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yeah read that day or so ago on Ducati.ms, sounds like it will happen their is some potential investors already, hears hoping the Chinese ones don't get the Duc, or it ll be alorange!
if you already had a factory ride why would you possibly go to Ducati if not for the money? any other reason would be stupidity in its wildest form (and i love Ducati)
I do think Ducati should have stuck with the trellis frame, it worked and they have great experience with this chassis format, i admire their desire to push the boundaries of technology but that should really be reserved for a private test team am i wrong? well you decide maybe thats a case of the proof is in the pudding
good handling is such a fine line between success and complete disaster,
unfortunately i believe from some experience their is always a persistence from engineers to work with try and resolve why some thing is not working rather than starting from scratch< maybe its the possibility of their pride being damaged ! an unwillingness to believe they did get it that wrong! or they have used the budget and now that's what you have work with it.
Kenny Roberts once told me before he could get Yamaha to build a new Chassi to the specs he wanted he would have to with the engineers go through a process that would end up with Yamaha knowing exactly what he wanted but thinking they had come up with it!!!! literally if they showed the Japanese what to do they would not get what they wanted
true persistence in itself can be very educational ! but at what price Ducati neither have the staff, facilities and money to have back up projects going in the background, Stoner pointed out himself once Ducati went with their new Chassis ideas they weren't eager to admit they got it wrong and try a different approach, second to all of this is that riders can hope on a machine and love it or hate it for no other reason than it does not suite them.
Simon Crafer started doing very well on the YZR500 UNTIL they swapped to dunlops! that was the end of his career
i do think it was a mistake for them to drop Ianonne
Dion

I can say that a decent rider cannot get a decent ride out of a Ducati MotoGP bike these days, we tried it a short few years ago, and it was a nightmare. their carbon frame was well past criminal, no joke. Gigi is an egomaniac, the techs are not as good as they should be, and as far as Stoner goes, any rider that is actually Alfred E. Newman, (What? Me Worry), spy vs spy vs spy from Mad Magazine, can ride something faster than it can go, but, there is NO tech in any of it, it is like an unguided missile, with a lot of luck thrown in it.

Ianonni, he is a good guy, smart, talented, and scared to the max on those bikes, but, he used logic and daring to do what he did, Gigi was not a lot of bright letting him leave. Dovi, he has nowhere else to go now. Look at what they did to Hayden, well, Hayden did a lot of it to Hayden, but......... It is a lot like getting to Ducati to ride, you have been permanently banished to the cheap seats of factory team racing. It takes a real genius to move from a World Championship scenario, to Ducati MotoGP, insisting on going backwards as fast as one can takes incredible genius, and, end of the universe level arrogance.

I believe the issue with the carbon frame was it was to stiff resulting in no feed back
resulting issue being no feed back, riders cant feel what is happening hence so many front end Dumps
must admit not really following them much now, where is Ducati with frames presently ?
Aluminum box or are they doing the no frame set up as per Pannigale?
Dion

Kinda makes you realise how good a rider Stoner was....even though he was seen by some as Casey Moaner....

Stoner isn't that good, just brave and idiotic.

Today, Jerez, Michelin proves, yet again, they have no clue as to tyre compounds, and how to make good ones that can hold the power to the race track. EVERYBODY had tyre issues today.

Time for the airplane, now. France, LeMans in two weeks, nicer place.

Nobody really wants to be here today, nor the rest of the weekend. Attitudes are all down about Nicky, and he is still in critical condition, no change.

Weather was wet today, might be better tomorrow, but, tyres are still the main topic of consternation and doubt. Track surface seems better, has been worked on recently, less bumps, a bit more traction. If the weather gets better, we should see better testing numbers.

This will not be a fun race..