“It’s as though the back of the ship is steering the front.” So said Rossi’s revered crew chief Jerry Burgess, talking about the raft of rule changes announced at Jerez tests shortly before the start of the season.
Well, that is actually how ships work, but muddled metaphor aside, you can see the point. Panic and frenzy is the only explanation for this fresh round of changes. They’re mainly aimed at saving money. As if giving race engineers a moving target would ever do that.
For example, rules for the new Moto2 class (250 replacement, expected to start next year) have been amended to seek a single engine, assuming they can find a decent supplier.
It may make the class cheaper and more competitive, but at least three racing firms, including the Tech 3 MotoGP team and the Spanish Blusens 250/125 team have already begun to make prototype machines using different 600cc four-cylinder engines. Not much saving for them, if they have to throw them away and start again.
Wackiest of all is a rule dictating that factory teams may not hire MotoGP class rookies.
Not money-saving, but pushed through by Yamaha Tech 3 team owner (and teams’ association IRTA president) Hervé Poncharal, in the interest of his private team and the handful of others on the grid. It gives them all access to a much higher grade of rider.
While blocking the progress of super-talented kids. Never mind that this is a highly questionable restrictive trade practice, which might easily be knocked over in a court of law, consider the effect on racing and riders.
There have been only two class rookies to have won the title. The late 1961 500cc champion Gary Hocking had campaigned a private bike prior to joining the factory MV Agusta team, but possibly not for a full season. There is also no question Kenny Roberts was a rookie. He came from nowhere to claim the crown hitherto worn by Barry Sheene.
But there have been several notable rookie GP winners, such as Jarno Saarinen, who would have been Yamaha’s first 500-class champion if he had not been killed at the Italian GP in 1973. Like Max Biaggi, who won the opening round of his first 500 season in 1998. Like Jorge Lorenzo, with his single race win last year. And like Valentino Rossi, who won twice in 2000, and came second overall. Were they in factory teams? Hocking, Saarinen and Lorenzo certainly were.
The issue is fudged for Roberts, Biaggi and Rossi. All three had full factory support, but were in independent one-rider teams that ran alongside the official teams. It all depends on what you call the team, and how you define your terms. For example, Poncharal’s “private” Tech 3 squad is so close to the factory that it is effectively a works team in all but name.
This gives hope to the likes of Suzuki and Kawasaki, neither of which would otherwise have access to top new riders.
MotoGP is also anxious to establish green credentials, making another advantage of cutting testing, practice and qualifying sessions. But Dorna’s management structure has just given itself another shot in the foot, by putting a stop to KTM’s proposal to introduce the kinetic energy recovery system (Kers) on their 125 racers.
Kers is a sort of indirect regenerative braking system that electronically saves and re-uses some of the energy used in slowing down. Dorna didn’t announce this, but the proposal was ruled out of court on a rather debatable interpretation of technical regulations. It could just as easily have been accepted, and even welcomed, as a genuinely worthwhile avenue of development.
So off we all go to Qatar instead, to turn on a zillion watts of lighting to race in the dark. It seems MotoGP is keener on saving money than energy. No wonder KTM and Aprilia are off to join all the Japanese factories and BMW in World Superbikes.
Warring team-mates are always entertaining. Step forward James Toseland and Colin Edwards.
As reported last issue, the Texas Tornado (aka Windbag) has taken violent exception to JT poaching his crew chief. Revenge came during testing when Colin was reliably much faster and, rather cruelly, Toseland has had two massive accidents while trying to redress the balance.
This wasn’t enough for Edwards, who demanded that a wall be built down the middle of the pit, in the style of Fiat Yamaha and Repsol Honda last year, when their teammates were on different tyre brands.
