This was just too good to ignore. https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/944806/1/rossi-no-vr46-motogp-team-2021-have-understand-2022 VR46 to Suzuki for 2022!
Well shit, the 2022 silly season is a wild one. Last 1/3rd of this article. https://motomatters.com/analysis/2020/10/11/le_mans_motogp_saturday_round_up_pole_vs.html
I kinda thought that may be the case with vr46 and Ducati, there is no way that cake doesn't see the difference with bike upgrades at Ducati compared to Yamaha, and I was half expecting Vale to jump over there for next year. Regardless of results just like last time it's marketing gold.
The wildest part (to me) was Petronas going after Suzukis and Suzuki not going full on for it. Jeebus Crust on a pogo stick, you'd never have to worry about them paying you late or not having enough to pay for parts.
Hard to believe Suzuki would snub Petronas for Gresini. A well run team with financial resources that Suzuki wouldn't have to worry about. Plus taking an advantage away from Yamaha at the same time? Wow....
You could say the same for a team associated with Rossi, that’s a sponsorship dream for any manufacturer
Gresini doesn't have as good of lawyers as vr46 and petronas,do for when Suzuki can't actually support the second team and backs out at the last minute
Petronas as a fantastic team. Any factory would be lucky to have them. Suzuki passing on thm was stupid. Hard to pick even VR over Petronas(a known entity), regardless of their history.
I can only see Petronas moving over to Suzuki if they HAD to leave Yamaha. Why would they want to throw away all that experience and success with Yamaha to start over with someone else. VR46 is better off going to Ducati than Aprilia. Suzuki would be stupid to go with Gresini. How many times have there been an article or comment from the riders that made Gresini sound like a stable, well run team?
The Race MotoGP podcast touched on the Petronas/Suzuki rumor. There’s some tension between Petronas and the factory squad, and Petronas is treated like a customer rather than a development partner, which they don’t like. Petronas also wanted to test some engine oils in the Yamahas, but Yamaha wouldn’t allow it or something along those lines.
Sounds like exactly why Tech3 left (amongst other reasons). No free shit, no discounts, you pay now, leave if you don't like it.
Sounds like they (Yamaha) need to get rid of the folks running the factory team, and welcome the influence of the management of the "junior" team. Lyn Jarvis, yes, I'm talking about you.
Suzuki doing bizarre shit is what I expect from them. That bike is so damned good that if they had a satellite team I could see them being right there with Ducati and routinely beating Yamaha. I know this is tongue in cheek, but sadly I think you might be right. Suzuki aren’t really serious. I would think Petronas wants to be with a factory squad, not the satellite. They want to win. Yamaha isn’t going to let the satellite team spank them forever. Moving to the Suzuki factory makes sense for Petronas, not getting Suzuki satellite bikes. If I were Petronas I wouldn’t trust those fuckers though.
Only partly tongue and cheek. Suzuki has been talking about a satellite team since before they even came back to gp.
They’re really a perplexing outfit. That bike they built is fucking amazing. They refuse however to build the infrastructure to make themselves real consistent contenders. If they’d seized the moment they could’ve had a satellite team and firmly taken Yamaha’s place in GP. What do they actually want? A one off championship once every 20 years? That would be good enough for them?
While all of the above is interesting, more importantly, what ride is Joe Roberts going to get in MotoGP for 2022? Or even.... 2021...?
I listened to the podcast today. I found the bit about Red Bull leaving KTM and Herve has it written in the contract that he is not responsible for getting sponsors interesting.