Should Ducati replace Marco now, and if so, with who? [merged]

[neninja]

There is clearly a big problem at Ducati. It seems clear that Casey is the only current Ducati rider capable of exploiting the bike

Marco is yet again at the wrong end of qualifying - currently slowest towards the end of FP3

Should Ducati bite the bullet and axe him now or risk a season of disappointing results from their No2 rider???

Personally I'd try Max on the bike and move him from WSB for the rest of the year if he goes well on it and then hire a young gun in the mould of Stoner next year.

[Mach24]

Answer = NO!

Should Kawasaki sack Westy?

[jonny hurlock]

Answer = NO!

Should Kawasaki sack Westy?

I can't see ducati replace marco this early, who with?

[osg]

Stoner is struggling big time with the GP8 and the Bridgestones this round and is having issues this season bar the Qatar results....... let alone Marco. Look at the times from FP3, Casey is a full second down on P1.

This is looking like a package issue, not a rider issue to me. I would have thought the Bridgestones would have been ok at Estoril considering the way Qatar went with the colder temps, but obviously there is an issue somewhere.

[NinjaMaster]

Marco shouldn't be replaced til seasons end if he still can't come to grips with the bike. I don't see anyone freely available who would do a better job. osg is spot on with there being a package problem. Consistently, the bottom three bikes through most of the weekend are the Ducati's with only Stoners brilliance giving them any kind of respectabliity. It is early in the season and I think Marco and the rest at Ducati will get stronger from here on in.

[fatman]

I can't think of any good reason to replace Marco. It would be pretty short sighted to look at the situation and assume that Marco is to blame.

Look at his track record. 2 x 250cc world champion, 2 x MotoGP Runner Up, great reputation as a hard-as-nails rider. No one can call Marco slow. Marco is also not the first qualified rider to have problems with the Ducati.

If Marco's season so far tells any story, it shows how unique a character Casey Stoner is and how it's not 20% bike and 80% rider. If anything it's 50/50. If you really want to excel you need your bike and rider to gel with each other. If something is not gelling you can't put all the ownes on the rider to make all the changes. Both the rider AND the bike need to make adjustments so they can work together.

The challenge of all manufacturers is to build a bike which can easily be adjusted to suit the difference in riding styles amongst multiple riders. I think Honda and Yamaha are the best at doing this.

Ducati's challenge is not to find another Casey Stoner. Their challenge is to make a bike that people besides Casey can be competitive on.

[MrJan]

Yes.

Who with? That I can't answer but there have got to be people out there that can ride the bike better than Melandri.

Ryan, might not all be Marco's fault (he has been great in recent years) but he is just not in the running and struggling down with the customer bikes. At least Capirossi had a few good rides on the thing. And as the BBC commentary were saying thess bikes are almost bespoke in termsof the alterations you can make so there really shouldn't be any excuse for being as slow as he has been.

[ChrisS]

Replaced by who? I dont think there is a rider better than Marco available, and if there was I'm not sure he would want to ride that Ducati

Even Stoner is not as confident on the bike as he used to.

Ducati admitted they need to change their bike to better suit Marco but its not an overnight thing especially for Ducati that does not have the resources to bring developments forward as fast as the Japansese (Capirossi said that
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66285 )

[patnicholls]

No, they shouldn't replace him, imho - three races is much too short, he needs to be given time to gel with the bike if possible. At the end of the season, if things haven't changed by then then there should be a change. He did of course finish 2nd in the championship in 2005 and 2006 on Gresini's Honda, after a slow start to his MotoGP career at Yamaha.

And the other point already made is "who would they replace him with?" Niccolo Canepa's the test rider but probably some way off being ready for MotoGP (he was Superstock 1000 champ last year, so is just finding his feet as a tester anyway too).

[Roby44]

There is only 1 person who could tame that Ducati!!


TROY BAYLISS

** Now the discussion will start!! LOL..