In the wake of his involvement in the Marco Simoncelli accident, many (myself included) have wondered whether the totally dispirited and disillusioned Valentino Rossi, would say, “Enough is enough.” and announce his retirement. However, Rossi’s close friend and team manager at Yamaha, Davide Brivio, has scotched the rumours suggesting, instead, that Rossi will bounce back even stronger from this horrible setback. “Many are asking about Vale stopping races. This is absolutely not true and I’m sorry even that I have to explain it…”, (Davide Brivio on Twitter) Expect to see Vale at Valencia with a special commemorative livery on his helmet at least and possibly on his leathers and bike as well.
Team Gresini, on the other hand, has announced that it will NOT be going to Valencia for the last race of the season, nor will they be participating in the post-Valencia test day. Few could blame them for that.
With the tragic events of Sunday as a backdrop, it’s probably pertinent to do a “Silly Season” summary and see what next year’s grid might be. I’ll begin with the proper MotoGp bikes and then try to crystal-ball the CRT entries afterwards.
Honda – Repsol. Stoner and Pedrosa
Honda Gresini. Takahashi and ???
Honda LCR. Randy de Puniet
Yamaha “works”. Lorenzo and Spies
Yamaha TechIII. Dovizioso* and Crutchlow.
Ducati “works”. Rossi and Hayden
Ducati PRAMAC. Hector Barbera and Aliex Espagaro
Ducati CARDIO. Karel Abraham
Suzuki. Alvaro Bautista**
* Dovizioso has already signed with TechIII because there wasn’t room for him at “works” Honda. I am wondering, with the loss of Simo, if room is now available for Dovi and if he could, if he wanted to, get out of the TIII contract and slip into the Gresini team in Simo’s place?
** Still no official word from Suzuki about their plans for 2012. If they DO compete it will probably only be a 1-bike team, continuing with the impressive Alvaro Bautista. If they don’t, Bautista is said to be on a number of teams’ shopping lists.
CRT Teams.
Only one actual confirmed starter so far, CEII on a Suter/BMW.
“Aspar” Martinez has said he’ll be running a 1-bike CRT team using an FTR/Aprilia, but no word on who the rider will be. Jorge has so many riders in his stable at the moment I’m sure he won’t have trouble filling the seat.
Incidentally, the universally misunderstood “CRT” moniker seems destined to go before long, the FIM explaining that it was really just a convenient title to hang on the concept until they came up with something better. Expect it to be re-named “Constructor’s Teams” or something similar before the start of 2012.
So, it’s looking like a “possible” 17 -bike grid at this stage with, hopefully, a lot more CRT teams coming on board in the off-season, otherwise we won’t have gained any numbers at all on what SHOULD have been the full grid loading if every team had fielded every rider at each race in 2011.
Now, on the subject. Just how many riders have been forced to sit out races this year due to injury? It seems to me that it has been many more this year than in previous years. And most of these injuries have been upper-body and arm-related injuries. I wonder why this is so? I think the answer lies in the fact that the 800cc bikes seem to be more prone to high-side accidents than before. When the formula first came in, one of the things said was that the more controllable 800cc bikes should highside less than the 990’s and the 500’s before them, both types having achieved a reputation for being ferocious in this regard. But this season especially, the 800’s seem to have been constantly throwing their riders over the bars with great regualrity, traction-control notwithstanding. Will the 1000cc bikes be better? Let’s hope so.
Roll on to Valencia.