This was completely and utterly inevitable. Some of the 'Ducatista' mob simply don't like Valentino, and didn't want him on 'their' bike.
The reality is, that bike has went backwards since '07, and it wasn't exactly forwards then, favorable conditions and an astounding rider led to an unlikely Ducati Championship. Since then, the bike has gone backwards. Regulation tyres have certainly not helped, but blaming Rossi is simply stupid.
You take a 9 time world champion, the team that took him to all 7 of the premier class titles, and then don't take them to tests and ignore input from them. The only thing Rossi being at Ducati has proved, is that even when pushed to the limit, by a Rider who has the experience to say you're wrong, Ducati are still adamant that they're right.
The term flogging a dead horse (the horse being the GP12) could not be anymore true than the Ducati GP project.
I've pointed to Preziosi being the bottleneck on many an occasion, but this comment from Rossi got me thinking;
"he is the soul of the company, and he needs to be given full faith and support."
Would that suggest Preziosi could easily make a V4, but the board simply will not give him clearance to do so?
Either way, the 'Ducatista' mob should be thanking Rossi, he's the only one that's been able to apply massive pressure to Ducati to at least give them a chance of swaying the bike into something that one once again win a GP title.
As for reminiscing about the Stoner years, he got 1st, 2nd, 4th and 4th, it's clear now that he's better than those results, so perhaps it's time to realize the bike was never really all that.
Posted: 02/07/2012 at 11:40
