The difference between a handshake an an officially signed contract is just under four weeks, it seems. Late on Sunday night after the race at Misano, the Marc VDS Racing team put a message on Twitter announcing they would be moving up to MotoGP for the next two years, racing a factory-backed Honda RC213V with Scott Redding aboard.
Honda, however, was far from pleased with the team’s adoption of 21st Century technology to communicate with fans and media, and the Tweet was quickly taken down.
Though agreement had been reached at Misano on all of the details – a three-year deal to lease a factory-spec Honda RC213V, and putting Scott Redding on the bike for the 2015 and 2016 seasons – HRC deemed that the deal was not yet ready to be announced. Though the contract was public knowledge, the team went silent on the deal.
Until now. Today, the Marc VDS Racing team finally officially confirmed what we have known for nearly a month. The team will be competing in MotoGP in 2015, with Scott Redding aboard a factory-spec RC213V.
The deal will see Redding on the bike for the 2015 and 2016 season, with the team having a bike at its disposal for a third season. The deal means that Redding is now free to abandon the Showa forks and Nissin brakes in favor of the Ohlins/Brembo combination favored by paddock groupthink.
But it also poses the team with a minor problem, as they will have to assemble a team around Redding. His former crew chief, Pete Benson, is set to stay in Moto2 with Tito Rabat, the team unwilling to break up a combination which has proven to be capable of winning races and a championship.
The obvious candidate to take the place as Redding’s crew chief would be Naoya Kaneko, current crew chief to the departing Mika Kallio. Kaneko has MotoGP experience, having worked for Kawasaki during their period in MotoGP.
The move to MotoGP comes as an addition to, rather than a replacement for their Moto2 team. Tito Rabat will contest the Moto2 championship for the team again next season, and he will be joined by Alex Marquez, who is leaving Moto3 to race in the intermediate class.
The Moto3 structure is to be dissolved, with the staff most likely redistributed among the Moto2 and MotoGP projects of the team.
Source: Marc VDS Racing
This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.
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