Cycle World’s Kevin Cameron has written an interesting piece on Assen and, perhaps more interesting, those tyres...
Edit: We're spoilt for choice today — David Emmett interviews Carmelo Ezpeleta about a spec ECU...
Having now watched and digested all of the action from the weekend there were certainly some strange moments interspersed among some brilliant racing.
Cortese’s intimidation of his team mate Danny Webb was chronologically the first.
That may come back to bite Cortese on the arse later in the season; even if Webb doesn’t use his new found boxing skills.
Then, Bautista’s rush of mud to the brain. He said he missed his braking point.
The boy certainly has a gift for understatement.
Finally, Sufuoglu’s move on Fabian Foret at Aragon. Who knows what was going through the Turk’s mind.
After contemplating all this, and the subsequent reactions on KB, I can only ascribe these phenomena to the effects of the full moon.
Looking forward to the Sachsenring...
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
Lifted from that article:
The number 1 reason pure prototype racing at the highest level is dead.MM: How do you think the manufacturers will respond? Are they looking favorably at these suggestions?
CE: Well, this is changing, because some days they agree, then other days they say no, and then they continue saying that for them the most important thing is to develop technology, and we say for us the most important thing is entertainment. So we are more or less in marketing discussions, more than anything, let's say.
Zen wisdom: No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. - obviously had KB in mind when he came up with that gem
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
mentalshorts saidI disagree, there are plenty of places to go watch close racing created by same bike type rules/classes. Prototype by it's nature can be dominated by one bike or team or whoever spends the most money...it is the elite...only for the big boys....if you want to win you need to create something faster or better....how long has this Honda taken to get to the top...10 years?.....the racing is only one part of the attractions....I enjoy the politics, engineering, science, etc etc just as much as i enjoy Lorenzo passing stoner....The number 1 reason pure prototype racing at the highest level is dead
You don't seem to get it; Carmelo Ezpeleta is saying it's all about entertainment, not technology. So anything that leads to a better spectacle (entertainment) will be a much higher priority than technology advances (prototype racing). So CRT is the future (as he says in the article), ie the end of pure prototype racing at GP level.
I like classes where there's few rules. That's the number 1 reason I race in F3 - I can put whatever I can dream up on the track as long as it's within the capacity limits.
Zen wisdom: No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. - obviously had KB in mind when he came up with that gem
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
It's an interesting contrast: Lorenzo railing perfect lines and maximising entry/corner speed, whereas Stoner is all about the gas, sacrificing the perfect entry for those awesome drifting exits. Lorenzo passing under brakes, Stoner passing on the gas. Both of them pretty to watch!
Ezpeleta raises some good points: how is it that Yamaha with all it's success does not have a title sponsor? If they can't get sponsorship to make their campaign self-sustaining then basically no-one can. Which makes the whole thing unsustainable. So the necessity to reduce costs is undeniable, because eventually the series will implode and become a sad parade of 6 bikes (or 4 - how long will Ducati persist with being tail end charlie?). Who's gonna tune in to that? What manufacturer would be prepared to spend $30-50million to be a part of it?
So in these GFC times MotoGP is basically pricing itself out of the market. Let's be even more blunt: without intervention the series is dying. It's already a sad shadow of what is supposed to be a World Championship. To think that more technology, less rules, more costs, will cure things is like giving a lung cancer patient another cigarette: madness.
The manufacturers aren't running their own launch/traction/wheelie control/ECU/data logging, so who benefits from the 10's of millions of Euro's spent on electronics except Magnetti Marelli? Same goes for carbon brakes and Brembo. Once a single supplier is standard across the board the technological race is over and all your doing is spending crazy amounts of dosh to keep up with the Joneses, with the supplier laughing all the way to the bank as the series bankrupts itself.
MotoGP is dead, long live whatever comes next because there is no other choice.
chassis are now a tune able item , if the new ducati engine doesn’t deliver , screwed is a term I would be using
Stephen
"Look, Madame, where we live, look how we live ... look at the life we have...The Republic has forgotten us."
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