With the big news finally out that Rossi is Red, talk will now turn to how competitive Valentino Rossi will be on the Ducati Desmosedici, a bike that only Casey Stoner has tamed in the 800cc era. A comparison to the situation with the Honda to Yamaha switch in 2004 indicates there is little to be concerned about.
The Ducati Desmosedici has been criticized in the racing media for being a one man bike, a machine that only Casey Stoner can race and win on (and not even him so far in 2010) whilst nearly ending the careers of other aspirants such as Loris Capirossi, Marco Melandri and Nicky Hayden.
Whilst it is true that all 20 of the Ducati victories in the 800cc era have come at the hand of Stoner (who is now Honda bound), this year significant revisions to the power delivery due to a change to a big bang firing order have tamed the beast somewhat.
This change has allowed Hayden to obtain far better results than last year even as Stoner has seemed to have struggled compared to his 2009 form (a 3 race sit out due to undiagnosed lactose intolerance notwithstanding).
However all of this pales as an issue when compared to what Valentino and Jeremy Burgess faced in 2004 when they left the title winning Honda V5 990cc RC211V to climb aboard the inline four Yamaha M1 which had only won 2 races in the entire 2 year MotoGP era, both of those in 2002 with Max Biaggi at the helm. Despite this apparent major setback, by the first race in South Africa in 2004, Rossi took victory on a revised bike that was still lacking in speed compared to the Honda.
We all know the history. That victory was just the first of 9 that year as he took the title on the Yamaha adding back to back titles on different machinery to his ever increasing list of achievements. He retained the title for Yamaha in 2005 before losing it for 2 seasons running (Hayden in 2006 and Stoner on the Ducati in 2007). He fought back however and was victorious once again in 2008 and 2009 and looked to be in a showdown with his Yamaha teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, this year until his crash during practice at Mugello made the title race a foregone conclusion.
All this to say that compared to the seemingly miraculous transformation of the Yamaha from dog to undeniably the best overall motorcycle racebike in the world, making the Ducati regularly competitive in his hands should be childs play.
The Ducati is already fast (although in 6 engine per season mode, not as fast as the Honda), has taken a world title (2007) and won 20 races. It is not hard to imagine Rossi being immediately competitive next year and going at it with Lorenzo for the title. Would you bet against it?
Source: http://www.ducatinewstoday.com