so the hands are now being played out, Rossi obviously, Ben Spies to Yamaha, Cal Crutchlow to Tech3?, Stoner we know already... still some superb seats up for grabs??

my feeling is next year Yamaha really have a strong duo

It's true that I'm biased, but I think this will Lorenzo's one and only easy year.

I think Honda will further improve for next season and Stoner and Pedrosa will be very strong.

Exactly. Aprilia basically decides who wins and if you can't pay then you can't play.



Yamaha wanted a decision from Rossi before Brno so that they could announce Spies' promotion at Indy.

Decent race today if you're not sitting at your TV looking for something to complain about. Melandri, Barbera, Simoncelli and de Puniet had a great battle going at the end, with de Puniet riding well through the pain.

In a small way Vale's move to Ducati reminds me of Lawson's move to Cagiva. Great rider nearing the end of his career, etc. Both went from Yamaha, coincidently.

Do we know if Burgess & co. are going with him?

i think burgess moving isn't confirmed but its got to happen, i cnt see rossi leaving them behind. BUt all depends on Yamaha to be honest if they wanted to make things difficult for rossi.

Question.

Will Rossi retain the #46 or get the #27?

Even if it is a bike, a #27 Ducati riden by an Italian has spells of Ferrari and F1.

46, no doubt on that.
Casey already has 27 and it doesn't really mean anything to Rossi. I just wonder how will they get a yellow 46 on a red bike without making it ugly.

I magine he'll take the #46 with him.

Where can I put a buck on Rossi winning Mugello for Ducati in 2011?

The rider picks the number. So it will be the 46.

At least we now know Rossi refers to a partner in the female sense. With all the earrings i wasnt too sure.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85979

Q. Is Rossi going to bring his entire crew over from Yamaha, which is led by Jerry Burgess?

GdT: It is too early to say. At the moment we have finalised an agreement with him. Wait and see. It is mainly a decision that we will leave to Valentino.

Hope so!!!!

I have small question.
Who is guy on the left in this pic: http://image.motorcyclistonline.com/f/misc...the-2010-m1.jpg ??
he is often shown by tv.

Well next year Stoner might be on a better bike


Looks like a 11 year old kid wrote it


He wont be able to top it against the likes of Lorenzo, Stoner and Pedrosa


I think Rossi would have all on beating Lorenzo this year


I think Burgess is staying on with Yamaha, i think he said he was settled there

Alessio Salucci aka Uccio. Rossi's best friend/personal assistant and more. Much more.

If Rossi says he wants new challenges wouldn't it be better not to? I think it would be interesting if he went alone.

Going to Ducati is going to be a new challenge no matter who goes with him.

On the contrary, I reckon it would be even easier than his move to Yamaha with the absence of a language barrier.

Mind you all this talk of new challenges is probably all Rossi-speak anyway. Nevermind.

Fair call.

I disagree.
It won't be any easier, not only has he aged, but he leaves behind a perfectly sorted team who fully understand how to develop bikes and maintain a rider oriented philosophy. There is no reason to expect Lorenzo and Yamaha to crumble upon itself like HRC did in 2004, 2005 and even 2006, despite the titles. At the same time, he'll go against a much stronger field than he did then. By the start of 2011, all of the three other aliens will have beat Rossi at least once during a full season (it just takes Lorenzo to not crash out of 2010). On the other hand, in the beginning of 2004, the only guy who had ever beat Rossi during a season was Kenny Roberts and he wasn't even on the radar aboard the Suzuki. There is a very strong reason to why we call these guys Aliens nowadays while the term didn't exist back then.;)

All in all, I consider it a huge challenge for Rossi, no smaller than what he faced in 2004.

And I also need some humble pie because I never expected him (before his Mugello crash and the strong rumours) to actually make the jump. Not now, not like this.

I think all this talk about Burgess is a bit old and overrated on this board.

Its quite apparent that Lorenzo together with Ramon Forcada and his team are working better right now. Lorenzo's bike since last year has been nearly perfect setup wise in the majority of the races.

Rossi has been hinting about setup issues since last year mainly with rear grip. So at the moment Lorenzo/Forcada team are better then Rossi/Burgess even excluding the issue that Lorenzo this year is riding better then Rossi.

