It would appear that Rossi and his team have decided the Ducati GP11, the direct development of the bike Casey rode and crashed on, with the odd win, is a lost cause.

From this weekend Rossi is using the accelerated GP12 with 800cc engines recasted so they will fit.
This means Rossi is running engines number 4 and 5 (from a allowed 6) this weekend.

I guess if he can get a good result at Mugello the season isn't a total loss, and they get to live test the GP12 Chassis.

In other RED bike news, has anyone else read about Troy Bayliss testing the 1199?

Now THAT'S what I call a test rider!

As an Aussie I'm biased, but yes Bayliss is the perfect test rider for Ducati. He has not hidden his desire to return to racing, but I think the missus has other ideas.
I think Rossi should keep his mouth shut and start development for 2012, hopefully he'll start that season better prepared to take on Casey.

It will interesting to note that now that Rossi has effectively removed the comparison between him and Stoner by going into the 11.1 series. Will that feel more sweet for him to add the asterisk to the statement that Stoner finnished his last season on the GP10 in better place than Rossi on the 11.If Rossi had Stoner to contend with on the same bike, my guess is that Rossi would be looking like Hayden. I liked Ducati and had huge respect for their racing department till they chose to go the Rossi direction. I cant help but feel that their golden boy for the sales and marketing crew will create the problems and excuses for the racing division that no other racer has been "special" enough to screw up the works on before. They through Melandri out when he told them their bike was shit and Hayden is there to sell to the North American continent. Stoner needs no excuses, he got out of that Desmo everything it could give with more true grit than any other rider in the paddock. Rossi may never win another race in his career, Stoner will when more championships than Rossi races.

Rossi qualified worse than Abrams on the customer version, again.

That does not seem like a step forward to me, but perhaps Burgess and Rossi can come up with another last minute miracle setup for race day. Is it the bike or is Rossi past prime?

Rossi was 30.6 seconds behind Spies.

Or more telling, only 14.5 seconds ahead of Lorenzo who had stopped for a little rest at turn 4.

I'd say they have a bit of work to do.

I get the feeling that once Ducati can sort out their manufacturing process Rossi and Hayden will be more competitive.

I think its possible. Even Stoner complained that Ducati wouldnt listen when they both complained that they couldnt get two bikes to perform the same. I dont think Hayden is as good at development and having Rossi to push Ducati into fixing the manufacturing process will benefit Hayden. Whether or not he'll be a champ again....probably not.

I don't think Rossi or Ducati expect to win much at all this year BUT Rossi will bring millions in sponsorship to the team. That is good business and the money should pay to get the GP12 competitive.
Let's come back to this thread in a year.

Ducati wont progress until they start listening to thier riders. They are the same as Honda were a few years ago when they believed that thier computors, sensors and software on the bike could tell them more about what the bikes doing/requires than the rider could

If Ducati dont get it right with Burgess and Vale they dont stand a chance!!!!

I don't think its fair to say the M1 is now a pile of poo now Rossi's left.
Ben Spies didn't look slow to me on Saturday!
To be fair Honda have had the best bike for over a year now its just that Pedrosa 'needed' the level of competition from his team mate to spur him on.

I think Rossi's result on Saturday was actually better than it looked - its essentially a completely new bike and he had no chance to test the configuration they settled on for the race. So Rossi had to start a bit tentatively and build speed as he gained more confidence. The Ducati is probably about 0.5 - 0.75s per lap off which might suggest that it could even have the potential to be competitive this season.

I've got to agree though with a lot of the comments on here: how impressed are we now with Casey Stoner? He reminds me so much of Freddie Spencer: blinding speed on anything even a complete wheelbarrow coupled with the ability to go fast straight away. Out lap, pull trigger, set fastest lap, come in. Who does that? Just goes to show that it really was Stoner who made the Ducati look good.

Having said that I think its a mistake to write Rossi off. He isn't head and shoulders above the rest any more there are a number of very fast riders (you know who they are) and we might just be in for another golden age of MotoGp. Full grids and at least 5 potential race winners.

Anyone fancy doing some foreign Gps next year?
Assen, Le Mans, Aragon for example?

What's interesting though, is that Rossi is still in contention for a top 3 total points finish at the end of the year. Ducati is in the best position at the moment. They have an excuse to effectively test the 2012 bike all year, and a chance to win the championship this year. I don't think Dorna would have allowed anyone else besides Rossi ride the 2012 chassis in 2011. What if Stoner crashes out for the season? That puts Rossi 3rd and only 20 points out of the championship. Stoner's results turned to crap when Ducati introduced the carbon fiber chassis back in 09. Rossi is now on a more predictably tune-able aluminium chassis with 11 races left in the season.

Val isn't done by a longshot,,,, be serious,,,,,,,,the bike is shite,,,,,,,,the latest ,aint alway's the greatest,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

^^^^^^ Thanks Ash.

Actually, Stoner and Hayden both said that they voiced concerns over not having any two bikes ride the same and Ducati didn't do anything about it.

5th yesterday at Mugello in a stunningly fast race. And fourth in the riders championship. Not sooo bad.

6th place in the Italian GP, 26.46 seconds from Lorenzo winning it, is a humiliating disaster for Rossi.

At least later on in the season, if they manage to improve the bike we'll be in for some fireworks - because today MUST have provided some motivation.

I may be a bit out of sync when it comes to how a rider brings a cash lay out from a perspective customers pocket to help lock in the sell of such items. Is it possible that more Yamaha's were sold when Rossi was riding that machine? is there something to be said when a person is about to buy an energy drink that because a winner drinks or pretends to drink or more likely has at least an ensignia of the drink on thier helmet it truely helps the sell of said item?
If so, it probably takes winning to get the association with the product. If a winner shows that there is not a chance in hell of winning on a new machine, would not said machine company actually be shooting themselves in the foot hiring a winner that is now a looser on the new companies machine.
I wonder if this is not going to byte Ducati in the ass.
It was nice to see some racing today and good on 58 for not punting 11 off the track.
That little red head Smith is only getting faster, He showed some sticktoitidness against Bradl today.

Rossi had a horrible start and was stuck at the back. He did a great job moving up to 6th, but by then the top 5 were already long gone. Hayden nearly crashed out and went off the track, but recovered and did ok considering he was dead last after the near fall. Disappointingly, Rossi could not break the 1m 49s lap time even when he pulled out in front of the second pack, whereas the top 5 would run 1m 48s occasionally. Maybe, by the time he worked his way up to 6th, he gave up on trying to catch Spies and Simoncelli since they were about 20s ahead by then, so he went on cruise control to keep from crashing out.

Stoner is in no way the next Mick Doohan. He had a huge lead at the start, but never was able to check out of town like Mick used to. The fact that Lorenzo and Dovizioso were able reign him in was just embarrassing. It was great to see Ben Spies totally stuff Simoncelli. He pulled off a Simoncelli pass on Simoncelli minus the crash out. I could just imagine Ben saying to himself "that's how it's done bitch, now stay back there".

Great race.....Lorenzo stunning ....some of the best overtakes we have seen this year......on last years bike

Dovizioso best ride to date....looks like he meant it