MOTOGP 2103 Rossi IS BACK!

And that is the problem with Motogp.. Too predictable.. not as exciting as use to be.. and that is why I enjoy watching superbike more..

The thing is that MotoGp is a whole new skill level above Superbike. The fact that Ben did not feature shows how much higher the standard is.
 
The thing is that MotoGp is a whole new skill level above Superbike. The fact that Ben did not feature shows how much higher the standard is.


Don't forget the fact that Ben is a GIANT compared to those little jockeys over there... :poke:
 
Don't forget the fact that Ben is a GIANT compared to those little jockeys over there... :poke:

In weight he is not too far off Rossi, about 8lbs. It does not matter though, it just means that a win in Superbike is a lot easier than a win in MotoGp.
 
MotoGP does not actually require more talent, it requires a special, limited focus type of talent. In WSB, there are any number of ways to ride the bikes and still be successful on a given track. In GP, there is basically one way to ride and a very small package for the rider. So you need someone who can lap the track at maximum speed and never make a mistake (not just not falling, but hit specific spots each lap too) and is a certain size and weight. That means guys like Ben and Crutchlow (who I love to watch race) are at a huge disadvantage because they are never going to be able to compete equally with a Stoney, Pedrosi, Rossi or Lorenzo's size. So even though they have the skill and heart of a champion, it just isn't likely to happen in GP unless a lot changes.

Same goes for the bikes. The Honda was basically running away the best 800. They change to 1000 and the chattering comes back and they have to redesign the entire bike to get it back to the M1. In many ways the M1 is the best GP bike in a long time. It's only been the very best for a couple years but it's never been the worse bike since Rossi got it working. It seems to be fixable all the time where other better bikes like the Honda have just hit spots where they don't work. Unfortunately I think the Honda is fixed and the chances for Rossi and Lorenzo lie in the fact that Dani seems fall victim to the nerves.

I would love to see a brawl of a season where every race is a crash up derby and you never know who will win (as long as no one gets hurt of course). I think Rossi has a good chance to win if that happens. On the other hand I wouldn't mind seeing an all out super alien duel for the last half of the season between Lorenzo and Dani.
 
In weight he is not too far off Rossi, about 8lbs. It does not matter though, it just means that a win in Superbike is a lot easier than a win in MotoGp.


Like Willie just pointed out, its not all about weight...
 
Don't forget the fact that Ben is a GIANT compared to those little jockeys over there... :poke:

I think he squadered his opportunity at Factory Yamaha and Yamaha didn't help him at all. Even if he weighed 240 lbs he should have finished more races. Frankly - I think he was simple unaccustom to not being the best rider on the track. Instead of trying to match Jorge, Casey and Dani right out of the box - he should have mastered his bike and waited for racing opportunites to the podium. Weighing a bit more doesn't help but it doesn't hurt that much. In 2012 he probably qualified on average in 5 position and sadly finished in tenth position or lower 5 times and DNF or DNS 7 times. Twelve inexplicable horrible results out of 18. The six other races he finished - he averaged about a 4th or 5th place. Off the poduim, but in line with his qualifying results. I think if Yamaha established a less pressured plan/path for Ben, he woiuld have crashed less and I think he would have been I the mix during the 2012 season. A top racer needs to believe in himself and crashing saps that confidence. I believe the one win in 2011 put him on a disasterous path trying to challenge riders who were significantly better and more expirenced at the MotoGP level. I think if his goal was to finish no worse than 6th position he wouild have found himsefl on the poduim 6 times in 2012 and maybe would have gotten a win. I simply think racing above his head (racing to win before he was ready) led to mistakes that crushed him.

Maybe Ducati understands this, and will re-develop a rider with confidence and appropriate expirence to challange the very best. Question is - will Ducati's machine be up to the task.

I think Ben is getting close to thirty and his best racing years are waning quickly. I like routing for US riders and I hope Ben can find his footing in MotoGP and excel.
 
Rossi is "MotoGP" in Europe. Stoner never did much if anything to increase the fan base for MotoGP. I just read an article a few days back about how the fan attendance dropped dramatically when Rossi was hurt and couldn't race for the second half of the year.

