Ducati Tests at Valencia

Ah. Bostrom on Dunlops. I don't know what to make of this. On the face of it, it's a good move as it will probably enable him to run consistently up the front and make a name for himself. However, I just don't know if it was a good move to get off the Michelins just as he was perhaps coming to grips with them. I wonder if he will be pigeonholed as a rider who can only perform on Dunlops because of this. Who knows what rides he might miss out on in the future on teams that have very strong links to Michelin? Then again, I would have said that Infostrada would have been such a team before they gave Dunlops to Bostrom.

Yeah. Didn't Rainey win his titles with his team switching from Michelin to Dunlop then back again or vice-versa (it's a while ago now, my feeble memory doesn't go back that far)? I was going to say that perhaps these days, things are so competitive that riders need every advantage they can get, thus getting prefered tires then sticking to them, but as in Raineys case above, the racing was pretty competitive back then as well.



Your statement's got me thinking about how Bostrom would go as a development rider. If he can't sort out his differences with simple tyres, how is he going to go if Ducati bring out a complete new bike as well (as rumoured) in a year or two, and Bostrom has to try to sort out the problems that will invariably occur with it. Maybe that's another reason to keep Bayliss around as well.