Valentino Rossi, THE SHOW in MotoGP, will be testing a Ferrari F1 car (again!) in the coming days. Multiple factors are in play here: Rossi likes cars and has driven in World Championship and other rallies in past years. From his point of view, cars are safer than bikes, and he wants to leave the sport in good health. And putting a little pressure on Yamaha to get more money does not hurt either.

MotoGP promoters are willing to pay Rossi to keep him in the series, as he is the most popular figure in the sport by far. On the other hand, F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone needs another headliner for 2011 to build interest in F1, now that the major car manufacturers are mostly gone and replaced by small lacklustre teams. He got Michael Schumacher back for 2010, but needs something more for 2011, especially if Michael cannot get back on pace, gets hurt or loses interest..


Ducati has developed a Big-Bang motor for the coming MotoGP season. The 2008, 09 and 10 versions of that engine were difficult to ride due a lot to a violent power rush that only Casey Stoner could master (He has 20 wins in the past three seasons, against one for his team-mates over that period).

The new engine features a grouped firing order that produces more usable torque and disturbs the suspension and rear tire less than evenly distributed power pulses on corner exit. Stoner and second rider Nicki Hayden are reporting that the 2011 bike is just as quick or even quicker, and much easier to ride than last year’s power monster. It is interesting to see other riders and teams embrace the Rossi philosophy regarding the importance of easy-to-ride race bikes.


Ex MotoGP and World Superbike rider John Hopkins will be testing a Suzuki GSX-R1000 Superbike in the US in the coming days, in preparation for a possible return to AMA racing. Hopper went from the AMA to MotoGP aboard a Suzuki as a teenage phenom, then moved to Kawasaki and lost that ride when they retired from MotoGP at the end of 2008. A few races in WSBK in 2009 with an underfunded team ended in tears, and a private MotoGP team is looking for money to run him on a Honda for 2010.

Poor Hopper is wisely putting a Plan B in place, and would be a great addition to the much depleted 2010 AMA Superbike grid, on a Suzuki with good engines leased from Yoshimura. Me thinks that he would be quicker than the official Yosh Suzuki riders, so how good would the leased engines from Yosh be then?


Frenchman Cyril Despres has won, no, dominated the 2010 Dakar race, running over 9000 km on mountain and desert trails in Argentina and Chile. He finished one hour ahead his KTM team-mate. Another KTM rider, 2009 winner Marc Coma, was just as quick as Despres, but ran into mechanical problems that put him out of contention. Rumours abound of a return to Africa for 2011, after the Dakar ran two events in South America because of security risks in Africa. The Dakar proved to be an unqualified success in South America, despite the problems of time zones for Europen telly. Could we see two “Dakar” events in the coming years?


We have recently been exposed to the very sophisticated Hexatech simulator (We are talking $300Ks worth of sophistication here), used not only for race driver training, but also for the development and fine tuning of street and race cars. When combined with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, some F1 teams and other developers are bypassing the building and endless and expensive test-break-redesign-test-break… cycle, relying instead on a simulator and software to do it much more cheaply and quickly.

This new approach is producing a new type of race driver, the “Sim” driver who develops the car from Day 1 with the engineers, and then goes on to actually race the car. This represents a new role and level involvement for what was referred to as test and development drivers in the past.

Using the same tools to develop bikes is not doable today, as lean, weight transfer and rider movement on the bike introduce extra variables that current software and simulator mechanical components cannot cope with (Yet). But, look for MotoGP and Superbikes that will be developed in a lab, for less money, and less pain for fallen riders in the near future. And how about bringing a simulator to the track to reproduce and resolve issues right there, ready for the nest on-track session.




Photo Credit : MotoGP