Loris Capirossi is one of Dorna’s safety advisors (along with Franco Uncini) and the former MotoGP rider has tipped Dani Pedrosa to be one of the 2013 title contendors with Jorge Lorenzo - which is not exactly a difficult prediction considering the level of the two riders and with Casey Stoner now retired.

In an interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport, Capirossi said “If Pedrosa starts with the same determination with which he ended the season he’ll be the number one contender for the title, along with Lorenzo, of course. ”

Pedrosa started the 2012 season very carefully, but he like Stoner, suffered from chatter due to the weight increase and the new Bridgestone tires which did not agree with the RC213V and according to an interview with Shuhei Nakamoto with Bikesportnews.com, the Spaniard was forced to change his riding style to compensate for the weight transfer during acceleration and that compromised his title chances.

Regarding Valentino Rossi’s chances of taking home the championship title now that he is back with Yamaha, Capirex said, “Valentino is a friend of mine and I think he will be competitive on a winning bike. At Valencia I had the opportunity to do a few laps with the Yamaha for which I’d like to thank them, and I realized how competitive it is. Vale will regain his enthusiasm, even if beating Jorge and Dani will be very difficult but I believe he can win races, but regarding the title I just don’t know but if he should succeed we should all bow down. “

Regarding Ducati, Capirossi doesn’t make any predications except to wish luck to Andrea Dovizioso who is stepping down from a Honda and Yamaha onto a bike that “at the moment is inferior” and also wishes luck to Andrea Iannone who will have to grow.

It took the Monza Rally Show and the Mastershow (dedicated to the late Marco Simoncelli) and a switch to four wheels for Valentino Rossi to finally score a pair of wins this season. This was the Italian’s third win at the show after winning the 2006 and 2007 editions together with Carlo Cassina.

Rossi’s rival this year was multiple Le Mans winner Rinaldo ‘Dindo’ Capello and his co-driver Luigi Pirollo. The two divided the top spots in the nine stages, Rossi taking 5 and Capello 4, but the MotoGP rider won in the end with a margin of 2.8 seconds.

Pierino Longhi and Luca Cassola took the third spot on the podium, while Andrea Dovizioso ended up fifth with his Citroen DS3 after losing the last stage. The Brivio brothers Davide and Roberto, closed out the three day event in 9th ahead of reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo - who was tenth in his rally debut (he usually does car endurance races).

Loris Capirossi finished in 34th and 9th in his class while Simone Corsi and Claudio Corti had to retire after the second day.

Bridgestone celebrated its 100th victory in MotoGP during the Misano GP and have released this special video to mark the event. You’ll get to see interviews a with current MotoGP stars like Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Ben Spies, Andrea Dovizioso and former stars like Loris Capirossi, Makoto Tamada, Troy Bayliss and Chris Vermeulen all talk about their most memorable race using these tires and the video also includes some great race footage.

Bridgestone became MotoGP’s sole tire supplier in 2009 after two top riders decided to jump ship at the end of 2007 when Casey Stoner dominated the championship on the B-tires with ten victories and two other wins went to Bridgestone shod riders, Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi (Valentino Rossi at the start of 2008 and Dani Pedrosa after the 2008 Misano GP which resulted in split garages with their team mates) and during the 2008 Czech GP the riders voted en masse to introduce a single tire manufacturer, and Michelin who had been the other manufacturer in the series decided to not to submit a proposal to FIM’s and Dorna’s tender.

Everyone was expecting the 2013 MotoGP provisional calendar to be officially released during last week’s Misano GP, but the days went by with no calendar even being seen, instead Loris Capirossi leaked it this evening on Twitter

The calendar indicates nineteen races instead of the usual eighteen, but two venues have yet to be confirmed, and they should be the Austin GP and the Argentina GP. The Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in currently in talks with Dorna - but there is still the whole lawsuit with Kevin Schwantz that still has to be settled. The South American race also is hold as it seems that the work at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit is going slowly and there is still the big and sticky question of Repsol YPF assets being nationalized by the Argentinean government last spring.

The Portughese GP at Estoril is off the calendar, while the very popular Jerez de la Frontera is still subject to contract, but the last we heard they were still negotiating a mult-year contract and trying to get the sanctioning fees lowered (Spain is in a big recession). The Mugello GP has been moved to the beginning of June to try to make up for this year’s poor attendence (which was probably more due to the high ticket prices - Italy is also in recession and has a spiraling unemployment rate), while Silverstone has been pushed from June to September 1st.

There are the usual three intense back-to-back flyaway races, only the order has been changed, first Sepang, then Phillip Island and the last will be Motegi. The 2013 season starts with the night race in Qatar on March 31st and ends with the Valencia GP, November 10th.

Loris Capirossi rode the first Ducati factory bike in 2003 when the Italian manufacturer decided to go racing in MotoGP until the end of 2007 and then did another stint in 2011 with Pramac Ducati before retiring and currently is Bridgestone’s Safety Advisor to Dorna Sports and was just appointed ‘BMW M MotoGP Expert.

