MotoGP Silly Season

Yes I did. Here are my thoughts.....


Dorna is trying to go down the same short-sighted road as F1.

They are both idiots. Freezing development will not save teams money. They will simply spend it elsewhere. Teams in F1 havent spent one less penny on their efforts since all the ridiculous rules have been put into place over the last 15 years, they simply started spending it in the aero department.

Im not in favor for a series that runs a single tire mfg. Especially the premier motorcycle class in the world.

Im not in favor of any of the restrictions they have put on the 3 prototype classes that Dorna overseas.

The answer to cost saving, and the answer always will be, budget caps.

F1 should have set there's at about 80-100 million per team. And then lifted all technical regulations outside of safety. Including engine displacement and fuel type. Restrict fuel tank size to encourage better mileage and "green tech". Other than that, let the engineers go wild.

MotoGP should set their budgets much lower. I would think something in the range of 10-20 million per bike.

These caps would need to be audited each and every season, with strict penalties for going over the cap, same as our stick n ball sports. Include every performance related cost, from the tires purchased, carbon, engine development or leasing, driver contracts, etc.

Drivers/Riders will subsidize their team salary with personal sponsorship, just like in any major stick n ball sport (tho Im sure that in this case, as is with our current sports, a lot of money is laundered through sponsors by teams to avoid salary cap restrictions)

Teams like Ferrari sell a crazy amount of merchandise to fund their team. They have such a strong brand. They would no longer be able to outspend their competition. Out engineer, fine. Out spend, no bueno. Of course, Ferrari nor Honda would never go for such a system.

Allow multiple tire manufacturers. 5 compounds each (soft/med/hard/int/wet). All homologated so that their is no favortism.

And here is the difficult part, that will NEVER happen, but it is needed to fix things in both motorsports....Create a system where their is revenue sharing. Loosen the grip Dorna and Ecclestone have over their sports, as in, cut out the middleman. The teams should be equally splitting up all the venue and TV money that is generated. The only thing the commercial rights holder should get is operating costs and a small fixed profit. FOM and Dorna keep way to big of the pie. If there was revenue sharing you'd have 30+ bikes/cars on the grid each race, all with equal budgets, putting on a show of technical prowess and ingenuity.

And that is it. Nothing more is needed.

Rizla / Factory Suzuki - GSV-R - Rumor has it they are going to pull out and plan to return in 2013. This means Hopper will go race for Denning's WSBK Suzuki team alongside Leon Camier. Randy De Puniet was slated to be his teammate in MGP but looks to be left out in the lurch. And has already said, he wont ride CRT or Moto2. At best, this team will field only their 2011 800s Suzuki has officially pulled out





Potential CRT/Moto1 Chassis builders: CZ, Inmotec, FTR, Suter, Moriwaki, MZ, Kalex
List of different engine mfg's that will be represented next year, to date: Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, BMW, Aprilia, Kawasaki
[i]Rumors are that their may be a Kawasaki powered CRT (rumors confirmed)

WSBK still has MotoGP beat, with the solid participation/representation of almost ever major mfg: Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Aprilia, BMW, and soon possibly KTM. All they would be missing at that point would be MVAgusta.



Gresini's second bike was originally thought to be a Aprilia or BMW powered CRT rules bike. But HRC nixed that attempt. Lots of teams want to field prototypes, and are willing to pay for the leases, but the OEM's are not willing to build 'em bikes. Really weird.

I really wish Suzuki would at least let Paul Denning run a satellite team of some sort, with the old bikes. It doesnt have to be an official factory effort, that way Suzuki can save face. But Im sure Rizla would still stay on board, and the bikes would do decent. De Puniet and Hopper are capable when healthy. But their health is always a big IF. But the satellite bike thing is just a pipe dream of mine. I know it wont happen. Suzuki was approached by Aspar years back about fielding a two bike satellite team. Suzuki turned them down. Then Aspar made the same offer to Kawasaki, and Kawi passed, and a year later pulled out of MGP altogether. Lame lame lame. Customers willing to buy bikes, mfg's unwilling to play ball.





HRC has 4 factory spec RCV 800cc machines they easily could have leased out. Much the same way most mfg's leased out their old 500cc two-strokes when the sport transitioned to 990cc thumpers in '02 and '03. It made the transition for the smaller teams so much easier and kept them around. Really dumb to not employ this same strategy.

I just dont see how the FIM or Dorna can be satisfied with what theyve done to this sport. The MSMA has dropped the ball big time as well. They never should have gone away from the 990's. Its been downhill ever since.

The Moto1 teams have requested that they be scored differently in a sort of "sub-class" a la BSB's Evo class that runs in conjunction with their premier class. Im not sure how I feel about this. We're all gonna keep score at home anyways the same way we do with F1's new teams or private teams. And we already do that with MotoGP's satellite teams/riders un-officially. I say keep it that way.



4 potential seats to be filled...

Qualified Un-signed or Potential Riders

Randy De Puniet
John Hopkins

EDITS MADE:

Iaonne signed to stay with Speed Master's Moto2 team. The Moto2 team has dropped Suter to run a FTR chassis. FTR is establishing quite the rep with the Honda backed teams.

Stefan Bradl signs deal with LCR after impressive test. The will indeed get a RCV. I have previously stated that I thought the RCV would be unlikely since Gresini could only get one. No telling if LCR's (or Gresini's for that matter) RCV's will be factory or satellite spec. Either way, both teams will have equal to factory equipment for at least the first race.

