MotoGP Blog

MotoGPBlog does not regurgitate press releases and PR from the teams - this has been a policy from the start for the blog. However, this is something special from Yamaha and Rossi - a real insight into the mindset of the new World Champion and the process he has been through over the last three seasons. It has been a journey, one in which Rossi himself says he has come of age. All the issues, the broken hand, the below par bike, the tax problem, have served to make him stronger, make him a more complete rider and what he is today: eight times World Champion. Over to Valentino.

“I think it’s difficult to say, but maybe this is even better than the first championship with Yamaha in 2004. In 2004 I arrived after three championships in a row; the change was very big and no one expected me to win then, not even us to be honest! But this year is great too because I didn’t start as the number one favourite after losing for two years. The taste of this is something special.

“In 2006 I lost because of bad luck; I still won the most races and was the fastest on track for most of the time, but in 2007 Stoner was a lot faster than us and so we got to the end with a big of disadvantage. Winning this championship was very difficult but also very, very important.

“The decision to change to Bridgestone tyres, which I took together with Jeremy, my team and all the Yamaha crew, was very important, as were the changes to the bike because the first 800cc M1 last year was not competitive enough. We spoke a lot during last season and I remember a strange meeting in Valencia last year, me with a broken hand, speaking with Furusawa about 2008. From then we started to work on the improvements for this season. It’s also been important to have the right people in the right place and this year everything has been correct. It’s been step-by-step.

“I think I have made a lot of good decisions this year and we have been competitive from the start. Qatar was the worst race of the season but I knew our potential was good so, although we were a bit worried at that point, we weren’t desperate because we knew if we fixed a few problems we could try to win.

“I grew up a lot in the last two years, because at the end of 2005 I had a great career and I had won all the important targets so far. 125, 250 and then five titles in a row in MotoGP with two different bikes – I felt unbeatable. But in 2006 and 2007 I learnt to lose and this has been very important. I came out much stronger and my level of concentration and effort to win this championship has been higher than ever before.

“This season has had some different periods. At the beginning of the year we had some important results when Bridgestone wasn’t the strongest: Jerez, Portugal and others, and in that period we took a big advantage from Stoner. After Barcelona Casey started to ride like a demon and dominated three races in a row, and then we went to Laguna which was the turning point of the season. Laguna was a real battle and from then on we have flown.

“The show after the race was one of my friends pretending to be a ‘notary’, signing and certificating the eighth championship ‘deed’. It was very exciting to be planning the championship t-shirt and celebration once again with my friends and fan club and the one we came up with is funny I think, it says ‘I’m sorry for the delay!’

“I am very content at Yamaha and this is why I signed for two more years. I had some good offers at other factories, but I already changed bike once and proved everything I wanted to and so there is no need to do that again. Also I am no longer 20 years old and I need a good atmosphere in my team in order to keep me focused and happy, and I have this at Yamaha. The atmosphere in our team, from the Japanese all the way down to the garage is fantastic and this is what makes me want to stay.

“I think 2009 will be even more difficult than this year. Now I am the world champion again and I have demonstrated that I am still very fast; I think I rode the best of my career this year apart from the mistake in Assen, but next year is another story, it depends on how the winter is and how Stoner, Pedrosa and also Lorenzo are next year, as well as the other riders because there are many fast people in this championship. I think it will be a great championship and I’m looking forward to it, but first I want to finish this year and try to win the final three races!

“As I said, there are many strong riders but of course I hope that in the future nobody will win like Valentino Rossi! Maybe my brother Luca will be as strong as me…I wanted to take him on my bike on the celebration lap, but they did not allow it. Maybe I will wait for him to be a MotoGP rider before quitting, then I will beat him in the first year, and then I will stop riding!

“When you are 20 or 22 yrs old, you live everything in a different way. It’s different… In 2000, maybe, I could have won on my debut, but I underestimated myself! In 2001 it was the last chance for me to win in 500, so I gave it my best and did that. In 2001 it was the year of the battle with Biaggi, in 2002 it was the year when everybody said that I won because of my bike, then 2003 was the year of Gibernau, it was hard until the end. They were fantastic years but with Yamaha it is different. I enjoy it more.

“During 2003 I started thinking about Yamaha. Of course I was scared about the new challenge, it was a big question mark. This year, when I tested the new bike and the new tyres, I understood that I could win. In 2004, however, when I tested the new bike I understood we had to work a lot. Sincerely, the feeling of winning in Welkom in 2004 was the strongest emotion of my career; more so than in Laguna Seca this year. The 2005 the M1 was very fast and that one and the 2008 one are the best Yamaha bikes ever.

