11-18-2005, 01:11 AM
All but a few teams are set for 2006. Teams have already completed their first winter test session at Valencia last week where several young guns rode GP bikes for the first time. More on that later.
Yamaha
Starting with the reigning champs, things stay pretty much the same except that the Yamaha squad now has a bit of a sponsorship dilemma. Rossi has stated that he will not ride under a tobacco sponsor (Gauloises) for another season. That's fine, Yamaha can always put him on a one man team. The problem is, that Gauloises is paying to be associated with Rossi so they are understandably pissed about this and may end up suing Yamaha over it. Right now, nobody really knows how this one is gonna go.
Repsol Honda & Telefonica Movistar Honda (Gresini)
The factory Honda team had a bit of a sponsor spat as well. Dani Pedrosa, the 2-time reigning 250 GP champ, has been sponsored by Telefonica Movistar while he's been riding in 250 GP thus far. So, Telefonica was counting on him to move up to the Telefonica Honda team in Moto GP. However, Honda wanted Pedrosa on the factory Repsol Honda team.
At first it was reported that Telefonica was going to try to work a deal with Repsol where they could be co-sponsors but Repsol wasn't having it. Pedrosa decided that he wanted to be on the factory Honda so he signed with Repsol. Telefonica was pissed so they decided to pull out of Moto GP completely and put their money behind recently crowned F1 champion, Fernando Alonso (Telefonica is Spanish, Fernando is Spanish).
Luckily for the Gresini team Fortuna (Tobacco company) has stepped up in the wake of Telefonica to sponsor their team. They brought along Toni Elias as part of the deal.
Camel Honda (Pons) - The Juicy Stuff
This season, like every season Max Biaggi bitched and moaned about the bike, blaming it for his poor results. He even went so far as to accuse his team of a conspiracy to make him fail. Its as if in his mind, the only reason Nicky could be beating him with the same bike had to be sabotage.
As you could imagine the folks at HRC were very perturbed by his comments. It was already common knowledge that Pedrosa would replace Biaggi on the factory squad next season (as early as probably halfway through 05). It was thought that he could always return to Camel Honda, since he has strong ties with the head honchos there. But Biaggi managed to piss off the head honchos at HRC so much that they have made it clear that they do not want him on ANY of their bikes. The word is that they sent the message that they will refuse to supply any team he is riding for.
So Max has other options right? Well, all of the other factory teams had their lineups locked up, and he burned his bridges at Yamaha after blaming the M1 for his inability to beat Rossi (the same M1 that Rossi has now won 2 championships on). Biaggi has managed to garner such a bad reputation that no one wants him on their team, even though he has the backing of Camel.
It so happens that Camel was so intent on backing Max that they are pulling their sponsorship from the Pons team because they won't give Max a seat. Now its looking like the only way he'll stay in GP is if he rides for the Proton KR team.
So who to fill the Pons seats? Well Alex Barros is out, having come to the end of a long and decent Moto GP career. In his stead comes Carlos Checa. Checa is oft called "Careless Chucka" for the copious amounts of crashing he does but he has gotten some good results at the end of this season on the Marlboro Ducati.
That brings us to the second seat. Chris Vermeulen was in the running for it but he signed with Suzuki. So in came Casey Stoner.
Stoner was the runner up this year in the 250cc class. Jerry Burgess (Rossi's crew chief) had been talking up Stoner's skills a lot in the press and it was no secret that he wanted to groom him to replace Rossi, should Rossi leave to race cars.
For 2006, Yamaha made an offer to Stoners 250cc team that they would supply M1's if the team could raise enough money. Apparently this didn't work out so well.
So in what may prove to be one of the biggest talent coups in recent memory, HRC signed Stoner to a 3 year deal. He will be riding on the second Pons Honda.
Everyone is waiting with baited breadth to see who does better next year, Stoner or Pedrosa. Stoner is bigger and stronger than Pedrosa, which some believe is part of the reason Pedrosa has an advantage on him in the 250 class, but will be at a disadvantage in the GP class. In the 250 class the diminutive Pedrosa (I believe he only weighs about 115 lbs) has an advantage since the 250's don't have much power and don't require a huge amount of strength to control. However, the GP bikes have a ton of power and require decent strength to ride well, something Stoner has more of than Pedrosa. This is why he could possibly do better than Pedrosa, even on a satelitte Honda RC211V.
Suzuki
After over a half a decade together, Suzuki and Kenny Roberts Jr are calling it quits. KRJR won the last championship for Suzuki in 2000 and since then has failed to win a race. Its been plain for all to see that the Suzuki GSV-R is just not a competitive machine. Sete Gibernau won one race on it, but when he moved to Honda he obviously won a ton more.
But, somehow Suzuki was able to convince John Hopkins, the 22 year old star from California, to sign to a 2 year deal. On top of that, they somehow snatched the World Superbike phenom Chris Vermeulen from Honda for a 3 year deal.
