The whole thing now seems to be getting to Valentino Rossi. With his ill fated move to Ducati continuing him to bring him grief Rossi is ready to try things to rectify the situation. What seems to hurt Rossi more than his not winning or being on the podium is the constant comparison with arch rival Casey Stoner whose position he took at Ducati. Casey Stoner won the majority of races for Ducati and won the marque’s so far one and only World Championship in 2007. Stoner is doing everything to demoralize Rossi by saying things like how Ducati would not listen to his demands beyond a point and tell him to get on with it and how he is surprised at the amount of money that Ducati are willing to spend on the demands Rossi is making. But the sting lies in his very tongue in cheek sympathy towards Rossi when he said that he is mystified by how Rossi despite all this is not finding speed and that his talent deserves more than what he is getting out of Ducati.
Rossi has started a beleaguered defence of himself saying that Stoner was smaller in size and therefore he could get better speed out of the Ducati even on a straight line than he himself is able to get. He now says he is open even to trying a new riding position to suit the bike. It looks as if Ducati will build a aluminium twin spar frame for the Ducati of 2012. It is well known that Ducati does not have the experience of building such a frame and is likely to give it out to FTR to build for them. If even after that Rossi cannot find speed, his MotoGP career would be over for all practical purposes without wins and podiums.