WSB != Ducati Championship

I've just seen the qualifying times for the Qatar WSB round.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/4298635.stm

There are only two Ducatis in the top 15 (Laconi & Toseland),
so what's happened? Have the Japs simply caught up and
overtaken the Ducatis due to better developments
or is it that the Ducatis are lacking in their own development,
(possibly due to too much finance going to the MotoGP bikes)?

Although I'd like Kawasaki to once again be a force in,
well any sort of racing really, it's not going to happen
just yet so I'm going to root for Kagayama this year.

 

STFO.

"In a rain-hit final qualifying session ..."

 

Well, they wouldn't expect it to rain in Qatar, would they? That was
prolly the entire allocation of rain for the whole year - most of
their precipitation comes in the form of camel spit, dunnit?

It might come out for the best if it lays the dust a bit and the
corners aren't covered in fine sand for once.

 

thanks for the reminder. clock set for 7.30am.

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CT emerged from their own little world to say

Ducati Xerox

Huh. The cunts only sponsored tennis & golf when I worked for them. Hope
Ducati Corse have had the money up front or they'll be waiting a long time
for the cheques to arrive.

 

There has only ever been one official factory Ducati squad - all the others
were privateers/semi-privateers. Now the rules allow 1000cc four cylinder
bikes and now the Japanese actories have got over their strop about the
one-make tyre rule[1] they are providing a bit of unofficial help to a few
teams (Yamaha, for example have two teams run by national arms - Yamaha
France and Yamaha Italia).

To get a competitive Ducati you need about £250,000 per bike. To get a
competitive 4-cylinder bike you need abou £50-75,000. So most of the
non-factory teams (officially that's all of 'em except Xerox Ducati and
Foggy Petronas) are running 4-cyl bikes as it is cheaper to be competitive.
I think seeing Vermeulen kicking arse last year on the Fireblade helped make
a few minds up too...

Its pretty much a similar story in BSB this year, too.

Dave

[1] Which has actually worked in their favour 'cos before the Factory
Ducatis (and Castrol Honda) were running far superior tyres to everyone
else. Now they all get he same and race control are allowed, if they want,
to take the tyres off one team and swap them with another team at random to
ensure no favouritism etc.

 

To be honest I wouldn't place too much store on the times. It was wet.

Indeed.


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