“I think Stoner next year will be back stronger again, so maybe he is the hardest rival I have ever had, more than Gibernau and all the others I fought against in the past. Last year I was sorry that after so many successful years, some people thought Valentino was finished and Casey was the new Valentino. As I said, until I stop riding a bike, my objective will always be to win. I like this life and I always try to do my best in it.”

This weekend promises to be a big one in many ways, mostly for the 2009 season. Let’s start with 2008:

- Rossi may wrap up the title at Motegi. Remember 2007? Motegi is where Stoner managed to put the title beyond anyone’s reach after his super-dominant season. This is an indication of what dominance Rossi has had since Laguna.

- The split of JiR and Scott should be further clarified. Has JiR allowed Dovi to go to HRC? Have they swapped him for satellite Hondas? Have Scott got the cash and connections to run a bike and team of their own?

- We may get clarification of the Aspar Kawasaki rider. One thing is certain, Aspar needs to get this sorted out soon, if not this weekend.

- The Grand Prix commission meets for the first time since they called the meeting in July around proposals to slow down the bikes so the circuits do not have to spend so much on safety improvements year on year. Proposals include a common ECU (very difficult technically to achieve), a single-make of tyre available to the teams, motorcycle weight increases, and a return to 990cc engines. Of all of these, the single tyre rule is the most likely to come to fruition, sadly. We’ll find out this weekend what the decision is.

All of this without a motorcycle turning a wheel. It promises to be an important weekend in more ways than one.

We’re part way through the lengthy finalisation of the rider line-up for 2009, but there is still plenty of juicy speculation around who will end up where, and if an old name from the past will make a re-appearance on the grid. Let us start with the certainties:

Yamaha
Valentino Rossi: signed for 2009 and 2010.
Jorge Lorenzo: signed for 2009, the second year of a two year deal.

Ducati
Casey Stoner: signed for 2009, the second year of a two year deal.
Nicky Hayden: signed for 2009.

Kawasaki
John Hopkins: signed for 2009, the second year of a two year deal.
Marco Melandri: signed for 2009.

Suzuki
Chris Vermeulen: signed for 2009.
Loris Capirossi: signed for 2009.

Tech 3 Yamaha
Colin Edwards: signed for 2009.
James Toseland: signed for 2009.

LCR Honda
Randy de Puniet: signed for 2009.

Now it starts to get interesting…

Repsol Honda
Dani Pedrosa: signed for 2009, the second year of a two year deal.
Andrea Dovizioso: suspected to be signing for 2009.

JiR Honda
JiR have Dovizioso under contract for 2009. However, it is expected he will move into Hayden’s place in the Repsol Honda team, and JiR will effectively swap him for a supply of Honda satellite bikes at a much reduced rate for 2009. JiR and Scott are also parting company, Scott looking to fund their own Honda satellite team for 2009. If JiR continue, a likely candidate is
StefanSylvain Guintoli: possible signing for 2009.

Scott Honda
If Scott pull off the far from simple trick of securing a supply of Hondas for the grid next year, they have a wide-open choice. A Japanese rider may find favour with Honda, and although it is widely rumoured that Nakano will be retiring at the end of the season, it is possible that Aoyama or another Japanese Honda faithful rider may fill the seat:
Yuki Takahashi: possible signing for 2009.

Gresini Honda
Alex de Angelis: signed for 2009.
Toni Elias: rumoured to be on the verge of signing for 2009 instead of a third Kawasaki, or another year on Alice Ducati. However, terms offered by Alice have probably recently improved given Toni’s great recent results, hence the delay in getting a deal agreed.

Alice Ducati
Things are no clearer for the satellite Ducati squad. What is clear is that the increased influence of Ducati in the team following the departure of d’Antin has done them a power of good and they are a more attractive proposal for riders as a result.
Mika Kallio: rumoured to have signed for 2009.
Nicolas Canepa: rumoured to have signed for 2009.

Onde Ducati
One from the left field this one - Onde to lease a satellite Ducati and put Sete Gibernau on it. MotoGPBlog will believe this one when it sees it.

Aspar Kawasaki
It’s all gone quiet on the third Ducati front, now Aspar has failed to get Elias, or any Spanish rider of any significance to sign up. It’s entirely possible West will end up in the seat unless Elias or Bautista has a change of heart.

