Rossi Destined for Failure on the Ducati says Pernat
Carlo Pernat, the guy who first signed Valentino Rossi to a factory 125 contract with Aprilia in 1995 says that 2011 MotoGP champ, Casey Stoner, is owed an apology and that he is 90% sure Rossi will not taste victory with Ducati.
According to the former Aprilia sporting director, Stoner’s success this year on the Honda implicates Ducati as the cause of the Australians struggles with the Desmosedici after his debut title in 2007 and that the company and the MotoGP paddock in general has unfairly blamed Casey for the lack of results in recent years.
Stoner had been labeled a crasher and mentally weak after he regularly threw the Ducati down the road and seemed to crumble after a 2008 clash with Valentino Rossi at the corkscrew during the Laguna Seca round. By contrast this year Stoner has finished every race on the podium save for the Jerez round where Rossi, now Ducati mounted, crashed into Stoner’s Honda. It looks increasingly like only Stoner had the skills to win races on the Ducati, risking a crash almost every time he rode the bike.
“Ducati is a proud company and they thought their bike was perfect. What they didn’t understand was that only Casey could explore 100 per cent of the potential of this bike.”
Pernat signed Rossi when he was 16 for Aprilia and was team manager when Valentino claimed the 125 GP crown in 1997. He went on to win 8 further Grand Prix championships. Rossi and his chief technician Jeremy Burgess have been unable to tame the wild Ducati and the 9 times champ is likely to finish the season without a victory for the first time since he entered grand prix racing in 1996.
After failing to lure Jorge Lorenzo away from Yamaha when Stoner missed 3 races due to a mystery illness now know to be lactose intolerance, Ducati signed Rossi for a 2 year contract. Right from the beginning the signs were bad with Rossi being slowest at the first official test at Valencia albeit hampered by injury. Until Motegi, he had finished every race but has only stood on the podium once. He crashed again at Phillip island [add Sepang details]
2012 will be another chance for the team to get it together as a return to 1,000cc machines ends the 800cc era that Stoner has dominated however in early testing both the Yamaha and Honda seem ominously fast. Still Pernat doubts the team will come to grips with their issues despite the change in regulations for next year.
“What is happening now with Valentino and Ducati is something very strange. Now he is like someone I don’t know,” Pernat said. “I am 90 per cent sure that Valentino will not win another world championship with Ducati. To be in this shit situation is very hard for Valentino…” he said.
Source: New Zealand Herald
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give rossi chance to prove..he never failed based on what he did before this..look at yamaha m1…from the ugly one became a champions bike..pernat must learn from history..rossi is bike developer, stoner is bike user..
Ducati needs to be focused on tdevelopment of the GP bike and slow down a bit on marketing, maybe Benz will buy them and they will have more money for development
“Ducati is a proud company and they thought their bike was perfect. What they didn’t understand was that only Casey could explore 100 per cent of the potential of this bike.”
CORRECT!!! STONER RULES! ROSSI GO PISS OFF
Rossi & Stoner are both a hell of a rider. Problem is The bike sucks and Ducati are full of themselves. Truthfully, the
company has fone down hill since it’s been back to Iitalian hands. Everything were just fine when the Americans owned it. Went down w/ Italians
Oh, and which international racing team run American bikes? LOL Ducati has out performed all the other bike manufacturer’s where it counts – in sales – since returning to Italian control. Not to mention winning the World Superbike and Superstock titles this year. Get real.