MotoGP [possible spoilers]

altoid

I donated for the custom title. Suck it.
Joined
Jan 1, 2010
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2,332
Location
Los Angeles, California
Car(s)
‘14 Mazderp3, ‘22 Checkpoint SL 5
The first race weekend of the season is less than a month away!

Exciting stuff:
  • In perhaps the biggest off-season news, Aleix Espargar? has been mighty quick on his Open NGM Mobile Forward Racing Yamaha.
  • Honda's Open bike, however, has been rather disappointing in testing (ask Nicky Hayden of Drive M7 Aspar Team), slower even than the previously laughable Ducatis. The factory has been threatening to leave if Open becomes the main spec or favored over Factory. (I say let them?MotoGP could be more interesting to watch without them essentially running the show.)
  • Ducati get a new start with Gigi Dall'Igna and Cal Crutchlow?this could be interesting if they're able to mix it up with the leaders, and stay ahead of the Open Hondas, especially if they go Open themselves. They have to decide on Factory vs Open by tomorrow (2/28).
  • Suzuki plan on coming back in 2015, and some wildcard entries for 2014 are a possibility. I'm excited because I have a Suzuki, and the blue bikes are teh utter secks.
  • Rookies will have a showdown of their own: Pol Espargaro (Cal Cruchlow's old seat at Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Scott Redding (Bryan Staring's old seat at GO&FUN Honda Gresini) are serious rivals from Moto2 last year and extremely talented.
  • I'm curious as to whether Moto2 and 3 will again provide more actual racing than GP. Last year Moto3 was probably the most entertaining to watch from a purely racing standpoint overall.

My predictions for final MotoGP standings:
  • Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing)
  • Marc M?rquez (Repsol Honda Team)
  • Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing)

Fastest Open bikes*:
  1. Aleix Espargar? (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Yamaha)
  2. Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar Team)
  3. Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini)
*Note: If Ducati opt for Open, one of them may crack top 3, since they can continue development during the season.

Now that they've shifted around a bit, I don't quite know Moto2 and 3 riders well enough to make any reasonable predictions.

Finalized season calendar:
Screen_Shot_2014-02-27_at_5.28.27_PM.png
 
Predictions for the season?

1- 93
2- 99
3- 26
 
And it's official, Ducati goes Open. It's going to be interesting :)
 
And it's official, Ducati goes Open. It's going to be interesting :)

I'm super excited! I like Cal a lot, so I'm really glad to see he didn't necessarily flush his career down the toilet. :lol:
 
Could be an interesting chest move Ducati just did there, similar to when they switched to Bridegestones in 2005.
 
Anyone up for some MCN MotoGP Fantasy action? I made a league for myself and some friends, the PIN is 14879 if y'alls want to join in on the fun. :)
 
What a fuckin' joke, they now want to create a "factory2" class for "Open" teams that have too much success.
 
Seriously. I'm genuinely pissed off. We get some good news promising new, exciting shakeups and better racing, and they get squashed immediately.

Dorna didn't even have the decency to wait until the end of the season.

Part of me really wishes Ducati would up and leave over this. Or, as someone in /r/MotoGP said, Crutchlow (and Dovi) should race like mad to the finish line, then stop and wait for a few riders to pass, and then roll in, just to make sure they maintain their Open status.
 
What a fuckin' joke, they now want to create a "factory2" class for "Open" teams that have too much success.

it's just a different class. they'll still be racing together, right?
it's just another cup to be handed out at the end of the day?

or am i missing something?
 
it's just a different class. they'll still be racing together, right?
it's just another cup to be handed out at the end of the day?

or am i missing something?

Dorna created the Open class (to replace last year's CRT class as the poor folks' choice), and gave them some advantages to be competitive. In exchange, they imposed an ECU limitation: all teams must use their spec ECU, but Factory teams can write their own software, whilst Open teams can't. Ducati need the ability to do in-season engine development, which is only allowed for Open teams, so they decided to go open. They also sneakily supplied the ECU manufacturer (Magneti Marelli) with their software, which has become available on the ECU (for all teams, but only Ducati have the expertise to use it). Dorna heard a lot of bitching from Honda (and Yamaha) about how Ducati will now have an unfair advantage, so they created a Factory 2 class as a mid-point between Factory and Open. Any Open team that achieves one first place, two second places, or three third places will automatically be moved to the Factory 2 class. Basically, if Ducati are successful, they'll have some of their class advantages taken away.

The real problem? This came in a week after the deadline for teams to decide on their class for the season.

C/N: Fuck Dorna.
 
Raging so hard now: I watched Moto3 and know the results of the race, but I don't remember whom I have on my fantasy team...and I can't log in to see, because I'll see my points for Moto2 and GP as well.

#firstworldproblems #thestruggleisreal
 
Holy. Fuck.

Anyone else love the races? All three were good, and for change the top class might've been the most exciting!
 
Well, we need to invent a new rider class (size==1) above the Alien level.



_SJ31451-L.jpg
 
MM and JL are easily two best riders in top class, but its a shame that Honda is so much faster than the others. They need to bring Stoner back on Honda so we can have some racing for 1st place. I have lost my faith on Pedrosa.

My big worry is that Motogp series are going to be Honda dominated soon, because in Moto3, their new bike is so much faster in straight line allready than KTM and when they get cornering sorted out...
 
I'm still willing to believe that Ducati will be mixing it up at some point soonish. As in "in a few years". Yamaha is still up there, remember.

I also expect interesting things from rider movement in the future. Where will the incredibly talented Espargar? brothers and Scott Redding go? What about upcoming Moto2 and 3 talent? The circus is already more interesting this year...
 
everyone that's tried to ride the Ducati has failed [bad move Cal ] 'cept our man Casey
 
everyone that's tried to ride the Ducati has failed [bad move Cal ] 'cept our man Casey

Well Duc really suited well for Stoner, but in the last couple of seasons's that has been I doubt Stoner would got any wins or success. Ducati just has sucked, but they seem to be on right path now. When Ducati were fighting for wins in Stoner years it truly was weird that the number 2 rider didnt ever really deliver. I have to say the worst thing has been how bad the satellite teams(mostly Pramac) have allways been. Elias had some good rides and Kallio did show some promise until he broke his finger in Assen, wich seemed to kill his career in the biggest class.
 
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