Ducati Monster Forum

http://motomatters.com/news/2011/10/28/motogp_testing_limits_to_be_abolished_fo.html (http://motomatters.com/news/2011/10/28/motogp_testing_limits_to_be_abolished_fo.html)

Where's the damn Like button?

this is def a good thing... didnt really understand the old rule at all.

tire limits are great because there is still a cap to testing so honda cant just smash people with their wallets but at least rossi wont have to basically use each race as testing time anymore.

It's about time they scraped that stupid rule. Glad to hear it. [thumbsup] [popcorn]

Hoorays!

Now maybe the Ducati riders will get enough seat time to figure out how to ride it.

...or to figure out that they all need to get Hondas ???

Hiope this gets approved.

This definitely looks like the goal post are being move for Ducati/Rossi

Thats what I reckon.
Rossi enjoyed special Michelins, cooked that night.
Remember the Bridgestone move/tantrum with Yamaha?
Alloy frame with Ducati? You got it. Motor change? No probs. We'll move heaven and earth for you.


For Stoner with Ducati, just ride it we know best , Melandri, et al are all wrong.
No wonder he's smirkin' now.

Interesting quote from the article:

personally, it doesnt matter to me how it happens, i just want more competition on the grid.

also, it just doesnt make sense to not let the riders train on their bike, it never did.  and every rider and every company will benefit from this... in fact, even honda (who has the most to lose if the other teams get better due to increased testing time) supports this shows that it's not just a rossi thing.

 The new rule will suit the bigger $$ players like Honda even more. The old/current rule punishes a factory that doesnt get it right or in the ball park by the start of the season. That could happen to even a large factory.

Either way, Honda and Yamaha still have the advantage, another reason why I like barracking for a small factory like Ducati.

Stoner whined in public and looked bad, Rossi on the other hand being a clever political operator, whined amidst the back room lobbying to get his way. The guy is smart and worthy of Italian politics. Italians grow up learning to deal with red tape and  beauracracy.

As far as individual riders have influence, Rossi is Honda imo. Thats whats making me go off him.

I'm with you koko

and that does't help the small guys, too? who do you think is building their bikes? oh yeah, the factories!

the rule was stupid to begin with.

it's both a safety issue and it impacts "the show".

The testing ban was unsuccessful for q few reasons, not least of which is that if you designed a better bike in the off-season, you enjoyed an advantage over your rivals fir at least an entire season of racing. It's the same with the current rules in F1. This hurts the sport in general, not just specific teams.

The new proposed change should work very well. If you design a bike with an advantage, great you've got a leg up. If your bike misses the mark, you have more opportunity to make changes and revisions to it. Until you run out if tires... And everyone gets the same amount of tires.... So that's fair in my book.

Seeing as how this change has unanimous support from all teams, I don't think it's favoring one over the other any more than the current rules are (because of course some teams have MUCH larger racing outfits with much more budget... But that's life and that's how it's always been). 

so did the other michelin riders.


i also remember the impact the thursday rule had on michelin. 


he's a NINE TIME world champion and the bike doesn't work.  of course they're going to change things for him.

Not everyone got the special tyres.
Removing the Thursday rule removed an advantage of one tyre manufacturer over another and therefore the advantage of certain teams when races were in Europe. Run what you brung, rather than build a tyre overnight.
Ducati failed to listen to the guy who won on their bike, and the only one who has ever won on the 800. Ducati didn't listen to others.
Rossi is the GOAT but also the best PR/political operator who will get every technical advantage he can (as all the riders would).
It would be messing with his head that he cant ride around the Ducati's issues like Stoner could and he needs a technical solution. This would be very hard for a nine times world champion to take.
My hope is that the challenge extends his career so he can deal with unfinished business with the Ducati.

I believe this is also for the CRT teams that are trying to bridge the gap. Remember Suter being quite a few seconds off the pace? I think with a decent rider, like Edwards after he heals, testing the bike in the offseason as much as he can will bring them up to at least 800 levels. It would not do for the factory teams to lap any riders.

Maybe they should have a claiming rule for factory riders. Jorge win a race? Let's see how he does on the Triumph Rockett III-based Suter-framed Gap Inc CRT bike!

This is a thing I would pay to watch.

Or a claiming rule for riders' girlfriends..I'd pay to watch that too.

sadly enough, that bike would still prob handle better than the gp11

Why does everybody hate on Capirossi?

well, there's the 1998 season finale 250gp race in buenos aires , for starters...  ;D

Capirossi seemed like a nice fella once he got older and married the lovely Ingrid. He didn't win on the 800 did he? I thought it was on the 990.
Strangely, more riders did better on the trellis framed bikes, hmmm. They flexed more I suppose and "talked" to the rider, even if they were under certain circumstances, too flexible.
I say back to the trellis frame, back to what they know and their history.

Never gonna happen, not now that they based their entire new SBK program on this tech.

Yeah I know, I was just hoping. Sad I know.

Loris won a single race (Japan) on the GP7. He also had 4 podiums on that bike:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loris_Capirossi#Races_by_year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loris_Capirossi#Races_by_year)

Anyway, it seems that Dorna is dead set on making the CRT teams more competetive, even though they are aware that they simply can't compete against the aliens. They'll need as much help, and time, as possible to get to a decent point.


+1

[laugh]

what they're doing is replacing satellite teams since the factories have made it nearly impossible to afford a satellite machine.  no one really expects a satellite bike to win (except on those rare combination of circumstances occasions, or if you're ben spies); they don't really expect the CRTs to win, either.  but if they can get within 1.5 seconds or so (kallio wasn't far off during the last test), and teams can afford 2 or 3 CRT bikes for the cost of 1 satellite bike, the grid gets bigger, the show gets better, and the factory ride pipeline gets more competitive.  win win for all.

The true win would be to make it more competitive at the front, which we should all agree is dangerously close to selling out ala DMG. Unfortunately in MotoGP there's not only a mechanical, but also talent gap.

but is it really a talent gap?  you can only fit so many on the sharpest point.  as evidenced by non-aliens that go to sbk, the riders in the middle of the GP pack are winning elsewhere

So the true measure would be to send the aliens to SBK for a season. Then populate the MotoGP grid with the previous year's top SBK riders. But seriously, the talent gap probably only applies to a few.

Pedrosa has an advantage of his size on an 800. Not sure if it was on this thread, but someone mentioned adding weight to the lighter riders' bikes. That would definitely slow down riders like Pedrosa that, IMHO, don't have the race craft to bang in the front. The gap applies more to the Stoners and Rossis, specially Stoner that has shown that he can win on anything.

that weight argument was pretty much thrown out by both the smaller and the larger riders.  there's advantages/disadvantages to both.  it's a wash.

I think Pedro has an advantage at the start, but that's about it. Otherwise he'd be winning everything since he often jumps out at the beginning.

For most riders I would agree, but if the Turd is caught in any sort of traffic, then he goes pretty much nowhere. He's a very good defensive rider, so you won't see many people pass him, but once he's comfortable in one position that's it. You can't tell me that his size advantage does not play a role on race starts. I would prefer that to "rolling starts", again ala Nascar.

Putting everyone on a Turbo 'Busa would pretty much take care of that too ;D

Someone say Turbo Busa trike?

Hells yeah!
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dZQWKob7vMM/TLiGbIfY_yI/AAAAAAAADDE/xo5Uf3kIfew/s1600/51.jpeg)

That's what I'm talking about! Even American Stig can ride that thing.

R....O....T....F....L!
(http://images-2.drive.com.au/2010/09/16/1931193/the-american-stig_420-420x0.jpg)