Ducati Blog

Casey Stoner to retire after 2012 season, Valentino Rossi not for another two years

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:00:36 +0000

There’s no denying what Casey Stoner has done for Ducati, so to hear news like this saddens us not only because we’re motorcycle fans, but also because we’ve followed Ducati in its ups and downs in racing. Majority of the ups, clearly, were given to us by a devilish Australian racer by the name of Casey Stoner.

Casey announced his retirement at the Le Mans press conference Thursday afternoon, followed by a rather direct and straightforward explanation of his reasons. The complete (unedited) text of everything he said can be read below.

As per Valentino, naturally, the same question could not be avoided, especially since he’s the one under the retirement spotlight for the past couple of weeks. How the media came to this two-year conclusion can be read after Casey’s.

Word-for-word of Casey’s retirement announcement

“After a long time thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife, this has been coming for a couple of years now but at the end of this 2012 season I will be not racing in the 2013 Championship. I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP, and go forward in different things in my life.”

“After so many years of doing this sport which I love, and which myself and my family made so many sacrifices for, after so many years of trying to get to where we have gotten to at this point, this sport has changed a lot and it has changed to the point where I am not enjoying it. I don’t have the passion for it and so at this time it’s better if I retire now.”

“There are a lot of things that have disappointed me, and also a lot of things I have loved about this sport, but unfortunately the balance has gone in the wrong direction. And so, basically, we won’t be continuing any more. It would be nice if I could say I would stay one more year, but then where does it stop? So we decided to finish everything as we are now.”

Casey’s explanation follows (after the press conference, when the media were given the opportunity to ask questions)

You said you are disappointed in things, would you mind elaborating a bit. Are you talking about the CRT, or the control tires? The things that have annoyed you a bit recently?

It’s not just annoying me. I’ve been watching this championship for a long time, and it’s very easy to see what works and what doesn’t. This championship and everything that I’ve worked towards to get here, it’s been a huge dream of mine, and then you get here, you race for a few years, and you realize a lot of things, whether it’s people having no faith in you, whether it’s people not believing in your talent, or the changes that have happened to the championship.

2009 to be honest was a big eye-opener for me. Everybody still thinks to this day says it’s a mystery illness, the fact that nobody understands that I have a lactose intolerance, that it’s really critical to me if I do have any. It’s not of the type that everyone thinks it is, you know, it just basically takes my energy, it stops me from absorbing nutrients. And so the fact that nobody has listened to me about that. There have been many, many things that have over time just taken its toll.

The way I see the championship heading, the direction I see it heading, and the fact that in 2009 I really realized what was important, and that’s family, it’s happiness, money isn’t everything, and I think I’m one of the few riders who can actually say they’ve retired when they’ve stopped enjoying it. My passion has slowly ebbed away from this championship. You yourselves, the media, have not exactly been friendly to this championship, and criticizing it many times, especially recently. And people don’t realize that everyone is bringing it down themselves, they are saying that the racing is boring, this is boring, that’s boring, and if you go back some years ago, you’ll find the same amount of races that were either close or not.

I think people just need to appreciate what they have in front of them at this time, and I think everybody in this room needs to realize what championship they have before it’s gone. I think it would be really nice to see some fantastic racing out at the front, but with only a few factory bikes out there, it’s not going to happen any time soon. There needs to be more high-quality bikes out there so that people like Randy [de Puniet] can be running where he deserves to be, and not so far behind 12th position. There’s just no way for them to get anywhere near the factory bikes.

This championship this year is separated, the first of the CRTs comes into Parc Ferme after the race, I can’t remember, definitely after qualifying, and it’s clearly separating it. This isn’t a two-standard series. This is the MotoGP championship, this is a prototype championship. People can say all they want about the past, that it started out as very standard machines and basically progressed to prototype machines, and now we’re just taking the opposite step and going backwards. It’s not starting again from the beginning, it’s going backwards.

