Ducati are rubbish line, but in option 2 he will have to answer the critics or admit he is not what he used to be.


Money is not a factor for Valentino Rossi he has more cash than he can ever spend and both factories will pay him ridiculous amounts to ride for them.

The decision is simple and the decision is made, Rossi is a winner and he will answer the critics. Game on Jorge. Expect announcement at Indy.

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The American Nightmare

The balls of Ducati to have said they are not in a position to offer Nicky Hayden a new contract till the Audi deal is complete is astounding. They have already offered Cal Crutchlow a ride and are keen to keep the services of Rossi for 2013, in addition AMG have been removed as sponsor from all Ducati team clothing. So, Audi deal is probably not an issue anymore. I can't help but feel sorry for the kentucky kid he has stuck with the Ducati and nearly made it work ( for a few laps anyway ). He has performed better than the doctor at a large number of races in the past two seasons. But now seems likely to be left out in the cold just when they may (big may) turn a corner with the desmosedici.

Of course every teams wants Rossi , winning or losing he is the most popular rider of all time. The sponsorship meetings must be a little easier with VR in the stable. But will he stay? The next 3 weeks may be more interesting for what happens off the track than on it.

With Spies on tenterhooks at Yamaha, where is the love for the yanks?

My guess BMW or Suzuki.

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Wet Silverstone could confirm Rossi Ducati exit

                                                        Honda's VR46 NSR500 from 2001 

Its contract time in MotoGP and if Valentino Rossi is to exit ducati this year he will want to leave with at least a single victory for the Bologna factory. If it rains tomorrow at Silverstone it will be Rossi best chance of this elusive win.  He was indeed fastest in Friday wet practice with Nicky Hayden second.
Surely a win here would make his decision to leave Ducati all the more easy.

Where will Rossi go?
Lorenzo rather wryly stated he would welcome Rossi back to yamaha. A delighted Lorenzos new 2 year contract no doubt enhanced by Stoners early bath. Ben Spies will be unlikely to retain the Yamaha ride regardless of a Rossi move. Honda will be without Stoner, but most likely the rookie rule will be rescinded by Carmelo to allow golden boy Marc Marquez to step up to the honda factory team. But Pedrosa's ride is not guaranteed. He has been an 'alien' for many years but seems unlikely to win a championship for HRC.

Would Rossi take Honda back?
Rossi previously described HRC as  on a human level"cold, ice-cold". He has never forgiven them for reneging on a promise to let him keep the NSR500 he won the 2001 title on. HRC also reneged on a promise to allow his Dad Graziano to drive a test on the NSR in 2001. The way Valentino orchestrated a move to Yamaha with secret meetings in Ibiza and late night paddock meetings. The list goes on, but there is serious bad blood here and its unlikely in his final years Valentino would go cap in hand to HRC. And equally unlikely HRC would be knocking on his motor home.


The Ducati experiment has failed and the italian dream VR winning a championship on a Ducati will not happen, a single victory in the rain is possible and its the best they can hope for.  In Valentinos crew chiefs Jerry Burgess last year in MotoGP expect JB to be on the podium alongside Vale (weather permitting).

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Myths & Legends & Lorenzo King in Qatar

Jorge Lorenzo stormed the opening race of the 2012 season with a victory from the Honda's Dani Pedrosa & World Champion Casey Stoner. Stoner had led by over 2 seconds but in the final quarter of the race dropped back and was overtaken by both Lorenzo & Pedrosa with ease.

Stoner put his late race pace drop off down to an arm pump issue. I am not so sure, he has been highly critical of his team, and the bikes chatter issue this weekend, particularly when the tires begin to wear. These issues seem to to have been (magically) replaced by arm pump on race day. This smacks of a Casey coverup, he is saying to Honda I can win and will once you sort my chatter issue, and by the way I'll take the hit for this one with my 'arm pump' - lol. Probably feeling a bit remorse over his public slating of his team on Saturday night. I'll even throw in a dead arm can't lift trophy performance that the academy would surely consider oscar worthy.

Crutchlow had a good race with job rival Dovizioso losing out in there first head to head. Cal also thought he could have competed for podium if his legs were a bit longer. The spacer put in-between the tank and rider, meant he couldn't touch the ground properly at start.

Rossi had a nightmare. Its now official; he hates the Ducati. 'I can't win on this bike.' It doesn't get more explicit than that. He got pushed off track by Barbera and considered parking up, only out of respect for his engineers whom he wanted to gather more data for, did he continue. He looks a broken man, the fight is clearly draining from the 9 times world champion. His team boss Jerry Burgess is quoted as saying he (Rossi) may not be capable of fighting with Casey or Lorenzo anymore. This is complete rubbish, if he thought that they would all go home. This in my opinion is a clear kick up the arse for Rossi from the veteran crew chief, stop moping- yeah the bikes a bucking bronco, but Hayden can ride it, Stoner rode it. And most importantly this GP12 took 4 months, 25 engineers working round the clock to design and build, there is no other bike, there is no other team. So, ride or quit Vale!

