-
Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
-
Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Games
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
- Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
- Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
MotoGP
MOTOGP: Noyes’ Notebook - Peace In Our Time?
Dennis Noyes lays out the Dorna-MSMA agreement guiding the future of MotoGP and exactly what it will mean on track...
Yamaha Factory Racing's Jorge Lorenzo (Photo: Yamaha Racing)
So what actually happened in the showdown between Dorna and the MSMA over the 2014 MotoGP regulations?
The can, significantly dented, got kicked up the road toward a new deadline: The new MSMA proposals and the abandonment of the Dorna’s threat to impose a rev limit and the obligatory use of not just a generic ECU but a finite package of electronic strategies will not be approved and adopted unless the MSMA satisfies Dorna about the cost and availability of factory supplied bikes (from Honda) and engines (from Yamaha) for private teams in 2014.
Here is what happened and how things stand now:
The MSMA came up with a last-minute proposal to avoid what looked look it would be a head-on train wreck between Dorna and the MSMA. There was more than a little theater in the threats and counter-threats of Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta and Honda Racing Corporation Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto, but the stakes were high and neither side was sure that the other side wasn’t (or isn’t still) bluffing. The talk was tough and the possible consequences were dire.
Ezpeleta had been saying since mid-2011 that it would be his way or the highway -- that the MSMA manufacturers, Honda, Yamaha and Ducati, would either accept the obligatory use of a restrictive ECU (with electronic strategies limited to the basic Magneti Marelli software) and a rev limit (originally 14,500 but eventually raised to 15,500 during negotiations), or they would put forward their own proposals to solve the twin problems of run-away costs and processional racing.
In a reply to the Dorna ultimatum, Nakamoto, speaking to SPEED.com in Sepang, Malaysia, flatly rejected both proposals and said that these measures were unacceptable to Honda and that the MSMA was preparing a counterproposal that would be “very different.”
If an acceptable compromise was not reached, Nakamoto said, Honda would leave the MotoGP championship and carry out their technical development elsewhere, in World Superbike, in the All-Japan Championship, or Honda would simply do their development at their test facilities.
Honda’s threat to turn their attention and budget to World Superbike lost credibility when Bridgepoint, owner of both Dorna and Infront Motor Sports (in turn, owners of World Superbike) announced that the reins of SBK were being handed to Dorna and Ezpeleta.
As we would learn two races later in Valencia, the final Grand Prix of the season, the counterproposal, accepted in principle by Dorna, bears little resemblance to the original proposal by Dorna but it satisfies one of Dorna's main objectives by seeming to guarantee availability of respectable machinery at, it is hoped, reasonable prices (is one million Euros reasonable?) to fill out the final 10 or 12 places of a MotoGP field led by a dozen factory-supplied bikes, four each from Honda, Yamaha, and Ducati.
Assuming this agreement enters into the FIM yellow book of regulations for 2014, there will be one basic package of technical regulations but with some very important variations, one governing MSMA-entered machines and the other applied to all the rest.
What both types of machines will share is the standard technical regulations package that already limits maximum bore to 81mm and the number of cylinders to four. Add to that the increased minimum weight of 160 kilograms (a porky 356.4 lbs compared to the original minimum weight of 145 kilograms (319 lbs) when four stroke 990s were first introduced in 2002.
Originally, there was no limit on the number of engines that could be used during a season. There was never any limit on development during the season or any restriction on altering bore and stroke from one season to the next.
The can, significantly dented, got kicked up the road toward a new deadline: The new MSMA proposals and the abandonment of the Dorna’s threat to impose a rev limit and the obligatory use of not just a generic ECU but a finite package of electronic strategies will not be approved and adopted unless the MSMA satisfies Dorna about the cost and availability of factory supplied bikes (from Honda) and engines (from Yamaha) for private teams in 2014.
Here is what happened and how things stand now:
The MSMA came up with a last-minute proposal to avoid what looked look it would be a head-on train wreck between Dorna and the MSMA. There was more than a little theater in the threats and counter-threats of Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta and Honda Racing Corporation Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto, but the stakes were high and neither side was sure that the other side wasn’t (or isn’t still) bluffing. The talk was tough and the possible consequences were dire.
Ezpeleta had been saying since mid-2011 that it would be his way or the highway -- that the MSMA manufacturers, Honda, Yamaha and Ducati, would either accept the obligatory use of a restrictive ECU (with electronic strategies limited to the basic Magneti Marelli software) and a rev limit (originally 14,500 but eventually raised to 15,500 during negotiations), or they would put forward their own proposals to solve the twin problems of run-away costs and processional racing.
In a reply to the Dorna ultimatum, Nakamoto, speaking to SPEED.com in Sepang, Malaysia, flatly rejected both proposals and said that these measures were unacceptable to Honda and that the MSMA was preparing a counterproposal that would be “very different.”
If an acceptable compromise was not reached, Nakamoto said, Honda would leave the MotoGP championship and carry out their technical development elsewhere, in World Superbike, in the All-Japan Championship, or Honda would simply do their development at their test facilities.
Honda’s threat to turn their attention and budget to World Superbike lost credibility when Bridgepoint, owner of both Dorna and Infront Motor Sports (in turn, owners of World Superbike) announced that the reins of SBK were being handed to Dorna and Ezpeleta.
As we would learn two races later in Valencia, the final Grand Prix of the season, the counterproposal, accepted in principle by Dorna, bears little resemblance to the original proposal by Dorna but it satisfies one of Dorna's main objectives by seeming to guarantee availability of respectable machinery at, it is hoped, reasonable prices (is one million Euros reasonable?) to fill out the final 10 or 12 places of a MotoGP field led by a dozen factory-supplied bikes, four each from Honda, Yamaha, and Ducati.
Assuming this agreement enters into the FIM yellow book of regulations for 2014, there will be one basic package of technical regulations but with some very important variations, one governing MSMA-entered machines and the other applied to all the rest.
What both types of machines will share is the standard technical regulations package that already limits maximum bore to 81mm and the number of cylinders to four. Add to that the increased minimum weight of 160 kilograms (a porky 356.4 lbs compared to the original minimum weight of 145 kilograms (319 lbs) when four stroke 990s were first introduced in 2002.
Originally, there was no limit on the number of engines that could be used during a season. There was never any limit on development during the season or any restriction on altering bore and stroke from one season to the next.
Grand Prix of The France
LATEST HEADLINES: MOTO-RACING
-
AMA MX: Hangtown Specialty Award Winners Announced
Justin Barcia, Eli Tomac, and Cole Seely were among the award winners… -
MOTOGP: Noyes' Notebook - Yamaha Falling On Hard Times
The balance of power has shifted firmly back in Honda's favor. Do… -
AMA MX: Villopoto Leads Into Thunder Valley
Ryan Villopoto rolls into Lakewood, Colorado for Round 2 of the '13… -
AMA FT: Series Prepares For Springfield Mile
Round 4 of the AMA pro Flat Track Championship will take place this… -
WSBK: Title Battles Arrives At Donington Park
The British contingent is preparing to defend its home turf this… -
AMA MX: Hangtown Ticker (UPDATED)
Notes and quotes following this past weekend's Lucas Oil Pro Motocross… -
VIDEO: AMA MX - Hangtown Classic Highlights
Ryan Villopoto kicked off the '13 Lucias Oil Motocross season in… - More News
