Can't wait to see Petrux here and I think he will do better than Baz, which means he'll be a threat to win every race.
As I said, I really hope they can get a tire that works... spec tire racing is use what they provide, recently they said the MA Suzuki didn’t like a new tire... It’s always been this way different bikes require different things and I’ll post a painful and expensive story about that with a happy ending... listen to Danilos interviews about the tire changes. That caused Pedrosa to retire too when he couldn’t heat the tires. Petrux went from winning to out of the points. It was tires, certainly not heart or work ethics. Look what KTM did this year... new frames... then another tire change... Contrary to the riders that say they’re all round and black, tires have changed the face of racing more than anything else by far in my opinion.
I think he will do better than Baz too. I sure hope this is true, it would add a bunch of excitement to the class.
The issue here is the brainpower behind the teams. No discredit to anyone, not even the parts changers that try hard, but I’ve worked with many of the smartest in the MA paddock and many of the riders and Jake coming into his own surrounded by a guy who is at the track at 5am building engines 20 years ago because he had an idea for more power that now has the decades more experience and way cooler tools is going to be hard to beat. But... that’s what’s cool, Ducati is sending Danilo with an Italian crew, that he’ll know and nothing against Baz, but they love Petrux, Tardozzi and crew were as emotional as he was and he was a KTM rider! Emotions will drive them to good things I hope.
They are all round and black (except for those weird colored ones from a few years back that they sold to street squids to do colored burnouts) but the difference between a good and bad tire might be fractions. A great rider might lose a fraction of a second of a second per lap on a “bad” tire. A complete change of a frame? New swing arm? New forks and shock? A click here and there on the suspension? can’t help but think about the “Kawasakis don’t like dunlops” spewings from the last few years. All it takes is time and cash and a lot of testing. If Ducati wants their bike to work with the ‘pops, all it’d take is cash and time (and maybe the right rider). years ago there really was a huge difference between Michelins and dunlops and there were Michelin riders and Dunlop riders (and a few weirdos that ran metzlers, Bridgestones and a tiny group of pirelli kooks). no idea if Ducati is serious time and if petrux is the guy.
One thing that should help Petrucci is that the team should have some data from 2021. Last year, they were starting most rounds without any track specific data as far as I know.
me either it’s fun to discuss though... and bulllllllssssshiiiiiiiittttt On the tires... did the colored ones have colored smoke?!?! That’d be sweet!!
He’ll stay fit unless he kicks ass... then he’ll pull a Gobert and see how fat he can get and still win haha
When I met him he was on the Ioda bike I think... he wasn’t fat but he looked like a cherub with his round face and puffy cheeks... he was a kid too then...
They were supposed to make colored smoke. They were harder than rocks, and don't even try them in the damp, let alone wet!
A few years back they did a tricolore stripe on a WSBK rear for a Italian round to celebrate something Italian. So RRW runs the Milan PR and literally 2 minutes after it hits the interweb we get a call to our office. And guess what I was the one that ALWAYS had to take those calls. Some Ducati nut, maybe Motion or some other crazed BBS peep, says I need one of those for my living room bike and I need it now. I say they made 20 and if you want one call Milan blah blah blah, and have a great day...
Yeap and I didn’t understand the hype of petriwhatever and kinda still don’t. Hope this happens and I’m proven to be a complete fool.
My excitement or hype is just because he’s such a likable guy, and it’s always nice when we have happy smiling genuine personalities to root on. And the tire thing... yeah a few tenths here and there adds up though. you brought up used to be big differences and riders for one brand or another... BB155 that year on the Dunlops comes to mind, he kicked ass got the factory ride and went backwards on the Bibindums... The spec tire racing is what I meant more of the impact on racing... for riders and machines