Aprilia Aspar's Aleix Espargaró (Photo: Dorna Communications)

The CRT deal was always gonna be ugly at times, especially in the early going, but it’s more palatable when you look at the grid. There will be around 20 bikes out there. Without CRT, there might have been just twelve bikes due the dire financial situation.

Last summer, SPEED.com was talking about the troubles with a MotoGP insider about the finances. He said, “Everyone’s in bad shape, including some that are putting up a really good front.”

It’s no secret that Suzuki quit, Honda pulled back, and the Yamaha effort was essentially self-sponsored last year.

For the private teams, it’s even harder to sell sponsors on lease bikes that have proven they can’t win. The CRT teams are struggling with their equipment right now, but they are racing. It beats the alternative.

As far as the 1000cc era goes, things don’t look too different (so far). It’s not a return to the early days of tire smoking in the 990cc era. The lines may be tweaked a little, braking might be a little earlier, with more emphasis on getting the power down and less on corner speed. Maybe.

The real test is going to be how the racing looks on worn tires. Colin Edwards explained to SPEED.com the issues with the 800cc bikes last summer. He said, “The thing with the 800s is, as soon as you made a mistake, you saw it in the lap time. With 1000cc, if you make a little mistake, you can square it off and have enough power to gain what you lost. Now, you run off-line by ten or 12 inches and you see it in the lap time."

Riders are still going to want to run the 1000s in line, but they will have more juice on corner exit to salvage something, perhaps. It certainly bodes well for Ben Spies, excellent at managing worn tires.