Valentino Rossi’s crew chief Jerry Burgess claims Ducati underestimated Honda’s progress – MotoGP
Ducati team’s crew chief for Valentino Rossi, Jerry Burgess claims that Rossi was properly prepared for the challenge to win races with the team.
On the other side, he said the Ducati team was not under-prepared to encounter the progressive challenge delivered by Honda. He added that Casey Stoner has stunned all the contenders with massive wins and numerous podium finishes.
Burgess said, “I think we underestimated what sort of improvement the others could make. Casey has lifted the potential of all the riders on the Honda. Casey has clearly stood up as the fastest and the top rider out there. Barring misfortune he’s going to
be very unlucky not to win the championship.”
Comparing Honda’s progress, the team has made stunning moves in terms of technology which gave their riders a confidence booster to win races. Unfortunately, Dani Pedrosa has won two races and finished on podium thrice despite of his injuries.
Burgess added, “You never expect it to be easy and Ducati has gone out on a limb and built a bike that is quite different to everybody else’s in terms of the chassis. There is not a lot of experience and information out there and how it should it work.”
With a lack of information to compare the carbon fibre chassis, the team is working hard to sort out the issue. No other rival has ever used such a chassis so there is no benchmark to compare it with others.
Considering the earlier seasons of Ducati at MotoGP racing, Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss were the only riders who ranked their Ducatis in top four places. In those years, the Ducati machine was more competitive than it has been in this year.
In Burgess’ opinion, the Ducati prototypes in past were more easy to ride rather than the present models. The Aussie crew chief added that in the last few years the Italian manufacturer has driven away from the competition marks and made a rider specific
machine. He suggested it will be more suitable to develop a bike which can be used by any rider.
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