I saw this in the paper this morning
I never realised that MotoGP as a series was having such big problems!
Very interesting and worrying reading.
I noticed the lack of sponsorship at Jerez and so close to the opening of the season !
I think a lot of companies are struggling financially anyway, but it would make sense for them to budget for advertising in motor sports as it’s so popular to reach a wider audience.
Obviously tobacco companies are/were the biggest sponsors.
You would have thought that sky who have the monopoly on tv rights, and who incidently make billions, would filter some of that cash back into the sport.
Am I being too nieve to suggest that the fatcat CEO and upper echelons of sky managment could pass on a fraction of their monstrous wages and bonuses to go to these causes?
What he didn’t say was how much money Dorna are making out of MotoGP??? £50m could be a drop in the ocean for these guys.
It probably is.
It’s a tough time, but they’ll get through it, but it really is do-or-die for Team KR, which is a real shame as I personally rate them really high. They’re a full on British team and get great results considering where they’ve come from. If they can’t get the cash, then MotoGP will suffer a great loss.
I’m surprised more Petroleum companies can’t be talked into sponsorship, and I agree with Puppy, Sky should show some business-sense and re-invest in their cash-cow. I dislike Sky for their MotoGP coverage, the visual quality is completely sub-standard. We should have MotoGP in HD, not crappy internet-download quality.
Honda busted Dorna’s ass for the 800cc rule change, and look where it’s got them. BIG mistake on Dorna’s part for implementing the change, they could very well contribute to the demise of the sport.
There’s always alternatives though. Teams could turn to their fans and ask for a subscription. £20 a year from a million fans (£20m for the calculator-dependants) would go a very long way, and it’s easy to implement. Infact, I’m surprised they don’t already do this. It would further concrete team loyalty and brand appreciation, which is the whole reason for being in MotoGP in the first place, to market the brand.
No doubt it’s only pennies to a company like Dorna!
The one good thing that I saw in the report was that they realise there is a lack of British riders in MotoGP at present, which can hopefully only mean one thing, that Dorna will try to put pressure on some of the big manufacturers to take on British riders in future…or is that just wishful thinking?
swithcing 800cc cost everyone a fortunate, didn’t slow down the riders, and has made the bikes less powerful than WSB
genius
Less powerful? No way man! 220bhp+… WSB IL4’s are restricted to 210bhp. Ducati’s are only limited by their design 
Not sure what the answer is. You have a similar situation in football, with the larger teams getting all the sponsorship and, in particular, TV money.
“£20 a year from a million fans (£20m for the calculator-dependants) would go a very long way, and it’s easy to implement. Infact, I’m surprised they don’t already do this. It would further concrete team loyalty and brand appreciation”
You then run the risk of making the big teams bigger and the small teams smaller. Who’s going to have more paying fans, Repsol Honda or Tech 3 Yamaha?
“Less powerful? No way man! 220bhp+… WSB IL4’s are restricted to 210bhp.”
I believe Toseland’s Honda is putting out 216bhp - I’m not aware of a restriction on the power of World Superbikes though.
Not sure on the power of the 800cc MotoGP bikes (the manufacturers seem to be cagey about figures thus far), but if you take the fact that they were putting out around 250bhp with 990cc and pro-rata that power down, with capacity, you’d be looking at around 200bhp with 800cc (it’s not exactly scientific, granted). GP bikes will still be faster due to lower weight restrictions, not being held back by being production models and being able to use carbon brakes etc.
220bhp+ off an 800?? i doubt it. which teams are actually quoting that output?
according to this article, that would be the equiv of a 990 making over 270bhp…
http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/Article_Page.aspx?ArticleID=4407&Page=1
i’m not aware of an enforced limit in WSB either. they’re restricted by tuning limitations, not hp aren’t they?
As far as I can see on the WSB website it’s just the tuning limitations that restrict the power output of the bikes.
When they let 1000cc IL4s into WSB there were some tuning restrictions so the twins had a chance, Ducati could fit really expensive, short life components to keep up…on factory bikes, at great expense…now they [Ducati] want equal tuning rules plus 200cc for twins to keep racing and the expenses equal.
Maybe, just maybe, they should accept that twins don’t make as much power and should build a four cyclinder bike like… (wait for it)… everyone else does!
Sorry, I hate the fact that one manufacturer gets the rules changed in their favour. Watch the Ducati BSB boys clean up next season.
There’s a few flaws in that articles logic.
