2008 MotoGP teams begin to emerge
from Motorcycles (315 articles)
World Champion Casey Stoner will be joined at Ducati by Marco Melandri in 2008
October 10, 2007 This year's World Champion Casey Stoner, as well as Rossi, Vermeulen and the Honda team are staying where they are for season 2008 – but beyond that, MotoGP has been a huge game of musical chairs as riders jump from team to team hoping to secure the best bikes for next year. With teams finally settling, here’s what we know.
Take a clean sheet of paper, a set of coloured pencils, and draw a map of the London Underground. Substitute team names for stations – and you get the picture of a much-changed MotoGP rider line-up in 2008!
Actually, a man who is staying right where he is kick-started the jockeying for position that has gone on all year in the MotoGP ranks. As early as the first day of February we learned that Valentino Rossi would not be buying any tickets to ride: the maestro had renewed his Yamaha deal through to the end of 2008.
“The atmosphere in our garage is always relaxed and happy,” said Rossi, “and I think that this is something very special and very difficult to find.” For Yamaha team boss Davide Brivio it was all a matter of trust: “To extend the contract for a further year at the end of a difficult season like the last one (2006) is the greatest demonstration of the trust Valentino has placed in this team,” said Brivio. The five-time premier-class World Champion then became the still point in a rapidly turning world as riders assessed their options for the years ahead.
While one Italian master’s world view was stable, another’s was about to undergo rapid change. If you had felt, before the 2007 season began, that Loris Capirossi would be playing the lead role for Ducati and passing on the accumulated wisdom of 18 years in Grand Prix racing to new arrival Casey Stoner, you would not have been in a minority of one. By the mid-season break, ‘Capirex’, the man who flew the flag for the Italian marque in MotoGP, had seen his Ducati prospects wrecked as the young Aussie streaked towards their first MotoGP title.
So Loris hopped on the blue line: he’s joining Suzuki, an announcement made on August 16. “The moment has come for change, and to try new challenges,” said Capirossi – although that was after his Ducati outfit had confirmed that Marco Melandri was already on the red line – headed for Ducati alongside Stoner in 2008.
So we have two thrilling Italian-Australian partnerships to look forward to as Chris Vermeulen joins forces with Capirossi in the drive to develop the GSV-R into a title-winning machine. Vermeulen was confirmed at Suzuki again in July, with an option for 2009 as well. “The way the development has gone since I first rode the GSV-R in 2005 is incredible,” enthused Vermeulen. “I am sure if we can continue in that direction we will be pushing up to the front every weekend.” Vermeulen’s brilliant maiden win in France this year, and Capirossi’s scintillating win at Motegi in the last round before Phillip Island, confirm there’s a lot to look forward to at the blue station.
By that stage we had already heard that Jorge Lorenzo had got on the blue-and-white line. The Spanish 250cc title-holder announced late in July that he was joining Yamaha in a two-year deal. Described by Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis as ‘a valuable asset for the future’, Lorenzo is still actively engaged in the defence of his 250 title as they head to the Island.
A month later came the news that our own Anthony West was on the green line – given a ticket for 2008 by Kawasaki, for whom he made his MotoGP debut at Donington Park in mid-year as a substitute for Olivier Jacque. “A huge weight off my shoulders,” said Westy, whose unusual tale we shall tell in a later addition to this series. The other man on the green line for next year is Anglo-American John Hopkins, who is quitting Suzuki to partner West at Kawasaki.
