quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Dorna managed to suck away all the excitement I had for 2021 when three weeks after Mir won the championship I had a bunch of my posts on social media pulled for “copyright infringement” along with the threat of deletion if I continued to offend.

I’m not even sure I want to renew my MotoGP subscription at this point. Fuck Dorna.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
Dorna managed to suck away all the excitement I had for 2021 when three weeks after Mir won the championship I had a bunch of my posts on social media pulled for “copyright infringement” along with the threat of deletion if I continued to offend.

I’m not even sure I want to renew my MotoGP subscription at this point. Fuck Dorna.

quote:

MotoGP has confirmed two extra days of testing and a shakedown have been added to the schedule in Qatar in March following the cancellation of the Sepang test in Malaysia.

Earlier this week MotoGP announced it had cancelled what was set to be the opening three-day pre-season test of 2021 at the Sepang circuit after a state of emergency was declared in the country due to escalating COVID-19 infections. At the time MotoGP confirmed the Qatar test was still going ahead as planned.

A meeting between MotoGP teams, promoters Dorna Sports and governing body the FIM was held on Thursday to discuss various topics relating to the upcoming season. At this meeting it was agreed to add two more days to the Qatar test in March, with riders granted official running on 6 and 7 March ahead of the three days of running taking place from 10-12 March.

A shakedown for test riders and rookies has been pencilled into the calendar for 5 March.

A brief statement from MotoGP read: “Following a recent meeting between the Championship organisation and the MotoGP class teams, changes to the Qatar Test schedule have been agreed.

“Two extra official test days and a shakedown test day will now also be held at Losail International Circuit in March, ahead of and in addition to the previously confirmed Qatar Test, allowing the teams extra preparation ahead of the 2021 season.

“On 5 March, a shakedown test will take place in which participation will be limited solely to test riders and MotoGP class rookies. On the 6 and 7 March, all riders may participate in two extra official test days.”

Motorsport.com reported that Thursday’s meeting was also going to feature discussions about potentially moving the date of the opening round of the season in Qatar. Currently the Qatar Grand Prix is due for 28 March, but could now be staged a week earlier to avoid clashing with Bahrain’s Formula 1 GP.

Moving the race forward to 21 March would also make it logistically easier for all paddock personnel to remain in Qatar after the test for the race, avoiding a repeat of last year’s cancellation owing to travel restrictions.

MotoGP is yet to comment on any potential calendar alterations.

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Double 125cc world champion and veteran MotoGP team boss Fausto Gresini has died at the age of 60 in hospital in Italy after a two-month battle with COVID-19.

The Italian was taken ill with the virus just before Christmas and was hospitalised on 27 December in Imola.

As his condition worsened, he was transferred to a specialist COVID care ward in Bologna, where he remained up to his death.

Having initially been put into a coma and onto assisted breathing, Gresini showed signs of improvement in January and was brought out of his coma.

But in recent weeks doctors had to put him back into a coma as he battled pneumonia caused by the virus.

The Gresini team announced on Tuesday morning that the Italian had passed away.

“The news we would have never wanted to give, and that unfortunately we are forced to share with all of you,” the statement read.

“After nearly two months battling against Covid, Fausto Gresini has sadly passed away, few days after turning 60.

“All of Gresini Racing are close to Fausto’s family in support: his wife Nadia and the four children Lorenzo, Luca, Alice and Agnese... as well as everyone who had the chance to get to know him and love him throughout the years.”

Gresini raced in the 125cc world championship from 1983 to 1994, winning the title in 1985 and 1987 on Garelli machinery.

During his racing career, on top of his two world titles, Gresini won 21 races and tallied up an impressive 47 podium finishes.

Upon his retirement from racing, Gresini founded the grand prix team which bears his name in 1997 and fielded Alex Barros on a Honda – with the Brazilian scoring a podium at Donington Park.

Gresini’s team would win the 250cc riders’ title in 2001 with Japanese star Daijiro Kato, promoting him to MotoGP the following year where he scored two podiums.

In an emotional 2003 season following Kato’s death in a crash during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Sete Gibernau would win four times for Gresini on his way to runner-up in the standings.

Gibernau would repeat the feat in 2004, with Marco Melandri taking his Gresini Honda to runner-up in the standings in 2005.

Gresini’s final MotoGP victory came at Estoril in 2006, when Toni Elia pipped Valentino Rossi by 0.002s in a thrilling encounter.

In 2010, Elias would take his Gresini machine to the very first Moto2 world title, with Gresini Racing winning a third world title in 2018 in Moto3 with Jorge Martin.

Gresini parted ways with Honda for 2015, becoming Aprilia’s official factory entrant.

In early December Gresini confirmed it would return to being a standalone team again in MotoGP from 2022.

quote:

Davide Brivio admits it was “not easy” to leave Suzuki’s MotoGP team to become Alpine’s new racing director, but says he would have regretted passing up the “dream” opportunity to work in Formula 1.

After leading Suzuki to its first MotoGP title since 2000 last year as Joan Mir clinched the riders’ crown, Brivio has traded two wheels for four by joining the rebranded Alpine squad as its new racing director amid an organisational restructuring within the team ahead of the upcoming 2021 F1 season.

Speaking at Alpine’s launch of its new A521 car, the Italian explained the thinking behind his decision to quit MotoGP for F1, saying he did not feel it was an opportunity he could pass up.

“Of course it was not easy to leave my old team, an environment that I knew very well,” Brivio said.

“Formula 1 has been for me a dream for a long time and it’s very exciting for me to start something completely new, to get into a new environment.

“Of course I have a lot to learn, a lot to understand but it’s adrenaline for me, it’s oxygen to get to work and to learn a lot of things. It was an opportunity which I felt I had to take, probably I would have regretted if I didn’t take.

"So now here I am and I will try to do my best. I hope I can contribute to the Alpine F1 Team with my experience. It won’t be easy and I need some time, but I am fully committed to get involved as best as I can as soon as possible.”

Brivio will effectively split the traditional F1 team principal role with executive director Marcin Budkowski following the departure of former Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul.

“I will be in charge of the track operations, track activity so everything that happens on the circuit,” he explained. “Basically our job as a race team is to exploit the full potential of the car.

“It’s a big pressure and a big responsibility because we have over 1000 people between Enstone and Viry, preparing the chassis, the car and the power unit, and our job - we will be a much limited number of people at the race track - but there is where we have to extract the full potential of the car. So I will be in charge of that.

“Of course I’m not an engineer but I have to make sure that the engineers, the drivers, all the people involved, they have all they need to perform at the very best. In this way, if we are able to have a strong team - which is already in place - we will be able to extract the full potential of the car.

“So that is the job, to go to the circuit, to go around the world, and try to get out the best of what the guys have prepared at home. So we have big responsibility and big pressure because we have to give a value to their job.”

Asked whether he feels it is harder transitioning from MotoGP to F1 or vice-versa, Brivio replied: “I don’t know, I will tell you in maybe one years time!

“In this moment I think it’s probably harder for MotoGP to go to Formula 1. Because F1 is a bigger organisation, it’s more complex, and many more people.

"I think it’s a little more complex, so that is good news for me (laughs). But let’s see. I feel a lot of similarities with teamwork, drivers that are similar in attitude and willing as the riders. It’s much more complex in terms of technicality so many more parameters and more problems, aerodynamics.

“This is a more technical job. In terms of putting the team together, trying to strengthen the group I think there are similarities. There is no doubt that Formula 1 is more complex than MotoGP, but they both have similarities I think.”