Melandri Doubts Persist...

Marco Melandri's prospects of actually racing in 09 on the Kawasaki, sorry Hayate, remain clouded in uncertainty.

After making it clear to the media before the Qatar test that he hadn't in fact agreed to race the bike, and would make that decision based on the Qatar testing performance, his public judgement was a rather uncommitted "too soon to judge".

So what does this mean?

Well given all the circumstances it was totally predictable that the testing would show that there is a lot to do to be competitive. So no bombshells on the result.

Surely what it all really means is one or all of:

1. Melandri is in protracted negotiations with Dorna over money. He must realise he can hold them to ransom after Carmelo so publicly over played his hand on the deal.

2. Melandri really doesn't fancy racing the bike under the circumstances and making up the numbers, but worries that it could well be his last chance. There are not many recent examples of riders coming back into MotoGP after a year out.

3. The grid girls aren't hot enough.

I'd love to ask him.

What do you think?

Am I the only one happy to see Kawasaki quit?

When MotoGP gets news coverage in the FT you know something big has happened and by now Kawasakis withdrawal from MotoGP is old news.

Of all the discussion and editorial comment around the story I particularly liked Dennis Noyes comments on speedtv on "the incredible shrinking grid" which was posted before the news became official.

Like this piece the theme of the coverage is all about the financial crisis and how to get costs down to keep the manufacturers racing, but I think the holy grail of simply more bikes on the grid misses the point.

The real issue is not the costs, it's the commercial management of the sport. So little has been done to make racing in grand prix an attractive business for racing teams that no amount of cost cutting will do the trick.

Even before the credit crunch hit the paddock was pretty doom and gloom and I'm told had been for sometime. Stories of staff not being paid, teams running out of cash part way through the year and being propped up by the rights holders, teams only taking riders who pay big fees are everywhere and the general feeling is just one of imminent doom.

This is inevitable in a situation where everyone in and around the sport has no real control over their own destiny. Everything is at the whim of the manufacturers, Dorna, and Rossi - and it only takes two out of the three to really want something and they get it (the fuss over Rossi's switch to Bridgestones being just one example).

Of course each of these three are only ever going to act in their own self interest - and rightly so, Rossi wants to win races and the manufacturers in the end want to sell more motorcycles - but when the people who hold the cards for everyone else, Dorna, seem to act out of naive self interest, or totally in the interest of the manufacturers or Rossi, things are never going to be good.

Whatever the costs of racing, unless you are a manufacturer the odds are stacked against you - by design the MSMA comes first.

Sir Jackie Stewart spoke bluntly recently of the need for change at the top of F1 calling for both Ecclestone and Mosely to go, but sadly no-one seems to be calling for such big changes in MotoGP.

Until someone really gets a grip on MotoGP and tackles the big commercial issues of making GP racing a sustainable business for racing teams (and not simply motorcycle manufacturers) the slide towards watching two Honda's race two Yamaha's and possibly two Ducati's will continue.