Melandri to Kawasaki

Originally Posted by cmsd2

change of plans!

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldF...20523820081230

Why don't they use last years bike as a customer bike and recoup some of the money, has nobody learnt from Honda yet!

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

Why don't they use last years bike as a customer bike and recoup some of the money, has nobody learnt from Honda yet!

I'm not sure why anyone wanting to run a customer bike/team would go for a Kawasaki, particularly last years Kawasaki Kawasaki would have to be paying them to do it probably.

Sucks for the riders if it's true, well as much as getting a nice pay-off can suck, but they're not going to be getting a decent ride anywhere for '09 now.

Oh dear- is this official?

[Biker Biggles]

You read it here first.
I predicted a bit of a meltdown in Motogp ages ago due to spiralling costs and economic downturn.We will be down to grids of about ten bikes soon and it will all just wither away unless they get back to the old ethos where you could go gp racing as a privateer with a small team of amateurs.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sp...uit-bombshell/

Kwak bombshell....

Yeah...shocking but not surprising.

Shame for Melandri...after a bad season with Ducati he gets even better with the big push from Kwak even before he gets a start.

He doesn't do good luck does he!

With Kwak gone I thought it would be Tech 3 or Alice that gets sliced...I suppose Kwak get bored with spending bags of cash to come last.

Saw this today.

http://www.crash.net/motorsport/moto...it_motogp.html

Shame for John. Met him a couple of years ago in Qatar when he was with Suzuki (the year of the famous 'bike-kicking' incident. Nice guy, apart from that.

Hope he gets back into Moto GP soon.

Looks like from www.motogpmatters.com that the rumours are flying; Melandri possibly back to Gresini (although someone on the forum says this isn't happening) shunting De Angelis out the way - this would probably make good financial sense as the difference between the salaries of the two would likely be equalled by the additional bike costs incurred by De Angelis' crashing :P

Also possibly Hopkins either back to Suzuki on a third bike fielded by Aspar and the Monster money or to Tech3 replacing Edwards (who's Michelin money is obviously out of the window).

Other news for today includes Canepa being shunted out of Pramac Racing (having lost Alice as the title sponsor with them focussing instead on sponsoring races) and into the Ondo2000 team with Gibernau.

But swapping/replacing riders at this time of the year will cost the teams a fortune with contract and legal costs.

Reading what I am reading well...dunno what to think.

Edwards is out or Melandri is going to Honda or Hopper is going Tech3.

Lies....damn lies and the internet.

Technically Kwak is contracted so they either play or get slurped with a big lawsuit...maybe they just out with the begging bowl.