MotoGP, Superbikes and Road Racing 2021

h3000

I thought I’d start the 2020 thread with the news below.

News just breaking that Andrea Iannone has been provisionally suspended for possible drug use.

http://www.fim-live.com/en/article/andrea-iannone-provisionally-suspended/

h3000

Iannone’s response

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6LLkF3huuQ/?igshid=1aslvhssnw3f1

I always thought in recent years he was more concerned with his modelling work than racing bikes. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Infoanon

Crazy Joe....the chances of the second sample being different are very slim.

Where this leaves Andrea Iannone and Aprilla is uncertain - Bradley Smith is Aprilla reserve rider

Infoanon

Jorge is coming home !

Strong rumours that Jorge Lorenzo is to be announced as Yamaha European test rider for 2020.

This lends itself to the theory that Jorge is taking a year out to recover from injury before returning in 2021.

If Jorge had stayed with Ducati in '19 he would have been a title contender imho

h3000

Infoanon wrote: »

Jorge is coming home !

Strong rumours that Jorge Lorenzo is to be announced as Yamaha European test rider for 2020.

This lends itself to the theory that Jorge is taking a year out to recover from injury before returning in 2021.

If Jorge had stayed with Ducati in '19 he would have been a title contender imho

What a test rider to have if that turns out to be true. I can’t see him returning to full time riding though.

pjohnson

Aprilia have contacted Abraham about his availability for the next test if Iannone suspension is still upheld by then and Abraham is the front runner to take his ride full time if the need arises.

CJhaughey

Iannone is a talent but a wasted one. He’s no loss tbh, plenty of talented hungry riders ready to move up and he’s occupying a seat. Let him go modeling if that is what he wants, he had plastic surgery on his nose recently enough.

frostie500

Infoanon wrote: »

Jorge is coming home !

Strong rumours that Jorge Lorenzo is to be announced as Yamaha European test rider for 2020.

This lends itself to the theory that Jorge is taking a year out to recover from injury before returning in 2021.

If Jorge had stayed with Ducati in '19 he would have been a title contender imho

From what I've been told hell be on BT Sport as a pundit and not testing

h3000

frostie500 wrote: »

From what I've been told hell be on BT Sport as a pundit and not testing

That will be interesting.

We've missed your inside knowledge in these parts. Do you think will Rea do it again in 2020?

CJhaughey

frostie500 wrote: »

From what I've been told hell be on BT Sport as a pundit and not testing

I'm really enjoying your podcasts, David, Neil and Yourself do a great job.

legrand

CJhaughey wrote: »

I'm really enjoying your podcasts, David, Neil and Yourself do a great job.

Link?

Magown3

Paddock Pass Podcast. Can get it on Apple podcast or similar

frostie500

h3000 wrote: »

That will be interesting.

We've missed your inside knowledge in these parts. Do you think will Rea do it again in 2020?

Yeah I've not had much time for Boards over the last few years unfortunately!
You'd be a brave man to bet against JR but the Ducati is going to be very hard to beat this year. I'm interested to see what Redding does on it. Should know more in a few weeks after the jerez and portimao tests!

frostie500

CJhaughey wrote: »

I'm really enjoying your podcasts, David, Neil and Yourself do a great job.

Cheers CJ they're a lot of fun and hopefully give good info! Betwem the three of us and Gordo there's a fair bit of paddock experience to. Try and get as much info across as possible. The plan for this year is that we'll have more interviews included throughout the year from the GP paddock

Infoanon

Infoanon wrote: »

Crazy Joe....the chances of the second sample being different are very slim.

Where this leaves Andrea Iannone and Aprilla is uncertain - Bradley Smith is Aprilla reserve rider

Reports in the Italian press today confirming that Iannone B sample was positive , however the argument now is the amount of the steroid found was minute,could easily have been digested by eating meet in Asia and body building steroids are of little use to lean Moto GP riders.

The penalty will be confirmed over the next 45 days which means that Iannone will at a minimum miss pre season testing.

Bradley Smith is expected to do the testing.

roroliam

McPint on a Kwacker for the roads this year.

DaveD

Anyone know if the 2020 MotoGP calendar is confirmed yet? It just lists the calendar on their website, doesn't say if it's provisional or not.

https://www.motogp.com/en/calendar

The Nal

DaveD wrote: »

Anyone know if the 2020 MotoGP calendar is confirmed yet? It just lists the calendar on their website, doesn't say if it's provisional or not.

https://www.motogp.com/en/calendar

Not confirmed yet thats still the provisional that was announced last season.

pablo128

It may be provisional but I still booked the end of August off work.;)

DaveD

Hoping for no changes in May as I’ve just booked flights for Mugello :cool:

frostie500

DaveD wrote: »

Hoping for no changes in May as I’ve just booked flights for Mugello :cool:

Wont be changing so it's all good!

