what we have learned at estoril so far...
13/09/07
News
By Edgar Jessop on the piri-piri
The MotoGP tyre saga rumbles on and on, with Dorna head man Carmelo Ezpeleta stating he wants the situation sorted out within a couple of weeks or he will wave his big stick and a control tyre rule will appear. However, the three tyre manufacturers have had a nice cup of tea and a sit down, and reckon they will carry on in the same vein as this year, but Michelin won't be bringing any duff tyres and Dunlop will be backing more than one team.
Alex De Angelis will join the Gresini Honda squad and replace Marco Melandri who is off to Ducati. De Angelis was thought to have strong ties with the D'Antin Ducati team, but has opted for Honda power instead.
Andrea Dovizioso will also move up a class in 2008 when his Scot Honda 250 team merges with Konica Minolta Honda. This leaves Shinya Nakano without a seat unless he moves to Gresini, which leaves Toni Elias without a seat, unless he goes to D'Antin Ducati...
Rossi after ceasing his impromptu informal media briefings where the ever-worshipful MotoGP hacks sat round his feet, hanging on his every word has now seen the error of his ways and the sessions have been restored - but with a difference. Now he sits behind a table with his media minders while the serried ranks of hacks sit in front of him. And, because he has fallen out big time with the Italian press for being impudent enough to ask him questions as to why he has (allegedly) deprived his government of millions, he speaks only in English.
NASCAR bosses in the States - not everyone's cup of tea I know - are fond of saying "we`re not in motor racing, we`re in the entertainment business" and they mean it. In a 34-race series they will probably have 15 different winners. They dictate to the manufacturers not the other way round as in MotoGP. This year they have even invented the equivalent of football league playoffs - the first 24 rounds are mere qualifiers for the final 10 just to keep things interesting. NASCAR is the second biggest TV sport to NFL in America and attracts an average of around 130,000 spectators per round. So they know what they are talking about. Any thoughts Carmelo, Paolo..?
TV is a big issue for British Superbikes at the moment with the likelihood that it will be busted down to ITV4 next season. By the way did you know that we have to pay to get our sport on TV? Yup, somewhere north of half a million quid in production costs. Much headscratching at the MCRCB...
We often moan about the lack of British talent on the world scene. The good news is that at least one of our brightest is catching the eye of sponsors and manufacturers. It looks like Bradley Smith, still under the wise tutelage of Alberto Puig, will be riding for either KTM or Aprillia next season - considerably superior hardware to his somewhat pedestrian Honda.
Casey Stoner thinks Estoril is bumpy. He also thought Laguna Seca was bumpy. And Assen... Where was this kid born? On a snooker table?
Rossi has said he might well be competing in the Rally Great Britain at the end of November. Excellent. If he can stick in a decent performance and not emulate his early exit last time out, then I might go and stand on a freezing cold hillside in the rain to watch it. If Travis Pastrana can do it...
A MotoGP night race at Qatar is going to cost $15 million in lighting alone, according to the country's motorsport boss Nasser Bin Khalifa Al-Attiyah, which he adds is "a huge amount, by any standards..." No kidding.
Valentino Rossi, and therefore the rest of Yamaha, will stick with Michelin tyres for 2008. This will please James Toseland, we would think, but maybe not Colin Edwards who told Suzi Perry on the programme formerly known as Grandstand, that he wouldn't mind a control (Bridgestone) tyre rule... Yamaha boss Davide Brivio has stated that new signing Jorge Lorenzo will run as Rossi's direct teammate and that the Italian will continue with the pneumatic valve motor for this season.
Britain's Chaz Davies is now undergoing an anxious wait to see if he gets a ride with Pramac Ducati next season after a sucessful test of the GP7 factory bike earlier this week. Chaz managed to crash on Wednesday afternoon, but shook it off and carried on. It is said that if he doesn't get the berth, he will be offered a job as test rider.
Davies was watched by old mate and runaway championship leader Casey Stoner during the test session, and the Aussie really wants Davies, who used to beat him when they competed in the UK, on a MotoGP bike next year.
Rule changes that mean there will be no 250cc class from 2010 are a step nearer being implemented after some technical regulations were banded about the pits.The most important bits are engines will be 600cc, four-cylinder with no variable valve timing, no pneumatic valves, a rev limiter, twin shocks and square tyres (the last two might be lies). So much for progress then...
