F1 Fanatic

Ducati have ended months of speculation over Valentiino Rossi’s future by confirming he will not race for them next year:

As the Moto GP series awaits its return to action for the August 19 Indianapolis Grand Prix, Ducati announces that its working relationship with Valentino Rossi will conclude at the end of the 2012 MotoGP World Championship.

http://www.bikesportnews.com/news-detail.cfm?newstitle=Ducati-confirm-Rossi-will-leave-MotoGP-team&newsid=7719

Rossi hasn’t won a race since joining them from Yamaha at the beginning of 2011. Is on his way back? The MotoGP pundits on Twitter seem to think it’s a sure thing.

Sure enough, Yamaha confirm Rossi:

It is with great pleasure that Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd confirms the signing of Valentino Rossi to ride for the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team for 2013 and 2014.

http://www.yamaha-racing.com/Racing/motogp/news/newsdetail.jsp?Component=tcm:78-506707&PageTitle=Yamaha%20Factory%20Racing%20Press%20Statement

Guess there’s going to be a period of total Yamaha dominance in Lorenzo & Rossi, nice to see him back anyway. Will be looking forward to the inter-team battle next year (hopefully) – and of course watching the remainder of this season.

Good! GOOD! :D I’ll attend the Argie MotoGP race, with Rossi on a competitive bike! :D

I wish more F1 drivers were this outspoken. Here’s Stoner on Rossi leaving Ducati:

They ate their words from day one. Jerry [Burgess] saying that it would take him 80 seconds to fix that bike and that it was a simple issue and now they have had pretty much two years on the thing have not made any inroads. [...]

Obviously he doesn’t want to put the effort in with Ducati. It is disappointing for them that they’re doing all they can and he is not even trying to get the best out of it.

More: http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/MotoGP/2012/August/aug1512-stoner-slams-rossi-yamaha-return/

Top points, Casey. This is exactly on the money.

Yeah, you’re probably only saying it ’cause you’re leaving at the end of the year, but that doesn’t make you any more right.

Strong words from casey stoner. Especially since 2007 was the only strong year for Ducati. The team hasn’t been one of the strongest to challenge for the title. Besides, when Rossi joined yamaha the M1 was not exactly a title fetching bike and critics had pointed out that yamaha’s bold move to employ rossi would backfire on them. But then rossi did win the opening race and i think went on to win the title that year. Looking forward to a lot of criticism aimed at stoner.

And what Rossi says?

“@birtymotogp: Casey Stoner slams Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha return bit.ly/RU4IN6”sempre molto carino il mio amico Casey ah ah ah

— Valentino Rossi (@ValeYellow46) August 15, 2012

”casey is always cute ahahah”