If ever you wanted proof that we, in Australia, have been cushioned somewhat from the effects of the GFC, you need only look at the game of musical chairs that is being played out in road racing overseas at the moment.
It is not apparent unless you dig a bit but the sad fact is that the majority of racers racing in the GP circus at the moment are pay-for-racers. In other words, they have their current ride because they have brought money, in some cases, substantial amounts, to the team for which they race. The implications of this situation are far more serious than what first appears.
Firstly, it means that the rider is no longer hired on talent but on his ability to support an increasingly stringent team budget. Even in the case of Karel Abraham, a rider of undoubted talent, we know that he wouldn’t have a MotoGp ride were it not for his father’s money. And, it seems that that money is running out with financial disputes between Abraham Sr and Ducati meaning that Karel will be languishing in a CRT team next year.
But it goes far deeper than that. Riders have now become a commodity, to be bought and sold, hired and fired at the team’s will, it seems. Overnight it looks like Mattia Pasini has lost his Moto2 seat despite selling most of his possessions so that he could raise the team’s asking fee for a ride. Claudio Corti has also been benched with Robbie Rolfo and Tony Elias subbing for these two for the rest of the year.
The ongoing saga of the Effenbert Liberty WSBK Team bubbles on with rumours abounding that the team has now folded completely and will not attend the season-ending event at Magny Cours next weekend. Have the riders, mechanics, team staff, been paid? Probably not. Amazing that a team that started the year with 4 bikes and four riders and enough parts and equipment to start several teams (I saw their pits at PI, amazing) could fold and be gone before season’s end.
The upshot of all this “pay to ride” shenanigans is that riders of real talent, struggling for a ride but without the monetary clout of others, are missing out while the monied riders are hired and fired at will. The whole credibility of the sport is teetering on the abyss of financial disaster, along with a dearth of talent created by this ridiculous situation.
And it may get worse, a LOT worse. Two events this week have the potential to bring the whole thing crashing down. The first was announced yesterday when DORNA announced that Infront, the company that owns the rights to WSBK AND MotoGp will be merging both organisations for “organisational and financial efficiency” The press release went on to assure all who read it that the company is determined to keep the two formulae separate and to continue to give equal value to the promotion of both series. Those of us who shivered when the news of Infront’s purchase of MotoGp broke back then may yet be proven right.
But a much darker cloud is looming with the announcement that a “spec” ECU is being considered and that a company (Magnet Marelli) has been selected to supply it from 2014 onwards. Another step in the process of “dumbing down” MotoGp has been taken, but at what cost? The boss of Honda has already said, TWICE, that, if a “spec” ECU is brought in, Honda will leave. And you may be sure that, should that happen, the other manufacturers won’t be far behind them.
Still on MotoGp, announcement overnight that the MotoGp event WILL take place in April next year at the new track in Austin, Texas. Legal wrangling over supposed dishonoured contracts will no doubt rumble on for years given the state of American litigation, but the event, it seems, is go.
Racing has faced and survived many crises in its time and it always finds a way to drag itself back up again, but there are some perilous times ahead, for sure. When the music stops, I wonder how many chairs will be left, or if there will be any at all.