Quote Originally Posted by Drano View Post
This doesn't make much sense to me. Not only do the riders compete for championships, but manufacturers do as well. Why would a manufacturer put Rossi, a 9-times World Champion, on an uncompetitive machine so as to prevent him from battling for podiums? I'm sure any manufacturer is happy when their rider wins a championship on their machine, but what company doesn't also want to claim bragging rights that their machines consistently placed more podiums than their competitors? That's completely backwards to any marketing strategy I can think of. Not to mention, Yamaha (381 points) was extremely close to Honda (389 points), which likely translated to them putting more pressure on Rossi to close the gap and hang with the top three. Am I misinterpreting what you are saying? If not, it sounds like major conspiracy theory stuff to me.
You'd be surprised how much goes behind scenes with team politics and stuff. It's more than obvious during the races if you pay attention. How is it then that Lorenzo's bike is much faster, much better rounded and Rossi is only being able to battle it out with satellite team riders which bikes are underpowered.... Both Honda bikes are equal as both riders finished in the top pretty much the whole year and were bringing it to Lorenzo, they have a complete and fair package. Given Rossi managed a lot of 4th place finishes and some podiums but it was miles behind the top runners. Makes more than sense to me. Like I said you'd be surprised. Though I hate to say it that as I'm sure in some senses Rossi has lost his edge and can't be all the bike and it's his first year back with Yamaha but to me there's something missing in that equation that comes from the team not giving him the race package he needs, he gets the jump at the starts and keeps up with the pack for about 5-6 laps and then starts falling behind, you notice the power differences in the straight aways and stuff, hell Cal's Tech3 bike which SUCKS something fierce in the straights was giving Rossi a run in the straights and was also having problems with front brakes for most of the year, that's saying A LOT. I also understand that each rider has their own dynamics as to how they ride, their pace, limits etc but I don't think that Rossi is THAT BAD after just 2 years of bad riding in that shit excuse of a bike at Ducati (Yes, I know Stoner made whatever Rossi couldn't with Ducati, good for him. I still hate Stoner because he's a cocky fuck). I could be wrong but just my point of view, you're welcome to believe what you must.