Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta...
Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta is pushing forward his CRT vision of the future onto the factories, and he hopes they join the movement.
MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO, ITALY, JAN 11 – The three years from 2011 through 2013 may turn out to be the most tumultuous in the history of the Road Racing World Championships.
The 2011 season saw a depleted grid, made even smaller far too often by injuries caused by tires that didn’t warm up properly. CRT motorcycles are making their debut this year, and making up a significant part of the grid. And in 2013, the CRT concept—low cost racing at the premier level—will be the predominant theme, if Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta can come to terms with the major players.
The change is being driven by money, plain and simple. Just three factories remain in racing and they’re only producing 12 motorcycles in 2012. The other nine of 21 bikes on the MotoGP grid will be CRT machines and riders of vastly varying quality. Colin Edwards on the Forward Racing BMW/Suter will be expected to lead the “second” race. Yonni Hernandez on the BQR FTR/Kawasaki may end up incurring the wrath of Stoner if he gets in his way on a hot qualifying lap.
Europe’s financial problems are affecting markets worldwide, while the U.S. continues to grow, however anemically. Motorcycle sales of the Japanese manufacturers continue to be depressed. Part of their response is to limit the introduction of new models, which only compounds the problem. Ducati has taken the opposite tack. They’ve introduced top of the line motorcycles for three years running, the Multistrada, Diavel, and Panigale, and they’re looking at record sales. The U.S., for the first time ever, is Ducati’s biggest market, with a healthy increase in sales year-to-year from 2010 to 2011. And the Panigale, which will be out in the spring, will likely continue that trend.
" If Ezpeleta gets his way, the rules going forward will be created to slow down the factory bikes and speed up the CRT bikes, while limiting costs.
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Ezpeleta wants to see the...
Ezpeleta wants to see the factories build CRT-style bikes that can be sold (not leased) to private teams for no more than €1 million Euros.
Ducati continues to enjoy sponsorship from Marlboro, the last link to the tobacco boom that fueled racing for decades before being mostly outlawed in 2006. Honda has a long and fruitful partnership with Repsol, both financial and technical, and Yamaha may have a new sponsor in ENEOS, a Japanese oil company. Some of the satellite teams are well-presented. Monster Energy fuels the Monster Yamaha Tech 3. San Carlo, an Italian snacks company, backs the Gresini team. And Jorge “Aspar” Martinez never seems to be lacking for sponsorship. LCR Honda has a system of using different branding in different markets, with Playboy a major backer.
But it’s the smaller teams and the cost of racing that Ezpeleta wants to address. If Ezpeleta gets his way, the rules going forward will be created to slow down the factory bikes and speed up the CRT bikes, while limiting costs. The factories may not be happy, regardless of their public stances. After all, they just spent a few years and untold millions developing 1000cc MotoGP machines that may start to be obsolete after one year. The satellite teams will be much happier. Ezpeleta’s hope is that the factories can build CRT bikes in quantity to sell for €1 million, which he doesn’t want to see creep up.
“For the future, when I say the future it’s 2013, it’s important to say that you need to solve definitively,” Ezpeleta said during a media gathering at Wrooom 2012, the ski party/team intro for Ducati and Ferrari in the Italian Dolomites. “We have two kind of problems; one is the difference between CRT and, let’s call, factory bikes and, two, the performance and the cost of the factory bikes. Both are the problems. Just if we want to solve the problem definitely everybody is CRT and the problem is solved, but this does not cover the interest of the manufacturers who has developed one engine and one bike to do that.
“I think (we have to) at least stop the performance and these engines and these bikes for the future and then trying to reduce the gap between them and CRT for the measures of CRT. Always factory bikes, with CRT or no CRT or whatever, will be different. Also I was proposing that we can have around…a reasonable cost for us for a bike to participate in a private team in MotoGP is around €1 million.”
That would be to purchase. “For me, leasing could be forbidden, but it’s another idea we could have,” he said. “We propose to them a very big chart of ideas and they need to choose. What will be not acceptable for us is no, no, no, we continue as it is. Because if they say that, then the FIM and us we’ll impose on them our details.”
Ezpeleta sees it as a two-track proposal, speeding up the CRT machines and limiting the prototypes, and everything’s on the table from spec ECUs to rev limitations to weight penalties, none of which go over well with the factories.
“Another idea that’s coming is (restricting) the engine,” he said. “Maybe saying, ‘OK, the engine, once it’s competitive it’s impossible to change’ or whatever. I tell you, we’re completely flexible in what we do.” Where they’re inflexible is the status quo. With all the changes, he knows it won’t level the playing field overnight. “We are not saying with one bike and €1million you can (beat) the factory bikes. We have to have this more close.”
Of more immediate concern are the control Bridgestone tires. The difference in power and rider talent between the CRT and prototype fields merits different tires, Ezpeleta believes, and he’s already put it to Bridgestone through Loris Capirossi, the recently retired racer who’s now working for Dorna.
“What we are saying is that Bridgestone is making the tires for MotoGP; in our opinion, this is very difficult,” Ezpeleta said. “Or they have a tire who is useful for both or they need to make two kinds of tires, one is for CRT. One for all the CRT and one for all the factory bikes. That means one factory guy can’t say ‘I want to use the CRT’ or the opposite. Or they are able to make one tire for everybody, which in my opinion is very difficult. Or they need to have two different things of that. We are discussing that. Yesterday I had a meeting with Loris Capirossi. Loris is working for us right now and he will be very helpful in this matter. And then I will attend to the first Malaysian test also to discuss with Bridgestone about that.”