MotoGP bosses to hold crisis talks next week

[racerhead]

Following the news that Kawasaki will not come out to play in the 2009 MotoGP season, it is believed that MotoGP bosses are to hold crisis talks in Japan as soon as Wednesday of next week.

All manufacturers are said to be in agreement, including Kawasaki as it is still part of the Motorcycle Sports Manufacturers' Association, and the main thrust of the agenda must be how to cut costs. Stable, horse, door, bolted...

However, teams will have already commmitted, and spent, millions of dollars in preparation for this season and will now find it difficult to cut any major costs. It is thought Honda have already said all bikes will now be built in Japan and everyone will fly cattle class instead of business but this is small beer.

Shifting to spec-electronics, banning precious metals and the like will not reduce costs for the 2009 season as teams will have to develop new/modified engines upping costs. Rider salaries could be capped but this, again, is petty cash in the grand scheme of things.

Even though Kawasaki still haven't made an official announcement, the grid looks set to be reduced to 17 bikes unless Hopkins takes his Monster money to Ducati, or a satellite Yamaha team. A move to the LCR team for Marco Melandri has been mooted, but that would mean he and Randy De Puniet only having one bike each - a bit difficult if either has a massive practice shunt or it rains mid-race.

[MDR2]

What are the chances of Randy de puniet falling off on a continual basis though

This is pretty dire news really, it was a weak field to start with and while the kwaka's were largley non contenders it will still hurt the sport not to have them there. Melandri and Hopkins are both riders i have alot of respect for both having every reason to be on the grid come Feb. I hope they can sort this out.

Limiting the money and types of materials they can use seems a backwards step. all the cool bits they develop eventually trickle down to road bikes so I see it as a kick in the nuts for bike development also.

I mean, they may aswell go back to 2 stroke gp's given that they now have traction control playing such a huge part in the race now.

Maybe a cheaper sport would mean the like of Illmor and other satelite teams could represent themselves though.

...maybe not.

[vtec]

Shite, maybe they'll have to redo the rulebook to make it cheaper. There's no way manufacturers like the big 4 japs should be priced out of the racing.

[MDR2]

I doubt they will ever be priced out, but they will find it harder to do what they do if a cap is placed on them.

Left to their own devices and endless amounts of cash, the larger companies have priced the smaller companies out. Id love to see some of the 125 and 250 companies out there with some 800 cc prototype madness!

[gixxer-king]

I agree with an earlier statement, that most of the trick bits trickle their way into the production bikes. without a competitive sport to keep manufacturers picking up the pace we may be stuck with the features we have now for the next 4 years. In any event i hope they find the money/whatever to keep everyone in the game.