Melandri confirms Kawasaki move for 2009

News item from motogp.com in my inbox tonight:

"Melandri confirms Kawasaki move for 2009: Italian MotoGP star Marco
Melandri has told motogp.com that he will ride for Kawasaki next season."

Think Kawasaki might have wanted to disclose that first? Or maybe Ducati?

Way to go, Marco.

 

Hard to tell what the hell is happening at Alice-Ducati. It seems that
D'Antin was on a serious coke binge; Fast cars, fast boats, fast women.
It's at least possible that what we're seeing from Elias now is what the
team is actually capable of once it gets some serious management and
attention from the factory. Which means you can't draw any conclusions
from any of the riders in D'Antin's era. Just because Melandri can't
hack it on a Ducati doesn't necessarily mean other ex-250GP riders can't
either.

At the moment I'm trying to imagine the shit storm that would have
happened if Puig had managed to engineer an anti-Michelin protest and
all the Michelin runners had simply pulled into the pits at the end of
the first lap at Brno. There's a bizarre little story about Puig walking
up pit lane next to Poncheral and muttering "You've got no balls. You've
got no balls.". If you ask the riders whether they would want a single
tyre manufacturer this weekend, perhaps not surprising that they were
unanimous in saying yes. Ask them on a weekend where it's all more even
or Michelin has an advantage and you might get a different answer.

Perhaps the tyre rules have helped Bridgestone to get there. But they
probably didn't need the help. Maybe its time to just drop the rules
completely. If Michelin get an unfair advantage from shipping overnight
specials, perhaps Bridgestone need to open a European factory.

 

So are you denying the meeting took place? Or denying the conclusions?
Or claiming its been inaccurately reported? Or what?

Or have you been doing it so long that "you're wrong" is just a reflex
action?

 

http://www.motogpmatters.com/news/2008/08/17/riders_ask_for_five_changes_
to_improve_s.html

"Yesterday, we reported that all 17 current MotoGP riders had held a
meeting to discuss safety with Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta. That meeting
took place behind closed doors, and so the exact details of what was
discussed were not made public, although it was an open secret that the
riders had asked for a single tire rule.

Fortunately for us, the Spanish sports daily AS.com is very well
connected, and has managed to find out just what the ideas were that the
riders presented to Dorna."

I haven't seen much more on line beyond the links in that article. Off
line MCN is reporting "All 17 riders, minus the absent Nicky Hayden.
voted for a one make tyre rule from a list of proposed performance
restrictions... Valentino Rossi said "for me the one make rule is the
best of everything".

So as ever with these things, there are no "facts". It was behind closed
doors. But there is smoke pouring out of the gap under the door.

 

MCN reported it as unanimous.

Well who's been hurt this year (and some quite seriously)? Lorenzo,
Capirossi, Hopkins, Pedrosa, West, Others? How many of those can be laid
at this year's bikes, how many are just side effects of racing and how
many due to circuit design?

Yup. GP is a bit of mess at the moment. We've got the whole 250GP->600cc
thing. Not enough riders/seats in MotoGP. Michelin screwing up
repeatedly and Bridgestone screwing up occasionally. 2 or 3 riders
disappearing into the distance. Arguments about fly by wire from a
safety, cost, skill, and probably other, issues. The odd rogue team
manager. Races decided by electronic fuel consumption management not
rider skill. The whole show is just not as good as it should be.

I reckon the whole bitch session was actually a cover for Puig to play
games with Michelin and Bridgestone. Who knows what's really driving all
the rest of it.

 

Will Honda really not have an American on one of their bikes in 2009? Seems
all the Japanese manufacturers have to have at least one.

 

Yeah, there's a reliable source...

Lorenzo's a MotoGP rookie and seems to have been reading all the
traction control press clippings, and has overly relied on it with
rather dire results. Seems like an inevitable response to guys jumping
on these bikes who have never dealt with TC or real horsepower before.
Hopkins latest seems circuit-related, although it's hard to say if
necessary corner speed contributed to that. The proximate cause of
Capirossi's latest is bad luck, but I don't know if riding hurt may
have contributed in any way. Pedrosa's is rider error, not much doubt
about that, and bike and circuit played no part.

Seems like there are two bike-related issues, the level of electronic
controls that the riders have to have faith in, and the nature of 800s
that makes passing tougher and corner speeds higher. No one has a
brilliant idea on how to deal with electronics, but it seems like a
rev ceiling, on 800s or 1000s, would help solve a number of problems,
including cost.

It's fascinating to watch how problems get resolved - or not resolved
- in that paddock. First up are changes that have some stated purpose,
real or not, and end up blowing up in everyone's faces. Imagine if
they hadn't added the tire limitations or shrunk the displacement, how
many fewer problems would they have now? Some of this stufff ends up
looking like a camel-by-committee, with the outcome not being defined
as the best possible solution but rather a solution that is equally
bad for everyone.

I read an article recently about the 600 switch and Ezpeleta talking
about that, and it made him sound like he really has no clue on any
details of the machinery. But in the end he seemed to pretty much make
the point that it can't be assumed what "production" and "prototype"
really mean, which is a good point and made it sound like they might
not back down too easily on FGSport's implied threats. Then at times
he seems to threaten major action if the parties involved can't come
up with a more moderate solution, like the spec tire thing last year.
What I did like in the CN interview was that he made a distinction
between managing a sport and managing a show, that the decisions
aren't always going to be ones that enhance the entertainment value
over ruinning a fair competition. DMG could learn something there.

He doesn't seem too concerned with 18 riders/bikes, and I mostly agree
although it's a bit less than ideal. Tires, I don't know, I'm not
confident that Bridgestone and Michelin can come up with a fair rule,
they have too much self-interest operating there, and now that
Michelin has made a mistake by conceding too much, it will be tough to
get Bridgestone to hand that back. And that would leace Dorna with
imposing a rule, and what might that be based on? Spec tires is the
easy way out, even if it's a lousy solution.

In the end Michelin is to blame for all this tire stuff, having always
played favorites in GP and restricting their support to the very best
teams in WSB. That led to spec tires there, which has led to that
pollution working its way into other series. And Michelin's failures
in MotoGP have now opened that dor to the same thing. So if they end
up with spec tires, I sure hope they're Bridgestones.

 

if only has motorcycles had been fast, too, he could have kept it
up...

on the other hand, i think Elias is a rider in the good old
temperamental tradition of being able to be brilliant when conditions
and the mood are right, and dwell in his misery and perform very
averagely when not. but when he is on, watch out...

indeed. ahem, Stoner is a traditional 250cc rider in the best sense,
coming up through those ranks. he is *not* an Aussie-school rider in
the traditional harcore Gardner sense.

i think they are tired of the uneven nature of things and simply
believe they'd do better without yet another artifical parameter
beyond their control.

it'll be interesting to see how Hayden does in Ducati. for all we know
it may be an even worse match for him, given Duc's mastery in traction
control. if melandri had such a hard time adapting, perhaps the fact
is that guys coming stright out of 250cc have an easier time adapting
to the Ducs nature, rather than long time MotoGP riders.

as to Repsol, i have a feeling they may go for a surprise recruiting
move.