It’s not the championship I fell in love with, it’s not the championship I always wanted to race in, and except for my competitors around me, they’re the only ones who give respect to each other, nobody else has enough respect out there for the people that do their jobs, work in the teams, work on the trucks, and put this show on every week, it’s not easy, you know. There’s many many reasons, but it’s basically me losing my passion for the racing and my enjoyment of this sport. Sure I’m going to enjoy this year, but I think if I continue, then it would only be a mistake on my behalf, it wouldn’t be correct to Honda, and my team, everybody if I didn’t give 110%.

You had a test in a V8 Supercar recently. It’s closer to home and less travel, is that something that interests you?

It’s by no means any part of my decision. This has been coming for a long time, it’s not something that just happened. I have tested the V8 car, but that’s also something I’ve been trying to do for the last 3 or 4 years, to be honest, and finally it happened. So there’s no coincidence to this whatsoever. Also the birth of my little girl has absolutely nothing to do with this. It has a small part of making the decision easier, but by no means is it the reason why I made this decision.

Yes, V8 is something I’m definitely going to be interested to do in the future, whether I will be fast enough or not is another thing, and that would be, not in the near future, very immediate future. But yes, there’s many things I’d like to do with my life. To be honest, I don’t want to keep racing bikes to the point where I completely lose my passion. I don’t want finish racing and not want to ride a bike for the next 5, 10 years. I love bikes, this has been my whole life, and if I keep doing it, I’m afraid I’ll lose completely my passion for it and not want to even go near a bike for the next 10 years, and that would scare me. So, for many many reasons, but the V8 thing and things like that is nothing to do with it.

Is this a definitive retirement? This is the first time I saw a young, talented rider retire so early without an injury. Don’t you think this is a waste of talent?

You must tell me. This is maybe not a waste of talent, it’s a waste of life for me if I continue doing it. I know I can go out there, even if I’m not enjoying it, I can go out there and I’ll still do the same results and give everything I can, because my competitive nature will then take over, where the passion cannot hold.

But no, to be honest, this is … difficult to explain… Maybe I am the first one, the young one with a good career ahead of them to retire so early, but at the same time, you know I’ve spoken the truth, always. In all my media commitments, even in the last race, in Portugal. I didn’t lie to anybody, the information got out, I don’t know how or by who, but I hadn’t even decided by then. So it was wrong information. I’ve only decided in this last week 100% what my decision is, so we’re not sure how it got out. The fact that I don’t lie is the same, you know, every rider here says always the same, “When I stop feeling the passion for this sport I will retire,” but I don’t think there’s many riders out there that can say that this is actually the truth. Because there’s always something holding them here, whether it’s money, or the fame, or whatever it is, there are other aspect that keep them here. I think I’ve seen other riders lose their passion for the sport, lose their fun in the sport, and still continue to race.

Are you satisfied with what you achieved in your career? What do you think you will leave to this sport?

I don’t know, it’s not up to me to say what I’m going to leave to this sport, and maybe I’ll still have some involvement, if I can find the energy to maybe help some young riders, to do something.

But I’m not really sure what I leave. We’ve had a great career, we’ve had some fantastic races, and I believe that even after my first championship in 2007, already I had reached my goal. This was my dream, to become world champion. When you’re younger, to become multiple times world champion, but when you arrive closer to Grand Prix and arrive in Grand Prix, reality is a little bit more realistic, but I never stopped trying, no matter how much criticism I got for riding the Ducati, and no matter how much criticism I got for crashing, different things like this in the past, you know, this has all helped, to be honest, to arrive at the point where we are today, and helped my decision to be a little easier. I don’t believe I will be leaving anything behind, I’m very happy with the career that I’ve had this far, in such a short space, to have had the race wins that I’ve had, the battles that I’ve had, the success, and also the problems that I’ve had. So it’s been a difficult up-and-down road, but it’s been a fantastic one, so I won’t have regrets.

