Hopes were dashed in Valencia today as FB Corse was denied the opportunity to enter the 2010 MotoGP series with the rest of the field at Qatar on April 11th. The FB Corse team was at the Spanish track the past few days testing their FB01 race bike with Garry McCoy at the helm. Today being the final day of testing, representatives from Dorna and the IRTA were on hand to assess the condition of the FB Corse team and bike, and to make a determination as to whether they would be included in the 2010 series. Despite all of the media hype, Dorna’s Franco Uncini’s determined the team was not ready for MotoGP, but could maybe enter the series midway through if they where then ready.
Talking to GPone, Uncini described FB Corse as “interesting,” but not ready for racing in the ranks of MotoGP. His primary criticism seems to focus around the amount of testing the team has done on the track, which up until this week was effectively zero. “It’s not a question of reliability,” Uncini explained to GPone, “the bike had no problems at all. But it really needs to put in some track miles. They are still right at the very start of the project.”
Despite this failing mark, Uncini was optimistic about the team’s future saying, “the project looks really good. It may be possible for the bike to join the grid once the MotoGP paddock returns for the European stage of the championship. But they will know when they are ready. When the time comes, we will give them a call and take another look at the bike, and then we could allow them onto the grid.”
For us race fans this seems to be a break in the ongoing saga about FB Corse, which has spanned 6 months and been the subject of much speculation, both about the team making it to the grid, and who would be riding the bike. With FB Corse’s Moto2 team now MIA, and FB Corse’s MotoGP hopes at the very best put on hold, the future seems shaky for this Italian team. But as always, time will tell.
Source: GPone via MotoMatters
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