MotoGP News
Date: 10/1/2012
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi intends to sign at least one more contract before retirement, but that will do little to reduce the pressure on his Ducati team heading into the 2012 season.
Rossi, the most popular motorcycle rider of all time and winner of 93 races and nine world championships, saw a dream switch to home Italian manufacturer backfire spectacularly last year.
The 32-year-old scored just one podium finish as he limped home seventh in the standings and failed to win a race for the first time since his world championship debut in 1996.
“I would like to help Ducati achieve something then maybe stop,” said Rossi of his MotoGP future. “We started this project and want to win something.
“But I would like at least one more contract. So another two years [after 2012].”
The MotoGP rider market will open up at the end of this year, with all of the top riders out of contract, but Rossi has already ridden for both Honda and Yamaha - the only other factories remaining in MotoGP.
“This season will be interesting because all of the top riders’ contracts are up at the end of the year, so the cards could be reshuffled,” he said.
Rossi added that a return to a Japanese manufacturer was "not very likely, but who knows? I won’t say it’s impossible…”
Taking his long awaited 80th premier-class win will be the main focus for Rossi and Ducati this year - and should be enough to keep him at the team beyond 2012.
In pursuit of that goal many of the unique characteristics of the Ducati motorcycle - such as extensive structural use of carbon fibre - were progressively removed during last season.
The Desmosedici will become even more like a Japanese motorcycle for 2012 through the use of a conventional aluminium frame.
Winter development is continuing at such a pace that the traditional unveiling of the new bike at this week’s Wrooom press ski meeting at Madonna di Campiglio has been abandoned.
Instead the GP12, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated motorcycle in Rossi’s career, won’t be seen in public until the first test session of the year, in Malaysia at the end of the month.
For now Rossi’s expectations are cautious: "I don't want to say that I can't fight for the title, but we have to be realistic. At the end of last year we were still 1.5sec a lap behind, so the first target is simply to be closer to the front.
"This bike is very different from last year’s so it will be impossible to be competitive from the very first test. However we should be ready for the first race.”
Ducati won the world championship with Casey Stoner in 2007 and was a race winner with the Australian every season until he departed for Honda, and promptly won his second crown, in 2011.
But Stoner’s talent masked fundamental handling problems with the Desmosedici that not even Rossi could overcome. Rossi believes part of the problem is the narrow margin for design variation possible following MotoGP’s switch to a single tyre supplier in 2009.
"What is important in MotoGP is making the Bridgestone tyres work well. This is where we’ve suffered and where we’ve been working,” said Rossi.
2012 will be a big year for MotoGP in general, with a change to 1000cc engines and a new class of privateer Claiming Rule Team bikes joining the grid.
These controversial cut-price machines, powered by Superbike-based engines, will race under slightly different technical rules to the full prototypes - but are in danger of being left substantially off the pace.
Unlike some of his rivals, Rossi is pragmatic enough to realise MotoGP currently has little alternative.
"In a perfect world there would be 24 factory-built bikes on the grid, but without CRT there would be only 12 bikes this year. So we need CRT," he said.
One thing that hasn’t changed, Rossi insists, is his desire for victory.
“The new generation of riders are younger and very strong, but I’m still very fast and my hunger is the same,” he warned.
MotoGP ready to rebound with 21-rider grid
MotoGP News
Date: 16/December/2011
The FIM, governing body for the MotoGP World Championship, has announced that nine new ‘Claiming Rule Teams’ have been accepted for the 2012 season.
CRTs are a new grade of privateer constructor created in response to perilously small grids of fully-fledged prototypes.
Just 17 factory-built bikes from Honda, Ducati, Yamaha and Suzuki were entered for the full 2011 season - and absences through injury meant riders were all but guaranteed a world championship point if they simply finished some races.
With the cash-strapped factories unable to respond, commercial rights holders Dorna Sports have championed the new CRT category to put more bikes on the grid.
It came just in time.
Suzuki pulled out its single entry at the end of the 2011 season, while the remaining three manufacturers are fielding a total of just twelve bikes for 2012 - two for each factory team, plus two ‘satellite’ bikes from each brand.
Twelve bikes would not be enough to justify world championship status, but the news that a further nine CRT bikes - plus one reserve - have been “approved” means that MotoGP should have at least 21 full-time riders next year.
These new entries are likely to be a poor competitive replacement for the ‘lost’ factory-built bikes, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Two established MotoGP riders - Colin Edwards (Forward) and Randy de Puniet (Aspar) - will be switching to CRT next year. They will be joined by three returning premier-class riders - Aleix Espargaro (Aspar), James Ellison (PBM) and Anthony West (Speed Master) - while Moto2 race winner Michele Pirro with ride a CRT bike for Gresini. The three other CRT places are still to be confirmed.
CRT bikes will be able to use more fuel and engine changes relative to the factory-built bikes. They will consist of modified Superbike engines in a prototype chassis, with Italian manufacturer Aprilia causing controversy by assisting in development of both an engine and chassis package.
CRT status is decided by the Grand Prix Commission and can be removed at any time while engines can be ‘claimed’ for a fixed price by any of the MotoGP manufacturers - a move designed to limit costs.