Most of the uncertainty now lies with Elias and his final destination for the season. Given Guintoli is probably out of Alice Ducati, and de Puniet has, amazingly, been renewed by LCR Honda, his only option will be one of the Jir/Scott Honda rides, or a trip to WSB.

This coming weekend should see announcements around Kawasaki and the fate of this year’s JiR Scott team which may make things clearer. However, this is only one of lots of permutations - where do you think the ‘floaters’ will end up?

For Michelin, the unthinkable has happened. The French company is no longer supplying Dani Pedrosa with tyres. Announced after the Misano race, such a mid-season change is unprecedented, and unlikely to bear immediate fruit, as the Rossi side of the Fiat Yamaha garage can testify, because the Honda will need to be set up to make best use of the new rubber.

The decision seems a bizarre one, almost desperate, and the agreement of the tyre companies and Honda to the change even more so. Let’s put this in perspective and try to pick apart the bones of the deal; Pedrosa was leading the championship on Michelins up until July 14th, when he fell off at turn 1 of the Sachsenring in heavy rain. That’s race 10 and well past half-way through the season. He was also 7.4 seconds ahead after just 5 laps. He broke his wrist in the fall and this has hampered his challenge ever since.

Unable to ride in Laguna Seca, he lost points. In the Czech Republic, Michelins were not the tyre to be on. Even Michelin stalwart Edwards was complaining, and Bibendum had his worst competitive moment since the 2005 US F1 race when they withdrew their tyres and only the six Bridgestone runners made the start line. However, in Misano Michelin recovered. Bridgestone won the race, but Michelin and Bridgestone alternated all the way down the top ten positions, including Pedrosa in 4th place.

Behind the scenes Albert Puig, Pedrosa’s manager, attempted to organise a boycott of the Czech race by all Michelin runners, according to the reliable Dennis Noyes. Puig also runs the MotoGP Academy for Dorna and has a role in the running of the Repsol Honda team. As Noyes points out, Dorna can not have been too happy with his meddling.

This story began back in the 2007 season. Pedrosa fought for Bridgestones for ‘08 and was looking likely to get them, supported by HRC until Mr. Fukui, the head of Honda worldwide overruled the idea of a switch away from their loyal tyre suppliers of so many seasons and victories on the basis of one bad season. This time, it appears that there may have been more at stake.

It seems likely that the move to allow Pedrosa onto Bridgestone is part of an agreement by both the tyre companies and Honda to avoid a single-tyre regulation for 2009. Michelin will have wanted to fight to keep both Repsol Honda bikes, and Bridgestone have previously stated that they are unable to supply more riders (the initial reason for resisting the supply to Rossi). However all parties, Honda included, are reluctant to see a control tyre introduced, and this capitulation to the demands of Puig/Pedrosa may very well be a credible alternative to keep Michelin and Bridgestone at the party next year. The tyre companies, brought to the brink of regulation for 2008 over the supply of Rossi have avoided such a showdown this time. Will this be enough to prevent the seemingly-inevitable slide to one make of rubber for 2009?

Kawasaki have announced that they will run a satellite bike in 2009, with the cash coming from a Spanish telecoms company: 1188. The details are laid out at Autosport, and it looks like team manager Batholemy wants to hang on to West.

The decision might be out of Batholemy’s hands, however. The new team will be run by Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez and, given his close ties with Bautista, this could be the vehicle by which the young Spanish rider makes the leap to MotoGP. Aspar has made the rounds looking for a bike to get his very successful outfit into MotoGP - Ducati, Suzuki and Yamaha have all been visited by Aspar, but his ability to bring the sponsorship cash of 1188 appears to have finally swung the deal with Kawasaki. Aspar’s great relationship with Bautista is well known, and the Spanish sponsor completes the all-Spanish line-up.

Best start looking elsewhere Ant.

Marco Melandri has rather prematurely announced he will move to Kawasaki for the 2009 season, blabbing the move to MotoGP.com. He had been linked to a return to Gresini to try and replicate his prior success. Melandri claims to be riding alongside Hopkins next year, but MotoGPBlog understands the move is not yet confirmed by Kawasaki Japan, although the team manager and Melandri himself have agreed terms.

All this is bad news for Ant West who can expect to exit stage left, or if he is very lucky he may pick up a satellite Honda ride, given the expected shuffle of Hayden to Ducati and Dovizioso to Repsol Honda. Alternatively there may be an LCR Honda vacant if de Puniet does not hold on to his place.