Moto2 is going to be spectacular this year, Iannone is a nut job (Simoncelli style), Marquez is ridiculously talented and Luthi is fiery character. Add to this the fact that all of the other 29 riders are within 6 seconds of the front.

When Stoner has fixed his chatter ( I mean arm pump) and is in the shower 10 minutes before the 2nd place rider in MotoGP, I will be looking to Moto 2 for the real racing.

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Stoner Unhappy as Lorenzo reigns in Qatar Qualifying

A beaming Jorge Lorenzo took the pole position for the season opener in Qatar from the World Champion Casey Stoner in a dramatic qualifying session. But as is usually the case the grid doesn't tell the story of what happened under the lights in Qatar.

Casey Stoner lambasted his crew for not understanding the problems he is having with chatter, the 26 year old publicly stated that the crew don't appreciate the difficulty he is having with this problem. He said he has no chance of competing with the bike in the current state, and nobody is realizing how big the issue is, Honda are saying you are fast anyway, whats the problem? But there is a massive problem.

Contrast this with Jorge Lorenzo who in an effort to find something he doesn't like about the new 1000cc Yamaha could barely muster that the straight line speed could be better. (its a MotoGP bike, it can always go faster)

The unknown for the curtain opener is the tires, they heat up quicker - fantastic, will they last the race - nobody knows. Nicky Hayden has said the Ducati is unrideable when the tires degrade heavily. This must be music to Valentino Rossi' ears (not!), who had a nightmare session. The rumors of sandbagging in pre season testing and warm ups we're rubbished as he ended up last of the factory riders on the grid. Valentino is laughing his head off, in a if you don't laugh you'll cry attitude. His manager Davide Brivio has more or less said his patience is wearing thin with Ducati and they have till mid season to give him a winning bike or the midnight meetings may begin.

Happy Yamahas, angrys Hondas, frustrated Ducatis, new riders, new teams, new tires, CRTs - GP 2012 is on.

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Are Bridgestone Tyred?

Rossi In conversation with Kevin Schwantz post Simoncelli funeral, and detailed in this post : http://superbikeplanet.com/2011/Nov/111123x34x34.htm Quoting Scwantz :Valentino stared me straight in the face and said, "Those tires, they scare me."

Rossi clearly also questions bridgestone saying that the same tyre was supplied for Malaysia 2011 as in 2010. All of the riders ran soft tires in 2011 except Simoncelli, in 2010 most riders ran hard tyres despite the same weather, track conditions etc.

Dennis Noyes (all round motogp legend) recently tweeted "Bridgestone needs to change their philosophy. It is more important to have tires that warm up quickly even if they fade in the final laps."

The point surely is if Bridgestone can't supply tyres that get enough heat to give riders confidence in the sighting lap and perform race distance then things seriously need a shakeup.

You have ask are they getting complacent with no competition from another tyre manufacturer in the paddock. Can dorna get another manufacturer to compete? Could Michelin compete (there last year in Motogp 2008 wasn't great)?
Should they have be given sole provider status for 3 years as they were in 2008?

In my opinion competition will eliminate complacency, tyres connect bikes to tarmac, there is no room for complacency.

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CRT - Whats it all about?

CRT - Claiming Rules Team as its now known or Contructors Racing Team as it will/should be known. The action to get more teams in GP without having the megabucks that the factories throw at GP, and so now for the cost of Valentino Rossi's earplugs anyone can enter as a CRT team. That is as long as you are not connected with a factory or are backed by anyone who is associated with a factory. Infact what makes you a CRT team is so ambiguous and open to interupration that no one really knows what qualifies you for CRT status, more correctly we know

what will definetly exclude you from CRT status.

CRT bikes will be allowed more fuel and more engines: while factory bikes will have 21 litres of fuel and 6 engines in 2012, the CRT bikes get 24 litres per race, and 12 engines for the season.

Well thats unfair, so the factories (honda, yamaha, ducati) can claim an engine from a CRT garage. For €20k they get the engine and gearbox . Cheap for a GP bikes bits but reality is that no self respecting factory would be caught dead buying an engine from the CRT garages.

So, if you want to enter as a CRT dont work in, or invest in, or be associated with a factory.

Is CRT a good idea? Yes, 11 bikes confirmed for 2012 to add to the 12 factory bikes. Mores bikes = More fun, just dont call them Claiming Rule Teams or Cathode Ray Tubes.

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