In short, stoner can't pack Rossi's jock strap. I'm sure it ate at Stoner that Rossi made more money running mid-pack and got ten times the fan attention. Stoner learned how to ride traction control very well but before traction control became effective Stoner wasn't called "Crash" for no reason.

I have not researched this but I have heard scuttle butt that Rossi's times on the duc was better than Stoner's. It was the fact that Honda and Yamaha advanced in technology while ducati got caught with issues they couldn't fix in order to advance and fell behind. I have noticed that it seemed every other race either Stoner, Padrosa or Lorenzo was setting a new track record so it makes me believe there is something to the story.

Don't let these test & tune rides currently going on affect your clear thinking on who may lead the pack on race day. The cream only comes to the top on race day!

If Rossi has a competitive machine he will always run with the guys up front. If he doesn't, it's time to retire.
 
Your are right Tuff. I said all along that the year Stoner won on the Ducati it was still the best bike on the track due to it's corner exits and the fact that ducati was slick enough to build a strong engine and then cut the fuel usage when the bike was leaned over when everyone else de-tuned the engine to save fuel. Stoner won more races and poddiums than Rossi on a Ducati but he didn't ride the Desmo faster than Rossi.

Stoner grew up poor and he and his racing was everything. But he always had a problem sharing that with the fans. What Stoner is going to find out is that he was hurting MotoGP, not helping it and he will be a foot note in the record books in a year. Rossi gets it, the sport is bigger than anyone playing in it no matter how good they are and the sport is the fans.
 
Rossi is "MotoGP" in Europe. Stoner never did much if anything to increase the fan base for MotoGP. I just read an article a few days back about how the fan attendance dropped dramatically when Rossi was hurt and couldn't race for the second half of the year.

In short, stoner can't pack Rossi's jock strap. I'm sure it ate at Stoner that Rossi made more money running mid-pack and got ten times the fan attention. Stoner learned how to ride traction control very well but before traction control became effective Stoner wasn't called "Crash" for no reason.

I have not researched this but I have heard scuttle butt that Rossi's times on the duc was better than Stoner's. It was the fact that Honda and Yamaha advanced in technology while ducati got caught with issues they couldn't fix in order to advance and fell behind. I have noticed that it seemed every other race either Stoner, Padrosa or Lorenzo was setting a new track record so it makes me believe there is something to the story.

Don't let these test & tune rides currently going on affect your clear thinking on who may lead the pack on race day. The cream only comes to the top on race day!

If Rossi has a competitive machine he will always run with the guys up front. If he doesn't, it's time to retire.

Rossi's the Greastest! You're preaching to the Choir.

Stoner's 2011 season was one for the record books.

And if nothing else, he'll be remebered for one thing in MotoGP - Quiting healthy at the top of his game.
 
I think he squadered his opportunity at Factory Yamaha and Yamaha didn't help him at all. Even if he weighed 240 lbs he should have finished more races. Frankly - I think he was simple unaccustom to not being the best rider on the track. Instead of trying to match Jorge, Casey and Dani right out of the box - he should have mastered his bike and waited for racing opportunites to the podium. Weighing a bit more doesn't help but it doesn't hurt that much. In 2012 he probably qualified on average in 5 position and sadly finished in tenth position or lower 5 times and DNF or DNS 7 times. Twelve inexplicable horrible results out of 18. The six other races he finished - he averaged about a 4th or 5th place. Off the poduim, but in line with his qualifying results. I think if Yamaha established a less pressured plan/path for Ben, he woiuld have crashed less and I think he would have been I the mix during the 2012 season. A top racer needs to believe in himself and crashing saps that confidence. I believe the one win in 2011 put him on a disasterous path trying to challenge riders who were significantly better and more expirenced at the MotoGP level. I think if his goal was to finish no worse than 6th position he wouild have found himsefl on the poduim 6 times in 2012 and maybe would have gotten a win. I simply think racing above his head (racing to win before he was ready) led to mistakes that crushed him.

Maybe Ducati understands this, and will re-develop a rider with confidence and appropriate expirence to challange the very best. Question is - will Ducati's machine be up to the task.

I think Ben is getting close to thirty and his best racing years are waning quickly. I like routing for US riders and I hope Ben can find his footing in MotoGP and excel.

