Showing posts with label MotoGP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MotoGP. Show all posts

Monday 10 November 2014



The Marquez brothers Marc and Alex made motorcycling history Sunday with a double triumph in the final round of the season in Valencia.

Marc, who had already wrapped up a second straight MotoGP crown, set a new record for wins in a season with his 13th, while his 18-year-old younger brother clinched the Moto3 crown.

It means they are the only brothers to hold titles in the same season and it can only be a matter of time before they are direct rivals in the top echelon of the sport.


Alex, who will be promoted to the Moto2 class next season, finished third in the final race, enough to hold off Australian Jack Miller, who won in Valencia, by just two points.

He then watched as Marc overcame tricky conditions to round off another triumphant season on his Repsol Honda with an emphatic victory.

He started from fifth on the grid after a crash in qualifying Saturday, but quickly worked his way through the field.

Marquez eventually took the lead on the 11th lap and had opened up a near four-second advantage by the time he took the checkered flag from Italian legend Valentino Rossi, who clinched second in the title race.

Read: Rossi wins after Marquez crashes out

Marquez's teammate Daniel Pedrosa took the final spot on the podium, while Andrea Dovizioso held off his Ducati teammate Cal Crutchlow for fourth.

Marquez, who tied Mick Doohan's 1997 record of 12 runs in the previous round in Malaysia, said he had been inspired by his brother's earlier triumph.

"The truth is I am very, very happy. During the race at times I was thinking of my brother and thought I had to do well," he admitted.

The 18-round season has proved an all-Spanish affair at the top of all the categories, with Esteve Rabat having already clinched the Moto2 crown.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

 

News 2015 MotoGP Team Aprilia and Suzuki


Towards the end of the 800cc era, MotoGP looked to be in dire condition. Grids were dwindling, factories were reducing their participation, and teams were in difficult financial straits indeed. By the end of 2011, there were just 17 full time entries, Suzuki was down to a single rider, and were about to pull out entirely for 2012.

How different the situation looks today. The CRTs have served their purpose - to persuade the factories to help fill the grid, and supply the teams with (relatively) affordable equipment - and the reduction in costs brought about in part by the spec electronics is enticing factories back to 2015 MotoGP. Suzuki is in full testing mode, and getting ready to return to racing full time in 2015, and Aprilia is working towards a full-time return in 2016.

In a recent interview with the official MotoGP.com website, Aprilia Corse's new boss Romano Albesiano gave a brief outline of their plans. The Italian factory will continue to work with the IODA Racing team for 2014 to collect data on the electronics and tires, which they will use as input on an entirely new project being worked on for 2016. 

The new bike will begin testing in 2015, with the possibility of a few wildcard appearances that year, before Aprilia return as a full factory effort in 2016. With MotoGP going to a single set of rules for 2016 - based very closely on the Open class rules for this season - making their return when the new regulations take effect makes much more commercial sense.

Though Albesiano revealed few details in the interview, some details are already known of Aprilia's direction. Last year, when the Aspar team were still in talks with Aprilia about their plans for 2014, it emerged that Aprilia were planning a bike with pneumatic valves and a seamless gearbox. In the first instance, those technologies would be applied to the existing ART project, which is itself based on the Aprilia RSV4 superbike. 

It is unlikely that the new bike Aprilia is working on will be a radical departure from the RSV4 layout, with engine layout and basic chassis geometry likely to remain the same. The main emphasis of the changes will probably be on improving the engine construction, removing some of the compromises made in the RSV4 to cut costs as a production bike, making it a more specialized machine.

The return of Aprilia and Suzuki will provide a quality boost for the grid. For the past two years, the grid has been kept at 24 slots, dropping to 23 with the loss of Leon Camier from the IODA Racing squad, when Giampiero Sacchi's team failed to find sponsorship to make up for the loss of CAME. Dorna's aim is to have a grid of 22 riders, all on relatively competitive equipment. 

That grid size is determined in part by the deal Dorna have done with Bridgestone, who supply 22 riders with tires for free. To help trim down the grid, the team which finishes last in the standings will lose its financial contribution from Dorna, and be persuaded to concentrate on Moto2. New teams entering will also have to forego the Dorna subsidy for the first year, until they have proven to be financially sound.

The entry of Suzuki has thrown the weakest teams a financial lifeline, however. The three weakest teams on the grid - currently PBM, Avintia and IODA Racing - could decide to sell their grid slots to Suzuki for 2015. The price could be hefty - 2 million euros is one number being bandied about by the well-informed website Speedweek - though with three potential sellers, that could help drive the price down for Suzuki. 

If there are more candidates to join - Marc VDS Racing is also considering making the step up, team boss Michael Bartholemy told Speedweek - then prices may once again rise. With Aprilia looking to come as a factory entry in 2016, IODA Racing may be able to extract financial backing from the Italian factory in exchange for their grid slots - or a role running the factory team - when they join the series.



The return of Suzuki and Aprilia would bring the number of factories involved back up to 4 in 2015, and 5 in 2016, with Avintia's strong ties to Kawasaki leaving the door open for the Japanese firm to come back, should they decide it is cost effective. So far, though, Kawasaki has been perfectly content to remain in World Superbikes, and with the ZX-10R already such a strong base package, the bike looks set to remain competitive in WSBK when the series switches to EVO regulations from next year on. 

Though the cost of competing has reduced considerably - Kawasaki was rumored to be spending upwards of 65 million euros a season when they raced in MotoGP, about as much as Yamaha and 10-20 million less than Honda - it is still nowhere near as cheap as World Superbikes. Kawasaki's World Superbike budget is believed to be closer to that of a satellite MotoGP team, rather than a factory MotoGP team. Even BMW's factory WSBK budget was said to be just 10 million euros a year, a cost that was considered outrageous by the rest of the World Superbike paddock.

