This Friday silly season rumor was too good not to publish, but according to GPone (usually a very reliable site) Ducat is at least pondering closing its World Superbike effort if it means securing Valentino Rossi on a MotoGP ride. It sounds like the work of fiction, but let’s take a minute, and forget the fact that Ducati rests its racing laurels on WSBK victories, and examine this rumor a bit further before we dismiss it.
The Italian press is buzzing about the latest silly season info regarding Valentino Rossi, and where he will be racing next year. According to Corriere dello Sport, Ducati has upped their offer to Rossi to €15 million and has included provisions that would allow the Italian to race later with either Ferrari F1 or Fiat Rally teams once he’s finished with motorcycle racing.
Now…you’d expect Yamaha to up its ante on the nine-time World Champion, right? Not quite. Instead Yamaha has reduced Valentino’s Rossi contract price from the €14 million they current pay him each year to €9 million. More on the reasoning behind that after the jump.
In a somewhat bizzare move, the GP Commission is set to discuss the possibility of bringing 1000cc race bikes to MotoGP a year earlier than previously agreed upon. A proposal set to be put forth on Friday by IRTA President and Tech3 Yamaha boss Herve Poncharal would allow for 1000cc motorcycles to race in MotoGP in 2011 rather than in 2012 as was planned because of the alleged need to fill the grid from its current 17 bike total.
Yamaha has officially announced that factory test rider Wataru Yoshikawa will be replacing Valentino Rossi at the next rounds of the MotoGP series, starting at the Catalan GP in Barcelona. The move comes after much speculation was created about whom would take the place of the Italian GP Champion, after his crash at Mugello. Yoshikawa is a former Japanese SBK Champion (1994 & 1999), and his ridden as a GP wild card numerous times for Yamaha.
After getting another examination in Barcelona by a specialist, Hiroshi Aoyama has been ruled out from racing for at least two months, after the Japanese ride fractured his T12 vertabra. Taking Aoyama’s place will be Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, which will keep MotoGP from fielding only 15 bikes on the Dutch grid this weekend. Akiyoshi will race for Interwetten Honda at Assen, and also at Barcelona for the Catalan GP.
The British GP was the first full GP weekend without The Doctor present to charm the television with his media moxie (did we mention his crash was “worth” $8 million?), and as such we get our first glimpse into what the repercussions are for MotoGP with Rossi out of commission. Checking TV viewership, MotoGP’s stop at Silverstone saw a 20% decline in total viewership when compared to the last two GP’s at Jerez and Le Mans. The result is that advertisers in some markets are asking the local stations that cover MotoGP to readjust there viewership claims and media rates to account for the loss of audience.
Photo: Monster Tech3 Yamaha
One of the special things we’ve been working on here at Asphalt & Rubber is bringing our dear readers better race coverage, especially from MotoGP. As a part of this efforts, we’ll be featuring some of the best shots photographer Scott Jones takes while galavanting around at some of the finest tracks in the world.
He’s got game, he’s got moxy, and once we even saw Scott take a little girl’s ice cream so he could truly capture “disappointment” on film. In essence, he’s the photographer we wish we could be. Check out his photos from the British GP after the jump.
GPweek.com is reporting that Casey Stoner’s mechanics in the Marlboro Ducati garage have been warned “that they may have to seek new employment for next season.” If true, this is a strong indication that Ducati does not expect the Australian GP Champion to return to the Italian team for the 2011 season. While many sources are quick to make the link that this means Rossi is inbound to the Ducati team, we’re still hesitant to subscribe to that faulty logic.
If you haven’t seen today’s British GP at Silverstone, stop reading this article, and go watch your Tivo right now. We can hardly contain ourselves after watching the race, so we’ll keep this intro short. While the race winner is not going to surprise too many GP race fans, it’s the rest of the finishes that had us jumping up and down on our chairs. Spoilers after the jump.
Jorge “Aspar” Martinez has once again been linked with being a part of Aprilia’s alleged entry into MotoGP racing. Reportedly working with Aprilia to develop a 1000cc motor based off the RSV4 Superbike powerplant that’s dominating World Superbike right now, Aspar and Aprilia have denied any intention to go racing together in MotoGP.
For his part, Aspar currently has his hands full racing in all three of the GP series, while Aprilia has voiced that its priority right now is winning in WSBK. The final nail in the coffin for this rumor is its timeframe of a 2011 entry, which barring another rule change from the GP Commission, is still an 800cc rule year.