Pieman, its just that I don't believe in kicking a man when he's down. If anything he needs your support. All is not what it seems when looked on from the outside.
You can also say that if he feels the team isn't with him, what chance does he stand. I know its a mental thing and the bloke still only a kid compared to us lot.
Mood: R U thinking what I'm thinking?......Oh dear!
After seeing Corser do the double again I can't see anyomne else beating him to the title unless someone can put him under pressure soon.
I really can't believe the Fours have come on so much over the winter that Ducati are getting beaten to death in what has pretty much been their championship form years.
Wasn't there a "fork issue" in the Moto GP team last year. A certain Troy Bayliss showed what he could do when he got what he wanted at the last race of the year????
Time to wheel out the 998s again!!!
I don't like to see Ducati getting beaten and I don't like to see a Brit on a Ducati getting beaten. I can't believe JT's head has gone but if he has no confidence in the thing due to tech problems what can he do, the two things are linked.
You can see what difference a bike can make. Corser was made to look at best average on the FPR even if he was riding the wheels off the thing. he jumps on the Gixer, does a shed load of development and testing and he's back showing the others the way home.
I can't hold with people who say JT isn't a talented racer, some of the scraps that he had with Laconi, Vermulen and Haga (or was it Kagayama, I don't know, for some reason I always get those two mixed up) seemed to show real determination, bravery and a fair old dollop of skill. He's already shown that he can compete with Laconi on a like for like basis, maybe not in qualifying, or race by race, but across a whole season which is what counts. Mr Consistency? Maybe, but the scandinavian rally drivers had a saying that "To finish first, first you have to finish" and Laconi spent far too much time trying to corner on his arse last year even if he was quicker on his day.
So, the real reason for JT's lack of pace are known only to JT himself and a select band of the Ducati Corse team.
Is he getting second best to Laconi? Maybe, but it's in the teams interest to get behind the on form rider. Is he really on the same bike as last year, as some people on this thread have surmised? If he is then it's no wonder his results are bad, because if you stand still you're going backwards. Of course he's not on the same bike, Ducati have developed it over the winter and may have done a similar job as they did to the 03 and 04 Desmosedici and not kept pace with the development of the opposition. Let's face it, developing a twin to compete on a level playing field with the fours is a huge struggle in itself and it's only a question of time before Ducati have to go down the four cylinder route.
Maybe JT has succumbed to mental fatigue. How much mental effort does winning a world championship take out of you? We will never know (Foggy of course will claim that you could do it year in year out - but only if you've got the top bike in the field). Maybe JT has started to think he's been there, done that and he's got nothing to prove. Maybe he has started to believe his own press and had his ego massaged too many times by adoring fans. Maybe he's done a few too many Ducati PR events and been pi$$ed all winter. We will never know.
What we will see is a young guy under pressure to perform, and the test of whether he's a true champion or not will be if he can raise his game or just slide back down to relative obscurity. We shall see
Mood: R U thinking what I'm thinking?......Oh dear!
Steve,
I doubt it is the exactly the same bike, stand still in top drawer racing and you go backwards.
There will have been a load of changes on pretty much every front, the only area that stays the same are where you can't go homologating new bits every five minutes.
As Jools says unless you're there you can't really say with certaintly what the score is. The PR smolescreens don't help and that applies to any race team.
WSB does make some attempt the equal out the advantages of some bikes but I would say that the rules allow some bikes to be "more equal" than others.
The rules might changed to address the balance again but until the rule makers are sure that something needs to be done they are gonna wait and see.
From what I have heard and seen the Suzuki WSB team have stolen a march on the opposition, whether or not this remains temporary remains to be seen. On the Ducati Front they are the only team to be running both WSB and Moto GP team out of the factory?? IMHO that has got to dilute the effort of one of both for what is in numbers terms a very small manufacturer.
If the rules change in WSB it may well not be necessary to go V4, that one is in the hands of the rule makers. In some respect technology is getting out of hand in what is really meant to be a very tricked up roadbike series? Big bang engines, traction control don't really have a place IMHO in WSB.
Comparing the AMA and BSB is not really comparing like for like for one major reason, Tyres. In some respects we have lost a gauge of how good the locals are against the WSB boys or vice versa, another loss as far as the spectator is concerned IMHO.
I hope all the teams in WSB can raise the game to put Suzuki under pressure, 'cos all I want to see is a big pack of bike battling for the lead.
I think there have been some leaps and bounds in the 999F05 over the 03 and 04 bikes, different weight distribution for one, but these changes would have been made because of input from all the riders, test riders included.
Ducati want to win like any other team, and I doubt there would be any favouritism, and you would hope that JT carrying the No. 1 plate would get preferencial treatment if such thing existed, just to push sales.
Unfortunately for whatever reason he isn't having a good year, as can be seen by everyone, the results, the team, and I guess you have to look at Laconi to see the void there is there.
Barring mechanical failure/injury Corser will have this championship sewn up by mid season, JT hasn't got a hope in hell now, he needs to concentrate on beating his team mate more than anything else IMO.
Personally... Hmmmm probably, Laconi is damn quick, and clearly going better than JT, but he does crash, look at Valencia he didn't turn a wheel on race day, well apart from coming off in the warm up!
If JT's fortunes don't change he'll either be back in BSB or probably with FPR next year in WSB or such like, certainly in the wilderness for a while. It's a pity, but unfortunately there's a hell of a lot of talented riders out there snapping at his heels right now in WSB, WSS, and various domestic series who would love a chance at a factory ride