Rossi to Ducati

Interesting that you feel he's less recognised for being Spanish, personally it hasn't got anything to do with it on my perspective, think just living in the lime-light of Rossi is just hard enough. I would imagine the Italians wouldn't like Jorge for being Spanish though. Ha ha ha.
Could be worse he could be British, then he wouldn't get any of the respect he'd deserve because he'd be crap.
No less than second this year indeed should not be overlooked its very very impressive to say the least. But I do see that Rossi has a psychological advantage of Lorezno on the track, when he's beating down on him, Lorenzo usually gets a bit edgy. You can see that he responds very differently when is Dani behind. No chance of letting him by. Time will tell if hes become unfazed by that. Or a big red Ducati may tell.
Either way Rossi dominance is slowly coming to and end over the next few championships/retirement and long I hope will follow the days of Stoner, Spies, Pedrosa, Dovizioso and Lorenzo. Just like its was with Garnder, Rainey, Schwanze and Doohan.
Love watching Rossi but a good scrap race in race out between the front runners is what we need rather than a 3sec 6sec and 10sec gaps apearing after 8 laps and resulting one horse races...

Lorenzo has done awesome to only drop 15 points all season... but if you think about it... had Stoner kept the bike upright in the first race he would have started with a 3rd, and had Stoner been on top form and not binned it, and Rossi not have gotten his injury, i think it would be an incredibly different story for Lorenzo...

Don't get me wrong i still think that he would be up at the pointy end if not top, but definitely would have lost more than 15 points... as Stoner is still farting about and Rossi is still healing... so if he were to come anywhere worse than 2nd I think he would he highly highly annoyed, because Stoner and Rossi just aren't fully battle ready...

I think the last 5 races of the year will be when everyone is battle ready, and that will show whether or not Lorenzo is truly as good as his results show so far...

I am really excited about Rossi moving to Ducati... why shouldn't The Doctor go and seek new challenges... especially when Yamaha (who owe pretty much everything to him) want to pay his (unworthy?) rival pretty much the same, when the difference is 9 world c'ships to none... so I think i it was down to pay, it is justified that he leave, as Yamaha were kind of insulting him with that offer.

Next year I don't know if he will be in contention.. he will have to develop the Ducati to suit him... and I know he did it with the M1 back in 2004, but it's a new class of field nowadays... so he might need to take next year as more of a development year, and then be ready for full on competition in 2012...

that point then again raises the point of will Lorenzo ever truly be better than Rossi?? This year we can't tell because of the injury... next year Rossi is riding a new bike and Lorenzo on one he knows, which is a big advantage.. so I think 2012 will be the next year when they are both at the same stage (bikes they know, injury free etc) so that will be Lorenzo's only opportunity I think to prove whether or not he is better than the G.O.A.T

Originally Posted by dill89

especially when Yamaha (who owe pretty much everything to him)

I often wonder how many R6 and R1's have been sold purely from the Rossi factor? Do you think we'll see new developments to the 848 and not that it needs it the 1198? Because its suckers like me that see a 46 and then bring out the wallet.

I think the point you made about the tail end of the season is going to prove all our points at some stage. If Lorenzo can still provide the same quality at that point in the season deifying all else then we could well be looking at a different class of Rider.
I do think though that Rossi and Ducati will waste no time developing the bike to his expectations. We should all expect a year of "settling in" but Rossi wouldn't want to do it that way.

Originally Posted by bengrrr

I do think though that Rossi and Ducati will waste no time developing the bike to his expectations. We should all expect a year of "settling in" but Rossi wouldn't want to do it that way.

I agree there... apparently this is the first time that Ducati will allow for pretty much development of ALL areas of the bike by the rider and team...

Everyone probably expected a year of "settling in" when Rossi moved to Yamaha, and he proved he didn't need it, but I think with the quality of M1 that he has created, and the quality of Lorenzo... he might need it.

Also though, in the end, I think that Lorenzo will have to move from Yamaha to prove ultimately how good he is... as at the moment he will always be known for coming and riding a bike developed by the absolute master... and as Burgess kinda said last year... anyone can come and ride a bike, but finding someone who can develop a bike like Rossi is another thing entirely...

I really like Lorenzo, he's got a personality like Rossi, and he is the kinda guy that is going to be excellent for the Moto GP for many years to come... but he's got his work cut out for him to get out of Rossi's shadow

Do we know how many of his team are going with him?

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

Do we know how many of his team are going with him?

I think whoever wants to go with him can go...
I would expect Burgess to go, he has to!!
And one of his mechanics Alex Briggs said on Twitter the other day he has the option of staying at Yamaha or staying with Rossi and moving to Ducati...

Personally if you could choose, would you choose Yamaha or Rossi and Ducati!? Haha

Well Lorenzo will have more life in him, and Ducati aren't famously easy to get on with

I wonder how this will effect Lorenzos bike & team then. He may find the M1 gets overtaken (literally)

Haha check out MCN this week.

There's a story in it that claims that Lorenzo and Yamaha are now at deadlock as he wants more money and is pretty much pressurising them to give him more now that Rossi is gone.

The most interesting points to me thought were:
1) Jerry Burgess says he hasn't spoken to any Ducati peole yet and is not sure if he wants to Jin Rossi at Ducati or not... I think that's unfortu ate as they make such a good team...

2) Lorenzo has apparently sent out a plea with Yamaha that they must work harder than ev with him now as he is scared Rossi is going to go to Ducati and dominate him... Haha amusing.

Oh and the front cover has a Ducati with 46 on the front, and it actually doesn't look bad at all.

If I'm right in remembering Jeremy took alot of convincing to leave Honda at the time, including some sort of plea from Rossi to finally pursued him. Or that's what I remember reading in the autobiography. I should imagine that would again be the case. Not sure how it would work without him. Could be the MotoGP equivalent of the dammed UTD ha ha ha. The Dammend Ducati.
I'm sure Jeremy will go.

It would be even more interesting if Burgess didn't go with him. Rossi is undoubtedly a genius, but how much of his success particularly at Yamaha is down to Burgess. Were he not to go and Rossi still wins it would take him up another couple of notches in the greatness stakes imo.