In these past few years we’ve heard that satellite teams in MotoGP are struggling to make ends meet and with the global economic woes we’ve seen a team like Kawasaki pull out of MotoGP, Scot Racing dump Yuki Takahashi with absolutely no qualms for sponsor rich Gabor Talmacsi and last and probably not least, Sete Gibernau’s team Grupo Francisco Hernando drop out of MotoGP in the middle of the season.

So in the middle of all these difficulties what has HRC decided to do for the 2010? Up its prices, naturally.

Honda has decided to raise its leasing costs for all the satellite teams and advised their clients during last week’s Sachsenring round. They’re talking about € 200,000 more than last year and that will take the cost of leasing two bikes and spares from Honda to a cool € 2.000.000, and that is a lot of cash for team managers like Fausto Gresini, Lucio Cecchinello and Cirano Mularoni. Many private teams get some monetary help from Dorna, but for the rest they have scrape by searching for as many sponsors as they can.

You have to wonder if Honda’s move is wise in these troubled times, and if a customer RCV is really worth € 2.000.000, when it has 800 rpm less than the official bike and especially when you have to give it back to Honda at the end of the season to be destroyed under a hydraulic press.

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