This just in from crash.net.
“The 125cc World Championship looks set to be replaced by a new, single-cylinder, 250cc four-stroke class from the 2012 season.
According to GPOne.com, the new class – which will presumably be named Moto3 – will not have a single engine supplier, like Moto2, although “any manufacturer wishing to participate will have to build a minimum number of engines, from 10 to 15, at a price of 10,000 Euros”.
The end of the 125cc class, the only remaining engine-size from the original 1949 world championship season, will also mark the end of two-stroke machinery in grand prix racing.
In 2001 all three grand prix classes consisted of two-stroke motorcycles, but their lack of production relevance saw the premier 500cc World Championship replaced by a new (990cc) four-stroke MotoGP class in 2002, while 250cc was replaced by (600cc) Moto2 four-strokes at the start of this season.
The success of Moto2, with its huge 40-rider field and unpredictable racing, is sure to have accelerated the process of replacing the 125cc class.”
I published this information (in less extensive form) on the 4th of June!
And here’s some interesting stats to mull over.
Saturday’s Dutch TT at Assen marked the first time that the prototype MotoGP World Championship has raced on the same track as the production World Superbike Championship in 2010.
Here are the fastest race laps for each manufacturer in each championship at Assen. The Dutch WSBK round took place on April 25.
Yamaha
MotoGP: YZR-M1 1m 34.626s (Lorenzo)
WSBK YZF-R1 1m 36.472s (Toseland)
Difference: 1.846s
Honda
MotoGP: RC212V 1m 34.525s (Pedrosa)
WSBK CBR1000RR 1m 36.312s (Rea)
Difference: 1.787s
Ducati
MotoGP: Desmosedici GP10 1m 34.761s (Stoner)
WSBK 1198R 1m 36.413s (Checa)
Difference: 1.652s
Suzuki
MotoGP: GSV-R 1m 36.219s (Capirossi)
WSBK GSX-R1000 1m 36.452s (Haslam)
Difference: 0.233s
Others:
BMW
WSBK: S1000RR 1m 36.373s (Corser)
Aprilia
WSBK: RSV4 1m 36.450s (Camier)
Kawasaki
WSBK: ZX-10R 1m 37.189s (Sykes)
gearsau says
Phil,
That comparison certainly shows how bad that SUZUKI GSV-R is. Off to the crusher at the end of the year for those bikes. Don’t think they will be saved as museum pieces..
Phil Hall says
You’re not wrong, mate. They are dogs. In fact, if they WERE dogs, they’d have been put down by now.
gearsau says
Courtesy of English Autosport :
Capirossi frustrated by Suzuki form
By Simon Strang Sunday, June 27th 2010, 10:23 GMT
Loris Capirossi admitted he is angry with Suzuki’s uncompetitiveness after struggling to a distant 13th place in the Dutch TT at Assen on Saturday.
The Italian and his team-mate Alvaro Bautista were last on the road save for Hiroshi Aoyama’s slow stand-in Kousuke Akiyoshi, and finished more than a minute behind race-winner Jorge Lorenzo.
And Capirossi – a nine-times winner in the top class – revealed he is becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of feel he is receives back from his GSV-R.
“I just don’t know what to say after this weekend – when I try to go quicker than I did today I feel like I will crash and when I try to make a race I end up almost last,” he said. “The effort we are putting in is a lot and I am really angry and annoyed, because the whole team is trying really hard, we make so many changes to try to find the best solution and we just cannot find it.
“We just had no feeling at the start today and we needed three or four laps to get any kind of feel in the tyres, but by then it was too late.
“It is the same to finish 11th or 13th, both positions feel the same and it is just not good enough, we need to make some big changes for next weekend so we can try to be more competitive.”
Paul Denning, boss of the Crescent team which runs Suzuki’s factory effort in MotoGP, said that the entire team is disappointed with the results of the bike, which has so far scored a total of 30 points from six races.
“Things have been very difficult this season and they didn’t get any easier today!” said Denning. “I want to say sorry to Loris and Alvaro that we couldn’t give them a competitive machine today, Loris especially is incredibly frustrated and that frustration is shared by all of us.
“We have to keep working hard and keep focused to find the key that will allow the riders to perform to the best of their abilities.”
Phil Hall says
Look, I’ve made my position on Suzuki very clear many, many times. The fact is, that you can dress it up in all sorts of media-speak you like, the bikes are uncompetitive for two reasons. The first is that the factory is not really dead serious about MotoGP and have NEVER spent the money to the level of the other players to make a competitive bike (certainly in the 4 stroke era anyway) and the second is that the factory is totally impervious to rider input. Their attitude is, “If we didn’t think of it, then it’s not worth considering.” Rider after rider over the years has expresssed the same frustrations as Capirossi and it won’t change. Stu Avant, who raced an RG500 way back then and maintains close contacts with the official team, told me this 10 years ago and the very same thing was said in the recent article in AMCN. They simply do NOT listen to what the riders tell them about what’s wrong with the bike and how to fix it. I feel sorry for Loris, but, then again, he should have known that that was what the situation was before he signed with them.
What infuriates me most about this whole situation is that Suzuki is entirely responsible for ruining the career of one of the most talented riders Australia has ever produced, Chris Vermeulen.