Capirossi calls for freeze on rider aids
'MotoGP will be no fun in five years time' says Rizla Suzuki star on direction of 800cc development
Capirossi: "The sport is no longer spectacular"
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FORMER multi World Champion Loris Capirossi has called for a freeze on rider aids in MotoGP with a dire warning that if the rate of recent developments continue then:
"MotoGP will be no fun in five years time."
Capirossi has let his feelings be known as part of the open debate on the future of the blue-riband class, Dorna-boss Carmelo Ezpeleta has said that he wants to hear from all interested parties about the next step of MotoGP development.
Capirossi said: "We talk as much about the aids and technology being used for safety and naturally these driving assistance do make riding these bikes safer, but I think that there is another side to this where the show element of MotoGP suffers.
"We do not drift the bikes any more as much as we used to. I think that the sport is no longer so spectacular. MotoGP is the point of motorcycle racing, here is where the really good pilots should be able to show their skill and be out front. If we don't freeze the aids now then riding our bikes will be no more fun. And that would happen in the next five years."
Judging by the way Stoner slaughtered the opposition in Qatar we reckon MotoGP will be no fun in a lot less than five years, Loris.
Discuss this story
..and the money they get Might just turn it back into a sport instead of the exhibition it is now..
Posted: 17/03/2008 at 12:08
..and no contract money riders only get prize money for placing give em a reason to race
Posted: 17/03/2008 at 15:05
F1 have banned Traction Control this year and as a result (in my opinion) sundays race was quality and very entertaining. It certainly wasnt shy of action anyway. In motorsport the drivers / riders should be good enough to control their cars / bikes without such aides or they shouldnt be there. I think F1 has shown MotoGP the way to go on this one. Lets start testing the riders again and bring back the entertainment value. As most riders seem to prefer bikes without stabilisers lets hope that the MotoGP organisers were also watching the grang prix and follow suit next year.
Posted: 17/03/2008 at 17:25
The new generation riders and the newly disigned bikes rely on the sophisticated electronics............So it wouldn't be possible to ride without them........... However all this has spoiled the spectacle of the rider which made motogp so exciting and if it carries on this way it will be the software writers winning and not the rider...............I hope this isn't the future. Mr Ezpeleta............Traction Control should be in the riders right wrist
Posted: 17/03/2008 at 22:31
The new generation riders and the newly disigned bikes rely on the sophisticated electronics............So it wouldn't be possible to ride without them........... i dont believe that to be true, all the 250 boys have been at the top of the game without electronics. they would adapt anyways.
Posted: 18/03/2008 at 08:24
Whilst I agree that rider aids such as launch and traction control should be banned I have to disagree about Moto GP becoming a procession. I watched both the opening Moto GP and F1 and Moto GP was much more exciting. Toseland carving his way through 3 or 4 riders in the first couple of laps, luckily he did not take anyone out. I think the rubbing of fairings scared Stoner a bit, especialy if you listened to what he said to the BBC after the race. The race at the end between Dovizioso, Rossi and Toseland was good to watch. The only exciting bits of F1 were the first corner jiggery pokery and Raikkonen going straight on in to the gravel after trying to overtake someone.
Posted: 18/03/2008 at 11:43
I read somewhere that it would be very hard to ban traction control and to find cheats unless they followed the F1 route and put a standard ecu in place which all the tems where forced to use. This would be much harder with bikes (engine configurations tec being different). However I think it has to be done cause it's not good at the moment or atleast it has to be better and more pure. Plus we're breeding a generation of riders who will only be able to ride powerful machines with electronic control and an exciting skill will be lost. Ten Kate are seriously looking at electronics in WSS!!?????????? Would quite like launce control to stay though atleast no one is stalling and the major start line accidents appear to be a thing of the past. Good thing me thinks
Posted: 18/03/2008 at 15:18
BAN TRACTION CONTROL Easy. In it's simplest form, motorsport (on any number of wheels) is about three things: - Who's latest on the brakes - Who carries the most apex speed - Who nails it most on corner exit. Traction control completely takes away that last one. It is an evil sin. Standard ECU's if they have to, won't be that hard. On a seperate note, the F1 race was much better at the weekend, but sport is about much more than that. IE. Kimi R, Massa, Alonso and shit, yes, even Hamilton bore the living fucking daylights out of me. When Kimi won the title after a miracle final race he could barely raise a smile. Yet we had Lorenzo on the other side of the world dressed up as a big gold boxer and partying hard! F1 gets 'wild' when Ferrari get the red wigs out. Jacques Villenueve nearly got shot by the sponsors for having a bleach job and that was ten years ago when F1 was even more 'wild'! Can you imagine if Lewis shaved all his hair off except the back bit in a tribute to Ron Dennis like Rossi did as a tribute to his chief engineer at Aprillia? Hamilton would probably get banned! Oli
Posted: 19/03/2008 at 22:21
It's no fun now - basically F1 on two wheels. didnt see sundays race then, much better,lots of spectical
Oh that's right, somebody overtook somebody else on the last lap, by which time Hamilton was already ten minutes ahead of everyone else! 
