My Take on MotoGP 2006

One of the things I think has been overlooked too often in discussion
of the championship this year is the fact that the whole team wins the
championship, not simply the rider. I would not argue for one second
that Hayden could beat Rossi in a straight fight on equal machinery,
though I think it might be much closer than some think.

One item I noticed was this: Rossi claimed his bike began overheating
at Valencia as a result of being stuck behind Stoner.

http://www.cyclenews.com/ShowStory.asp?HeadlineID=10118

He claims that the motor was about 15% down on power due to the
excessive engine temperature. In addition, Rossi's Laguna Seca DNF
was caused by overheating. A chunked tire led to slower speeds and an
inadequate airflow through the cooling system. Both of those suggest
that a decision was made to design/configure the bike, engine and
cooling system a little closer to the edge than was probably wise.

To me, the overheating issue coupled with the early season chatter
issue and the engine failure in France (I never heard what caused that)
tells me that the Yamaha team certainly didn't get things right all
season. With Hayden's seemingly perpetual clutch issues and a
perceived lack of complete support from Honda, I'd say that Honda
also didn't get things completely right and that both teams were
approximately on equal footing as far as a fully functioning team goes.


That leaves Rossi's tire failure down to what I'd call random
chance (though some might argue he over-rode the bike and cooked the
tire himself) and his self-induced DNF in Valencia and self-induced
poor result in Assen. Say what you will, but I see every reason to
hold Hayden as a worth world champion viewed in overall context.
Hayden and Honda as a team just got it right more often than Rossi and
Yamaha as a team.

 

+1

 

Yeah. After reading that Rossi went up a notch in my eyes. Not that
he was really all that low to begin with... Very much the sportsman
that I wish were present in all forms of racing.

 

That is not how I read what was written. I read it as he was stuck
behind Stoner as a *result* of his engine being down on power.

 

I stand my my interpretation, though it doesn't change the jist of my
assertion above even if the statement is interpreted differently.

"The problem was that the motor on his Camel Yamaha M1 wasn't getting
any air. He was stuck between Casey Stoner and Chris Vermeulen, two
MotoGP rookies, and losing power as the temperature increased. It
peaked at 120 Celsius, a figure he believes robbed the engine of 15
percent of its power.

"Which meant that he could stay in the draft of Stoner's Honda
RC211V, but couldn't pass. 'And for that reason I push a little bit
too much and make the mistake,' he said."

 

Amusing that you guys laud Rossi for saying those things about Hayden
and his family, but nothing generous about Hayden and his family
actually being those kind of people...

 

I thought about that very briefly when I was writing it but I suppose
I've always thought of Hayden as such and included him in that category
without mention. As I've said before (or words to the effect),
Hayden's almost too nice a guy to succeed in MotoGP. Fortunately, I've
been proven wrong.

 

is there a motogp regulation against having movable ductwork in the
fairing.

if there's an overheating problem, fairings can be designed w/ a
supplemental exhaust duct which could be flipped open by the rider.

w

 

In the past, 125 & 250cc bike used to take the front guard off the bike when
temperatures rose to increase airflow to the radiator
I'm not sure if MotoGP have a seperate regulation

 

i think these days it's all about sensors and electronics - more flow does
not do much when those are outta whack, and i suspect that was the issue.

 

<friendly ribbing>

Gee, you must be in TIGHT with Rossi...

</friendly ribbing>

 

Actually, Rossi went up quite a notch in my eyes when I saw the
replay here (San Diego) on Speedvision (something I'd not have seen in the
UK unless someone sent me a bootleg DVD of the race...) -- his coming up to
Nicky on the slowdown and warmly congratulating him said a lot about Vale's
personality and priorities. A runner-up always looks a lot better when a)
he at least fought to the best of his ability, and b) he respects rather than
despises his vanquisher.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

One thing you have to remember about the Haydens (Tommy, Nicky, and RL) is
that they are all Catholic schoolboys from Kentucky. If their parents didn't
teach them manners, then the nuns damn well made them learn...
is that they all were Catholic schoolboys

 

i am not sure why anyone would be surprised. rossi has always been very
gracious to others. and he can afford to be far more easy going than the
others given his title resume.

people sometimes confuse aggressive moves -and did you see hayden pushing
for rossi and then pushing him to the side?- with lack of sportsmanship.
motorcycle racing is tougher than most people realize, it may look like
ballet, but these guys are always slamming holes and pushing extremely hard.

at the end of the day, there are guys that seem to have their on- and
off-track personalities together, and then there are the guys who seem not
to (biaggi being a notorious one that comes to mind).

rossi has always been extremely gracious and gentlemany in his off-track
persona.

 

I suspect that in his heart of hearts, he'd rather Capirossi won it.
But it was a nice thing to say.

 

I agree with your statement.

--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

I have heard Rossi say that Capirossi is the best rider in the world,
and that young Vale worshipped Loris as a racer. (This was back in the
500cc days.)

--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

See I have to wonder why it seems HRC wasn't supporting the Repsol team.
I have heard people mentioning this the entire second half of the season.

What logical reason could there be for Repsol not being as fully
supported as possible? It makes no sense to me. They definitely were
the best RC211Vs out there, with the possible exception of the Proton
bike which isn't really the same thing.

Aside from the clutch thing, which I could understand taking a few races
to fix (didn't notice Pedrosa having this problem, so I attributed it to
rider weight,) what non-choice parts was Repsol having problems with?

Wasn't Hayden running a shorter wheelbase bike than Pedrosa? Was he 2nd
in line for new parts?

Curious...

--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

How much was chassis and how much tires? If the Brno bike was effectively an
'05 Evo/800 hybrid, how much did Michelin put into designing a tire to suit
it?

 

I doubt they did anything of that sort. The tire companies' statements
on the 800s so far have been that they haven't designed any different
tires for them, thinking the currenty stuff will work fine. That's
based on the bikes being of equal weight to the 990s but making less
power. The Michelin runners had pretty much gone to the "fat" front at
the beginning of the year (the Yamahas being the exception, most of the
time), but have now evolved to a smaller one again with the latest
compounds (interestingly concurrent with Rossi's improved
performances). This might be an evolution with the 800s in mind. My
guess is that they'll just experiment with subtle changes once the
bikes are all in serious testing, which starts at Sepang in a couple
weeks.