First, the 990’s could have made more power than they did. The engineers problem was more generating usable power than out-right HP figures.
Look at the lap times, they are faster, and by a fair margin. I know the bikes are able to break later (which is a tip towards lower top speeds), and they are supposed to be faster through the corners (but that’s not a huge%) , I can’t believe they have have lost too much power.
I thought I remember reading that Rossi said he felt like “the bike was broken” the first time he rode the 800 as it was down so much in power from the 990’s…
I’m with Loris on this one…what does it REALLY mean to be a MotoGP rider? Does it mean being able to ride a bike with less power and more mechanical aids (ie traction control and fly by wire throttle settings putting the power to the tarmac?) Or does it mean being amongst only a small handful of people in the WORLD that can competitively race the very BEST machines that the various manufacturers can dream up?
Also…who was the driving force behind the rule change? (From 990cc to 800cc) Did Honda force the rule change on everyone else to favor their obnoxious little midget? Or did Dorna come up with it on their own?
cant say i agree with that buddy. its not changed in their ‘favour’, its to try and establish parity. the ducati’s still dont make as much power in outright hp, altho the engine characteristics currently make up for that. its massively expensive for ducati to do it the tuning route to be competitive. if anything the costs are in favour of the jap boys. the extra cc should (if done right) make little difference other than to even the playing field to start with, and allow more teams to run ducatis, esp privateers. more bikes, more potential teams, more racing.
its not like ducati won bsb last year. in wsb bayliss rides the ass off it but lanzi isn’t picking up 2nd place each time
the only people who want ducati to make IL4s are people who buy jap bikes and wouldnt’ buy a ducatil IL4 anyway so there is no reason they’d ever want to do it. aside from the passion for racing, its about selling bikes. ducati is tiny company in comparison to yamaha etc and spend a hell of a lot more of their budget on racing proportionately, i rate them for that 
agreed that they wouldn’t actually want that power, and often even had to soften the 250 odd bhp for tracks to make it more useable. i think its more by comparison of what feasable power output you can get from such a small engine. also if they can all brake later, does this mean that there will be fewer of the amazing outbraking manouevres into the corners if the margins are even smaller?
for me i think its kind of the same reason i rarely bother to watch the 125 and 250 races. i’ve no aspiration to be a midget on a mini-bike, and dont want my bike hero’s to weigh 50kgs to be competitive. maybe its just me but it all just feels a bit less exciting now that they’ve reduced the engine size. i’m hoping i’ll feel otherwise when the season starts…
I don’t agree. Parity is all well and good, but if a small team came along wanting to build a different config bike from the rest of the paddock, should the rules be changed to allow it, or should they be made to conform with the existing rules? Honda et al soon established that twins were not the way forward in WSB and binned them. Yes, I appreciate that they have a lot more money, but you either make people play by the rules or you have a farce on your hands. Will the organisiers entertain potential rule change requests from every manufacturer?
Ducati didn’t win BSB this year, however, they finished 2nd and 3rd - and going into the last race could have finished 1st and 2nd.
Bayliss won WSB by a country mile and as for Lanzi, well, I would be very surprised if he’s still on that bike come next year. I’m sure that him being Italian has in no small part aided him keeping the ride this year…
The fact is that, regardless of costs, Ducati superbikes are more than competitve. The rule changes benefit them and NO-ONE ELSE. So, again, I wonder who we can expect to see top of the rostrums next year…? 
I’ve read a few riders’ comments where they’ve said that they can pretty much wrap the throttle open coming out of bends now, using all the power, rather than having to feather the throttle like they had to on the 990cc bikes (for fear of spinning the rear up or being thrown over the bars).
can see your side of it, altho only reckon its a farce if you get the allowances wrong. the foggy petronas was a triple wasn’t it? they had diff allowances made for that (not that it did 'em much good in the end). i’d have thought this issue is constantly discussed by the race organisers? i’m not saying they’ve definitely got hte balance right, but the principal seems sound to me
bayliss did romp it, but he is an exceptional rider and ducati got to grips with traction control etc way before the others, esp the tenkate honda (who weren’t going to develop one at all, and bought in the system this year from what i gather). toseland seems to have a better package this year as a result - the ducati sure didn’t have the legs on the honda on the straights.
appreciate what you’re saying with the potential 1-2 for ducati, but by that logic if kiyonari had a team-mate of the same standard and they’d done the 1-2, would that mean the ducati’s should be given more allowances? anyone can make a twin and make use of the tuning allowances
(i find this topic really interesting )