Six year’s riding Ducati’s, probably makes Capirossi the ultimate expert on the inner working’s of the company and how they think and react, but he is also Valentino Rossi’s friend and the two formed and worked closely together in the rider’s Safety Commission.

Following Valentino Rossi’s controversial post-race interview in Qatar, that is still filling up pages and pages of Italian sports magazines and newspapers with talk of divorce and how to solve the thorny problem of sponsors, and when Audi buys Ducati what will they do with Rossi or if Rossi will retire or if he’ll form his own team with opinions from former Italian racers like Giacomo Agostini and Gianni Rolando on GPone and from Mario Lega on motorionline.com who criticizes the former World Champion’s vast ego that got him into Ducati in the first place.

Dr.Costa offered his opinion the other day and now so has Capirex, who knows Ducati and Rossi slightly better than most of the people currently talking and seems to be the only one who understands what his former rival/friend is going through.

Continue reading: Loris Capirossi defends Valentino Rossi

According to Italian weekly MotoSprint Loris Capirossi’s new advisory job with Dorna will not only be regarding safety, rules and regulations but he’ll also liaison with the new CRT teams.

This is the provisional CRT list with Team Laglisse having yet to announce their rider.

Forward Racing Team: Colin Edwards (Suter / BMW)
Gresini Racing Team: Michele Pirro (FTR/Honda)
SpeedMaster Team: Anthony West (chassis to be announced / Aprilia)
BQR Team: Ivan Silva and Yonny Hernández (FTR/Kawasaki )
PBM Racing Team: James Ellison (to be announced/Aprilia) - but Ellison has revealed it will be an Aprilia chassis
IODA Racing: Danilo Petrucci (frame and engine to be announced ) - probably all Aprilia
Aspar Team: Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargaró (chassis to be announced/Aprilia) probably all Aprilia
Team Laglisse: rider to be confirmed (Suter/BMW)

Many expect that when all ten CRT bikes are on the grid with the faster MotoGP bikes, it will be a three tier championship: factory, satellite and the much slower CRTs, but Capirossi says to have patience as MotoGP will “evolve over the next two years and it will be very different and very beautiful.”

This was the last helmet design that Loris Capirossi wore during this year’s Valencia GP and it was a special and final tribute to his 22-year long career in Grand Prix racing.

Suomy has decided to honour the former three time World Champion with this limited and numbered ‘Grazie Loris’ edition designed by Starline. The Apex model will be produced in numbers from 0001 to 1000 and will be sold at a price of 400 euros.

When Loris Capirossi announced at Misano he would be retiring from MotoGP racing we more or less knew that the former two time 125cc and one time 250cc World Champion would stay close to the GP world in some capacity and we’re betting that he would become a safety delegate (he and Valentino Rossi founded the Riders Safety Commission in 2003 after Kato’s death) and help Franco Uncini.

Dorna Sports has instead given the former rider a much vaster advisory role on matters relating to safety, the new regulations, the competition in general and the homologation of new tracks (he has already visited and given his opinion on the Imola and Abu Dhabi circuits) .

Twenty two years is a very long career in the GP championship series, so Dorna to honour Capirossi ‘outstanding contribution to the sport’ has requested that the FIM retire his #65 from racing.

Tomorrow at Valencia Loris Capirossi will be starting from 12th from the grid and it be his 328th race start and the last of his 22-year old racing career.

The 38-year old Italian will be retiring on a bittersweet note, but with three world titles (two in 125cc and one in 250cc), 29 victories, 99 podiums and 41 pole positions, he can be more than satisfied.

Capirex will be wearing these white and black leathers highlighted by the colours of the rainbow with touches of gold and debut a special edition helmet design that tributes all the rides he has had in his long career from the Ducati Desmosedici, to the Aprilia 250, the 500, 250 e 125 Honda’s and Suzuki.

With Loris Capirossi out of this weekend’s Japanese GP due to the shoulder injury that he picked up at Aragon, Pramac Ducati has decided to replace him with Damian Cudlin.

The 29-year-old Australian’s only experience on a MotoGP bike has been limited to testing the BMW/Suter CRT bike and he’s never raced at the Twin Ring.

“I’ve dreamed about starting in MotoGP since I was a boy, and until now it’s been just that- a dream. Now it’s become a reality and to be honest, I’m still in shock!mI’m under no illusions about how difficult this race will be. I’ve never ridden a real MotoGP bike before and I’ve never been to Motegi either, so realistically my expectations can’t be too high. I just want to do the best job I can, enjoy the experience, and just see what happens. I’ve really got nothing to lose, so why not? I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve this. I still can’t believe I’ll be replacing Loris Capirossi - I had posters of him on my wall as a kid!”

“I just want to thank Sito Pons for recommending me, the Pramac Racing Team for giving me a chance, and also my current BMW Team for allowing me to use this opportunity. I hope I can make everyone proud that they took a chance with a guy like me.”

Cudlin was previously a World Endurance racer and in 2010 was the IDM German Supersport Champion, and last year also took part in the Moto2 GP race at Sachsenring, filling in for injured Axle Pons, were he finished an excellent 7th.

Capirossi is expected to return for the final three rounds, before his retirement from racing at the end of the season.