With Stoner's last season in progress, it made me think back to the reason Rossi left Yamaha. It seemed he was shooting himself in the foot to me and events have shown it to be, in hindsight, a poor decision.
I really miss the genius of this guy moving through the field at will, showing off why he was the top alien.
Stoner's exit from MotoGP seems equally surreal as far as well thought out reasons go. Will he go out as number 1 two years running?
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Rossi doesn't like two #1 riders or Stoner would have been on the Yamaha with him, hence not wanting to be on a team with Lorenzo.
That and Furusawa's retirement.
It would be cool to see this type of review of the other bikes.
Do we know for sure that Rossi had a choice to stay at Yamaha? I seem to remember his offer was reportedly a fraction of what he was making previously and less than Lorenzo.
Rossi took Yamaha from an uncompetitive joke to the best bike on the grid, and once they had a rider perceived to be better than Rossi, dropped him. At least that is the way it looked at the time.
Originally Posted by sburns2421
Lorenzo was the new champion, the first rider to beat Rossi on the same bike. That in itself diminished Rossi's bargaining power. Rossi wasn't dropped. He chose to leave.
The Yamaha was far from an uncompetitive bike in 2003. It was the best of the rest after the Repsol Hondas. Rossi and Burgess developed the Yamaha from good to brilliant. Unfortunately they then proceeded to take a proven race winner (the 2010 Ducati) and develop it into an uncompetitive joke.
"Life is like a sewer. You only get out of it what you put in."
Tom Lehrer.
It was the best of the rest but it was getting beaten by 3 or 4 Hondas, so it was far from the best bike. Still wasn't in 2004, Rossi was just better than the rest of the field at the time. Lorenzo was starting to really challenge and prove himself as an equal but he didn't really beat Rossi outright for the Championship. Had Rossi not broken his leg then it would have been closer, I'm not saying Rossi would have won but there's no guarantee that Lorenzo would have kept beating him the whole season. 2010 would have probably been a cracker of a season with the title down to the wire had Rossi stayed healthy. But it did diminish his luster with Yamaha. He was getting older, Lorenzo was up and coming and they wanted to give Rossi a pay cut that they told him at the time was due to economics which he had been ok with until he found out at least some of his pay cut was going to Lorenzo's salary and that irked him so he jumped ship. The man doesn't like the even the idea of being equal to his teammate. He's barely ahead of Nicky right now.
As far as the turning the Ducati into an uncompetitive joke, Stoner is the only reason the Ducati WAS competitive. How many others have ridden that bike, proven talents and race winners who have done mediocre at best on that bike. Seems to me that the BIKE is the issue and Stoner was the only one able to make it competitive which makes his success on it all the more remarkable. Hell, Melandri went from finishing the Championship in the top 5 three years in a row (including 2nd) on a satellite Honda to basically being the Safety bike sweeping up way at the back of the field on the Duc. Ducati even made him see a shrink because it couldn't have been the bike...
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I was being a litte facetious about the Rossi/Ducati thing. Apologies if that didn't come across in my post. We need a "sarcasm" smilie. But I don't agree that we should in any way discount the 2010 season because of Rossi's leg fracture. Part of the rider's job is to avoid crashing and therefore the risk of injury. In previous seasons it was Jorge who did the crashing. 2010 was Rossi's turn. Even if we were to discount the races Rossi missed due to injury, and the following 3 races until Rossi won again (just to be charitable), Lorenzo would still have lifted the 2010 title.
If we introduce caveats into the history books we would never finish arguing!
"Life is like a sewer. You only get out of it what you put in."
Tom Lehrer.
Yamaha had won two races (with Biaggi) in 2002, zero wins in 2003. At the time Ducati in 2003 had just entered the series, won a race, and Capirossi was fourth and Bayliss sixth in the final standings to the best Yamaha of Checa in seventh place. Yamaha only had one podium the entire 2003 season with Barros.
At the time the Yamaha was on its way down while Ducati was on its way up.
In hindsight it was probably a foolish move on Rossi's part that he and Burgess made work in 2004. History may remember their move to Ducati in 2011 as folly on an uncompetitive bike, but the move in 2004 was at least as risky. I would say the 2003-M1 was a less competitive bike than the GP10.
Rossi went where the money was,and to swear allegiance to the flag,home town hero .
I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure?.
The yamaha mite of only had those couple of wins but how many podiums did they get??
Everyone still craps on about how Rossi and burgess turned the yamaha around! But there are a bunch of others involved in the saga as well that never gets mentioned.
For instances it was actually Barros who instigated the new cross plain configuration in telling yamaha that the bike needed more torque like the Honda.
And the man who designed the cross plane engine can't think of his name .
What if they never had the cross plain engine when Rossi jumped ship would things be different !
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Also Honda had the jump on yamaha when they changed from 500s to 4strokes?
Remembering that the first season or two the repsol hondas were up against outdated 2strokes?
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Yamaha had the M1 in 2002. The private teams used the YZR.
IIRC the Yamaha at first didn't even have fuel injection. Biaggi still managed to win twice on it in '02.
Suzuki, Aprilia, & Yamaha all had four strokes from the get go in the 990 era.
Correct but they all got caught with there pants down except Honda.
Remember it was Honda that forced the change .And Malandri didn't to bad on the yammi either?
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http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2012/Apr/120413-1046.htm
Last 2 paragraphs are very interesting.
Aprilia RSV4R White.
Melandri's best finish in 2003 was a fifth (he was hurt early in the season IIRC).
In Rossi's championship year of 2004 Melandri had two podiums on the Yamaha.
I also think all of the manufacturers agreed to the switch to four-strokes. It is something that had been discussed for a decade or more in general terms. Honda had dominated the championship since Doohan, you have to wonder if it really was in their interest to spend multiple times more money to develop the RC211V than the old NSR500.
and back to the subject . . .
Stoner has always impressed me with his skill but his decidedly negative nature has not, it appears that this half-empty attitude caused him to see the changes in MGP as a problem instead of an opportunity.
No one but Rossi knows if he left or was asked to leave but it is known that Yamaha wanted to pay him a lot less.
potere - italian for power
have M1 permit, will travel
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