We may just have seen the first domino falling in the demise of World Superbike racing.
Remember that I posted some months ago that the company that owns MotoGp now also owns WSBK and that this could have a devastating on the future of WSBK? Well, I’m afraid my prediction is coming true with the announcement last night that Yamaha is withdrawing its factory support for WSBK from the end of this year. This after just announcing an extension of MM33’s contract; he must be bewildered.
Here’s the official announcement.
The harsh reality is that the GFC has hit the Japanese manufacturers far harder than we have realised here in Australia where we have been substantially cushioned from its worse effects by government policy and by a booming resources market. This announcement effectively means that Ducati and now Yamaha will not have factory teams for 2012. Yes, I know that the Althea set-up IS the factory Ducati team, but any thought that Ducati may come back in force next year (it has been hinted at) could be dashed by this development. AND it must also be remembered that Ducati has much more limited resources than the Japanese factories. At the moment, and seemingly into the future, those resources are increasingly being directed into trying to make a MotoGp bike that works.
Yesterday Francis Batta, head of the Alstare Suzuki team, announced that he was NOT considering a switch to Kawasaki next year as had been rumoured. Given that Suzuki’s budget is the smallest of the Japanese teams and that its presence in both formulae is tenuous at best, he must be wondering if Suzuki are about to follow suit. There is still no guarantee that they won’t pull the pin on their MotoGp “effort” despite the announcement by Motul earlier this week, and Batta has been strident in his criticism of Suzuki over the lack of on-going technical development from the factory for his team over the last couple of years.
Lest my readers think that I am being alarmist over this, no lesser journalist than Michael Scott wrote about this very matter in yesterday’s issue of the online gpweek magazine and I reproduce his article below for those who are not subscribers. (apologies for the small print)
So, the next couple of months are going to be very interesting indeed. AND, as a sidelight, given the Formula One deal for next year that sees people effectively having to PAY to watch the F1 races on TV, can MotoGp be far behind? Remember, you read it here first (usually)
