Listen guys I realize people tend to have short term memory about this sort of thing, but let's try to remember for a moment how much the sport itself (not just the bikes) but the sport itself has changed over the last few years. It used to be that the rider as the sportsman on top of the bike had a large say so on how well he could manage and tame the bikes power to the best of his abilities, in large part determining the outcome of the race and eventually the series. Now it's very different.. At this point now the CPU programmer in the paddock likely has more say so or impact on the final outcome of a race then the rider himself does.
I realize as well what people's expectations tend to be for their heros and how everyone assumes or naturally expects Rossi to always be able to pull the preverbal rabbit out of his ass every time he gets on the bike. Why? because for the most part he always has and has very rarely disappointed us, but I think the part people are neglecting to realize is how much the "sport" has changed and just how much of an effect all of the "rider-aids" have had both on the package and on the sport itself.
In others words people just assume that Rossi is being difficult or is somehow spoiled now in some way when he looks for, and or even needs for the bike to be set-up to perform in a certain way now. But if you think back at his career that wasn't his usual style or a usual issue for him at all. I think this is just further indication of how important the package has become in the sport now and how much of the entire "sport" is based off of it currently.. Before It used to be, at least in motorcycle racing that the rider could in large part make up for shortcomings on the bike and may have in turn counted in large part to the overall team's possible success rate, which Rossi had one of the all time best track records at being able to do, but the unfortunate reality of the situation now is that in large part it is the package and all the electronics associated with it that are ultimately determining most of this outcome now- less of a human sport now and more and more a electronic sport involved.
Looked at Hayden- People seem to have rediscovered the guy lately and know him now as a great hard working rider. For me I always did and had always voiced that opinion of him. He hasn't always been the priority in some of the teams he has been a part of in the past and therefore not always given the best support with his ride, but he has always stayed humble, determined and focused and done the very best he can with whatever he has been given at the moment. This is all well and good. All commendable traits on his part and back when he won the championship many years ago all things that help make it possible to achieve, but now I think not so much. Mainly because again now the package is so much more important to the enviable results and with it the riders are becoming less of a overal factor.
We all should have seen this coming I assume- right? In fact if you noticed despite the rather stronger results he has been able to manage on the Ducati lately he was held back tremendously in this last race.. why? by what?.. a failure within his GPS navigated traction control/engine management system, for which had been effected by some type of radio interference (whatever got us here guys and where we go from here I'll will never know) making the bike nearly impossible to ride and him thankful to have been able to finish the race at all - It's that serious.
Casey Stoner- Yes Stoner is doing great now on the greatest Honda generated motorcycle computer-robotic system ever made by man, for which not only knows exactly what position it is on in track, on the line it should or should not be on in terms of planned and executed trajectory for the turns, but also has the all-around best engine, chassis, suspension, ecu, gps, engine management systems ever assembled. That plus the top Hp, transmission and shift package in all of Gp, but also actually has a double clutch type auto transfer transmission system that carries and therefore holds the momentums of the current gear throughout the entire shift process until the next gear is fully picked up and engaged not to allow it to lose even a nano second of drive through the gears (every shift) etc.. type things that you can't even imagine at this point. Prior to that he was a big mess on the Ducati who couldn't keep the thing off the floor and fell more then he finished the last couple of years on the bike, usually in the first few laps of the race, if not before or even during the warm up lap and all of these questionable results is when the Ducati still had a sizable horsepower advantage or before Ducati had changed over their bikes chassis design to something resembling a carbon fiber shoe box.
I think Kenny Robert junior hit it pretty square on the head when he was trying to explain just how hard it was 10years ago to make up for a prototype gp bikes shortcomings back then (10yrs ago) when the mega buck $$ computer electronic systems hadn't yet fully taken hold of the entire sport yet. You can just imagine what these teams and their riders are dealing with now, or how much harder and more complex it all must be to sort out, never mind if you messed up a design on something as important as your given chassis design, which is of course after all the bases for all of your other settings (ouch) and then have to start all over again from there - big task to say the very least, especially when your competitors are fast moving ahead without stepping on their on @icks).
I don't think in this situation Ducati has too much to be mad at Rossi about and only have themselves to blame for the reverse engineering situation they find themselves in now, having gone so badly off in the wrong direction earlier on and now obviously finding themselves trying to play catch up to all things imaginable (never a good thing but especially bad in this sport now). In fact if you think about it I feel for Rossi more then anyone else- who at the twilight of his lustrous career finds himself boxed out of yet another opportunity to galvanize that career and the legend he had created for himself and his teams earlier on.
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2012/Apr/120413-1046.htm (link provided originally by Frenaugo)
PK/MV1