All posts tagged carmelo ezpeleta
Valentino Rossi in Ducati to cause Dorna to sell MotoGP?
Is there no end to the effect that the Valentino Rossi-Ducati partnership will have on the world of the MotoGP? In rumours coming from London, it is said that Dorna could sell the MotoGP championship as it looks to cash in on the Rossi-Ducati partnership in the twilight years of the biggest drawing card the championship has ever seen - the career of the champion Italian rider.
The rumours state that Dorna, owned by Bridgepoint financier group, could look to sell the MotoGP series in the first half of next year after a four-year ownership of the sport. It originally acquired the MotoGP from CVC group for a sum reportedly around 450 million euros. The CVC group now owns the Formula 1 racing series.
In some ways, while the news seems almost unbelievable, if there were to be any sale it would make sense for it to happen in the near future: after the introduction of the Moto2 and Moto3 classes and the move to 1000cc engines from 2012. Incredibly though, one of the main reasons cited for the possible sale is that Dorna could profit handsomely from the new Rossi-Ducati team by selling now, making a healthy sale and whoever the new owners might be will be left with a couple of years of Rossi still on the grid, before the sport comes to a slight halt (if the tone of the reports is to be credited).
Continue reading: Valentino Rossi in Ducati to cause Dorna to sell MotoGP?
Dorna thinking of changing Australian GP race date
Dorna is thinking of revising MotoGP’s provisional 2011 calendar regarding the Australian GP which is scheduled for October 16th, the same date as this year, after renewed complaints by the Riders Safety Commission, lead by the outspoken Valentino Rossi.
Speaking to Sportmediset’s pitlane reporter Alberto Porta who interviewed Carmelo Ezpeleta reported that he’s already in talks with the track organizers to try to change the event to an earlier date.
Most the of the riders are convinced that the middle of October date is too late in the calendar considering the cold and unpredicatable weather conditions that hits the Island in Spring and would prefer an Australian summer race.
Changing the Australian GP won’t be an easy task, because the season opener contractually has to be the night race at Losail (March 20th in 2011) and even if they try to move it up earlier in the calendar, the riders will still find a cold and damp track unless they schedule an earlier start time, which the riders have already asked after this year’s numerous crashes, but this would wreck havoc with the prime time TV schedule in Europe. Another problem is not having the GP calendar clash with Formula 1, which as everyone knows has precedence on any other type of racing.
Source | mcn.com
Alstare Suzuki with one bike in WSBK
Suzuki has got its problems right now both in MotoGP and the WSBK series, although the Alstare team has moved to try and keep things afloat in the WSBK. The Alstare Suzuki team will drop to one bike with Leon Haslam gone to BMW apparently due to a lack of factory support. The team will continue in WSBK but no rider has been announced yet for the coming season and no real investment terms in the team have been revealed either.
Alstare’s woes in the WSBK are in stark contrast to what was an exciting and competitive season for the team with Leon Haslam coming close to stealing the championship away from Max Biaggi. Haslam will now go to BMW and work with Troy Corser on making the S1000RR great. The move to field just one bike proves that Suzuki is having financial problems and that racing is not a priority at the moment.
This is reinforced by a looming possible pull-out from the MotoGP at the end of the 2011 season when team contracts expire. According to reports Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta is basically in crisis talks with Suzuki over its MotoGP participation for the coming year as Rizla Suzuki possibly considers a one-bike format. Suzuki can’t pull its team at the moment and doing so would cost just as much as continuing due to likely fines from Dorna, so we will still see the team on the grid next year. But the possibility at the moment is that it’s just a matter of time….
125cc to become Moto3 in 2012?
Matthew Birt of MCN ha revealed that the 125cc format may be on it’s way to extinction and the final species will probably exhale their last exhaust breathe at the end of the 2011 season.
The new series to be named Moto3 (what else could we expect after Moto2 and the 2012 1000cc series called Moto1) is now being discussed by Dorna and the FIM and it should be based on a 25occ four stroke single cylinder motor to replace the current 125cc two strokes. The bikes would be pure prototypes and would not have a single spec engine (powered by Honda) and a single clutch manufacturer (Suter) as in Moto 2.
