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MotoGP
MOTOGP: Noyes’ Notebook - The Aprilia Heard ‘Round The World
Dennis Noyes writes that the CRTs are not being introduced simply to shore up the back of the grid but instead are a first step toward the inevitable future to come.
Randy de Puniet aboard an Aprilia-engined 'CRT'/'Super Superbike' prototype (Photo: Dorna Communications)
The appearance in Jerez of a bike ridden by Aprilia factory tester Alex Hoffmann and by MotoGP regular Randy De Puniet, powered by an Aprilia RSV4 engine in a frame that, in spite of several rolls of duct tape, looked a great deal like an Aprilia RSV4 frame, has caused many in the MotoGP paddock to question whether this bike, in its present or a similar form, should be considered a CRT bike or a factory machine.
It does little good to seek clarification of what is and isn’t a CRT in the FIM technical regulations because the final judgment on each individual entry of this new subcategory of MotoGP depends upon the Solomonic wisdom of the majority of the four members of the Grand Prix Commission: the international federation (FIM), the series rights-holders (Dorna), the association of GP racing teams (IRTA), and the GP manufacturers (MSMA).
There may be some heated discussion and some MSMA members may get their noses out of joint, but the Aprilia-powered bike in question, as long as it shows up for the first official tests with a 'prototype' chassis, will pass the CRT smell test as long as the team entering it can certify that the bike is owned completely by that team and not on lease from a factory. The one thing that Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta insists upon is that there be no CRT bikes leased by factories.
Where does it say that in the regulations? It doesn’t and it won’t. Ezpeleta has learned that good rules are based not on language but on intention coupled with the authority to enforce that intention. If that sounds dictatorial… well, welcome to the real world of professional motorsports. Like Formula 1 and like NASCAR, MotoGP has discovered the rolling rulebook and the need to cut costs.
“I will not be trapped by the language of rules that can be circumvented. In the Grand Prix Commission we agree on the spirit of the rules and it will be the spirit of the rules and not the letter of the rules that decides,” Ezpeleta told me recently at Dorna HQ in Madrid.
Those words make it abundantly clear that the MSMA have lost the power that they have held over technical regulations from 2002 to the present. It’s a Brave New World. The factories had their chance to regulate and legislate and they very nearly bankrupted the show. The surprising thing is that, in talking with executives from Honda and Yamaha, it seems that they haven’t quite figured out yet that they no longer have the power of veto and no longer have the responsibility or privilege of writing the rules for the game they play.
It does little good to seek clarification of what is and isn’t a CRT in the FIM technical regulations because the final judgment on each individual entry of this new subcategory of MotoGP depends upon the Solomonic wisdom of the majority of the four members of the Grand Prix Commission: the international federation (FIM), the series rights-holders (Dorna), the association of GP racing teams (IRTA), and the GP manufacturers (MSMA).
There may be some heated discussion and some MSMA members may get their noses out of joint, but the Aprilia-powered bike in question, as long as it shows up for the first official tests with a 'prototype' chassis, will pass the CRT smell test as long as the team entering it can certify that the bike is owned completely by that team and not on lease from a factory. The one thing that Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta insists upon is that there be no CRT bikes leased by factories.
Where does it say that in the regulations? It doesn’t and it won’t. Ezpeleta has learned that good rules are based not on language but on intention coupled with the authority to enforce that intention. If that sounds dictatorial… well, welcome to the real world of professional motorsports. Like Formula 1 and like NASCAR, MotoGP has discovered the rolling rulebook and the need to cut costs.
“I will not be trapped by the language of rules that can be circumvented. In the Grand Prix Commission we agree on the spirit of the rules and it will be the spirit of the rules and not the letter of the rules that decides,” Ezpeleta told me recently at Dorna HQ in Madrid.
Those words make it abundantly clear that the MSMA have lost the power that they have held over technical regulations from 2002 to the present. It’s a Brave New World. The factories had their chance to regulate and legislate and they very nearly bankrupted the show. The surprising thing is that, in talking with executives from Honda and Yamaha, it seems that they haven’t quite figured out yet that they no longer have the power of veto and no longer have the responsibility or privilege of writing the rules for the game they play.
Grand Prix of The France
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