Michael Scott | July 13, 2018
2018 German MotoGP Friday News
Silly Season Puzzle Nearly Solved
The 2019 grid is all but settled. The retirement of Dani Pedrosa has opened the way to the forthcoming confirmation of Franco Morbidelli and surprise rumoured signing Fabio Quartararo in the new Petronas Yamaha team.
But ink is not yet on paper, according to both riders; and there are still at least two other riders vying for a place in the satellite Yamaha team.
If the Quartararo rumours come to pass, it will add a second Frenchman to the grid, alongside Zarco. The other rookies will be Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira, in the newly KTM-equipped Tech 3 squad; and Joan Mir, joining Suzuki.
British riders Bradley Smith (KTM) and Scott Redding (Aprilia), on the other hand, will pay the price and leave the premier class. Ditto Czech rider Karel Abraham, and former 250 champion Alvaro Bautista, although the latter is still potentially a strong candidate for the Petronas Yamaha ride.
There may also be a place at the Avintia Ducati team for Abraham or Bautista, in place of the currently under-performing Belgian Xavier Simeon.
With numbers cut to 22 with the withdrawal of the troubled Marc VDS squad, the teams line up like this.
HONDA Repsol Team – Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo
LCR Team – Cal Crutchlow, Takaaki Nakagami
DUCATI Factory Team – Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci
Pramac Team – Jack Miller, Pecco Bagnaia
Avintia Team – Tito Rabat, Xavier Simeon???
YAMAHA Movistar Team – Valentino Rossi, Maverick Vinales
Petronas Team – Franco Morbidelli???, Fabio Quartararo???
SUZUKI Ecstar Team – Alex Rins, Joan Mir
APRILIA Factory Team – Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Iannone
KTMRed Bull Team – Johann Zarco, Pol Espargaro
Tech 3 Team – Hafizh Syahrin, Miguel Oliveira
Bradl’s Back
German former MotoGP rider Stefan Bradl made a popular transition from broadcasting booth to pit box halfway through the first day of free practice at the Sachsenring – and impressed by slotting into 21st place out of 25.
Bradl, who finished fourth here in 2013, had started the day as an expert analyst for German TV, but was standing by to step into the EG-VDS team, should Franco Morbidelli find it all too much.
The Italian, who suffered left-hand fractures in a free practice fall at Assen two weeks ago, was passed fit to ride at the Sachsenring. But after a painful struggle in the first free practice session, he reluctantly withdrew.
Bradl, who previously rode for LCR and then Aprilia, left MotoGP after 2016 for a year in World Superbikes, and is currently a test rider for HRC.
Binder Out, Fernandez In at Red Bull KTM Moto3
Red Bull KTM Moto3 rider Brad Binder was also out of the race, after breaking his collarbone in a testing crash. His place was taken by Junior World Championship leader Raul Fernandez, in his sixth GP. He finished tenth in a wild card ride in Catalunya.
Suzuki Doing Too Well?
After four dry-weather podium finishes split between their two riders Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone, Suzuki is on the brink of losing its concession-team privileges, should either finish in the top three again.
A system totting up points – one each for three third places so far, and two for Rins’s career-best second at Assen – leaves the factory team one short of the total of six, which will change its status.
Concessions are granted to new manufacturers in the series, and those who have not had a dry-weather win in the past five years. Suzuki were granted a special exception by favour of the other manufacturers, in spite of Maverick Vinales’s lone win in 2016.
At the next podium, Suzuki will immediately lose their free testing privileges. Factory teams are limited to five days of testing, and although test riders are permitted, they are subject to an allocation of 120 tyres per full-time rider per season.
Starting next season, the engine allocation will drop from nine to seven, and engine development will be frozen, bringing them into line with Honda, Yamaha and Ducati.
Kallio Taken to Hospital
Wild card Mika Kallio was taken to hospital with a knee injury after a frightening crash in the early stages of FP2. The Finnish rider, full-time tester for KTM, was appearing in his third wild card outing of the year for the Austrian MotoGP squad.
He ran into the gravel trap outside the fast Turn 8 at barely reduced speed, and was thrown off the KTM at the end of a wild ride, and directly into the air fence. His bike followed him in.
He was stretchered off, and later taken to hospital for further checks.
Loi Loses Ride
Former Moto3 GP winner Livio Loi has paid the price of poor performance, losing his KTM ride in the Reale Avintia Academy team after a best result of tenth in the United States, and just one single further point in Catalunya.
His place has been taken by 20-year-old Spaniard Vicente Perez.
The Smallish Sachsenring
Many riders have complained that the tiny Sachsenring track, squeezed into an industrial estate outside Chemnitz (formerly Karl Marx Stadt) in the former East Germany, is too tight for MotoGP.
But threats that this might be the last time out at the compact venue left riders disappointed at the pre-event press conference.
Serial Sachsenring winner Marc Marquez (every race since 2010) laughed that “it will be bad for me”; but added more seriously: “I think we need one race in Germany, because there are many fans here and it is also important for the manufacturers.”
Valentino Rossi praised the track’s unique character. “It is very particular … different from all the rest.”
Cal Crutchlow told press that the track was “horrible”, but fun to ride, and often produced good races.
The threat follows major losses at last year’s event, in spite of continued capacity crowds. ADAC, the German federation, has a contract with Dorna to run a GP until 2021; but negotiations with the Sachsenring, frequently troublesome, have failed, and the federation announced in the week before this year’s race that they were seeking another venue.
One possibility might be the Hockenheimring, which Rossi criticised as “more of a car track”; or the Nurburgring. It was a good track for bikes, said Rossi, “but the weather is often bad there.”
Waldmann Memorialized
The name of former German grand prix star Ralf Waldmann, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack in March at the age of 51, has been remembered at the Sachsenring, at the track’s finest feature.
The famous and daunting Turn 11, the first right-hander for half a lap followed by “the waterfall” downhill plunge, has been title Waldmann Corner.
Waldmann finished second in the 250cc World Championship in 1996 and 1997, and had recently become a popular and humorous TV commentator in Germany.