Rossi and Dovi moves?

[sirch345]

Whats your opinion on Rossi returning to Yamaha

and Dovi going to Ducati

Who predicts what

Chris.

[AMCQ46]

Good subject Chris, I bet there are lots of views on this one.

My take is:
I think Rossi's move shows he still has the fire and he want to get away from excuses and show what he can do............it is a brave step, as if he cant get back on the podium then he has to admit he is not as good as he used to be [or as good as Jorge] and only retirement is left.

Dovi move still feels like a madness driven by the vanity of being seen as a works rider, unless the Audi people have shown him some magic plans that will get the Ducati competitive, then I would say he will be lucky to see the tail lights on any of the Yamahas.........well perhaps Bradley might take a bit of time to get up to speed, but I predict even he will be ahead of Dovi by race 5

[seb421]

Dovi:

Dovi has already shown good form on the duke at testing, i wish him the best with the bike he's a great guy a very humble family man that keeps that side of his life out the media, i don't think i can ever remember seeing them at the race track?

I don't think he will be a race winning contender on the duke but he's a very very consistent rider and will make a great development rider for ducati he's certainly one of the best on the brakes and hopfully he can work towards sorting that duke out hopefully with his crew and some Audi money it will be a Podium bike in the not to far furture,

i am fearful he took this Factory offer as a Cash Cow to get as much from the sport as possible (righty so if thats what you want to do)

i think he saw it as an insult going from the Factory Honda down the Tech3 Team when in reality its a near factory spec bike

The Tech3 machine out handled and out preformed the duke all day long and if you wanted to win races and push for podiums you would swallow your pride and pass the factory duke ride and go for it on the Tech3 machine no?

It was clear they (Ducati) was never going to take Cal over Dovi, Cal's a great fast hard rider but lacks the experience, consistency and feel that Dovi brings to the table



Rossi:

The Sport needs him back on his beloved M1 and i hope he still has the magic and his bag off talent is still full, it should also make for some good TV seeing him and his nemesis back in the same Pit garage this time apparently with out a wall between them

If Rossi is not competitive then its just a two horse race between Pedrosa and Lorenzo now Stoner has left, something that is not going to grip people if one has a crash and misses a few races the season will be over, we need a third contender hopefully Rossi can run with these two again


Marc Marquez:

This should be fun, the Moto2 champ on the Repsol (MotoGP rules changed for 2013 to allow rookie riders onto full prototype bikes) he's a hard aggressive rider, so long as he doesnt take out Dani it will be a great years racing, im expecting some lorenzo type crashes back on his early M1 days when he was learning the Limits but once he has got the grips with the Repsol he will be a hell of a rider, waching him back the Moto2 bike into corners looking like he should have been on a supermoto bike at times was something else, on shagged tryes he would still push and push i think he will be 5th or 6th in the championship at the end of the year


It should be a good years racing

I'm going for

1 Pedrosa
2 Lorenzo
3 Rossi
4 Crutchlow
5 Marquez
6 Bautista
7 Bradl
8 Dovi
9 Smith
10 Hayden
11 Iannone
12 Spies



2013 Provisional MotoGP Rider Line Up as of 27th November


Repsol Honda
Dani Pedrosa Honda RC213V
Marc Marquez Honda RC213V

Factory Yamaha
Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha M1
Valentino Rossi Yamaha M1

Factory Ducati
Nicky Hayden Ducati Desmosedici GP13
Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Desmosedici GP13

Monster Tech 3 Yamaha
Cal Crutchlow Yamaha M1
Bradley Smith Yamaha M1

LCR Honda
Stefan Bradl Honda RC213V

Gresini Honda
Alvaro Bautista Honda RC213V
Bryan Staring FTR Honda

Pramac Ducati Junior Team
Ben Spies Ducati Desmosedici GP13
Andrea Iannone Ducati Desmosedici GP13

NGM Forward
Colin Edwards FTR Kawasaki
Claudio Corti? FTR Kawasaki

Aspar MotoGP
Randy de Puniet Aprilia ART
Aleix Espargaro Aprilia ART

BQR
Hiroshi Aoyama FTR Kawasaki
Hector Barbera FTR Kawasaki

Paul Bird Motorsport
Michael Laverty? British-designed Aprilia-powered bike
Yonny Hernandez? Aprilia ART

Cardion AB
Karel Abraham Aprilia ART

IODA Racing
Danilo Petrucci? Suter BMW
??? Suter BMW

[popkat]

My take

Dovi gone for the money, two years on the pay roll there will probably more than he can earn in 10 years in another team. I think he'll try hard at first, lull in the middle then try hard again toward the end of the season so they don't dump him for the 2nd year. I also think he may well get better results than Nicky as from what i've read and heard his style should suit the bike, but a winner it's not.

Rossi has a alot to lose really, he's been playing things down a bit to take the pressure off himself from the media, but he's going to really want to beat Lorenzo or he'll almost be forced into retirement (or superbikes)

Next season I think could be Dani's year as long as he doesn't have anymore bad luck, the Honda at the moment appears to be the better bike. Marquez is going to be interesting and exciting, I hope Lorenzo doesn't moan about him too much and the lad ends up having to cool it like Marco did. he'll have to be careful though, but I think he could win his first race in the first half of the season.

An early guess would be
1 Pedrosa
2 Lorenzo
3 Rossi
4 Marques
5,6,7,8th Crutchlow/Bradl/Bautista/Dovi, can't pick the order on that.

[sirch345]

Some interesting opinions there Alastair, Seb and Popkat.

I also think Rossi is making a brave move, but what else was left for him. He openly admitted he was not enjoying his time at Ducati in the latter months, which for a racer who's won so many championships in Moto GP and has so much experience and talent must have been very frustrating for him to say the least. It's a pity Rossi's team couldn't make the Ducati competitive with him on board. I must admit, I thought they would have done better than they had with someone like Rossi riding the bike.

I would have liked to have seen Stoner have a session on Rossi's bike to see how he compared on it now at the end of this years season, just to see if he could still tame the beast like he used to, obviously it would be a much different bike now than when he was riding for Ducati. It would have been interesting to see the results.

Yes I agree it does look like Dovi has gone for the big money and of course a factory ride as you mention. Hopefully things will have moved on in the Ducati camp for next season, and Dovi will be able to do a lot better than Rossi or Hayden have been able to, Dovi is bound to have more enthusiasm than Rossi did come end up. If nothing has changed for next year and Ducati still cannot get the bike nearer the pointy end, I wonder at the end of his time with Ducati who'll be interested in giving Dovi a half descent ride on a Moto GP bike then

I'll be interesting to see how Bradley Smith and Marc Marquez get on. It's a big step up from Moto 2 to Moto GP IMHO.

I also think Dani Pedrosa will be on it next season too if he's anything like he was in the closing rounds of this year, he certainly showed us all how good a rider he really is.

As for the championship next season, I agree Honda (with Dani on board) this year did have the slightly better bike compare to the Yamaha of Lorenzo's. If that stays the same Dani will definitely be the one to beat. However if Yamaha and Honda close that small gap for next year it's going to be an exciting year for the championship.

I see there are talks of Suzuki returning to Moto GP which is what's needed, but that's not until 2014 if it happens. Even Rossi more or less said Moto GP is at the moment becoming boring. I personally don't see the CRT bikes racing with the Factory and Satellite bikes working. It's almost like having two separate races in one IMHO.

Time will tell

Chris.