CJhaughey

2020 WSBK test starts at Jerez today, some interesting rumours about the new 'blade, at or near the lap record at Aragon in private testing.
It will be very interesting to see how it does in Jerez under Haslam and Bautista.

Redding will be another interesting factor on the Ducati with Davies an able teammate.



Hopefully this year will bring some decent close racing for JR. The series needs some stiff competition for JR or it risks becoming like the 800cc MotoGP era.

pjohnson

2020 Ducati

CJhaughey

New Honda from Jerez

DaveD

Vinales confirmed at Yamaha for 2021-22. Is this the end of the road for Rossi? Can't see Yamaha risking losing Quartararo by not offering him the other factory seat.

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/935599/1/vinales-commits-yamaha-new-twoyear-motogp-deal

pablo128

DaveD wrote: »

Vinales confirmed at Yamaha for 2021-22. Is this the end of the road for Rossi? Can't see Yamaha risking losing Quartararo by not offering him the other factory seat.

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/935599/1/vinales-commits-yamaha-new-twoyear-motogp-deal

I can't see Rossi even wanting to do another 2 years after this year. Time catches up with everyone.

Infoanon

Vinales staying at Yamaha has huge ramifications for the 2021 silly season.
Vinales is believed to have been Ducatis number one target.

Rossi's earlier statement that he would be willing to ride for SRT was the precursor to Maverick staying put and Fabio and Vale swapping seats.

Ducati are now back at square one as they try and lure their next world champion. Rins dip in form at the end of last year leaves them with few options, hoping Zarco steps up a level at Avintia is probably their best bet.

Overall it possibly indicates very few surprises when riders line up on the grid in 2021

Infoanon

Fabio to replace Rossi at Yamaha is to be announced shortly according to Autosport with Jorge to be confirmed as test rider

Now official that Fabio is in the factory team for 2021,Rossi will have option to continue with full factory support at SRT

h3000

Infoanon wrote: »

Fabio to replace Rossi at Yamaha is to be announced shortly according to Autosport with Jorge to be confirmed as test rider

Now official that Fabio is in the factory team for 2021,Rossi will have option to continue with full factory support at SRT

https://www.instagram.com/p/B756ERpCKNH


SRT or retirement for Vale so. **** I’d really like to get to Mugello this year.

Some of Vale’s thoughts here https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/rossi-explains-yamaha-decision-answers/4678123/

Infoanon

Jorge now confirmed as test rider for Yamaha.

No wild card entries but the option is there.

TV work also highly likely with as Frostie500 has previously mentioned BT Sports (hope they keep #5 Texas Tornado ).

Focus now on Ducati - they need a rider who can win the world championship

frostie500

Infoanon wrote: »

Jorge now confirmed as test rider for Yamaha.

No wild card entries but the option is there.

TV work also highly likely with as Frostie500 has previously mentioned BT Sports (hope they keep #5 Texas Tornado ).

Focus now on Ducati - they need a rider who can win the world championship

Yeah you'd expect that Barcelona (post GP test), Brno and Valencia are definitely possible wildcards for Jorge. From what I've heard Edwards definitely staying with BT and Jorge still a possibility as he wants to be at GP thru the year

legrand

Hard to find details of how Eugene/BMW doing in pre-season tests. EL's twitter showed good results (albeit a singe session).

Hoping he has a great season. With Honda, Redding and other changes WSBK might be (fingers crossed) a good watch in 2020.

Infoanon

Sepang shakedown tests start tomorrow February 2nd, test riders only except for KTM and Aprilla

Would be funny if Jorge ends up fastest

pjohnson

2020 Bikes

Suzuki



Yamaha


Petronas SRT

[img]https://photos.motogp.com/2020/02/06/pretonas_presentacion_2020.middle.jpg?version=1580823221 1x[/img]

legrand

Pretty sure these bikes have been in wind tunnels - but those 'radiator grills' look huge. Can only assume air-flow works better with rather than without them.

Suzuki's look sweet.

frostie500

legrand wrote: »

Hard to find details of how Eugene/BMW doing in pre-season tests. EL's twitter showed good results (albeit a singe session).

Hoping he has a great season. With Honda, Redding and other changes WSBK might be (fingers crossed) a good watch in 2020.

Norge was quite pleased with the bike after the first test ("this chassis is one of the best I've ever ridden") but didn't run the bike with full power and the new engine until the January tests. In Jerez with the rain throughout the two days he decided to concentrate on making sure they were able to run through their programme of bedding in new parts (lots of short stints where he was in and out of the pits) so he didn't really focus on performance too much. The biggest thing was getting the electronics dialled in ("It's far too much of a light switch at the moment") so being able to get it to feel more controlable was the key. Once he had this feeling he was able to then start to move towards performance and to try and push harder.
I'm not sure how he'll fare in Australia but when we talked in Portugal he was very pleased with the progress they made over the winter. Of course with a new bike there's a lot to learn and losing days to the bad weather doesn't help but give him a few rounds to get up to speed. I think that it'll be very competitive this year in WorldSBK and definitely worth keeping an eye on it (that's a completely unbiassed view of course )

Max Headroom

legrand wrote: »

Pretty sure these bikes have been in wind tunnels - but those 'radiator grills' look huge. Can only assume air-flow works better with rather than without them.

