Kawasaki quit MotoGP

The story of Kawasaki leaving MotoGP has been around for the last week or so on Crash.net

The BBC reported on it this morning and here is a press release via the AFP news agency, so it looks like its true.

"The effect of the current financial crisis on the global economy is extremely significant and an extended period of time is required for a recovery," Kawasaki said in a statement.

"We saw the need for efficient redistribution of our management resources and have decided to forgo participation in the Moto GP from 2009 on," it said.

So, that's 2 less people on the grid next year, Melandri and Hopkins.

[mister c]

Yes, heard it this morning,gutted. It's the only Motorsport that I really follow, so it's going to look very depleated this season.
Melandri is a brilliant & exciting rider, I hope he finds another seat, but I doubt it now.

The wording is a little unclear to me.

Does this mean that they are NOT racing in 2009, or that 2009 is their last season in MotoGP?


The statement does say that they will continue to support other racing projects, which I take to mean WSB, BSB etc.

No MotoGP in 09 for Kawasaki.

It's a shame, hopefully something will be done to keep Melandri and Hopper in the series and the numbers up. 17 bikes in the elite class, with points to 15th. As good as it can be at the front, it's detrimental to the overall spectacle to have such low numbers. If people stop watching it there will be real problems, sponsorship would drop off and other teams would have no option but to follow.

[Biker Biggles]

I keep saying it but they need to drastically cut the costs of competing in Motogp.Premier class or not if you want full grids you have to attract more competitors and cloth needs to be cut according to dosh.Dosh is in short supply these days.It wont be long before we see similar problems in WSB and other classes.

you can't blame kawasaki the costs involved are getting increasingly rediculous it's not so bad with wsb and bsb as they are essentially beefed up road bike's (cheaper) but gp bike's to get competitive take's stupid money hopefully we will start to see some changes to the rules to make the machine's simpler and lot's cheaper.

Yes Kwak has stopped. Odd coz the breaking contracts is said to be very expensive.

However...it doesn't say it will not help out a Privateer team which could buy some Kwak factory bikes but I think this is pretty marginal considering the green bikes will be pretty undeveloped.

Shame for Melandri and Hopper but since Kwak never really troubled the scorer then it will just mean that someone else comes last.

i'm sure the gp chief's can convince someone to fill the gap's someone like aprillia or beemer may go for it.

Not for 2009. And not with the current credit crunch.

Originally Posted by The Basket

Not for 2009. And not with the current credit crunch.

Yep, best we can hope for is another couple of customer Hondas or Yamahas I reckon. Maybe Hopper and/or Melandri will use some/all of their settlement to fund/part fund their ride for this season. The MotoGP execs should be doing all they can to get them rides.