As usual Honda has already had a head start on manufacturing a 250cc four-stroke single motor and have fitted it into a RS125 chassis and has tested it on the Motegi track where, according to rumours, is running 1.5 seconds faster than the current two stroke 125 GP bike.
Carmelo Ezpeleta has been talking about changing the feeder class ever since they brainstormed Moto2, but now several 125 teams want to make the jump to Moto2 where they would have more exposure and relatively lower costs and a cheaper 250cc four stroke championship could keep them from making the move to an all ready overcrowded and not so cheap as it seemed Moto2.
Source | asphaltandrubber.com
MotoGP Qatar: Dorna thinking of Rescheduling MotoGP Start
During last month’s two day official tests in Qatar several riders fell at turn 2, with most riders putting the blame squarely on the night humidity and moisture coming through the track surface. These incidents were taken into consideration by the Riders Safety Commission, with senior members Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi asking that the race scheduled for 11pm (Qatar time) be moved earlier up to avoid compromising rider safety.
Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta listened to the complaints saying they would discuss the possibility of moving the race earlier in evening and there would be no problems for TV stations in broadcasting the races in another time slot.
Carmelo Ezpeleta:
“I’ve heard from the riders, and we’ve decided to look at the situation once in Qatar. These four weeks may have changed the weather situation at Losail and got rid of the problem. We’ll see whether it’s too damp at the scheduled time or if it’s possible to run safely. I’ve made a round of phone calls to hear from the TVs and there shouldn’t be too much of a problem in case of a reschedule.”
In case that the MotoGP race should be rescheduled, the new Moto2 class would run first, followed by MotoGP and the sacrificial lamb would be the 125cc race that would be slotted at 11pm (Qatar time) as the 125’s are slower and the riders are at a lower risk of hurting themselves.
Source | gazzetta.it
Valentino Rossi wants Qatar GP night ride changed
We already know that Valentino Rossi is not necessarily a fan of riding at night, and again he has made his opinion known about the nighttime Qatar MotoGP. According to Rossi, the humidity on the track makes tyre selection difficult, which can create dangerous conditions for riders who find themselves on the ground before they know it.
In fact, testing would prove his point, with Stoner, Hayden, Simoncelli, Melandri, Spies, Edwards, Kallio and Espargaro all crashing on the same corner, although testing times were fast. Rossi has described the night riding as “getting on his nerves”.
Perhaps because he can, Rossi is going to the top with his request to put forward the race time, saying that he will speak directly with Carmelo Ezpeleta. And it appears he isn’t interested in having an army of other riders with him, saying “television is important, but rider safety is what matters most”. Having come second in testing, we can only say that this is not just sour grapes.
Source | Motosblog.fr
MotoGP: It's Official, Hungarian GP Out, Aragon GP In
Carmelo Ezpeleta will have to open his wallet and buy dinner for the entire MotoGP Safety Commission. Dorna’s CEO lost his bet with Loris Capirossi. The FIM has just announced that the Hungarian Grand Prix at Balatonring has been cancelled.
The Grand Prix of Hungary, scheduled on September 19, is cancelled - the construction work cannot be finished on time - and will be replaced by the Grand Prix of Aragon at the reserve circuit of Motorland Aragon on the same date.
The construction work was depending on a massive loan by Hungarian state owned bank Magyar Fejlesztési Bank, who was expected to underwrite 70% of the construction costs while receiving 30% stakes in return, but the bank baulked refusing to underwrite the loan because due diligence risks showed that no one had calculated a return on the investment and there were also reports of corruption.
Source | motomatters.com
MotoGP - Balatonring Circuit to be completed
The Hungarian GP that was cancelled in 2009 due to funding problems by track owners (30% controlled by the Hungarian Tourism board, 70 % Worldwide Circuit Management S.L) to continue construction of the 4.650 km racing circuit, has received a much needed loan by the Magyar Fejlesztési Bank.
With this cash injection the Sedesa Group will be able to complete the 90 million euro racing venue located near Savoly, 180 kilometres from Budapest near the Lake Balaton holiday area in time for the scheduled September 19th races. Balatonring has a five year contract to host Gran Prix racing.
In June, the Gran Prix Commission, FIM and IRTA will visit Balatonring to officially homologate circuit and if for some reason or other it has not been completed, the GP will not be cancelled but will be held in Spain’s new Motorland Aragon Circuit.