About Rossi's move, I think its will be a huge challenge actually. The Yamaha is at the moment the best bike, not by much but... It would have been much easier for him to stay at Yamaha and try to beat Lorenzo there since having a Yamaha means a sure chance to win the championship. The Ducati has not won a race this year and is not as balanced/stable as the Yamaha and does not have as good power as the Honda. Basically its right now the 3rd best bike. Going to to Ducati without at least Burgess and some members of his current team that know him well and his driving style/setup preferences would be hugely penalizing with the current rules that do not permit much off season or in season testing. As Lornezo said today, to win you must have a whole group behind you nowadays. Without the best men you cannot win. A great rider is also one who can group the right people to take on his rivals and beat them.

Can anyone quantify what exactly it is Rossi made better at Yamaha? The engine? The frame? setup and tyres? Working through a race weekend?

Biggest change was to the culture IMO, instead of building a bike which should theoretically be fast (see present day Suzuki) Yamaha listened to their rider and made changes which gave riders more confidence to push. There were evolutionary changes to chassis and engine along the way which have resulted in present day M1 being a good bike. I do not think Yamaha will ever release an item list of every single change made to the bike since Rossi came on board.

Challenge or no challenge he wants the records. He has already accepted the challenge in 2004 and did great, and 2009's challenge as well.

Johnny Drama.

Source: MCNEWS.com.au

Goodbye Vale I lived through his yamaha years and moments just like many of other fans. Its been a wonderful experience.

I will see him at Ducati

------------------------



-------------------------

Lets see if Lorenzo/Yamaha can keep the same momentum like Rossi/Burgess/Yam did.

Is Arne Tode the new Jules Cluzel now that Jules has quit tossing his bike away so often? He seems to be near the front here and there but at the moment is more memorable for his crashes.

Perhaps his bad shoulder to blame ?

Andy

You have to commend Lorenzo for doing such a gereat job on the bike this year, he looks very solid, also you have to commend Honda for turning the bike around so it is more competitive.

It will be interesting to see how much the Yamaha and Ducati develops from now on and what rate. The Yamaha looks the better package at the moment, will it continue without Furusawa, Burgess and Rossi pushing things? It'll be fascinating next year though.

Andy

PICS: Ben Spies tests 2011 Yamaha

This.

A life outside of watching races live on TV recently has meant that I've I've been watching them after the fact. Hell, I only finished watching the recent BSB triple header last night! but back to the point that I hope to try to make. The MGP race at Brno, was the first time that I've ever fast forwarded through an MGP race something I certainly didn't do while watching Tommy Sykes back to back wins on the Paul Bird Kwacker the Sunday before last . The racing in MGP hasn't been exactly nail biting this season, to my eye the gaps between riders at Brno looked almost F1 like. Which if you think about it is just not right.

My concern is that when racing becomes this predictable people turn away. This is especially true of the casual fan i.e. the one who's likely to notice the adverts and branding more than the rider backing it into a tight right hander or someone getting the slipstream down the straight, or even notice that if that gap keeps coming down by a couple of tenths a lap we "might have a race on our hands", you know the kind of thing, it's why you watch right?. Now I know that we here have petrol in our veins and will continue to find enjoyment in a sport that we all love enough to actually put "pen to paper" (finger to keypad?) on a daily basis. The trouble is, I don't believe that we're making the sport or more precisely MGP, DORNA and the sponsors any money. I know that can really stick in the throat; all of this racing malarkey is about selling things as is all professional sport. Just look at the Red Bull story to see it working at it's best. Even while I'm typing this I've got a banner telling me to click here to buy Rossi merchandise on line now! It's why people like the wonderful Mr. MZ gets to do the job he does (BTW I miss your contributions in a lot of our common threads ). His work helps to sell product, as well as tell stories. Even if you are into the rider/team or what ever, you've probably bought your T-shirt. cap. replica etc. and that's you done; no more revenue coming from your wallet. What's probably worse is that you may have bought your items a few years back now and that won't do at all. When I go to watch bike racing I see a lot of die hard fans still wearing Blue Rizla Suzuki gear, not because of MGP, but because of John Reynolds and we no how long ago he retired from racing; even if he is still involved in the sport.

DORNA is on the back foot as far as TV money is concerned. Without that money the series will clearly not have level of finances floating around that the teams need to go racing. TV Advertising revenue is down for the TV companies anyway, due in main to the recession and to keep sponsors and advertisers who've had to tighten their purse strings, the events that they pay for need to give bang for buck, appeal to the demographic etc. etc. etc. if Jo Public switches off after 3 laps cos X or Y has taken the lead again just like X or Y has done all season s/he is going to miss those lovely "buy me's", viewer figures drop and the sponsor/advertiser pulls the plug, the TV company doesn't renew the deal with DORNA and MGP.....

