Courtesy of bikesportnews.com this speculative list of what’s happening in MotoGp and WSBK next year.
World Superbikes
Althea Ducati Carlos Checa, Davide Giugliano
Factory Aprilia Max Biaggi, Eugene Laverty
Crescent Suzuki Leon Camier, John Hopkins
Ten Kate Honda Jonathan Rea, Hiro Aoyama
BMW Motorrad Leon Haslam, Marco Melandri
BMW Italia Ayrton Badovini, Michel Fabrizio
Parkingo Aprilia Chaz Davies
Roma/Barni Ducati Nico Canepa
Liberty Ducati Sylvain Guintoli, Maxine Berger, Jakub Smrz
Kawasaki Joan Lascorz, Tom Sykes
MotoGP
Repsol Honda Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa
Factory Yamaha Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies
Marlboro Ducati Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden
Monster Yamaha Andrea Dovizioso, Cal Crutchlow
Gresini Honda Alvaro Bautista, Michele Pirro (CRT)
Pramac Ducati Hector Barbera
Kardion AB Ducati Karel Abraham
LCR Honda Stefan Bradl
NGM Forward BMW Colin Edwards (CRT)
PBM Aprilia James Ellison (CRT)
Mapfre Aprilia Randy De Puniet, Aleix Espargaro (both CRT)
Speedmaster Anthony West (CRT)
BQR Kawasaki Yonny Hernandez (CRT)
IODA Racing Danilo Petrucci (CRT)
20 riders so far. Still not a huge advance on the 17 that was the norm for a full 800cc grid.
Also, the usually very reliable crash.net has a very interesting article on comparisons between MotoGp bikes and the new CRT machines. I’ll provide the link to the article below.
The “nitty gritty” is in this table.
“The fastest race laps of World Superbikes (Pirelli tyres), as a proxy for CRT bikes, and 800cc MotoGP machines (Bridgestone tyres) during 2011 were compared in the four events at shared tracks where conditions were dry. The 1200cc WSBK Ducati was excluded from the survey because the bore size exceeds the 81mm MotoGP limit.
Assen:
MotoGP 1:35.240 (Spies) – WSBK 1:36.476 (Camier) = -1.236s
Brno:
MotoGP 1:57.191 (Stoner) – WSBK 2:00.058 (Melandri) = -2.867s
Misano:
MotoGP 1:33.906 (Lorenzo) – WSBK 1:36.722 (Biaggi) = -2.816s
Phillip Island:
MotoGP 1:30.629 (Stoner) – WSBK 1:32.012 (Biaggi) = -1.383s”
Again, all of this must be taken with a grain of salt but it does look like the gap between the two classes could be smaller than first anticipated. If the FIM is determined to break the power of the factories (and it seems abundantly clear now that they are), then a little “fiddling” with the technical regulations could narrow that gap even further. It’s also important to remember that testing so far of the 1000cc bikes indicates that they will be noticeably faster than their 800cc predecessors.