Given that holeshot and dynamic lowering are not the same thing, nobody wants to belittle a tool that many now have but that Ducati has evolved very close to the limits of the regulation. The theme is another. Holeshot or dynamic lowering are just tools of a much larger litigation. It is a way to discuss Ducati because it is creating other political “problems”.
This holeshot/dynamic lowering thing is getting out of hand.
And I will not explain the technicalities already covered because this is not the real bone of contention.
Ok the press marches on us because it doesn’t seem true that there is a technical innovation to talk about, but believe me, it is not relevant.
And above all it is not the cause of the war between Ducati and the other manufacturers, because instead it is only the weapon.
Let’s face it, the world championship is a circus, in the sense that it is a traveling show that must change balance and satisfy political and market requirements in order to survive. Otherwise we wouldn’t be racing in absurd places like Rio Hondo and Mandalika. Let’s not fool ourselves.
The world championship does this to survive. Ok the protagonists, even prolonged ones like Rossi and Marquez, which however are personal anomalies, ok the successful antagonists like Lorenzo, ok the underdogs, unexpected ones like Mir in a 100% atypical season, but this is not the normal trend.
I don’t have to wake you up to the fact that very often, coincidentally, local riders win their homeraces, or the title sponsors themselves see their riders win in the titled GPs. Is it really because that rider has lapped more on that track or did the sponsor come personally to encourage his team in the GP named after him?
But is it all fixed then? Absolutely not, but there are needs to be respected.
So are the races rigged? Absolutely not. But often, and it is not the first time, certain conditions are created. And this happens through tire development or some regulatory concessions.
And when the creation of certain conditions is too strong, someone rebels. But that’s also part of the game. Because everyone knows that they are noisy rebellions but that they do not go beyond making public a dissatisfaction that makes everything seem more real.
Every factory is there for what it paid for and knows it.
And Dorna knows it too. Unexpected and undeserved gifts can be counted on the fingertips.
The holeshot/dynamic lowering is a “thing” that makes you go faster in a championship where you are already too fast. So it’s not strictly necessary.
If really going faster in top speed was “the factor”, Ducati would have won the last five world championships. But it went differently because something was missing from the human side.
You can’t win without a bike but you can’t win without a rider.
But it’s time for Ducati to cash in and so they let it work on its strong points. Two of which are power and top speed.
But they are not the only ones. Ducati has always had the strong point of expanding itself on the grid.
And this year he repeated the record of eight bikes.
Do you really think that it is the holeshot/dynamic lowering that is annoying and not the eight bikes on the grid?
Does anyone really think that it is the holeshot/dynamic lowering that bothers and not the fact that next year Ducati will have eight bikes on the grid and an entire grid of electric bikes?
The truth is that KTM has also had similar privileges, which has expanded with trophies, minor classes, scary bunches of young talents, three different brands, a domination in the junior classes and technical concessions, all well watered by Red Bull, which through sponsorship controls KTM and has its hands on half the riders grid as well as half of the European press. However, KTM has not been able to exploit these privileges. He got less than Ducati, but spent more than double. And that’s what burns.
And can’t we say that Aprilia had no concessions when for years it was considered a poor private team despite being, in fact, present in an factory form?
The truth is that nobody really cares about the holeshot/dynamic lowering issue itself. And maybe Ducati didn’t even invent it, given that Aprilia had already tested it with Baiocco in 2017 (ask Piaggio) and then gave up. You read that right. Matteo Baiocco.
And do you really think, without taking anything away from Ducati, that Honda and Yamaha could not develop their own lowering device in their free time, if it was really the killer application to win races? And that Suzuki, who has recently won a world championship, will seriously protest when it is already ok for a few years?
Except for exotic personalistic absurdities (see Marquez’s return or Bagnaia & Co’s missteps), Ducati is destined to win the riders’ championship. It has been waiting for too long, it has come close too many times and the fact that it has not succeeded is just an anomaly. So the holeshot/dynamic lowering teme has nothing to do with it.
There are other things that piss off and cause controversies.
But if you want, let’s talk about a “tool” that lowered the bike from behind at the start, and now also in front, anytime, as if it was the one on which everything depends even if, you will see, in case of victory, it will be the excuse for those who do not agree to lose.
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