Weekly round-up 14/07/09
So what is happening in the wonderful world of Motorsport? Well, there seems to be plenty of shuffling of the cards going on in Formula One, with the seemingly endless FIA/FOM/CVC/FOTA wrangling still raging on. It appears that an alternative series is still very much on the cards and Bernie may be jumping ship with FOTA (the name GP1 has been registered with his company). Former World Rally champ Ari Vatanen Is planning to stand for election as FIA president, so all we can do is await Max & Bernie's next move...
MotoGP teams pull out
Elsewhere, Sete Gibernau's Grupo Francisco Hernando team has pulled out of the MotoGP class with immediate effect. This follows on from Kawasaki's announcement that there will be no Hayate team next year either, leaving both Gibernau and Marco Melandri without a ride. Kawasaki cannot afford to provide a bike for the Italian anymore, despite his excellent showing on the Hayate (particularly at Mugello). The Japanese firm wish to make savings and removing the cost of a Grand Prix bike will do that.
Silly season begins
The chess pieces that are being moved at the moment are:
- Marco Simoncelli has signed for the Gresini Honda team next year, taking up another space on the already sparse grid.
- The Italian paper Gazzetto dello Sport believes that Ben Spies has signed a two year deal with Yamaha. The American will contest the World Superbike series in 2010 and then move onto MotoGP in 2011.
- Sebastien Bourdais may be replaced by Jaime Alguersuari for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Toro Rosso driver has not had a good season so far and it appears he will lose his seat.
- Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat believes that Nelson Piquet will be dropped from the Renault team in place of Roman Grosjean.