[Original source]

And now for Rossi’s short comment on the retirement issue—the two-year deal

“For me it’s very difficult to understand where the news starts because I never speak about my retirement, and I want to race in MotoGP for the next two years for sure.”

Rossi and the gang back to where they last saw some kind of success – Le Mans

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:23:43 +0000

This weekend will be round four of the MotoGP championship, and it will remind all in Ducati that it has been a year since they last had some sort of success. MotoGP and VR46 fans will not forget Vale’s first and only podium finish (3rd) on a Ducati here last year.

Anyhow, more on this over the weekend but for now let’s look at some recent press releases on the upcoming GP and the cancelled testing in Portugal.

Valentino Rossi

“It’s a shame that we lost the post-race test in Portugal because we would have continued our development work, and as we had very recent data from the race, we could have made some interesting comparisons. Still, this won’t influence us much from a technical point of view at Le Mans, as any updates would have arrived later anyway. In France, we’ll prepare for the race by working on the bike like we did at Estoril, starting from the base setup that we’re now a bit more familiar with and trying to continue with the settings one step at a time, in such a way that we reach Sunday at the maximum of our current potential. Le Mans is another place where the weather can be challenging, particularly at this time of year, but it’s also the track where I had my best result with the Ducati last year. We’ll see how it goes, but we’d like to do a little better than we did in Portugal.”

Nicky Hayden

“I certainly wouldn’t say Le Mans is my favourite track on the calendar, but there are some things that I like about it. Sometimes it lacks grip somewhat, which I don’t like so much. On the other hand, it has a fair amount of hard braking, and I think some of those parts should suit our bike well. It will also be interesting to be at a different type of track compared to what we’ve seen so far this year.”

Vittoriano Guareschi, Team Manager

“Le Mans is a bit strange, a classic stop-and-go track that’s very different from Estoril. This will give us an opportunity to check the work that we’re doing on the GP12’s setup: Valentino used it all weekend at the last GP, so we’ll continue like that in an effort to also make progress at Le Mans, where he had a really nice race last year. Though this isn’t one of Nicky’s preferred circuits, he’ll also use the experience he has gathered while using this setup on the GP12 since the start of the championship.”

Complex magazine compiles a list of the 20 best movies with Ducatis

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:25:19 +0000

Ducati—the brand, the phenomenon—is a star in its own right. Complex magazine agrees, and according to them, “Aside from Harley-Davidson, Ducati might be the most distinct and recognizable name in the motorcycle industry.” With all due respect to Harley-Davidson, we’ll take that as a strong compliment.

Ducatis in movies; had I not read this list I would have said (with confidence) that I could name at least 12. I’m sure you can as well, because mind you, these are not just movies we’re (they’re) talking about, these are blockbusters.

Our favorite? Tough one, but I guess I’m gonna have to say a tie between Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps—just because of the use of 2 Ducatis (Streetfighter & Desmosedici RR), and The Matrix Reloaded Fled (1996)—because of the awesome chase scene, and because we know for sure that Laurence Fishburne is the one actually rockin’ that 916.

Read: The 20 Best Ducatis In Movies

BMW S1000RR faster than Ducati 1199 Panigale according to a couple of videos, but uglier according to us

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:58:40 +0000

Two major motorcycle magazines-cum-websites released shootout videos of European superbikes. Our very own Ducati 1199 Panigale was pitted against the BMW S1000RR and the Aprilia RSV4 by MCN and Motorcycle.com—the two released their videos within an hour of the other.

However, as of writing this, Motorcycle.com’s video seems to be experiencing technical difficulties.

Below is MCN’s video.

The foregone conclusion is that, while the Ducati is much faster (straight line) than the BMW, it can’t beat the low-rev lunge the BMW is capable of, which is all too important when cornering. In addition, the BMW is much cheaper. The Aprilia, on the other hand, is a mighty capable bike as well, but the one clear thing we remember from the review is their praise for the V4 sound.

