I'd put the antipathy starting towards the end of 2007, when Rossi and Ezpeleta put pressure on Bridgestone to supply Rossi. I remember Stoner calling Rossi a whiner for asking for "his" tires. (It was funny watching Vermeulen parrot Stoner.) I don't doubt Stoner will air opinions about his former colleagues in the weeks and years to come. It won't be classy or unclassy -- it's inevitable.
If my memory serves me right, 2007 was the year, when Michelin riders were really screwed in more than one race weekend, without a snowball´s chance in hell, when their tyres either fell apart, or were simply cooked long before race distance. In that situation, I don´t consider it ´whining´ to voice your opinion, or make arrangements to switch to the brand, that has obviously become the one to have. Maybe it wasn´t so surprising, how good Bridgestone had become, but how bad Michelin were all of a sudden. Probably knew they were on their way out, but to supply your riders with tyres they cannot even finish the race with, that is inexcusable.
Yesterday i read a good article by Dennis Noyes over on Speed .com " Peace in our time" all about the saga of GP and the electronic magic boxes vs Honda, and the rest of the world. I'm going to hold off commenting on the capability of any riders in 2013 until we see some lap times . At any rate i suppose the fast guys will still be the faster guys no matter what wizardry they throw at them . My opinion of the show is not much different than what KR said when 2 strokes went away "It's just street bike racing". Yes I get it that these are "prototypes" but they sound like a street bike, look like a street bike with an expensive front end but that's about it. The best class of the bunch is Moto 3 , followed by Moto 2 , the GP bikes leave me cold.
@Official_CS27: I think Valentino feels a little more brave now that I'm not there:) http://t.co/xLeB01xC @Official_CS27: I think @marcmarquez93 will do a good job stirring things up next year also, should be good to watch!
Well, there you go. Though I don't blame Stoner -- looking at Rossi's extended remarks, Rossi's overdoing it. But Stoner's ability to shut Rossi up on the track is now history, and that's probably going to be hard for Stoner to accept.
I always question what was said and how it is/was reported. The fact that this drum is still banging is proof that Motogp has gone a little stale.
I dunno. The racing was good during the '00s, and that was endless melodrama with Rossi vs. Biaggi, Rossi vs. Gibernau, etc. But I agree MotoGP has become a little stale. I just hope it doesn't suddenly become exciting when a front runner hits a CRT at speed.
Interesting but the only one that counts is "average points per start" and honestly that is not even possible to compare. You have to compare avg. points per start when all four started." IMO Rossi did not have the same level on competition for a few years so he should be higher than he is. Therefore it makes Jorge even more impressive as the leader of the aliens.
So many variables on that list but 2 years on the Turnip Truck will also skew the numbers a bit dropping the average points per race by a bit.
You would be comparing Rossi on the Turnip Truck vs Stoner on the Turnip Truck, so that would even it out quite a bit. But I agree with Rich, all that chart shows is who has been in the class the longest.
Average points per start does a good job of addressing that, since its an average. I think its a useful chart, especially during silly season.
Wow, talk about pressure. Nakamoto had said that he expects Marquez to be on the podium at Qatar, now he expects him to win several races. Basically, he's expecting him to be as good or better than Lorenzo and Pedrosa were in their rookie years. We shall see.
Averages are useful as a quick and dirty .....but...not always correct ..the average US family has 1.86 children, but have you ever seen .86 of a child walking around ? :huh
It is simple to see why that stat is useless. Rossi raced with none of the aliens from 2000-2005 Pedrosa and Stoner joined the fray from 2006-2008 and the three challenged each other Then Lorenzo joined in 08 and we had four aliens. I am not going to do the research but if we had an a average from 08-12 then we may have something.