I hear today that F1 is going back to the BBC. Is this so that hardcore fans won't miss any of the gripping, edge of the seat action due to adverts??? Keep it on ITV, then they could just show two hours of continuous adverts for the DFS Winter\Easter\Summer\Autumn\Christmas\Random sale with 3 minutes of F1 coverage every quarter of an hour! Infinitely more exciting. F1 'races' are just like an extended qualifying session. No overtaking etc. It's just a technology parade. Is this what the fans of MotoGP want too? I don't think so.
Posted: 20/03/2008 at 11:02
F1 'races' are just like an extended qualifying session. No overtaking etc. It's just a technology parade. Is this what the fans of MotoGP want too? I don't think so.
So what's your point? That MotoGP should keep TC so that it is different from F1?
I must add though, despite my rant about TC above, I do hope that MotoGP don't start fucking around with the series like F1 has. F1 is like a soap opera now, they keep changing it every year to make it more interesting, but they need to remember that it is a sport and whilst it should be entertaining, it needs to retain sporting intergrity. The only reason MotoGP is a bore is because of one Australian chap who is a class above anyone else. It was the same when Doohan was winning and the same when Rossi was winning. I hope that Dorna appreciate that and just let them get on with it. But still, ban TC because it removes the skill of the rider. Oli
Posted: 20/03/2008 at 21:18
I think when Rossi was on top he was confident he could go at any time. He seemed to hang back and mix it a bit, which gave the slower riders a chance to join in, then at the end he'd just show 'em how it was done. Now, Stoner fu**s off from lap one and everyone else has to go at their own pace to try and stay with him which strings them out. Just go back to 990's without TC, they were the best years for entertainment.
Posted: 24/03/2008 at 09:58
F1 'races' are just like an extended qualifying session. No overtaking etc. It's just a technology parade. Is this what the fans of MotoGP want too? I don't think so.
So what's your point? That MotoGP should keep TC so that it is different from F1?
Absolutely not. I think there's no place for driver aids in top flight motorsport. It should be about driver skill, and it clearly isn't. Yes, they are highly skilled drivers, but there's a world of difference between the really good ones, and the ones who are able to keep up (and do very well) because of all the technology that helps them. Having said that, if there was no TC, anti-wheelie, launch control etc you'd only end up with the same few people coming in the top three every week, so it wouldn't be all that different!
Posted: 25/03/2008 at 11:19
interesting thread, especially after todays race at jerez??? is it just me or are more riders not relying on the tc of their machines?? it looked to me that a fair few are now riding with a lot less electronic control compared to last year?? stoner being one of them!! (maybe thats why he ended up in the gravel twice)??? its a long way from not having tc, but bikes were definately getting out of shape today compared to last year. i thought similar after qatar too?? it definately made it a better spectacle to watch imho. it was nice to visibly see bikes being rode on their limits rather than assuming they are just cos its a gp.
Posted: 30/03/2008 at 18:54
Manufacturers use Moto GP as a test bed for their production bikes, thats why we are slowly getting more and more electronics on our road bikes. To me this isnt good, cos the only people its going to help is the poncy power rangers with humps on their back, having just bought a gsxr1000 the day after they past their test, posing outside cafes sayin "yeh its got tractor control or somethin" Its ruining the sport, its now nothing compared to 3 years ago where the riders really had to muscle the things around and marco melandri was powersliding round the last bend with his hand in the air lol. I can understand the advantges of launch control, however it has its bad points, cos now instead of the rider having to make a controlled start, now everybody arrives together at the first corner cos they all got off the line perfectly at the same time. as for launch control on road bikes.........cmoooon for fucks sake whats the point?? I enjoy motorcycling because of the feeling of being part of the machine, or the machine being an extension of myself with every minute input being critical and somehow becomes sub-conscious, as im sure many others do. Isn't Traction Control robbing us of this?? Cheers Tom
Posted: 07/04/2008 at 00:37
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