Thanks for the reviews, guys, but we’ll take the Panigale any day, any time, over the BMW.

Photos borrowed from Motorcycle.com.

That awesome Ducati auction held last weekend at Monaco

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:35:25 +0000

The Saltarelli Collection

I know, we were kind of in the dark with this one as well. RM Auctions, one of the world’s top auction organizers (?), put together an auction last May 11-12 at The Grimaldi Forum, Monaco.

Like most grand auctions, it had everything—two wheels to four wheels, and everything in between. However, what’s even more special for this auction (for us, at least), is the Ducati Saltarelli Collection of over 100 rare Ducatis.

Saltarelli what?

Saltarelli is Carlos Saltarelli, a hardcore motorcycle enthusiast who started working at a Ducati dealer at age 16. Naturally, he had riding skills. Ducati was so impressed with his riding that they made him an official test rider for factory bikes. After that, he was promoted to race test rider, and eventually put up Team Saltarelli, a motorcycle racing team.

His Ducati collection was amassed for over three decades.

Here’s the official digital pamphlet showcasing each lot (bike).

Here’s a list of what sold at the auction, starting at the most expensive.

Bad day for Ducati at one of the best racing days in World Superbike history

admin — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:56:58 +0000

If you are an avid follower of World Superbike, you’d know that there hasn’t been a race as exciting as last Sunday’s for some time now. Even better was that not one of the two races failed to impress. To say the least, they were nail biters from start to finish.

As we are all racing fans here, even without Ducati goodness, below are the highlights of both races

As for Ducati’s luck, Checa and Davide Giugliano finished sixth and seventh in the first race; they both crashed at turn 1 on the second. Checa is now fourth in the championship with 105.5 points, behind Rea (108), Sykes (123.5), and Biaggi (128.5).

Carlos’ press release

“After the result of race 1, which wasn’t bad, I thought I’d be able to do more in the second. I tried to start strong and found a good position but when I got to the apex I saw Laverty in front of me and he braked suddenly, maybe there was a rider in front of him I don’t know. I did everything I could to brake, to stop the bike, but there were riders all around me and I couldn’t avoid a fall. My leg is a bit sore and a little swollen but I’m ok. I need a couple of days to get over this result and then I’ll start preparing for Miller.”

Davide’s press release

“It’s a shame because the day had started out fairly positively. We had seen in race 1 that we had a strong pace and we were certain that we could do better in the second. I started race 2 convinced that I could be up there with the top four but unfortunately what happened at the first corner penalized me too. We have however demonstrated that we have good pace and now we go on to America, a track that I don’t know, to see what we can do there.”

Ducati believes a bike Valentino likes is a bike good for all riders

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:18:56 +0000

Alright, so the fuss here is based entirely on what Ducati Corse boss Filippo Preziosi had to say on the Estoril press conference. The main point is that Ducati will have a whole new package by the Laguna Seca GP in July. This includes an engine that journalists, time and again surmised, will not use the full 1,000 cc limit.

The summary of his press release can be seen in parts below.

Preziosi talks about driveability—more low-end torque and less top-end power

“We are working on improving the driveability. One of these items is an engine that has more torque at low rpm and less power at high revs. Usually this kind of engine gives better driveability. For the engine we have now, we have a lot of torque even at low rpm, and in fact we are not opening the throttle body at low rpm, because the torque is more than the chassis is able to use. So for that reason there is a question mark that only our riders can answer – if it makes sense to add more torque and less top power, even with this kind of engine? So we are very interested to test this engine to get an answer to this question.”

Preziosi talks about releasing the “new package” at Laguna

“We think that we will end up at Laguna Seca with a complete package. We have different items we think will be good, so we are optimistic about our three tests at Mugello in May, June and July. We will test this package and should be ready for Laguna. The plan is to test with Valentino in May, and Nicky in May, June and July. July is an after race test and May and June are private tests. The first test is after Le Mans. Unfortunately we cannot test it today. If the riders are happy with the changes, we are ready to supply the third engine for Silverstone with that spec.”

