Rossi is taking a lot of stick for this in the media,which is understandable I suppose. Burgess has been his race engineer through his whole career in the big class,and was Mick Doohans during his 5 titles too.
I think its probably a last roll of the dice. He will probably retire after next season (he has set up his own Moto 3 team,which is an indicator imo) and he needs to try to go out on a high.The bike is good (but not as good as the Hondas) as Lorenzo has shown,so its either Burgess is getting too old to do the job to the level required now,or Rossi is.
Hes no-ones fool, and Im sure he knows it might be him who has lost that last couple of percent that makes the difference between where he is now and regularily running right at the front.
The only way to find out though is to replace Burgess with (hopefully) one of the current hotshot engineers and see what difference it makes.
People are saying hes been ruthless with Burgess,but its his career and he doesn't have much time left to play with,so its probably a brave thing to do. It could backfire on him,or it could prove to be a masterstroke,but he has done that type of thing throughout his career. The only time it bit him on the arse badly was the move to Ducati,just as they completely lost the plot.
Burgesss said before he went to Ducati that it would take him no more than half an hour to get the bike right.It came back to haunt him quickly,so maybe it is time for him to retire ?
As always,time will tell.
P.S Don't forget, its the title decider race on Sunday. Imo both Lorenzo and Marquez deserve it,but I think Marquez will get it. He only needs to stay on and finish somewhere around the top 5 ? and hes champion. Hopefully a great race.
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Topic: Rossi and Burgess go their separate ways (Read 956 times)