Hot on the heels of the announcement that Suzuki are only planning to run one bike in 2011, comes the news that PRAMAC Ducati are planning on doing exactly the same thing. Budgetary constraints are again to blame, but it looks like both Aleix Espagaro and Mika Kallio will be out of a job next year. Loris Capirossi has been pencilled-in as the solo PRAMAC rider and it looks like at least one of the changes is going to happen straight away.
Word out of Italy is that Kallio is being stood down for the last two races of the year, his place being taken by Carlos Checa for PI and Valencia. After being Rookie of the Year in 2009, Kallio has suffered a horrible year with betrayal by a very close member of his team and also his family and a huge financial loss as part of that.
With the already-confirmed news that the Interwetten Team is folding up its MotoGP effort in 2011, DORNA is going to be left with just 15 bikes on the grid for next season. The FIM will find it very hard to allow DORNA to continue to maintain its arrangement as the promoter of MotoGP when, by FIM and its own rules, the MINIMUM grid size is 18 bikes.
POSTSCRIPT: Re: Mika Kallio. Though rumours suggest that it was the TEAM’s decision to replace him, a careful translation from the Finnish by my wife (a Finnish native and speaker) suggests that Kallio himself has decided not to continue and that he is probably retiring from racing altogether, effective this weekend.