|
To be honest, I don't think Stoner is being cocky, I just think he has very low tollerance for uninformed opinion. Same thing about his supposed whining. It may sound whiney, but most often he's just telling it like it is. Rossi stated along with many others that the bike was fine and Stoner just needed to stop falling off. But it's plain to see now he was on the ragged edge to get results.
Maybe Rossi would have done the same 10 years ago, but now he's not willing to ride that way. He wants to develop a new Duc that is a friendly piece of kit. Fair enough.
I'm happy to say that Stoner is a special talent and in the same breath admit Rossi isn't a shadow of what we all thought he is just because he can't/wont push the Duc to a result. The man is still a genius. Time to move on.
The fascinating part of this remains, can/will Ducati change the bike enough to make it ridable for others?
Fair point by Chunder, Rossi did turn his back on Ducati pre 2004 because he thought they were too Honda like. And Stoner seemed to support that by saying they really didn't give him the support he needed. (he seemed hurt that Ducati were willing to build new parts/bike for Rossi) They instead would rather him just ride around the issues, which he did. But now you have Rossi, not willing to do that, and wanting to heavily revise what they have, or scrap it in favor of something else.
|