Other rule changes announced by the GPC were the opening up of in-season testing - now restricted only by the number of tyres - plus the announcement that a rider can effectively qualify for a race if he sets a lap time within 107% of pole during the Sunday morning warm-up session.
Bikes in all three classes - MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 - will need to run a red rear light to aid visibility in wet races, plus a widening of Race Direction’s powers to “impose penalties was extended to cover failure by any party to ensure the efficient running of events or for serious breaches of the regulations”.
Date: 16/December/2011
The FIM, governing body for the MotoGP World Championship, has announced that nine new ‘Claiming Rule Teams’ have been accepted for the 2012 season.
CRTs are a new grade of privateer constructor created in response to perilously small grids of fully-fledged prototypes.
Just 17 factory-built bikes from Honda, Ducati, Yamaha and Suzuki were entered for the full 2011 season - and absences through injury meant riders were all but guaranteed a world championship point if they simply finished some races.
With the cash-strapped factories unable to respond, commercial rights holders Dorna Sports have championed the new CRT category to put more bikes on the grid.
It came just in time.
Suzuki pulled out its single entry at the end of the 2011 season, while the remaining three manufacturers are fielding a total of just twelve bikes for 2012 - two for each factory team, plus two ‘satellite’ bikes from each brand.
Twelve bikes would not be enough to justify world championship status, but the news that a further nine CRT bikes - plus one reserve - have been “approved” means that MotoGP should have at least 21 full-time riders next year.
These new entries are likely to be a poor competitive replacement for the ‘lost’ factory-built bikes, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Two established MotoGP riders - Colin Edwards (Forward) and Randy de Puniet (Aspar) - will be switching to CRT next year. They will be joined by three returning premier-class riders - Aleix Espargaro (Aspar), James Ellison (PBM) and Anthony West (Speed Master) - while Moto2 race winner Michele Pirro with ride a CRT bike for Gresini. The three other CRT places are still to be confirmed.
CRT bikes will be able to use more fuel and engine changes relative to the factory-built bikes. They will consist of modified Superbike engines in a prototype chassis, with Italian manufacturer Aprilia causing controversy by assisting in development of both an engine and chassis package.
CRT status is decided by the Grand Prix Commission and can be removed at any time while engines can be ‘claimed’ for a fixed price by any of the MotoGP manufacturers - a move designed to limit costs.
Other rule changes announced by the GPC were the opening up of in-season testing - now restricted only by the number of tyres - plus the announcement that a rider can effectively qualify for a race if he sets a lap time within 107% of pole during the Sunday morning warm-up session.
Bikes in all three classes - MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 - will need to run a red rear light to aid visibility in wet races, plus a widening of Race Direction’s powers to “impose penalties was extended to cover failure by any party to ensure the efficient running of events or for serious breaches of the regulations”.
Overtaking increase after F1 2012 rule change?
F1 News
Date: 8/December/2011
The final World Motor Sport Council meeting of 2011 saw confirmation of several expected F1 rule changes - plus one notable unforeseen amendment.
That was in terms of overtaking, with the attacking driver to be handed a further advantage (alongside the use of DRS).
From next season “Drivers may no longer move back onto the racing line having moved off it to defend a position.”
In one short sentence, the WMSC has thus removed the primary tactic used to prevent overtaking.
The usual response when a driver is under threat from a car behind is to move off the racing line to ‘cover’ the inside line. This forces the attacking driver to either try and brave it out around the outside, or to go even further inside the car ahead (if space is available).
In the past, the leading car has then been allowed to return to the normal race line in time for the corner. It is this second move which will now be illegal, meaning the driver ahead will have to choose between moving and staying off the racing line, or leaving the inside line open for the car behind.
Other changes included confirmation that exhaust tailpipes will be “strictly regulated” to ensure they provide little aerodynamic effect, a warning that all crash tests must be passed before taking part in pre-season testing, and a new three-day test session to be carried out during the season.
The 2012 F1 calendar was also “confirmed as previously published” meaning the sport intends to run a 20-race season, which will include a controversial return to Bahrain and F1’s debut at a new track in Austin, Texas.
Date: 8/December/2011
The final World Motor Sport Council meeting of 2011 saw confirmation of several expected F1 rule changes - plus one notable unforeseen amendment.
That was in terms of overtaking, with the attacking driver to be handed a further advantage (alongside the use of DRS).
From next season “Drivers may no longer move back onto the racing line having moved off it to defend a position.”
In one short sentence, the WMSC has thus removed the primary tactic used to prevent overtaking.
The usual response when a driver is under threat from a car behind is to move off the racing line to ‘cover’ the inside line. This forces the attacking driver to either try and brave it out around the outside, or to go even further inside the car ahead (if space is available).
In the past, the leading car has then been allowed to return to the normal race line in time for the corner. It is this second move which will now be illegal, meaning the driver ahead will have to choose between moving and staying off the racing line, or leaving the inside line open for the car behind.
Other changes included confirmation that exhaust tailpipes will be “strictly regulated” to ensure they provide little aerodynamic effect, a warning that all crash tests must be passed before taking part in pre-season testing, and a new three-day test session to be carried out during the season.
The 2012 F1 calendar was also “confirmed as previously published” meaning the sport intends to run a 20-race season, which will include a controversial return to Bahrain and F1’s debut at a new track in Austin, Texas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)