However if the track should be completed on time, veteran racer Loris Capirossi will loose his bet with Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta and have to buy dinner for all the members of the Safety Commission.
Source | bikeracing
MotoGP: Back to 1000cc in 2012
FIM President Vito Ippolito and Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta finally confirmed after several months of speculation and discussions that MotoGP will run a 1000cc engine capacity from 2012.
MotoGP will go back to 1,000cc four-stroke engines, but with a maximum of four cylinders and a maximum cylinder bore measurement of 81 mm.
“At the beginning of next year we will produce the new rules in a more complete format but that is the basis; 2012 will be the year of a new era of MotoGP.” said FIM president Vito Ippolito.
“It was a very important meeting to decide the future of the MotoGP class. From 2012 the bikes will have an engine capacity of up to 1000cc, have up to four cylinders and the maximum bore will be 81mm. It’s a very important measurement because with this we can have all the characteristics of the engine. This has been approved and between now and the start of the 2010 season we will have another two meetings to define the rest of the specifications for this new class.” stated Carmelo Ezpeleta.
You can read the official document here and you can see that most of the rules regard Moto2, but the current MotoGP class has had some rules tweaked, including a weight increase for the bikes from 148kg to 150kg, and tires for the entire weekend will be reduced from 20 to 18.
After complaints by the manufacturers regarding the 10 point penalty on the constructors standings for infringing the engine durability rule (in 2010, 6 engines for 18 races) has been changed again with the brunt falling on the riders, who instead of starting at the back of the grid will now have to start from the pitlane 20 seconds after the start of the race or if an extra engine is used during the race the riders will get a ride through penalty.
MotoGP to go back to 1000cc?
When Valentino Rossi said: “I believe that the 800s are the greatest error of the World Championship in the last 15 years. A lot of the spectacle of riding has been lost because on them the electronics have advanced so much”” and “for me the manufacturers committed a great error in coming from 990 to 800cc.” almost everyone who has been following MotoGP in the last years could only nod their heads in complete agreement.
The 800’s are unpopular not only with fans, but with riders too. The displacement change from 990cc to 800cc, that was originally proposed to limit horsepower and reduce top speeds (it didn’t work) forced all the manufacturers to redesign a new bike costing millions of dollars in R&D, now with the world trying to climb out of the economic crisis and manufacturers reeling from their losses, Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has come out again with the idea of going back to the 1000cc.
As the rules enforcing the 800 class end at the 2011 season, we could see the 1000’s back in 2012, only if there were to be an unanimous agreement among the manufacturers, but at least they’re going to be talking about it this weekend at Valencia and that is at least a step in the right direction.
Source | rtve.es via motociclismo.es
MotoGP - Bets are on for Balatonring
The MotoGP riders who are part of the Safety Commission met up with Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta on Friday before the Sepang GP and one of the topics discussed was the Balatonring circuit.
Loris Capirossi, who is one of the founding members of the Riders Safety Commission, specifically asked Ezpeleta whether the Hungarian venue will be ready in time for next year’s MotoGP race scheduled for September 19th 2010.
Capirossi is convinced that the track will not be ready on time and that the race will be cancelled as it happened this year, while Ezpeleta stated he is sure that they’ll be racing in Hungary next year.
Management and rider are betting on it, if Capirossi is right Ezpeleta will have to buy dinner for all of the members of the Safety Commission if not, the Italian rider will have to.
Several representatives of Balatonring circuit were in Malaysia and it seems that the track is almost completely asphalted while work on the other structures is believed to begin this winter, weather, economic crisis and funding permitting.
MotoGP - Carmelo Ezpeleta Wanted Poster
The fellows over at GPone have sharp eyes, they caught this Wanted poster hanging in the Sachsenring paddock.
It’s Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, who is now going to have some 2 stroke motorcycle manufacturer bounty hunter on his trail looking for the $ 1,000,000 reward.
The caption reads “wanted for crimes against the 250 cc bikes. He is a 2-stroke killer. Outlaw is know to be extremely dangerous and should be approached with caution”.
If Ezpeleta’s and Vito Ippolito’s Moto 1 idea also goes through in 2012, that reward is going to increase a hundredfold and it will probably be Infront Sports and the Flamini Brothers offering it.
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