It is not just the return of factories which is helping to boost the quality of MotoGP grids. Ducati have already pledged to sell competitive machines based on the 2014 Desmosedici for next season, at a price similar to that of the Honda RCV1000R. With the improvement in performance which the GP14 has shown, that could be an attractive option for next season. What's more, it appears that LCR Honda could also expand from one to two riders, with a second slot opened for an Open class machine, Lucio Cecchinello looking at adding a production Honda alongside the RC213V currently in the hands of Stefan Bradl.

MotoGP has gone through a long and very dark period. But the revival which started in 2012 is showing signs of growing stronger. Many threats still remain - not least, the decision by Dorna to switch to pay-per-view broadcasters - but the series is in much, much better health than it has been in some while.

Wednesday 26 March 2014

 

Monster Yamaha Tech3 In Qatar


Both Tech3 riders failed to finish the race with Smith falling whilst challenging for a podium position on lap 19, and Spanish Rookie Espargaro retiring with a mechanical issue on lap 18.

The opening race began in emphatic fashion for Smith, who qualified in a personal best ever position of third on the front row of the MotoGP grid. The young English rider was in second place during the opening laps and was in contention for leading the Grand Prix, before settling into a steady rhythm.

The Tech3 rider remained close to the front for the duration of the race, and as he was preparing his attack on the leading four on lap 19, he lost the front of his Yamaha YZR-M1 at turn 6.

“It’s plain to see that this wasn’t the ideal way to finish the opening race of the season as I gave everything that I possibly could have during the race,” he acknowledged. “I was feeling good on the bike, however it was difficult to close the final second to the front runners but with five or six laps to go I was determined to try and catch them. Unfortunately, I then fell.”

“I want to thank my team, especially after the big crash and the repairs that they had to do on Friday. Now I need to refocus a little bit, taking all the positives out of this weekend and then go to Austin with this new found confidence and be as competitive there”.

Espargaro’s positive form during the preseason and free practice sessions unfortunately came to an unsuccessful conclusion at the opening race at the floodlit Qatar circuit, due to a technical problem causing him to pull into the pits and retire.

The reigning Moto2 World Champion ran competitively all weekend and impressed with his rookie performances on the MotoGP bike during all sessions. He held eighth position when a gearbox issue struck on lap 18 with only four laps remaining.

“I really can’t say that luck helped us today, even if we deserved it after this weekend,” he commented. “We didn’t start with the best of terms as I am still not completely healed from my shoulder injury. Then I crashed on Friday and my confidence fell slightly. The good news was that my injury didn’t worsen because of this, and the team did a great job helping me to raise my confidence.”

“With regards to today, it’s unfortunate that this happened as I could have finished inside the top six on my MotoGP debut. I am still happy with my performance because the results all weekend were competitive.

Tuesday 4 March 2014

 

The Australian Grand Prix of 2014


This week’s three-day test follows the Australian Grand Prix of 2014, at which both Bridgestone and Dunlop were caught out by the greater average speeds on the new Phillip Island track surface and for this reason are conducting the test to avoid a repeat of such tyre issues later this season.

Maintaining the top spot he had already held on Monday, when he stated he was far happier with the 2014 rubber, Lorenzo this time reduced his best effort to 1’29.133. This was two and a half tenths of a second quicker than Repsol Honda Team’s Pedrosa, with Ducati Team’s Dovizioso making it three different manufacturers in the top three places while Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow occupied fourth and fifth positions. 

However, this test is focused more on the sampling of new tyre constructions and compounds as opposed to rapid lap times.

Jorge Lorenzo could be seen lapping the track with a black carbon fairing on his Yamaha M1, significantly smaller in size but featuring a larger air intake in order to cope with the typically breezy conditions on an otherwise brilliant day for weather at the coastal venue. 

With Australia currently enjoying its summer, track temperatures in the region of 50 degrees Celsius are much higher than they will be for October’s Grand Prix, although this does not prevent Bridgestone from extracting plenty of data regarding tyre durability; morning fog soon burned off thanks to the abundant amounts of sunshine. With a threat of rain forecast for Wednesday, MotoGP™ race simulations had been predicted on Tuesday, but ultimately the longest runs were of 14 laps apiece.

Characteristically for a day of testing, there were red flag stoppages. One was for Moto2™ rider Nico Terol, who crashed at the MG Hairpin but escaped injury. There was a more unusual, brief stoppage just after half past 12 when a small flock of geese made an unexpected arrival on the circuit and were quickly hurried away by marshals.

In the Moto2™ ranks, Marc VDS Racing Team’s Tito Rabat was on fire as he posted a lap time more than four tenths of a second quicker than title winner Pol Espargaro’s pole position time of last year: 1’32.168. 

The Spaniard, who was also an impressive third quickest overall for corner speed in the second sector of the lap and posted a rather staggering total of 101 laps, led team-mate Mika Kallio (still in pain with his wrist following a highside at Siberia on Day 1) plus Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 pairing Nico Terol and Jordi Torres, as Dunlop evaluated nine new rear specification tyres with its Moto2™ runners; the aim is to have selected two by the end of the test.

One day remains in this week’s tyre test. Bridgestone has already confirmed that it has effectively narrowed its options down to three choices of tyre, with two of those looking most likely to be continued in development. While this test may not necessarily decide the specific compounds the Japanese company runs in this year’s Phillip Island race, it will provide sufficient data to produce the best possible tyres.

Testing will continue on Wednesday, with action on the third and final day of the week taking place between 9:30am and 5:30pm local time (GMT +11).