kawasaki out for 09 GP

[.paul]

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hock: hock: hock: hock:

poor melandri and hopkins

[stevegula]

that hasn't been confirmed yet -

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[G.Irish]

Well Melandri supposedly already received a pink slip and Dorna is trying to work out a deal where Aspar Martinez will run Kawasaki's old bikes next season (and try not to get lapped).

I'd say it's a done deal.

[.paul]

Yeah, crash roadracing and super all have similar information, but it is deffly not leaning to the good news.

[stevegula]

I'd say it's not a done deal until Kawasaki or Dorna says it's a done deal.

Horse's mouth and all.

[stevegula]

horse's mouth -

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tldr - They still haven't decided.

[.RJ]

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.......... and they're back?

[G.Irish]

I guess ol' Ezpeleta is smarter (well, less dumb) than I've given him credit for. Apparently the contract Kawasaki signed with Dorna has some stiff penalties if they renege. If it's going to cost them $20 million a year to pull out, they might as well stay in.

[G.Irish]

Spoke too soon:

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But hell, if Kawasaki has to pay $20 million in penalties per year Dorna can use that to prop some of the other privateer teams up or even get a satellite bike or two out of Suzuki.

[stevegula]

poor Hopper and Melandri.

What 20 mill in penalties are you talking about?

[G.Irish]

Kawasaki signed a commitment with Dorna to stay in Moto GP through 2011. Apparently there's a provision with penalties for withdrawing early that amount to about $20 million per year.

[stevegula]

Not to knock Kawisaki, but I can't believe they were spending much more than $20 mill/yr on their operations. And if they were, they were over paying. They don't have particularly expensive riders, bikes rarely seemed up to par, and I doubt Bridgestone was a remotely pricey tire until last year (and probably no longer is a pricey tire now that it's the standard).

[G.Irish]

They were reportedly spending about $40 million. Which isn't that large a sum compared to someone like Honda who was spending $100 million and Yamaha who spends $30 million on Rossi alone.

Of course, Ducati is only spending about $30-40 million and they have done light years better than Kawasaki in the time they've been in Moto GP. But then again Ducati had a much bigger pool of race engineering expertise to draw upon than Kawasaki from the get-go.

Kawasaki's problem from the start is that they tried to build a super-superbike rather than a straight out GP bike. When they changed their philosophy they were already behind. Then there's the fact that they never ponied up the money for a top rider until this year, and that's when they fucked things up royally. Their lack of success was not surprising.

Oh yeah, Bridgestones are free next year.

[stevegula]

Apparently they're determined to get Kawasaki involved somehow -

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Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta may have been a little premature in revealing that Kawasaki were testing their MotoGP machine at Eastern Creek on Wednesday, but the surprise two-day test did get underway at the Australian circuit on Friday.

Kawasaki officially announced its withdraw from MotoGP earlier this month, but Ezpeleta isn't prepared to let the factory simply walk away from the remaining three seasons of its contract to race in MotoGP.

Instead, Ezpeleta is proposing that Kawasaki allows its ZX-RRs to race on in 2009, probably in the hands of a privateer team made up of former factory team personnel, and in return is willing to release Kawasaki from the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Exactly what technical support and funding Kawasaki would be expected to provide is unknown - and the factory states it only has enough engines built for 25% of this season - but Ezpeleta has warned that he will "take them to court" if Kawasaki don't race in one form or another in 2009.

The appearance of the 2009 ZX-RR at Eastern Creek seems a clear indication that Kawasaki could well race on - it makes no sense to test if the machines definitely won't be on the 2009 grid - although there have been suggestions that the test was scheduled (and shipping of equipment had begun) before the pull-out was announced.

Either way, Kawasaki development rider and former 250cc world champion Olivier Jacque - riding alongside fellow test rider Tamaki Serizawa - claimed to be impressed.

"Overall it seems lighter and more agile, so the work done over the winter definitely seems positive," the Frenchman told the official MotoGP website. "Now we have to rack up some miles to have a better idea of the bike's potential."

Kawasaki's withdraw has left the racing futures of its contracted riders John Hopkins and Marco Melandri up in the air, with all 17 remaining 2009 MotoGP rides already taken.

[.paul]

They were testing apparently earlier this week.

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[stevegula]

Apparently Wednesday is Judgement Day.

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"On Wednesday I'll get a telephone call from Michael Bartholemy to say if he has arranged to run the 2009 bikes as a privateer team," La Gazzetta dello Sport reports Melandri, a former MotoGP World Championship runner-up, as saying.

[stevegula]

I guess not all teams are committed past 2009. Yamaha is more or less leaving the door open to leave after next year if necessary. I think both Rossi's and Lorenzo's contracts are only good until the end of this season.

[G.Irish]

God damn. If Yamaha, Ducati or Honda leaves that is the end of the championship. What a shame that'll be. But on the bright side WSBK will be better because of it and maybe we'll see homologation specials from more than just Ducati again.

[stevegula]

God damn. If Yamaha, Ducati or Honda leaves that is the end of the championship. What a shame that'll be. But on the bright side WSBK will be better because of it and maybe we'll see homologation specials from more than just Ducati again.

I think they'll get their 'price savings' measure into place before everyone bails.

[Ginger]

Perhaps... but cost savings measures usually aren't, they just encourage different spending directions. The list that I saw wasn't exactly full of brilliant ideas...