Suzuki's look sweet.

Its gas to think that wings on race bikes are'nt a new thing invented by Ducati.....

roroliam

James Ellison doing NW200, chasing the cash me thinks

h3000

roroliam wrote: »

James Ellison doing NW200, chasing the cash me thinks

Has he done any road racing before? I can’t remember him doing any.

ZX7R

h3000 wrote: »

Has he done any road racing before? I can’t remember him doing any.

Nope

ZX7R

h3000 wrote: »

Has he done any road racing before? I can’t remember him doing any.

Nope

ZX7R

roroliam wrote: »

James Ellison doing NW200, chasing the cash me thinks

Not short of cash,he chased the cash in America ha,more like a mid life crisis.
Moto go ruined his career, he should have stayed racing in Europe and moved to super bikes

frostie500

Just as an FYI for everyone I'll be launching a new site in the next couple of weeks. it'll be covering WorldSBK (myself and Gordon Ritchie doing the writing), MotoGP (David Emmett and Neil Morrison also involved with pics from Polarity Photos) and Road Racing (pics from Tony Goldsmith) and the Suzuka 8 Hours. The aim is to have an analysis based site where we dive into some of the deeper topics of racing and what's happening on the world stage. I've had a lot of experience working for magazines, newspapers and other outlets and have a clear idea in my head of what I want to do with this site.
I want to have a site where you can look at big pictures from some of the best photographers in racing and then have interesting features where you can get the proper insight that's needed in racing. The site (racinglowdown.com) will launch ahead of the Phillip Island WorldSBK round and I'll be at a lot of GP this year again (I'm aiming for nine MotoGP, all the WorldSBK rounds and then the TT and Suzuka) so there'll be boots on the ground for it.
To have this level of travel and writers joining the site it's obviously easy for costs to increase so if anyone wants to support the site I've set up a patreon page (patreon.com/RacingLowdown) with various tiers of support. I want to try and have lots of Q&A sessions throughout the year so even though I'm slack on boards these days I'll check in with my inbox if anyone has any questions about racing in general.
Hopefully you'll all enjoy the site!

h3000

Best of luck with it Steve. Will you continue with your current WSBK roll too?

frostie500

Yep, I'll still be working as a commentator. I love doing that so have no goals of stopping any time soon! I fly to Australia on Thursday so I'm really looking forward to a fifth season in SBK

Infoanon

Marc Marquez has signed to Honda until the end of 2024.

Dorna have confirmed that Aprilla will be an official factory entry from 2021 at the same also disclosing that the Kawasaki WSBK team applied for a wild card entry but where turned down.

The Nal

Infoanon wrote: »

Marc Marquez has signed to Honda until the end of 2024.

Can anyone see anyone but Marquez winning every year until 2024?

Magown3

Infoanon wrote: »

Marc Marquez has signed to Honda until the end of 2024.

Dorna have confirmed that Aprilla will be an official factory entry from 2021 at the same also disclosing that the Kawasaki WSBK team applied for a wild card entry but where turned down.

Kawasaki WSBK applied for a wild card entry to a Moto GP race?:eek:
That would have been VERY interesting. It's a real shame it didn't happen. Would love to see Rea punching above his weight on the bike he's familiar with.

h3000

The Nal wrote: »

Can anyone see anyone but Marquez winning every year until 2024?

I can see Quartararo giving him a good run for his money soon.

Infoanon

h3000 wrote: »

I can see Quartararo giving him a good run for his money soon.

Feed back from initial testing is that the Suzuki is looking strong.
Marquez dominance has been as much his consistency and the inconsistentcy from his nearest rivals - Ducatis only working at specific circuits/Rins dropping form after Silverstone /Vinales going missing too often in races.

jv2000

Infoanon wrote: »

Feed back from initial testing is that the Suzuki is looking strong.
Marquez dominance has been as much his consistency and the inconsistentcy from his nearest rivals - Ducatis only working at specific circuits/Rins dropping form after Silverstone /Vinales going missing too often in races.

It sounds like both the Suzuki and Yamaha are strong on the new Michilan tyres as they suit the cornering style better. TBH though I can only see Quartararo challenging Marquez but the fact he is not on the main Yamaha may hinder him. I agree that Vinales doesn't have the consistency to challenge, Marquez is competitive at virtually every track!