Well that small interview just before todays GP says it all. Ezpeleta was bighting his tong not to say it is unfair that wsbk has 30 engines while GP 6 and they need to change that. For Dorna to change GP towards WSBK is like bankers admitting yes we caused the crisis in banking.
Dumbing down the bikes won't make a blind bit of difference to the spectacle, and nor will cutting the amount of engines. It's not the speed that makes it exciting; moto2 was slower than supersports to start with, but you'd be hard pushed to call that boring. Motogp is the premier racing format, but no-one can afford to compete in it. Clearly something has to be done, and so Dorna are doing something, and I think they're on the right track. It won't please the factories, but it'll put more bikes on the grid and that can only be a good thing. WSB will of course have to change in order to keep a clear distinction between it and motogp. It is supposed to be a production bike-based series, and I for one would like to see the bikes closer to production spec than they are now. Again, it won't affect the enjoyment of the racing, it'll still be close. As far as I can see there is only one downside - the rate of technical innovation will inevitably slow - but what do you want, a technically superior but more boring race, or a dumbed-down multi-bike scrap..?
And of course once WSB comes down to superstock spec the factories will have no choice but to bring out uber-trick homologation specials
From today's Times:- You have got to love MotoGP. Even when the championship is staggering towards its perfunctory 2012 conclusion, political machinations make up for any lack of action on the track. This weekend staged round 15 of the championship, at Motegi, in Japan. At the front of the race were the usual suspects — Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa. Behind the scenes, the frisson was, as usual, about rule changes. But this time, the news was good. The announcement that the two biggest motorcycle racing series in the world — MotoGP and World Superbikes — were falling under common management, was being interpreted as a breakthrough for MotoGP. It would mean an acceleration in the pace of change towards a new, lower-tech, cheaper MotoGP championship. MotoGP is going through the pain of transition towards less sophisticated bikes and away from the ultra high-tech prototype machines built by the likes of Honda and Yamaha. During this regulatory hiatus, we have a bifurcated grid with bikes of dramatically different levels of performance. The new generation of detuned bikes, snappily named CRT, is slower in a straight line by about 20mph (depending on the track). The men riding these bikes cannot hope to win. The gap in performance is closing, but almost as slowly as the CRTs limp down a one-kilometre straight. How does the change in Superbike management change the fortunes of MotoGP? Basically, by bringing them to heel. Superbikes have been way too fast in comparison with the supposedly superior MotoGP CRT bikes. Without restriction in the number of engines they can use, some Superbike teams are said to have gone through dozens in a season. Engineers can “turn up the wick”, running the engines to the outer limits of their performance and durability. A top Superbike generates some 20 horsepower more than a CRT bike, which is limited to 12 engines per season. So with Bridgepoint — the private equity firm that is the ultimate parent of the two series — deciding to “amalgamate” the management, steps can be taken to ensure there are clear delineations in both championships. Superbikes, it is thought, may return to a formula nearer to road bikes, allowing CRT teams within MotoGP to “slow down”, with an attendant reduction in costs. From a MotoGP perspective, it is a masterstroke. It is like leading a motor race under searing pressure from the guys behind, when all of a sudden you find you are able to “cut a deal” with them to get them off your tail. If the wind is taken out of the sails of the Superbike juggernaut, the driving forces for CRT hope that rules will be standardised for MotoGP prototype and CRT machines by 2014. By standardised, I mean a common ECU (engine management system), a universal rev limit, common fuel levels etc. The basic model for MotoGP post 2014 — with teams building bikes and buying engines — is remarkably like Formula One, where the majority of teams, such as, say, McLaren, build their cars and buy their engines from whomever they choose. Between now and 2014, we shall have to content ourselves with the racing . . . which reminds me; Pedrosa won yesterday — fortunate really since he rides a Honda and they own the Motegi circuit — from Lorenzo, who is inching inexorably towards a championship win. Casey Stoner, Pedrosa’s team-mate, returned from injury for a sub-par fifth place, and Cal Crutchlow, of Great Britain, ran out of fuel on the final lap while challenging for the last place on the podium. The meeting was also notable for a British star of the future securing his first grand prix victory. Danny Kent, 18, from Wiltshire, took the Moto3 Grand Prix race, when, in an incident-packed last lap, he passed Sandro Cortese, his German team-mate and the championship leader, who then crashed. Showing extraordinarily bad sportsmanship, the German gesticulated furiously at Kent on the cool-down lap, obviously incandescent with rage. His fury was without foundation. Kent passed him cleanly, and Cortese’s crash was his own fault. Kent need not fret about the outrage of his self-basting team-mate for he has signed a contract with Tech 3 (Crutchlow’s team) to move up to Moto2 next year. If I was Danny, I’d be asking myself . . . Sandro who?