However, IMO in the short term Rossi's move (as well as Stoner's) is good news for MGP in general. DORNA and the media will have a field day when it comes to promoting the '11 season. The TV companies won't have much difficulty selling Ducati/Rossi to some guy with an advertising budget. Whether it will make the tiny grids produce any better races remains to be seen, but I believe that people will tune in and turn up at the track just to see The Doctor on a Duke. That kind of fairy tale element does seem to inspire more casual interest and also mean that the occasional fan will stay tuned for the whole show.

BTW whilst we're on the subject of Mugello 2011, I'd suggest pitching your tent now, as I think there's already a queue forming at the camp site


On a slightly different tack, the talk of Cal Crutchlow to Tech 3 is also revenue based rather than racing. There's currently no Brit in MGP, I forget whether it was Kropotkin or Toby who said it but the TV in the UK need a British rider to keep the level of interest for the TV company. I don't think it's necessarily a good idea for him to move (yet). I thought Tommy Sykes' move to WSBK was too soon in his career and the last 2 years has seen him floating on or near the bottom of the points each weekend. His return to the front as a wildcard in the BSB round at Brands seems to support my feelings. We're back to that money angle again but it would be a shame to see an extremely talented guy like Cal get in too deep too soon.

Watching Cluzel ride is quite unnerving, it seems like he's going to crash into someone any moment.

I didn't think so. I thought he was talented enough to do it. He struggled a bit on the Yamaha, but his form on the Kawasaki is impressive.

The new changes would be wonderfull for the season in 2011 PROVIDED Ducati, Honda and Yahmaha can live their end of their deal and not produce crappy bikes

If Ducati dish up the same rubbish next year there will be hell to pay through the italian media.

Bring it on!

Yep this year he is doing very well, it's just the Kawasaki that isnt up to it's task, i hope next years challenger will do a lot better.

Sykes doesnt seem to different from Melandri to me. Perhaps im wrong, but if you just look at his years on paper they seem like that to me.

I still think Vermuelen could have done better if he did not injured himself at Philipp Island, where he was among the leading group during practice and first laps in the race.

phil, that's a great post. thanks. re: "DORNA and the media will have a field day when it comes to promoting the '11 season." you are absolutely right. however i worry that the fans will quickly realize that the rider and team realignments alone will do nothing to improve the 2011 race show. a lot of fans after the 1st few rounds of 2011 may feel ripped off by high expectations, yet again. pessimist over here, sorry, but dorna might get stands worse than catalunya '10 sooner than expected.
to be wide awake w/o taking any lavazza brew enhancements at 6 am by moto2 race to not realizing i fell back asleep after the first few laps of motogp is nothing but a disappointment for me. and i want to blame:
1) dorna, of course, for 800cc rules era
2) whoregay for so bloody lorenzolanding the motogp
3) doctor, so weak this year to put out any challenge, new pair of crutches not helping
4) minip, so unnoticeable over electronic microscope that's...
5) deceiving our young convict casey thinking he's always one position ahead of repsol bikes
6) dovi for being so dozy
7) haystack for being so fat desmosedici power can't handle
8) dorna, again, for murdering every independent works team
9) russian spies
10) the one texan that was obducted by minip's dark hole
11) supersic for short hair
12) dorna, yet again, for putting independants in so much debt they can't afford fat ass sliding toni spaniard elias
13) dorna, for rapping suzy
14) dorna, for massacrering kawasaki
15)... sigh
too much bitterness today from giddy.

True but ofcourse that was the only race we can really compare them but still yes that was also a massive shame.

I'm more than happy for him, especially for the fact that he's doing what he needs to do. If he lost this championship with a given injured Rossi, his career at the top is over.

I just feel that if he'd stayed in BSB for another year he may well have won the championship.



zmeej (that's two complements I had in a couple of days, I must be doing something wrong )

The 800cc engine itself has not hurt the show, but development in tire tech and electronics have. If they moved back to 1000cc with no other changes, motoGP is not going to magically transform into a powersliding championship.

MGP needs more riders and more teams on a more equal but difficult footing. 28 riders, all with a chance of winning and 14 teams too would mix it up.

There are no serious motorsport series where all drivers have egal chances to win, the team, chassis, engine, tires ... will always do a difference.

Knew this was coming.
Be strong, Yamaha.

Easily. But given that all the talent had left, would it really have been worth it? Leon Camier's not bad, but he wasn't in the same league as Haslam, Crutchlow and Sykes in BSB.

I can't accept that. Tommy would have fought hard for his championship win (if he'd eventually won). As for talent leaving, BSB always has great talent to race against; and close too.