Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/671116
VOL. 53 ISSUE 16 APRIL 26, 2016 P119 Why not? is the correct answer. Or as Rossi put it, of his 2004 switch from Honda to Yamaha: "What if I hadn't tried it?" (The title of his ghosted auto- biography.) Rossi had more to say on the topic at Qatar, that Jorge would only go to Ducati "if he has big enough balls." A personal chal- lenge surely designed to accel- erate his Spanish bête noire's departure. He'd love to see him go. There is a certain poetic sym- metry to all this. Rossi moved from Yamaha purely out of pique—the same sort of pique that triggered last year's embar- rassment at Sepang, where he slowed and slowed to force his tormentor Marquez off the track. Yamaha was Valentino's team, and he'd frequently said how he wanted to finish his career with them—until Jorge turned up and won the championship. It's a bit different for Jorge; for one thing, I can't remember much drippy gush about finish- ing his career with Yamaha. Jorge is much more guarded about his sentiments. But the basic reason is the same: Jorge is fed up with hav- ing Valentino as his teammate. Relations between the two might on the surface have thawed when Rossi rejoined Yamaha in 2013. But they deteriorated sharply over the course of last year as they battled for the title and have clearly not improved over the winter break. The atmosphere at pre-event conferences between Rossi and Lorenzo (and Rossi and Mar- quez) has grown increasingly and entertainingly awkward. The insults may so far be veiled, but only just. So what is Jorge letting him- self in for? Valentino's Yamaha-Ducati move was disastrous. The size of his testicles has never been in question, but made no dif- ference. On a bike that Stoner would use to win or crash, Rossi was all at sea. And he was very anxious to point out—and doubtless with increasing vehemence from now on—that the Ducati awaiting his current Yamaha teammate is very different from the increas- ingly off-beam Desmosedici GP11 that he jumped onto in 2011. Clearly Rossi speaks true: the GP16 is much more competitive than his GP11 and GP12. At that stage, hitherto well-respected designer Filippo Preziosi seemed to be going ever further off at a tangent, essaying a very stiff carbon-fiber mini-chassis/ airbox as well as a carbon swingarm. Just when other chas- sis designers were taking the benefit from designing in more controlled flex in their carefully constructed long beams. But while the GP16 may have fallen more into line with con- vention, it's still a very different bike from all the Japanese rivals. Mainly, it's massively powerful and very fast, to the extent that it chews its tires. (Abstruse gas- flow design apart, it can only be the desmodromic valve gear that gives this gift of speed.) What this will demand of Jorge is that he find a way to use this power more wisely. He is sometimes, and not un- fairly, described as a one-trick pony. When things are perfect he's perfect, when conditions or technicalities are only slightly wrong, he struggles. It will be fascinating to see if he can broaden his repertoire to suit the Ducati differences. Perhaps even more important, the Stoner factor hasn't gone away. Although just a now-and- then test rider, it took the double champion just one day with the GP16 to be setting faster times than the current riders Dovizioso and Iannone. Now there's a target for Lo- renzo, with a direct reference to the man he is currently beating and gladly leaving behind at Yamaha. Valentino couldn't match Casey's performance on the Duke, let alone beat it. Can Jorge? CN