MotoGP 2012

**tail_end_charlie** · 20th September 2012, 11:26

Originally Posted by tbs

And now for some discussion about Moto2 and Scott Redding

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/184..._in_moto2.html

Bit of debate about this on Crash.net. Not everyone is sympathetic. Lot's of comments along the lines of "lose a couple of kgs and stop whining"... but I feel for the guy. Doing all the hard work passing on the corners and then losing places getting out-dragged on every straight must start to really suck after a while.

Sounds like they originally misquoted his vital stats in the article. They've corrected it now, and the argument for him to lose a couple kilo is pretty ridiculous. He is pretty much the same height and weight as me, and when I was gettin height and weight measures for Army ROTC they were telling me I was just on the min limit. Any lower weight and I would fall into the "counsel for possible anorexia" catagory. Which was pretty ridiculous since I was eating everything in sight at the mess hall......

It makes sense to me that if you are going to have spec engines that produce the same power for everyone, then you should use a combined weight of rider and machine for the min weight. Just like in Moto3. Otherwise your just going to get jockey sized riders on every team.

**tail_end_charlie** · 20th September 2012, 11:56

Originally Posted by Oscar

Jeez, you're a bit tough!
By it's very nature the rule would only penalise someone at the sharp end of the season where the outcome is critical. A pit row start from Lorenso in any of the remaing races could be potentially critical.

It would only penalise someone at the sharp end of the season if they didn't really manage thier engine allotment at the begining of the year, or if the engines are a bit 'delicate'. At the end of August it was obvious that Yamaha were playing things the closest to the wire, with all four Yamaha riders on their fifth engine. And two of their engines had grenaded in two different bikes to two different riders. The other manufactures are playing things a little more conservatively. So if you play hard and fast, then chances are you'll get bit. Bringing in a 7th engine is a big advantage to the team that does it, so to balance out that advantage it seems reasonable that every race they start with the 7th engine oughta be from pit lane.

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2012/Aug/120831a.htm

Originally Posted by tbs

Yeah, it's only supposed to be a cost saving rule after all. It's not there to totally bugger someone's championship. And especially when you consider that Lorenzo didn't do anything wrong. He was skittled by one Mr Bautista...

Oh come on now, everyone knows that no factory team reduced their racing budget when the engine rule went into place. Every penny that was 'saved' by only having to build six engines was in turn used in the R & D to increase the engine life. The whole argument that this was cost saving rule when it is enforced in MotoGP is just smoke and mirrors. In fact, the actual cost of building an engine for every race is probably less then the cost of the R & D to find reliable power that allows six engines to last 18 race weekends. So to be honest, the rule probably cost the factories even more money.
Now I like the rule, I think it is very good to force manufactures to find more power in a reliable way, something that truely can trickle down to the actual consumer product at some point in the future.
And if you're going to win a championship, then you have to have a good stratigic plan for the season, as well as a good tactical plan for each race (an no small amount of luck). As far as luck goes, everyone of the top three this season had one DNF due to crashes or being taken out (ignoring the races CS has missed due to injury), so it seems that luck is fairly even so far.

**Badjelly** · 20th September 2012, 11:57

Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2012/Sep/12091927.htm

...the V8 Supercar series, Australia's wildly popular version of NASCAR that races only on road courses.

Yeah, kinda...

Casey Stoner in taxi races? Sigh...

**Crasherfromwayback** · 20th September 2012, 12:02

Originally Posted by Badjelly

Yeah, kinda...

Casey Stoner in taxi races? Sigh...

Yeah such a waste of his talent I reckon. But another one will come along soon enough.

**Mental Trousers** · 20th September 2012, 14:04

Originally Posted by tail_end_charlie

Originally Posted by Oscar

Jeez, you're a bit tough!
By it's very nature the rule would only penalise someone at the sharp end of the season where the outcome is critical. A pit row start from Lorenso in any of the remaing races could be potentially critical.

It would only penalise someone at the sharp end of the season if they didn't really manage thier engine allotment at the begining of the year, or if the engines are a bit 'delicate' ....

... or if they get skittled by someone else and end up with sand in their brand new engine that got officially sealed earlier that morning.

A single start from pit lane is likely to have a much bigger impact on the result than having another engine will.

