Eleven days after the members of the Suzuki’s MotoGP team were informed and the news leaked out, on the Monday after Jerez, Suzuki have finally issued a press release confirming the news.
Suzuki have decided to withdraw from MotoGP at the end of the 2022 season.
Dorna have officially responded to the reports that Suzuki will be withdrawing from MotoGP at the end of the 2022 season.
Dorna have pointed out that Suzuki signed a five-year contract to race in MotoGP from 2022 through 2026, and that they do not have the right to unilaterally terminate the contract.
The Repsol Honda Team have issued a press release on the condition of Marc Marquez.
According to the press release, Marquez is “progressing adequately” in his recovery from the bout of diplopia, or double vision, suffered as a result of a training crash at the end of October.
Razlan Razali, Team Principal of the Petronas Sepang Racing Team until December 31st, and after that, team boss of the new RNF Racing Team which takes its place, has been forced to issue an apology to the Malaysian petroleum giant Petronas.
WorldSBK legend Troy Bayliss has fractured his neck in an accident on a bicycle. The Australian, always a keen cyclist, fractured his C4 vertebra when he crashed into another bicycle while out riding.
In a press release issued by Ducati, with whom Bayliss retains a close relationship, Bayliss announced he had suffered some nerve damage as well as fracturing the bone(link is external), that has left him with limited motion.
In a surprise move, reigning WorldSSP champion Randy Krummenacher has announced that he is splitting with the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team with immediate effect.
The Swiss rider gave only vague reasons for the split. In a press release, he blamed “serious breaches on the part of the company that compromise both the rider’s performance as well as his professionalism, reputation, and personal integrity.”
Things are going poorly for Romano Fenati. His actions during Sunday’s Moto2 race at Misano, when he reached over and squeezed Stefano Manzi’s front brake, are having far-reaching repercussions.
On Sunday, the FIM Panel of Stewards penalized Fenati with a two-race ban. On Monday morning, he was sacked from his current Moto2 ride by the Marinelli Snipers Racing Team. On Monday afternoon, he also lost his 2019 ride with the MV Agusta Forward Racing Team.
More was to come on Tuesday. First, the Italian motorcycle federation FMI revoked Fenati’s racing license for all sporting activities in Italy. This also renders him ineligible to compete in any international or world championship events, as international racing licenses are also issued by the national federation, which in Fenati’s case is the FMI. He has been invited to a hearing on September 14th, at which he will have the right to representation by a lawyer.
Then, the FIM, the international motorcycling federation, summoned Fenati to the FIM headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to explain his actions. In a press release, shown at the bottom of this story, FIM President Vito Ippolito summoned Fenati to the FIM to hear his side of the story, before considering further action against the Italian.
Responding to the backlash in the media from this weekend’s Argentina GP round, Dorna CEO and MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta issued a statement via the MotoGP.com website, where he backed the decisions made by the MotoGP Race Direction officials.
Notably though, Ezpeleta’s statement focuses mostly on the decisions made during the starting procedure of the MotoGP race at the Argentinean round, and not the on-track action, which also gained the scrutiny of Race Direction.
Interesting too, Ezpeleta pleads the case for Dorna, noting how the media right holder for MotoGP is not involved in picking the FIM Stewards (that is the job of the FIM and IRTA), thus trying to absolve the Spanish firm from any controversial decisions, and the appearance of bias.
If you haven’t heard of the Trump administration’s plan to impose sizable tariffs on steel and aluminum (25% and 10%, respectively), then you have done a remarkably good job of ignoring current political events.
Trump’s plan caught many by surprise, and the details of the tariffs are still forming, but one thing is clear: it doesn’t bode well for Harley-Davidson.
Like most manufacturers, an increase on raw steel and aluminum will mean an increase in costs, but Harley-Davidson also has the dubious honor of being part of the European Union’s focus for retaliation.
This is because the EU says it will tax motorcycle imports from the United States, in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Surprisingly, Harley-Davidson has been quiet about all these maneuvers in the political space…until now, that is.
Just over a week ago, we broke the news that a massive recall was coming to motorcycles equipped with a particular Brembo master cylinder. Since then, we have seen recall notices from Aprilia and Ducati (affecting roughly 10,000 motorcycles in the USA) with more recalls expected from other brands.
Because recalls in the United States typically come from the motorcycle manufacturer and not the part supplier, mum was the word from the folks at Brembo, though there were a number of questions regarding these recalls that weren’t answered in the NHTSA documents.
Today, Brembo has finally decided to speak about the recalls that are underway in the United States, and presumably will be occurring in other markets as well.
Though not discussing the cause of the issue, or any particulars, from Brembo’s terse statement we at least now know what other brands have been affected by this master cylinder recall. You can read Brembo’s statement, after the jump.
The Movistar Yamaha team has updated us on Valentino Rossi’s condition, as the MotoGP underwent surgery on his right leg earlier today.
Rossi was first examined at the Ospedale Civile di Urbino, where he was initially diagnosed, then he was transferred to the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Ospedali Riuniti in Ancona, where the surgery was performed.
The team reports that the operation was a success, and that the doctors implanted metal pins (locking intramedullary nails, to be precise) into Rossi’s leg to hold the bones together.