2014 Silly Season?...maybe spoilers

[Triple J]

Doesn't mean all that much, as it's his best lap vs. race pace, but still interesting that Cal was able to lap faster on the Duc today than he did in the race yesterday on the Yamaha.

Crutchlow’s 1'32.054 quickest time compared favorably to his best race lap from Sunday on the Tech3 Yamaha (1'32.369) and was just over one tenth of a second slower than the efforts of Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing).

[Spidey]

Didn't he crash out of the race relatively early?  (I don't remember)  Cuz that's when he struggles with fuel load on the Yammie, and then he picks up speed.  Besides, the Ducati is a way more developed platform than that POS career-killing Yamaha.

[Speeddog]

Didn't he crash out of the race relatively early?  (I don't remember)  Cuz that's when he struggles with fuel load on the Yammie, and then he picks up speed.  Besides, the Ducati is a way more developed platform than that POS career-killing Yamaha.

I've done a bit of number crunching, and his best time of 1:32.054 on the Duc today was a hair over 0.2 sec slower than the average of each of his best laps on the Yamaha in FP1-FP4.

So not horrible, actually a glimmer of light.

We'll see how much more he can get.

[lazylightnin717]

I've done a bit of number crunching, and his best time of 1:32.054 on the Duc today was a hair over 0.2 sec slower than the average of each of his best laps on the Yamaha in FP1-FP4.

So not horrible, actually a glimmer of light.

We'll see how much more he can get.

You're really going after that glimmer aren't yah?   

[triangleforge]

David Emmett had a pretty good overview of Cal's Duc Debut & the rest of the Monday testing at MotoMatters, and I'd say he was giving it a bit more than a glimmer - maybe not a solar explosion, but at least an LED flashlight's worth of hope for Ducatisti.

http://www.motomatters.com/analysis/2013/11/12/2013_valencia_post_race_test_day_1_round.html

At least as interesting were Gigi Dall'Igna's remarks about fixing the organization of Ducati's racing effort before he could even begin to address the technical problems. 

[MadDuck]

Looking forward to David Emmett's Tuesday report.  Now to settle in and wait for next spring.   

[OT]

At least as interesting were Gigi Dall'Igna's remarks about fixing the organization of Ducati's racing effort before he could even begin to address the technical problems. 

Sounds more like a corporate creature preparing to justify his existence and to start building a little, personal kingdom ….

[Triple J]

Sounds more like a corporate creature preparing to justify his existence and to start building a little, personal kingdom ….

I don't think so. Ducati Corse being more connected to the race teams can only be a good thing. That was his main goal.

[ducpainter]

Pedrosa is already signed for 2014...right?

Regarding Pedrosa’s season, Suppo concluded, "Unfortunately Dani has been very unlucky, as with almost no crashes this season but he got injured in one of the few in Sachsenring, when he was leading the Championship, and then due to no fault of his own he had the DNF in Aragón. Without these two races where I believe he could have won, or at worst finished second, it’s easy to see he would have also been fighting for the title in Valencia. Still his potential remains very high and we are sure that next year he will remain in the title fight.

[duccarlos]

Well, if Lorenzo would not have missed those races, he would have won the championship. It's obvious that there are only 3 Aliens right now. Injuries decide championships.

[Triple J]

Well, if Lorenzo would not have missed those races, he would have won the championship. It's obvious that there are only 3 Aliens right now. Injuries decide championships.

I agree on the importance of injuries, but JLo only missed 1 race. He still scored points in the other 2.

[duccarlos]

He was far from 100%

[Triple J]

Agreed!

[ducpainter]

He was far from 100%

True,

but at his worst still finished 4th IIRC.

Marquez had 2 non-scoring rounds.

[duccarlos]

That's correct. I have no doubt that he would have won this year if it wasn't for the injury. Even at the "Honda" tracks, he was pretty much in control.