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MotoGP Freezes Development for 2020 & 2021 Seasons

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With the COVID-19 outbreak wreaking havoc on the 2020 motorcycle racing season and the global economy, the Grand Prix Commission, MotoGP’s rule-making body, has announced a raft of measures aimed at cutting costs.

The most significant change, already widely trailed, is that development of engines and aerodynamics is to be frozen for the rest of this year.

What that means in practice is that all six MotoGP factories  (Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, KTM, Suzuki, and Yamaha) will have to race in 2020 with the engines they submitted for homologation in March of this year.

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Racing

The 5+ Scenarios on When We Will Race Motorcycles Again

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Humans have a deep-seated need for certainty. Though the human experience runs the full gamut from an excess of spontaneity to rigid and unbending routine, a need for some kind of certainty, some handholds to grasp on to as we make our way through the world. Motorcycle racing fans, as humans, are no different.

So it is unsurprising that people – fans, journalists, team managers, mechanics, etc – have responded to every piece of news about the COVID-19 outbreak by making more or less bold predictions about when racing might resume.

The latest news – that Germany has extended its ban on large-scale events until August 31st, meaning that the MotoGP round at the Sachsenring set for June 21st, and the WorldSBK round at Oschersleben, due to take place on the weekend of August 2nd will both have to be either rescheduled or canceled – has been no different.

Everyone seems keen to make bold predictions of exactly what will happen next.

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MotoGP

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

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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Bikes

Yamaha Ténéré 700 Priced at $9,999 for the USA

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The bike we never thought would make it to the United States is getting closer to actually landing on American soil, and today we have even more good news about the Yamaha Ténéré 700.

This is because Yamaha Motor USA has just shared with us pricing for the 2021 Yamaha Ténéré 700, and the Japanese brand has nailed things on the head with their $9,999 MSRP for this middleweight adventure-tourer.

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MotoGP

Crunching the Numbers on the MotoGP Silly Season for 2021

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The current field of MotoGP riders may only be less than a season into the first year of their contracts, but the opening salvos of the 2021 season are already being fired.

That is a direct consequence of almost the entire grid being on two-year deals, which run through the 2020 season. Every seat on the grid will currently be up for grabs in 2021.

And because of that, teams, factories and riders are already starting to explore there options for the next season but one.

This is not something teams are particularly happy about. Team managers will grumble both on and off the record that it is a big gamble choosing riders basically on the basis of their performance two seasons before they are due to ride for you.

Fear of missing out on a top rider forces their hand, however, and so teams are already making preliminary approaches about 2021.

The extreme and unusual situation of every single seat being up for grabs means that Moto2 riders are also delaying their plans.

Most have only signed 1-year deals for 2020, knowing that so many options are opening up in 2021. Remy Gardner even turned down a chance to move up to MotoGP with KTM for 2020, preferring to wait for 2021 and hope for many more options then.

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Bikes

The All New Honda CBR1000RR-R Superbike Finally Debuts

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It has been a long time coming since we have seen a properly new superbike from Honda, but that day has finally come. The all-new 2020 Honda CBR1000RR-R has been talked about a great deal before this year’s EICMA show, and now it is here.

As we predicted, the new Honda CBR1000RR-R earns that extra “R” with a 215hp (160 kW) four-cylinder engine, that makes 83 lbs•ft of peak torque.

Unlike the outgoing model, this is a truly new machine. The twin-spar aluminum “diamond frame” chassis is a fresh design with increased vertical and torsional rigidity, and the total wet weight of the bike tips the scales at 443 lbs (201 kg) .

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Rumors

Oh Hello There! The Aprilia Tuono 660 Caught Testing

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We know that the Aprilia RS 660 will debut as a production bike at EICMA next week, and we know that the Italian brand plans to make a few different machines off its middleweight twin platform.

So, they leaves us making some very obvious guesses about what will come next from Noale, and an Aprilia Tuono 660 is perhaps the most logical of those thought processes.

Confirming that suspicion, it seems that Aprilia was showing off its smaller Tuono model at an Imola track day, with the above spy shot getting snapped by the folks at ApriliaCup.

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WSBK

Barcelona Joins WorldSBK Calendar for 2020, But Is This a Prelude to Losing MotoGP in 2021?

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The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmelo is to host a round of the World Superbike championship in 2020. The event is to be held from 18-20th September 2020, between the Portimao and Magny-Cours rounds of the series. 

The addition of Barcelona presages a few of the changes coming in both the WorldSBK and MotoGP calendars in future years. Next year, WorldSBK loses Buriram in Thailand to MotoGP, and also looks set to lose the race at Laguna Seca in the USA. Instead, WorldSBK will head to Barcelona in September, and the German circuit of Oschersleben in August.

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News

Ducati Confirms the Multistrada V4 for the 2021 Model Year

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In an unusual move, Ducati has confirmed in a press release that the Italian brand will be brining the much-rumored Multistrada V4 not for next year, but instead for the 2021 model year.

In its announcement, Ducati said that the V4 machine will be available alongside the 1260 and 950 v-twin models, which adds some more intrigue to what form-factor the Ducati Multistrada V4 could take, and where it could slot into Ducati’s lineup.

This tidbit comes on the news that Ducati has just built its 100,000th Multistrada, in preparation for the 2020 model year.

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Rumors

Further Proof We Won’t See a Ducati Multistrada V4 This Year

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There has been a bit of back and forth on internet rumors regarding when the so-called Ducati Multistrada V4 would debut, and now we have another piece to that puzzle.

While we know that we will see the new Streetfighter V4 debut at Ducati’s unveiling event in October, it is less clear if the Italian brand will also debuted a V4-powered ADV bike.

The eagle-eyes at Moto.it though have seen EPA filings for a 2020 Ducati Multistrada 1260 GT, which doesn’t seem like a big deal on its face (the model generally just adds items from the Ducati Performance catalog to the Multistrada model), but it does suggest some interesting things.

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