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The MotoGP Silly Season Logjam: Dovizioso & Rossi

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While the motorcycle racing world awaits the return of real racing, contract time is heaving into view. Though the methods are different – Skype calls and WhatsApp messages, rather than private conversations at the backs of garages or between trucks – the objective is the same: to find the best match of bike and rider, giving the most hope of success.

Having to work remotely is the least of both managers’ and teams’ problems. The bigger issue is that there is next to no data to go on. Teams and factories are having to make a guess at who they think will be strong in 2021 based on who was fast in 2019, and who showed promise in the winter tests.

Riders have no idea which bikes have made progress over the winter, and which have stagnated. Is it worth taking a gamble on KTM? Has the Honda gotten any easier to ride?

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Jorge Lorenzo Will Race in MotoGP as a Wildcard in Catalunya

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MotoGP fans who were missing their doses of Lorenzo Land should be happy with this latest announcement from the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team, as Jorge Lorenzo has been confirmed to race at the Catalan GP.

The Spanish test rider for the Yamaha MotoGP squad will be a wildcard entry for the Catalunya race, an idea that was first floated when Lorenzo signed with the factory outfit last year, thus not making this too big of a surprise.

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MotoGP

Sepang MotoGP Test Preview: What Matters Most to Each Factory

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The start of the 2020 MotoGP season is now just a matter of hours away. The entire MotoGP grid will soon be rolling out at Sepang for the start of the first MotoGP of the year. Notably, it is the entire grid: unlike previous years, nobody has fallen of a motocross bike, minibike, or even a mountain bike and hurt themselves.

There is plenty to get excited about. We will soon be able to get a sense of the work done by the various factories over the winter, who looks like hitting their goals, who has found something extra, who is lagging behind.

We will see which of the rookies is off to a strong start, how last year’s crop of rookies is progressing, which of the veterans has made a step, either forward or backward, and which of the crop of title candidates is looking sharpest.

Yet a note of caution is advised. By Sunday night, we will have a timesheet showing who was fastest over the three days, and we will have a complete list of every lap posted by each rider (helpfully published by Dorna on the official MotoGP website, unhelpfully, in a format which is not easily extracted for analysis).

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Paddock Pass Podcast #127 – Yamaha MotoGP Special

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Episode 127 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one covers this weeks’ whirlwind round of news from the Yamaha MotoGP team and its rider lineup for the 2020 season and beyond.

For these topics, we have Steve English, Neil Morrison, and David Emmett on the mics, as the trio discusses the announcements that Yamaha has made, and what the ramifications are for the grand prix paddock.

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Yamaha Signs Jorge Lorenzo as Its MotoGP Test Rider

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Yamaha’s MotoGP program continues to dominate the headlines this week, first by signing Maverick Viñales to an astounding three-year contract, and then by booting Valentino Rossi from the factory team in order to make way for Fabio Quartararo.

Now, the Japanese motorcycle maker is making another big announcement, though this one has been brewing for a bit: Jorge Lorenzo will take on the role as Yamaha’s MotoGP test rider.

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Maverick Viñales Signs with Yamaha Thru 2022, But What Does It Mean for MotoGP Going Forward?

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The first penny has dropped in the long march toward the 2021 MotoGP grid. Yamaha has announced that they have signed Maverick Viñales to a two-year deal, for the 2021 and 2022 season.

The move marks a clear decision, both on the part of Yamaha and the part of Viñales. The Spaniard had offers on the table from two other manufacturers, with Ducati especially keen to sign Viñales for 2021.

But, assurances given to Viñales about his role in developing the Yamaha M1 helped him make his decision. Viñales is to determine the future direction of Yamaha, based on the strength of his performance in the second half of 2020.

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MotoGP

Here Are the MotoGP Off-Season Headlines to Follow for 2020

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The world of MotoGP and WorldSBK has been relatively quiet for the last two weeks, as factories close and teams and riders take time off to celebrate their various holidays.

Very little has happened, with people off around the world, and only now returning to prepare for the 2020 season.

As we wait for the bikes to be back on track, and thus the news flowing again, here are the headlines that are tracking during the off-season.

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MotoGP

The Coming Storm: How MotoGP’s Silly Season Will Play Out

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As the MotoGP field prepares to spend the holiday season at home with friends and family – or in Andrea Iannone’s case, with his lawyers – the impending pressure of MotoGP Silly Season will be pushed to the back of their collective minds.

But with the contracts of the entire MotoGP grid plus the leading Moto2 riders up at the end of the 2020 season, that state of quietude will not last long. Silly Season has been temporarily suspended for holiday season, but it will soon burst forth in a frenzy of speculation, rumor, and signings.

So how will the Silly Season for the 2021 MotoGP grid play out? Given the number of changes likely, it will be a complex jigsaw puzzle indeed, with a few key players at the heart of the process.

And as a confounding factor, teams and factories will want to avoid the current tangle they find themselves in. The era of the entire grid being on two-year contracts is as good as over.

There are a number of reasons for no longer automatically offering two-year deals to everyone on the grid. Neither the team managers nor the rider managers I spoke to over the course of 2019 were thrilled at the prospect of another contract cycle like we have seen for the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

And the way the year has played out has given them plenty of reasons to avoid the same mistakes for 2021.

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Jonas Folger Is Out of Yamaha’s MotoGP Test Team, So Who Will Take His Place?

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With MotoGP testing becoming ever more restricted for full-time MotoGP riders, the so-called contracted riders, the importance of test teams has grown.

Where in previous seasons most Japanese manufacturers have used Japanese riders based in Japan to push the development of their MotoGP bikes, in recent years, they have all switched to using teams based in Europe with ex-MotoGP riders as test riders.

Suzuki have Sylvain Guintoli, Honda have Stefan Bradl, and Yamaha had Jonas Folger for 2019.

But not for 2020, it seems. In an interview with German-language publication Speedweek, Folger announced that Yamaha has decided not to continue with the German for next season.

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Save the Dates: MotoGP Team Launch Season Is Upon Us

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As we inch closer to the official start of the MotoGP season at Sepang, where the first test of the year is set to be held from February 6th-8th, we enter the season of team and factory launches.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, all of the MotoGP teams and factories will present their 2019 color schemes and riders at a series of events.

Ducati is the first to present its plans, as is the tradition. On Friday, January 18th, the Italian factory will present the MotoGP team of Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci at an event in Neuchatel, Switzerland.

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Wednesday MotoGP Summary at the Valencia Test: New Engines, New Chassis, KTM’s Front End Problems, & A Vintage Rookie Class

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It’s been a difficult test at Valencia. The weather simply hasn’t played ball. Tuesday started wet, took a few hours to dry out, then rain started falling around 3pm, meaning the riders effectively had around two and a half usable hours on track.

Rain on Tuesday evening meant the track was wet on Wednesday morning, and in the chill of a November morning, it took a couple of hours before the track dried out enough for the riders to hit the track.

At least it stayed dry and sunny throughout the day, and the last couple of hours saw the best conditions of the test, times dropping until falling temperatures put paid to any thought of improvement. The teams may have lost time, but at least they had a solid four and a half hours of track time to work.

For half the factories, what they were focusing on was engines. Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki all brought new engines to test, and in the case of Yamaha and Honda, two different specs.

Ducati was mainly working with a new chassis, aimed at making the bike turn better. Aprilia had a new engine and a new frame to try. And as usual, KTM had a mountain of parts and ideas to test.

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