Nicky on the Ducati GP09

[scottieducati]

Soup :: Nick Hayden Rides the Ducati :: 10-27-2008

Lookin good Nicky

There's some action footage on motogp.com as well....

[The Snowman]

Good for him. Love the American flag paint.

[GixerJockey]

You're late...

[scottieducati]

Yeah I just saw the other post, WTFever, I'm glad to see Nicky there and thought it was super cool that they let him run stars and stripes Nicky FTW!!

[Pittenger5]

Is there going to be any timing or anything to indicate how he takes to the bike?

[Hoss]

Is there going to be any timing or anything to indicate how he takes to the bike?

http://www.nestreetriders.com/forum/...e-up-09-a.html


MotoGPMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks | ... that it's such a very long time till April. seems to be updating every hour or so. Not sure how much longer the test is though.

[scottieducati]

Soup :: Valencia Test 2:00 PM Hayden Update :: 10-27-2008

"It's 2pm in Valencia, and Nicky has already equaled Marco Melandri's best lap time from yesterday's GP. The bike has a stars & stripes paint job and 'Chapter 2' stickers.

Release that breath you've been holding, Hayden fans, he can ride it."

I realize that equaling Melandri's best time isn't saying a *lot* per se... but remember that before a spill, Melandri was circling inside the top 10 and looking threatening in the Valencia race... he was definitely NOT punking around at the back of the pack yesterday. Not too shabby a start considering Nicky's first time on the bike AND first time on Bridgestones....

[BCT748]

Nicky seems to be doing really well on the GP09. Carbon fiber frame

It's also nice to see Ducati treating Nicky so well

On some teams, for a rider to run an American flag motif it would take endless meetings and signatures. At Ducati someone brought it up and Ducati said, 'Sure'.

[brewmaster]

He's finally out from under the Pedrosa/Puig regime.

[brewmaster]

Go Nicky!!!!

[smf]

He's finally out from under the Pedrosa/Puig regime.

+1.

[Hauptman]

I would have had the bike painted to say "Get bent Pedrosa/Honda"

[Kitt]

not a fan of the paint job, but big fan of him doing so well on it, so early on.

[Paul_E_D]

My question is: What happens if Nicky starts threatening to take points from Casey? Championships are pretty important, and we have seen that you really need to grab ALL the points you can with Rossi out there. Will they support Nicky, or try to slow him a little?

[BCT748]

My question is: What happens if Nicky starts threatening to take points from Casey? Championships are pretty important, and we have seen that you really need to grab ALL the points you can with Rossi out there. Will they support Nicky, or try to slow him a little?

I think it would be in Ducati and the sponsors best interest to let them duel it out. Maybe even slow down the faster of the two just to keep them side by side battling the whole way. The longer the cameras are on those two bikes the more money they will make.

[Paul_E_D]

I think it would be in Ducati and the sponsors best interest to let them duel it out. Maybe even slow down the faster of the two just to keep them side by side battling the whole way. The longer the cameras are on those two bikes the more money they will make.

Then Rossi sneaks in and steals the title...

The slowing of one bike is what I suspect will happen. These days they can slow you down with a click of the laptop keys...

[akira700]

I'd think if its that competetive between the two
they go w/ Nicky. US is a bigger market to win over
than Australia is.
But not many have had success, aside from Casey
on that bike.

[Hoss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUOeNaHO3vk


Cool to see Hayden on the Ducati!


If you've never heard these bikes in person...sweet jeesus! I need to find a way to get back to Indy next year!

[NeverlosT]

hayden has cahones. I think Duc will let he and stoner run for it. It does them bigtime good to make the Ami's happy. I dig that bike. Stars and Stripes. Kinda makes me feel like eatin a huge cheeseburger, making irresponsible financial decisions, having stupid children and getting fat.

What?

Haha. Go Hayden.

[BCT748]

Then Rossi sneaks in and steals the title...

The slowing of one bike is what I suspect will happen. These days they can slow you down with a click of the laptop keys...

I think that if one had the chance to block Rossi from passing the other they would do it even if it meant them dropping a place to do it.

[brewmaster]

Alright I'm gonna say it. On a proper bike. with a proper team Nicky CAN perform! He is a great rider. He, like all riders requires a crew and manufacture that can support his needs as a rider. Honda was NOT willing to make the commitment to do that! Ducati is, I am not saying that Nicky is the best rider but he is one of the best. He just hasn't had the team and manufacure surport to accel. Lets hope that Ducati can provide what he needs to do the job.

Goooo Nicky!

[BCT748]

Alright I'm gonna say it. On a proper bike. with a proper team Nicky CAN perform! He is a great rider.

I could have sworn he proved that he knows how to ride a couple years back. Not sure but I think he won some racing series, Tour De France? No that doesn't sound right.... I'll have to look this one up, could be a while

[markbvt]

My question is: What happens if Nicky starts threatening to take points from Casey? Championships are pretty important, and we have seen that you really need to grab ALL the points you can with Rossi out there. Will they support Nicky, or try to slow him a little?

They don't ration points by team. Hayden can't "take points from Casey." It's not like Nader taking votes away from Gore in the 2000 election. They'll both rack up as many points as they can depending on how they finish -- and if they push each other to finish better, it can only benefit Ducati and make it harder to Rossi.

--mark

[tls25rs]

They don't ration points by team. Hayden can't "take points from Casey." It's not like Nader taking votes away from Gore in the 2000 election. They'll both rack up as many points as they can depending on how they finish -- and if they push each other to finish better, it can only benefit Ducati and make it harder to Rossi.

--mark

Pretty sure the situation in question is more of if Rossi and Hayden are neck in neck for the points lead, with Stoner a distant 3rd or 4th, and there is a race where Stoner is leading Hayden is in Second and Rossi third, Stoner racing Hayden and taking the first place points takes a dent out of the points Hayden would have gotten by finishing first instead of second. Ideally team orders in that situation would have Stoner back off a bit let Hayden pass him and still keep Rossi in third thereby getting Hayden an even bigger advantage then he would have had by finishing in second.

Personally I think team orders are BS and they should just be allowed to race but as happened during the season that Nicky won the MotoGP Championship sometimes bad things happen, Pedrosa crashing Nicky out and almost costing him the title.

The flip side to all of this is that if the two Ducati consistently finish ahead of Rossi and do not have the DNF problem then it wont matter which Ducati gets the title more so that a Ducati got the title.

Joel

[whiteba]

I dont think Ducati will fall back to team orders unless they have to. I know it was a while back but last race a few years back with Capi and Bayliss filling in, Bayliss being a wildcard entry because I believe Gibernau was injured, they let Bayliss win ahead of Capi (1-2 Ducati finish with 3rd a very distant 3rd). Capi was looking to move up the standings (and I believe would have finished 1 place higher in the overall ranking if he had won the race instead of finishing second). Just basing it on that logic, and the fact they claimed the sat. bikes were going to get the same support and fun bits as the factory bikes this next year (there was some annoucement on MotoGP) makes me think there wont be any strict team orders unless it's absolutely nescesary.

Also Hurrah to Hayden riding well on the Duc. Hope he keeps it up.