Originally Posted by tail_end_charlie

Originally Posted by tbs

Yeah, it's only supposed to be a cost saving rule after all. It's not there to totally bugger someone's championship. And especially when you consider that Lorenzo didn't do anything wrong. He was skittled by one Mr Bautista...

Oh come on now, everyone knows that no factory team reduced their racing budget when the engine rule went into place. Every penny that was 'saved' by only having to build six engines was in turn used in the R & D to increase the engine life. The whole argument that this was cost saving rule when it is enforced in MotoGP is just smoke and mirrors. In fact, the actual cost of building an engine for every race is probably less then the cost of the R & D to find reliable power that allows six engines to last 18 race weekends. So to be honest, the rule probably cost the factories even more money.

Those who have money will always find ways to spend it. The trick is to make it hugely expensive to get ahead of the pack but also to be cheap enough to join that pack.

**jasonu** · 20th September 2012, 15:30

Originally Posted by Badjelly

Yeah, kinda...

Casey Stoner in taxi races? Sigh...

Hope he does better than Captain Chaos...

**Drew** · 20th September 2012, 15:33

Originally Posted by Badjelly

Yeah, kinda...

Casey Stoner in taxi races? Sigh...

[QUOTE=Crasherfromwayback;1130400918]He isn't being pushed, he's jumping. No great loss, one of the new boys will get amongst it with Pedro and Jeorge...and maybe Rossi.

**tail_end_charlie** · 20th September 2012, 16:10

http://www.motomatters.com/blog/2012...lbow_down.html

Really good picture of a damn good rider who will soon be gone. What a loss of talent.

On another train of thought: 27 prints x $750 ea = $20,250 US Damn man, need to get my camera skills up to par.

**Crasherfromwayback** · 20th September 2012, 16:16

Originally Posted by tail_end_charlie

http://www.motomatters.com/blog/2012...lbow_down.html

Really good picture of a damn good rider who will soon be gone. What a loss of talent.

.

Fuggin cool pic that!

**Drew** · 20th September 2012, 16:17

Originally Posted by tail_end_charlie

http://www.motomatters.com/blog/2012...lbow_down.html

Really good picture of a damn good rider who will soon be gone. What a loss of talent.

On another train of thought: 27 prints x $750 ea = $20,250 US Damn man, need to get my camera skills up to par.

I don't think he was selling no.27.

**tigertim20** · 20th September 2012, 21:22

Originally Posted by tail_end_charlie

Oh wow, didn't know that it was only one race. Makes it seem like that is a rule without much bite. If they are going to have an engine limit, then they might as well enforce it half decently and make you start from pit lane for every race left in the season once you exceed the 6 engine limit.

that seems harsh. If teams were straining soo much power out of the engines that they wre blowing up because of extreme engineering resulting in an advantage on the track,t hen maybe I could inderstand, but what you suggest would likely mean the end of the championship for many riders. Imagine if stoner and pedro DIDNT have their last crashes, what would the points be like now? and if lorenzo had to start 4 races from pit lane? thats silly. starting from pit lane once seems about right to me

Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback

Yeah such a waste of his talent I reckon. But another one will come along soon enough.

MM should provide some entertainment once he gets a half dozen races under his belt, and while we wait for that, we will have rossi to watch and examine and be able to dissect his performance to see whats going on there.

The way pedro has been riding lately, I actually think stoner leaving will bring him out of his shell a wee bit - he seems to me to be really at his peak at the moment, and its possible his growth will continue even more without being under the enormous shadow cast over his diminutive figure when stoner shared a garage with him.

also we will have the ducati to watch since it will be their first full season, including pre pace season testing, under new management, and we can hope for a more competitive bike from them too.

should still be plenty to entertain us for next season with stoner gone

**DidJit** · 21st September 2012, 13:18

Speaking of next year, Capirex has leaked a provisional calendar on Twitter. Some notes by Motomatters here.

**BMWST?** · 22nd September 2012, 10:17

i have got my eye on one of those posters......and a little bit OT..if anyone is heading to OZ i have some aussie cash left over from a trip to Bathurst and the outback lst year.Get in touch you can have it for face value....ie dollar for dollar have got AU$245