Preziosi talks about what the title of this article says

“For sure this challenge is being done because we want to build a bike for Valentino, because we believe that a bike Valentino likes, is a good bike for all the riders. We are following the direction of what he suggests. Of course we are trying to do that at the best of our capability, which is not enough right now to be faster than Honda. But for sure we will try in the direction that Valentino shows us. We give Jeremy 100 per cent freedom to define with Valentino what the best set-up is. So as Ducati, our duty is just to supply material, and we believe that the crew chief is imperative in the box. The way of working is to put the right person in the right position and allow that person to do what he thinks is best. We can suggest what our ideas are, but the final decision, day by day, practice by practice, is made by Jeremy speaking with Valentino.”

[Source]

Ducati outs sneak preview of impressive World Ducati Week 2012

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:29:21 +0000

World Ducati Week 2012 is just right around the corner and it’s looking mighty impressive. Dubbed “The Planet of Champions”, this year’s event will revolve around five theme-based areas showcasing the company’s commitment to passion for two wheels.

Ducati 1199 Panigale notches first official race victory in “okay” fashion

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:59:18 +0000

We knew it wouldn’t take this long…

Lorenzo Savadori of Barni Racing Team Italia gave the Ducati 1199 Panigale its first win in its class of racing, last Sunday at Monza, for the FIM Superstock 1000.

Why just “okay?”

Well, the victory was due partly to the race leader—Sylvain Barrier, riding a BMW—falling in the final laps of the race. Still, a win is a win. With the victory, Lorenzo Savadori takes the championship lead with a total of 53 points, next to Barrier’s unchanged 50.

Another Barni Racing Team Italia and Ducati rider, Eddi La Marra, placed third in the race. All in all, it was a good day for Ducati.

Read the official news entry from WORLDSBK.COM.

Rossi qualifies ninth, considers “step forward”; Hayden tenth, blames tires

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 02:29:34 +0000

And all of a sudden, I post something Ducati-related

The Ducati MotoGP experience is, well, for lack of a better word, appalling. I started this blog when Stoner what at his prime for Ducati, then when Valentino, the greatest of all time stepped in, I was like, “Man, this is going to be something special.” Here we are more than a year later, still hoping after every practice, after every qualifying, after every race. And none.

Anyway, I’ll do my best to keep this blog updated this season. So let’s start of with a mini post and read Rossi and Hayden’s thoughts on yesterday’s qualifying at Estoril.

Valentino Rossi (9th @ 1:38.059)

“The day wasn’t bad in the end. We’re on the third row, 0.8 seconds behind pole position, and we’re matching the pace of the intermediate group, after the top four. We’ve worked better this weekend, steadily making small improvements, and now I’m able to ride closer to the limit and push harder on the bike. We have a lot of work to do, especially on acceleration, where we’re losing time, but for sure it’s our best session so far. Tyres will be important, because the soft is difficult to manage to the end, whereas with the hard, it’s very difficult to push in the beginning. We’re leaning toward the soft, but we’ll wait for tomorrow to decide.”

Nicky Hayden (10th @ 1:38.253)

“Obviously, this isn’t where we wanted to be. I’m one second from the top, which sometimes isn’t that far off, but here I’m in tenth place. All weekend, we just haven’t been able to find that last little bit, as I’ve had a lot of little problems. For whatever reason, we’re not getting the bike to work the tyre properly, and it’s not really gripping the track. I used the same hard tyre the entire morning session, so I thought I’d take more of a step in qualifying. Some of my used tyres still look like new, but they’re just spinning. On a positive note, I went much faster than I did here last year in qualifying.”

Good luck today, guys. Fingers crossed.