MotoGP Blog

A day of hard work and little notable action in Sepang.
de Puniet reverted to form and fell off (fastest lap), Ant West reminded us he can’t set up a bike (slower than Hopkins by a margin), and both West and Hopper had nothing good to say about the 2008 frame (big thumbs down). Hayden had a bad day (slow and steady) and Toseland showed signs of improving (just 1.1 seconds off the pace on the Tech-3 bike).

Away from the track, Pedrosa was having an operation on his hand - pre-season looks to be a wash-out for Dani for sure.

According to Autosport Team Roberts have ten days to secure the funding to secure their future in the 2008 season. Treasure Island are still in the picture but the timing is such that, if the deal is done, it may be mid-season before a Roberts bike is on the grid. Mechanics have not been re-hired for 2008 for obvious reasons, although there will be no shortage of willing bodies if the funding comes through.

Ducati remain the most likely supplier of engines or indeed full bikes.

Top news has to be the broken hand of Dani Pedrosa. With the first race only weeks* away, Pedrosa’s prognosis is to miss the rest of the pre-season. In reality he will struggle to be effective in the first races of 2008, dealing his title hopes a blow. Much expectation is heaped on the Spaniard’s diminutive shoulders, not least by Honda and Puig, and another season of not challenging for the title will brand him as a perennial MotoGP under-achiever; the Bart Simpson of MotoGP if you will.

Other new included Rossi falling off (unhurt), de Puniet not falling off (fastest lap of the day on an LCR Honda - the big boys can’t have been trying) and James Toseland big-upping Michelins on his Tech-3 as a vital key to beating Rossi. Like Yamaha will allow him to beat Rossi at any point! I suspect Dorna might have a word to say too. If JT did the unthinkable, I wonder if his Tech-3 Yamaha would develop “issues” part way through the season, as Baros’ d’Antin Ducati did last year following him putting Capirossi in his dust. It’s good to see you aiming high James. Go for it son.

* You have subscribed to the calendar haven’t you? See the sidebar, front page. It’s free.

I’m putting together a calendar of the MotoGP events for 2008 in a Google Calendar, which you can subscribe to from the link in the sidebar on the front page. It is currently a work in progress, but covers all the events up to China at the start of May, including the testing starting at the end of January. Where possible you’ll see a link to a Google Map of the circuit the event is happening at, currently only available for some of the Grands Prix.

You will need a Google account to access the calendar, but can sign up through the link.

Over time I’ll track other events in the calendar as well (125cc and 250cc being the first in the queue to be added).

MotoGP News is reporting that Team Roberts is giving up on finding a source of engines for the 2008 season, and a link to the story in motocyclismo.es in the comments shows the source of the news.
There is currently no official confirmation on the Team Roberts website, but at the same time there there has been no update to the site since Valencia last year.
The story is very possibly simply rumour, although the longer there is no news on the Roberts engine deal, the closer to the truth the rumour would appear to be.

Forget Stoner’s enthusiasm to get back to the track to defend his title, and Melandri accepting he is number 2 rider. Set all that aside. Grab yourself a nice hot coffee, put your feet up and indulge yourself by taking five minutes to drink in the pure, unadulterated beauty that is the Ducati Desmisedici GP8.

Between 2002 and 2004, no less than ten riders from outside MotoGP migrated to the series, usually from World Superbike or AMA Superbike. Since 2004, only three riders have made the leap from outside the class. What prompted this invasion and why did it slow almost to a halt?
Read the rest of this entry »

A new article on tyre technology has expended the technical reference section to…wait for it…twice the previous size!

A hot topic in 2007, this article provides a flavour of the complexity of the black hoops from construction to compound, and how Gary McCoy did stuff nobody thought was possible.

Remember back in 2005 when Yamaha came out with this lovely livery for the YZR-M1? Harking back to the Roberts/Lawson/Rainey era these were Yamaha USA’s historic racing colours, the livery celebrated 50 years of Yamaha competition in motorcycle racing.

The colours we sufficient to inspire Paul Edwards in the UK to modify a PC case to match the livery. Some clever adaptations of the side window to allow the black and white stripe to continue across it, plus as the PC is a performance machine and requires water cooling, he has even included a mock petrol filler cap which he opens to allow him to top up the water cooling fluid! See more at the Custom PC website.