Fiat Yamaha Team's Valentino Rossi (Photo: Yamaha Racing) ยป More Photos
And What Will Really Happen?
The new Moto2 class will serve to revitalize the industry of prototype chassis building. Already we see Britain’s Harris back on the scene with the Antonio Banderas Racing team along with other familiar names like Moriwaki, Suter, TSR, and FTR. These specialist firms are joined by BQR “Boiling Blood” (already known for building Aprilia frames for BQR), Kalex, Tech3, AJR, ADV-CRO, Textra and the return of names from the past like Arbizu and MZ. And then there is the Inmotec adventure from Navarra (Spain), a firm that is not only building its own chassis but also its own 800cc V4 motor for 2010 and poised to either build a 1000cc engine or use a production-derived engine in the future.
The best chassis builders will emerge from Moto2 in a position to attract teams that choose to go MotoGP racing with production-derived engines.
The return to 1000cc, something that is supported by every MotoGP rider that SPEEDtv.com has spoken to (including all 2009 riders and current World Superbike Champion and 2010 MotoGP rookie Ben Spies) is inevitable.
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It is possible and even probable, given the way past rules have often been introduced a year in advance, that private teams and maybe even factories would want to see 1000cc bikes introduced along with 800cc bikes in the 2011 season. This would require the MSMA to come up with some sort of restrictor-plate or RPM limit solution to keep 1000cc engines on a par with 800cc engines during the last year of the 800s.
Were there no world financial crisis these new rules would have been resisted strongly by the MSMA. In a crisis-free environment private satellite teams might have found sufficient sponsorship to continue to lease factory bikes at the old prices, but the motorcycle industry has been heavily impacted, and, for the love of the sport (as was once painted on the private bikes of a young Englishman named Hailwood), the manufacturers have no choice but to listen to Dorna and IRTA.
MotoGP will have to weather the 2010 season under the existing rules, but, perhaps in 2011 (even though current discussions will be centered on 2012), we can expect to see the return of the 1000cc MotoGP bikes.