Rossi yesterday stated he thought Yamaha had closed the gap to Ducati, and with a win under his belt and new parts to test on his Yamaha to provide more tractable power, this seemed sensible. He was quoted as saying:

For me, the problem (at Brno) is that he made a 1:57.2 lap and he saw that it was not possible to pull away, so he tried to make 1:56.0, and in the human world that is not possible.

Well, Valentino, a 1:56 may well be possible. On Monday in testing Stoner pulled a 1:56.261, comfortably inside the lap record he set in the race on Sunday, and a full 1.1 seconds faster than Rossi managed with his new engine parts and electronics. Tuesday’s results will clarify the picture a little as Yamaha and Ducati get to the end of their programme of tests, but Ducati say they found this speed as a result of a simple set-up change.

The race for the championship is not over yet.

UPDATE: Stoner today managed a 1:55.904 on race tyres to Rossi’s 1:56.613.

The summer holidays are almost over. After a quiet three weeks lacking any sort of movement or gossip of any note, the season resumes - see the MotoGPBlog calendar. There was a glimmer of hope that we would have a couple of weeks of wild speculation around Melandri’s future, but this was cleverly quashed by Livio Suppo right after Laguna.

Other news over the break has included the rehabilitation of Hopkins following his horrific crash in free practice at Assen. Another of the Assen wounded, Capirossi, should be much closer to true fitness this weekend, having had a decent spell of R&R to heal the gash in his right forearm.

Hayden damaged his heel at an X-Games event in the break and will miss the race in Brno; ironically he did it in practice and not in the event itself when his foot slipped off the footpeg during a heavy landing. It is surprising Honda allowed him to take part in this, and probably indicates how big-H views Nicky: expendable. Pedrosa returns from injury, his broken hand well on the mend though not fully mobile as yet.

And what of Rossi and Stoner? One can only imagine Rossi has had the better break, able to bask in his outwitting of Stoner at Laguna. Casey, meanwhile, has no doubt put it all behind him and is more focused and determined than ever. He had better be, otherwise the writing is on the wall for his challenge to Rossi. Biaggi and Gibernau have trodden this path before and been repelled by Rossi. Stoner needs more than a fast Ducati around Brno - he needs his wits too.

Gresini rider Nakano gets a new Honda to ride from Brno onwards - the same bike as the factory Repsol riders have - in order to develop the 2009 satellite bike for the Gresini, JIR and LCR teams.

On the announcement that this was to happen, Dovizioso suddenly had a long line of reporters at his doorstep looking for a quote. Why? Because he has been Honda faithful through his 125cc and 250cc career, and it is no secret that he managed some truly awesome results with a less-than-competitive machine last year. He’s also been top Honda satellite rider this year, managing a couple of 4th places and beating the odd factory bike along the way, including Hayden at Laguna. So you can see why this might be less than well received by Dovi, and why the reporters have been trying to get a soundbite out of him.

In reality, these decisions to provide new machinery for development are not based on recent results. This was a deal done most likely right at the start of the season, as part of the contract between Gresini and Honda and Nakano. Honda has a desire to see a Japanese rider competing on one of it’s machines at the highest level, and struck a deal with Gresini to take Nakano as a rider. A sweetener to the deal will have been the promise of an update to the bike during the season, which is just what has happened.

Fear not, Dovi. You’ll be on better machinery next year, when you are wearing Repsol colours. Nakano will still be a satellite rider…if he’s lucky. I’m damned if he doesn’t have the coolest helmet design though.

Livio Suppo has “let slip” on the Desmoblog (the official Ducati motorsport competition blog) that Marco Melandri will be riding for the MotoGP team in Brno.

This is probably in recognition of the effort Melandri has put in, both in Germany and at Laguna Seca. In Laguna he was top 10 in the times throughout the weekend and was fairing well in the race before running wide at turn 1 and tripping through the gravel.

This probably means that, if Marco manages to keep this effort and improvement up, he will last in the Ducati seat until the end of the season. Why should Ducati take the risk of replacing him with Canepa or Gibernau with no guarantee of improvement? The pressure on these guys would be enormous and, should they fail, the embarrassment for Ducati would be great. The chance that they could do better than Melandri are slim; reference the performances of Elias and Guintoli this year on the sister bike.

For what it’s worth, Melandri deserves this chance to get it right on the bike before he departs at the end of the season. He has worked endlessly, and although he had a defeatist attitude before Sachsenring, he seems to have turned this around. Now it is time for him to put the bike in the top five and prove his doubters wrong.