Lotta strange things went on with Ben on the factory Yamaha team. A broken swingarm at Laguna while in 4th place. A BROKEN SWINGARM on a multi million $$ factory prototype bike? WTF? Then the brake problem at Motegi. Read reports that his brake rotors were at 1000 degrees by the second lap. Motegi is hard on brakes, but a lot of others were going faster and braking harder (including Lorenzo) with no problems through the whole race. Another WTF? Huge motor explosion at Indy, along with another mechanical DNF at Qatar, bad tire at Assen. Injuries, illnesses, and the business about him racing while puking sick at Mugello, finishing in the points, and the Yamaha exec telling him that he wasn't trying hard enough and to not even show up at the next race if he wasn't "100%". I doubt that he would have been a challenger for the front of the championship at best, but there was a lot of funky stuff coming down there.
 
Lotta strange things went on with Ben on the factory Yamaha team. A broken swingarm at Laguna while in 4th place. A BROKEN SWINGARM on a multi million $$ factory prototype bike? WTF? Then the brake problem at Motegi. Read reports that his brake rotors were at 1000 degrees by the second lap. Motegi is hard on brakes, but a lot of others were going faster and braking harder (including Lorenzo) with no problems through the whole race. Another WTF? Huge motor explosion at Indy, along with another mechanical DNF at Qatar, bad tire at Assen. Injuries, illnesses, and the business about him racing while puking sick at Mugello, finishing in the points, and the Yamaha exec telling him that he wasn't trying hard enough and to not even show up at the next race if he wasn't "100%". I doubt that he would have been a challenger for the front of the championship at best, but there was a lot of funky stuff coming down there.

+1 on that 100% comment (if it's true) that's why I think Yamaha didn't do right by him and maybe Ducati can turn that around for him. They had Jorge so a great racing champion became Yamaha's whipping boy...
 
I still sort of think Yamaha wanted to get Ben out of there to make room for Rossi. Now you could say that they didn't have to do anything to Ben to get rid of him but I think he had more time on his contract and they wanted him out of the way. Whatever, he's a cool dude and i wish him the best.
 
I still sort of think Yamaha wanted to get Ben out of there to make room for Rossi. Now you could say that they didn't have to do anything to Ben to get rid of him but I think he had more time on his contract and they wanted him out of the way. Whatever, he's a cool dude and i wish him the best.



i agree.. specially with all the technical problems he had last year..
 
I still sort of think Yamaha wanted to get Ben out of there to make room for Rossi. Now you could say that they didn't have to do anything to Ben to get rid of him but I think he had more time on his contract and they wanted him out of the way. Whatever, he's a cool dude and i wish him the best.

Agree - Rossi wants a bike he can win on... It's said he left Yamaha because of Corporate Politics. I guess if it's a choice between the corporate BS or a winning bke - the bike wins.

I think Yamaha and Rossi probably wanted to reunite about halfway through the next season, neither Yamaha or Rossi benefitted from the split.
 
I wish Spies well...but he is at a little of a disadvantage over the other small riders. Have you ever seen him TOWER over Dani?
 
Ben is a big guy as far as the average MotoGP rider goes, but so is Rossi (5'10") and as was Marco Simoncelli (5'11"). Think given a competitive bike in a calm focused team atmosphere, he would do much better. Sadly he will probably find neither at Pramac, better known as, "the place where careers go to die".
Speaking of size, I read a tech article about aerodynamics on a MotoGP bike, back when Ben was at Tech 3 and they were working with him in the wind tunnel. It was said that even having a foot out of position in the tuck, could cost 2mph down a long straight like at Catalunya and Mugello.
 
Rossi will be in the hunt again this year, and I'll bet he's on the podium within the first three races. I also think that Ducati will be back (go Nicky!), with Audi putting their racing knowledge and resources behind them. Look for Ducati within the first five races to finish in the top five.
 
Rossi will be in the hunt again this year, and I'll bet he's on the podium within the first three races. I also think that Ducati will be back (go Nicky!), with Audi putting their racing knowledge and resources behind them. Look for Ducati within the first five races to finish in the top five.

They're going to have to get their shid on the move then. Last test they were over 2 seconds down on Pedrosa, and Nicky wasn't sounding too happy with the package in general.
 
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