Chris Vermeulen was fresh off the runner-up position in World Superike where he closed the season with 5 wins out of 8 rounds. It was plain to see that if his Ten Kate Honda squad had gotten started earlier with developing their Fireblades (CBR1000RR) they could've taken the championship. And therein lies the rub.
It would have been a natural progression for Vermy to move up to a Honda Moto GP ride. However, Honda wanted him to return to WSBK to win the title, then come ride for Honda in GP in 2007. Vermeulen didn't want to wait.
Suzuki saw an opportunity to get a great up and coming rider with Vermeulen, and Vermeulen saw an opportunity to get a factory ride, something he was unlikely to get with Honda considering that Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa, and Marco Melandri were all ahead of him in the Honda pecking order. So apparently he made a verbal commitment to Suzuki.
Honda didn't want to lose Vermeulen so they came up with a counter offer of giving him a ride on the second Pons Honda seat, but Vermeulen ultimately chose to ride the Suzuki. Again, somehow Suzuki was able to convince him that they will be competitive in the near term future. Personally its a long shot, considering that Suzuki has been the poorest performing factory team for the last few years but who knows. I do know that riders have won on the Pons Honda for the last several years running and no one has won on the Suzuki GSV-R for several years running.
The Rest
The rest of the rider lineups came together with considerably less drama. Gibernau went to the factory Ducati team, Englishman James Ellison got promoted from the WCM Blata team to the Ducati D'Antin satelitte team, and Randy DePuniet got promoted from 250cc to Kawasaki's factory team. DePuniet's selection has left a lot of people scratching their heads though, because he finished 8th in the 250cc championship with only 1 win and 2 podiums to his name. Maybe he's riding for free or something.
So here are the rider lineups:
Yamaha Factory Team
Valentino Rossi
Colin Edwards
Tech 3 Yamaha
???
Repsol Honda
Nicky Hayden
Dani Pedrosa
Fortuna Honda
Marco Melandri
Toni Elias
Pons Honda(formerly sponsored by Camel)
Casey Stoner
Carlos Checa
Konica Minolta Honda
Makoto Tamada
Kawasaki
Shinya Nakano
Randy DePuniet
Ducati Marlboro
Loris Capirossi
Sete Gibernau
Suzuki
John Hopkins
Chris Vermeulen
D'Antin Ducati
Roberto Rolfo
James Ellison
Team Proton KR
Kenny Roberts Jr
Yamaha
Starting with the reigning champs, things stay pretty much the same except that the Yamaha squad now has a bit of a sponsorship dilemma. Rossi has stated that he will not ride under a tobacco sponsor (Gauloises) for another season. That's fine, Yamaha can always put him on a one man team. The problem is, that Gauloises is paying to be associated with Rossi so they are understandably pissed about this and may end up suing Yamaha over it. Right now, nobody really knows how this one is gonna go.
Repsol Honda & Telefonica Movistar Honda (Gresini)
The factory Honda team had a bit of a sponsor spat as well. Dani Pedrosa, the 2-time reigning 250 GP champ, has been sponsored by Telefonica Movistar while he's been riding in 250 GP thus far. So, Telefonica was counting on him to move up to the Telefonica Honda team in Moto GP. However, Honda wanted Pedrosa on the factory Repsol Honda team.
At first it was reported that Telefonica was going to try to work a deal with Repsol where they could be co-sponsors but Repsol wasn't having it. Pedrosa decided that he wanted to be on the factory Honda so he signed with Repsol. Telefonica was pissed so they decided to pull out of Moto GP completely and put their money behind recently crowned F1 champion, Fernando Alonso (Telefonica is Spanish, Fernando is Spanish).
Luckily for the Gresini team Fortuna (Tobacco company) has stepped up in the wake of Telefonica to sponsor their team. They brought along Toni Elias as part of the deal.
Camel Honda (Pons) - The Juicy Stuff
This season, like every season Max Biaggi bitched and moaned about the bike, blaming it for his poor results. He even went so far as to accuse his team of a conspiracy to make him fail. Its as if in his mind, the only reason Nicky could be beating him with the same bike had to be sabotage.
As you could imagine the folks at HRC were very perturbed by his comments. It was already common knowledge that Pedrosa would replace Biaggi on the factory squad next season (as early as probably halfway through 05). It was thought that he could always return to Camel Honda, since he has strong ties with the head honchos there. But Biaggi managed to piss off the head honchos at HRC so much that they have made it clear that they do not want him on ANY of their bikes. The word is that they sent the message that they will refuse to supply any team he is riding for.
So Max has other options right? Well, all of the other factory teams had their lineups locked up, and he burned his bridges at Yamaha after blaming the M1 for his inability to beat Rossi (the same M1 that Rossi has now won 2 championships on). Biaggi has managed to garner such a bad reputation that no one wants him on their team, even though he has the backing of Camel.
