Throwing out the Bayliss with the bathwater

Australian Troy Bayliss has been dumped by MotoGP team Ducati for the 2005 season. Nearing the end of a disappointing second season in MotoGP, Bayliss was told by Ducati at last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix that he would not be asked back.

Ahhh motorsport team management... Is there a sport where the player gets blamed more? In European/English soccer if the team goes badly, the coach goes. Same in AFL, rugby and almost every other sport. But in motorsport, and especially MotoGP, it's the poor bastard rider.

Last year Australian Kawasaki MotoGP riders Gary McCoy and Andrew Pitt paid the price for Kawasaki's god awful and (according to Alan Cathcart) dangerous shitbox of a bike. Team Manager Harald Eckl, who wouldn't seemingly know how to get his own way like with the Japanese bosses, in stark contrast to Australian Jerry Burgess (Doohan and Rossi at Honda and now Yamaha with Rossi) who has always stood up and TOLD the bosses what is required for victory and then WON.

I'm still filthy about how Andrew Pitt got cut when he had been told he was a "required player". Eckl got in fellow German Alex Hoffman who has made a fool of himself on a worldwide stage- hey if his team mate Shinya Makano can get on the front row of the grid and get a podium, then what the fuck is Alex doing down with the R1 road bike derived WCM's? Fuckin' joke.

And this year, it's Troy Bayliss to get the arse for a poor performance on a pig-bike. Ducati have seen in all their wisdom to belt Troy. Hey, why not- he's not European like his team mate Capirossi, so no harm done and Marlboro get their sacrificial lamb. I say enough people have been sacrificed by Marlboro cigarettes over the years...

So I am calling for heads to roll inside Ducati. Start with Corrado Cecchinelli - Technical Director. He has been unable to produce a competative machine- for either rider. The constant changes from twin pulse to four pulse and back has left them with so little usable data that they look more like the Proton KR team than the once proud Ducati Corse team. Others should face the chop, but they won't.

In short - it's a fucking disgrace and I will be making a few choice signs to hold up at Phillip island*.

In 2003 Australia had three riders in MotoGP(Pitt, McCoy, Bayliss). In 2004 Troy Bayliss was th only full timer with cameos from Pitt and McCoy.

Next year...?


* I have no idea yet what this will entail. rest assured it will be biting, funny and ironic as hell.

SMH: Ducati cast Bayliss into wilderness