Rule changes were announced:

- Testing ban lifted...no doubt this has been done to aid Rossi and Ducati. Dorna has always favored Valentino, and the series cannot afford to lose another mfg. The reasons for this relaxing of the rules may be suspect, but regardless, it was long overdue.

Stoner is not a fan of the ban being lifted. He's known for being able to figure out all he needs on a bike within about 3 hot laps and then come in and tell the engineers all they need to know. Most GP caliber riders want all the testing they can get. Stoner is just on another level right now.

- Weight limits revised...MotoGP bikes of 800cc will retain the 150kg weight minimum. 801-1000cc bikes will have to be at or above 156kg. They used to set the weight by the number of cylinders. Now, I believe, only 4 cylinders are allowed (stupid, I know, dont get me started!), so the weight favoring had to be adjusted to suite the possibility that some bikes might not run full displacement capacity. Not that I thought they should have gone this route, but since they did, I dont think they went far enough with the weight differentials. I would have liked to see them give even more favoring for bikes at the 700cc mark, and also something in between for bikes at the 900cc mark. Would have made things interesting.

- CRT bikes are allowed carbon brake rotors of any size. GP bikes are only allowed 320mm max

- Front Brake Lever Protection...the front brake level must have some sort of protection to prevent accidental activation by another rider in the event two riders bump while battling.

UPDATE


SUZUKI MAKES IT OFFICIAL - They have pulled out "temporarily" according to their press release. I'll say it again, why wouldnt Suzuki lease their factory 800's out to a private team? It makes no sense.


DePuniet was openly campaigning for Suzuki to stay and for him to be teamed up with Hopkins. DePuniet is now being linked to Aspar's Moto1 bike. Earlier in the silly season process it was reported that he was not considering a CRT a viable option for his career. The return of Aprilia may have had something to do with his change of heart...


APRILIA TO SUPPLY FACTORY BUILT Moto1 bikes to CRT's?.....That's the rumor. And even tho Dorna has specific measures in place to prevent "backdoored" factory efforts via the Moto1 rules, with the withdrawl of Suzuki, Dorna cant really turn away any sort of factory support. Aprilia is rumored to be building both CRT engines and the prototype frames for multiple Moto1 entrants. How is this legal? Not sure. I guess as long as the motor remains production based, and the team is run by a 3rd party, there isnt much that can be done to stop Aprilia's return to the premier class.

Expect HRC to return the favor with their support of Gresini's Moto1 bike.

Either way, Aprilia's is a welcome return, since they arent allowed to compete in Moto2, and it doesnt appear that they will be entering into Moto3 this year.


2010 champ Toni Elias has returned to Moto2 with Aspar's intermediate squad. Not that any premier class teams were interested. He was interested in WSBK, but rides there seem to be in short supply with the pull-out of multiple in-house factory efforts recently. He will be paired with 125 champ Nico Terol aboard Suter built bikes. The battle between these two next season should be fierce. Then again, Elias could get lost in the shuffle. Despite going to a top-notch team, the parity in Moto2 from year to year is pretty high. The field is deep with GP rejects and the results vary quite a bit from year to year.


I wonder whatever happened to the Illmor and FB Corse bikes that were supposed to be raced last year and this year? They were field tested, as was Inmotec's Spanish built V4. But never saw race day. It would be very cool to see all three bikes on the grid. 3 privately built prototypes, in a battle with the satellite spec prototypes and Moto1 bikes. Would be so interesting to see where they would end up. Especially since the grid is still looking pretty sparse.


Still, just 22 bikes on the grid. Factor in the certainty of in-season injuries and we can expect the grid to shrink well below 20 at some point. The mfg's have really failed the sport. Every one of them has prototype 800's that they could lease out and they refuse too without explanation.

EDITS


Foward Racing's title sponsor....NGM

BQR is going to run a Kawasaki engine

possibly only 4 seats left now.

exactly, their is a long ways to go, and plenty of time to get there. the CRT bikes arent that far off right now. im very suprised. i expect that by 2013, there will be no more satellite teams left unless the factories start giving factory spec bikes this year, throughout the whole year!

to answer your question, the rumor is, aprilia is going to build the entire bike. quite possibly for all the teams running aprilia's. none of this has been confirmed yet tho. and there is no telling how this will play out with regards to the technical regulations. factory moto1 bikes is not what dorna intended.

i think the satellite bikes are in trouble. if the moto1 bikes are beating them that will be a huge disgrace to the mfg's.


UPDATES


DePuniet confirmed at Aspar, as is the Aprilia engine. Still no word on the chassis builder.

Aspar will be running a second bike as well, ridden by Aleix Espargaro. Bringing the grid total to 23.

BQR Blusens will be running two bikes as well, now making the grid total 24. Looks like Yonny Hernandez and Ivan Silva will be their riders at the moment. The team have confirmed their chassis to be FTR. FTR seems to be the Moto1 chassis of choice at the moment.

UPDATES

Gresini has announced their CRT equipped rider. Italian Michele Pirro.

also noted, their RCV will not be full factory like Sic's was.


Gresini now has bikes in all 4 classes. Moto3, Moto2, Moto1, and MotoGP. They are the first to do such. To my knowledge the only other team that can compare is Aspar.