It so happens that Camel was so intent on backing Max that they are pulling their sponsorship from the Pons team because they won't give Max a seat. Now its looking like the only way he'll stay in GP is if he rides for the Proton KR team.
So who to fill the Pons seats? Well Alex Barros is out, having come to the end of a long and decent Moto GP career. In his stead comes Carlos Checa. Checa is oft called "Careless Chucka" for the copious amounts of crashing he does but he has gotten some good results at the end of this season on the Marlboro Ducati.
That brings us to the second seat. Chris Vermeulen was in the running for it but he signed with Suzuki. So in came Casey Stoner.
Stoner was the runner up this year in the 250cc class. Jerry Burgess (Rossi's crew chief) had been talking up Stoner's skills a lot in the press and it was no secret that he wanted to groom him to replace Rossi, should Rossi leave to race cars.
For 2006, Yamaha made an offer to Stoners 250cc team that they would supply M1's if the team could raise enough money. Apparently this didn't work out so well.
So in what may prove to be one of the biggest talent coups in recent memory, HRC signed Stoner to a 3 year deal. He will be riding on the second Pons Honda.
Everyone is waiting with baited breadth to see who does better next year, Stoner or Pedrosa. Stoner is bigger and stronger than Pedrosa, which some believe is part of the reason Pedrosa has an advantage on him in the 250 class, but will be at a disadvantage in the GP class. In the 250 class the diminutive Pedrosa (I believe he only weighs about 115 lbs) has an advantage since the 250's don't have much power and don't require a huge amount of strength to control. However, the GP bikes have a ton of power and require decent strength to ride well, something Stoner has more of than Pedrosa. This is why he could possibly do better than Pedrosa, even on a satelitte Honda RC211V.
Suzuki
After over a half a decade together, Suzuki and Kenny Roberts Jr are calling it quits. KRJR won the last championship for Suzuki in 2000 and since then has failed to win a race. Its been plain for all to see that the Suzuki GSV-R is just not a competitive machine. Sete Gibernau won one race on it, but when he moved to Honda he obviously won a ton more.
But, somehow Suzuki was able to convince John Hopkins, the 22 year old star from California, to sign to a 2 year deal. On top of that, they somehow snatched the World Superbike phenom Chris Vermeulen from Honda for a 3 year deal.
Chris Vermeulen was fresh off the runner-up position in World Superike where he closed the season with 5 wins out of 8 rounds. It was plain to see that if his Ten Kate Honda squad had gotten started earlier with developing their Fireblades (CBR1000RR) they could've taken the championship. And therein lies the rub.
It would have been a natural progression for Vermy to move up to a Honda Moto GP ride. However, Honda wanted him to return to WSBK to win the title, then come ride for Honda in GP in 2007. Vermeulen didn't want to wait.
Suzuki saw an opportunity to get a great up and coming rider with Vermeulen, and Vermeulen saw an opportunity to get a factory ride, something he was unlikely to get with Honda considering that Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa, and Marco Melandri were all ahead of him in the Honda pecking order. So apparently he made a verbal commitment to Suzuki.
Honda didn't want to lose Vermeulen so they came up with a counter offer of giving him a ride on the second Pons Honda seat, but Vermeulen ultimately chose to ride the Suzuki. Again, somehow Suzuki was able to convince him that they will be competitive in the near term future. Personally its a long shot, considering that Suzuki has been the poorest performing factory team for the last few years but who knows. I do know that riders have won on the Pons Honda for the last several years running and no one has won on the Suzuki GSV-R for several years running.
The Rest
The rest of the rider lineups came together with considerably less drama. Gibernau went to the factory Ducati team, Englishman James Ellison got promoted from the WCM Blata team to the Ducati D'Antin satelitte team, and Randy DePuniet got promoted from 250cc to Kawasaki's factory team. DePuniet's selection has left a lot of people scratching their heads though, because he finished 8th in the 250cc championship with only 1 win and 2 podiums to his name. Maybe he's riding for free or something.
So here are the rider lineups:
Yamaha Factory Team
Valentino Rossi
Colin Edwards
Tech 3 Yamaha
???
Repsol Honda
Nicky Hayden
Dani Pedrosa
Fortuna Honda
Marco Melandri
Toni Elias
Pons Honda(formerly sponsored by Camel)
Casey Stoner
Carlos Checa
Konica Minolta Honda
Makoto Tamada
Kawasaki
Shinya Nakano
Randy DePuniet
Ducati Marlboro
Loris Capirossi
Sete Gibernau
Suzuki
John Hopkins
Chris Vermeulen
D'Antin Ducati
Roberto Rolfo
James Ellison
Team Proton KR
Kenny Roberts Jr
2018 Ducati Panigale V4
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com