Over at Ducati News Today they love all things Ducati (clue is in the name!) and so we asked their editor Mark (no relation) to provide his take on the 2011 MotoGP season from a Ducati point of view.
How does the ultimate Ducati fan feel about the G.O.A.T’s first season on the red machine? Read on to find out:
The final MotoGP of the year in Valencia was for Valentino Rossi and Ducati a fractal of their entire season. In fact, in many ways, the final ever 800cc race was the epitome of the entire year. Casey Stoner wins, Ducati flounders and only rain could make an 800cc race exciting. For a Ducati GP fan, 2011 was clearly a year to forget as fast as possible.
No-one was more excited than Ducati News Today when it was announced that Valentino Rossi would team with Ducati for an all Italian assault on the MotoGP title. Afterall, we predicted this very occurrence back in September 2009 in a post entitled Why Valentino Rossi will Finish his Career on a Ducati.
On paper it was clearly a match made in heaven. Ducati, the most evocative racing marque and Rossi, 9 times champion, the undisputed King of MotoGP and contender for the title of G.O.A.T (Greatest of all Time). Few had much expectation that Rossi would struggle. Sure Casey Stoner seemed to crash as often as he finished a race but when he finished, it was invariably at the front.
In contrast, Rossi and his star crew chief, Jeremy Burgess had switched from all conquering Honda to Yamaha in 2004 and promptly won the opening race and the title, despite starting with a motorcycle that had only won two races in the previous two seasons. How hard could it be to tweak the Ducati to suit the master?
Despite the inauspicious start when Vale first swung a leg over a black Ducati Desmosedici during the 2010 post season test in Valencia, his lack of immediate speed was easy to explain away. After all, Rossi’s return from a broken leg on the Yamaha indicated that he had trouble with a shoulder injury from earlier in the season which would require surgery. He’d be on a newly manufactured Ducati GP11 for the next test and fresh from shoulder surgery so he’d be fast then right?
No. Just as it became patently obvious how slow Rossi was on a Ducati, to add insult to injury the former Bologna pilot, Casey Stoner, took to the Honda like he’d never been away from one and was usually, seemingly, effortlessly fastest. Still the fans kept the faith. At the opening round under the lights at Losail in Qatar Rossi qualified just 9th. Surely Burgess and company would discover some magic overnight and get Valentino on the pace? Again no. Rossi finished that first race in 7th position and had to become used to a series of poor qualifying performances and somewhat better race finishes.
Rossi would finish on the podium just once and not win a single race. In the second race in the rain at Jerez, he crashed and took out Stoner (Rossi was able to remount and finished 5th). He finished the championship in 7th position with team mate Nicky Hayden right behind him.
Ducati clearly felt the pressure to perform and started changing the motorcycle almost immediately. First there was a revised crankshaft and then an all new bike dubbed the GP11.1 for Assen. The revised model was essentially an 800cc version of the 2012 GP12 but there seemed little performance benefit despite Rossi (and Hayden once he got to ride it) preferring it.
At Aragon, the team added at least some of what many commentators had been clamoring for all season - aluminum. The inserts were a far cry from a full aluminum beam frame and the change necessitated the use of a 7th engine (due to the fact that the Ducati utilizes the engine as part of the frame so a change to the chassis means a new engine). This mean’t Vale started from the pit lane, the first rider to do so since the 6 engine limit was imposed.
At the very next round at Motegi in Japan Rossi looked to be on a podium race pace but he crashed out after only a few bends in a collision with Jorge Lorenzo. The crashing continued in Australia, this time with Valentino falling unaided and giving up 5th place as a consequence.
Things took a turn for the worse for the entire MotoGP community in Malaysia when Marco Simoncelli lost his life following a crash in the race which was red flagged and subsequently cancelled. Rossi took the loss harder than most as the two were good friends. So to the final round where a subdued paddock celebrated Marco’s all too short life and then put aside his loss to do battle one last time.
For Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden the race was over in just the first turn after a multi rider pileup. For Hayden the price was a fracture in his hand and an inability to participate in the post season test on the 1,000 spec Ducati. For that test, Ducati finally debuted a full, beam aluminum chassis but the results were still worrying. Rossi finished 6th fastest in a depleted field of riders but still 1.5 seconds slower than the rocketship Hondas. Ducati promise a new solution in 2012 for the first test in Malaysia at the end of January. It had better be good.
