MotoGP Features

by Peter McLaren The third pre-season launch on Thursday at Barcelona, and attended by Crash.net , was by the Kawasaki Racing Team, who unveiled their new 'potent' ZX-RR racer with which Shinya Nakano and Alex Hofmann will carry team green honours this season.

Yamaha launched its 2004 MotoGP effort with an action-packed ceremony in the centre of Barcelona this afternoon [Thursday] as Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checa were joined by Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 team-mates Marco Melandri and Norick Abe to unveil their race mach

The decision to include the names of both the Gauloises and Fortuna tobacco brands as title sponsors of the four Yamaha MotoGP machines could leave the outfits facing criticism for excessive tobacco advertising.

There is no doubt that Honda was the manufacturer to beat in 2003, winning all but one of the sixteen rounds while its riders took the top three positions in the championship, but exactly how far ahead was the awesome RC211V?

Garry McCoy has become the latest GP veteran to be forced out of the premier-class, with the news that the 'Slide King' will replace Regis Laconi in the NCR Ducati team in the 2004 World Superbike championship.

The inquiry set-up by Honda to establish the cause of Daijiro Kato's death at the season opening Japanese Grand Prix has declared that mechanical failure was not to blame - and that the former 250cc world champion's fatal accident was probably triggered by a loss of rear grip.

Considerable question marks still remain over Honda's 2004 line-up, with only three of the six seats officially confirmed.

Ever since Valentino Rossi's two-year Yamaha deal was confirmed, speculation has grown as to whether the Japanese manufacturer is planning to build an entirely new machine for the Italian, perhaps without their traditional inline four-cylinder engine.

Crash.net can confirm that four of the six Repsol Honda team members directly responsible for running Valentino Rossi have left to join the Italian in his new adventure at Yamaha - with nine-times world champion crew chief Jerry Burgess heading the list.

A Yamaha source has told Crash.net that Alex Barros is expected to stay with the team in 2004, despite the Brazilian being hunted by Honda to replace Valentino Rossi alongside predicted future star Nicky Hayden.

It now looks certain that Honda will block any attempts by Valentino Rossi and Yamaha to get the Italian onto their M1 before his HRC contract ends on 1/1/2004, thus reducing Rossi's input into next year's machine considerably.

Following yesterday's announcement that Valentino Rossi would be joining Yamaha, Mick Doohan - HRC's general manager of racing - has given a multiple world champion's insight on the biggest shake-up in the premier-class for over a decade.

Max Biaggi's first season as a Honda RCV rider came to a disappointing end as the double 2003 race winner limped home in fourth place at Valencia - after suffering from a lack of engine braking.

With deadlines and final offers having come and gone, Valentino Rossi continues to hold MotoGP hostage - intentionally or not - by refusing to announce his future plans with just one more GP to go this season.

Last Sunday at Phillip Island, Olivier Jacque and Shinya Nakano reinacted one of the most spectacular two-wheeled championship deciders ever seen, outside of the famed Edwards/Bayliss WSBK battle.

It's a shame that Graziano Rossi is not a great fan of air travel as, for the fourth time out of five, a proud father has missed the chance of celebrating a world title with his son because he will not venture up the steps of the 'silver bird'.

It has been revealed that the decisions to exclude Makoto Tamada from third at Motegi, and ban John Hopkins from this weekend's race at Malaysia, were taken without examining telemetry from any of the riders concerned.

Max Biaggi's first on-track victory of the 2003 season at Motegi was overshadowed by two controversial decisions by the FIM, which saw Makoto Tamada stripped of his third place finish, and John Hopkins banned from this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

The quietly spoken, but always polite, Tohru Ukawa admits he's facing a crucial time in his MotoGP career - and arrives at Motegi this weekend fighting to keep his Honda ride.

This weekend at Motegi, the Moriwaki Racing team will make their second MotoGP appearance of the season, with Tamaki Serizawa riding the fantastically named 'Morwaki Dream Fighter'.

The FIM has announced that Suzuka, the traditional home of the season opening Japanese Grand Prix, has been removed from the 2004 calendar.

The main news to come out of Honda's Portuguese Grand Prix technical presentation was that there will be one less RCV on the MotoGP grid next season, that Valentino Rossi's contract talks are still continuing and that the V5 RCV is likely to race for at least one more year.

Sources close to Crash.net have indicated that both Garry McCoy and Andrew Pitt could lose their seats at Kawasaki, as team green calls-up AMA Superbike star Eric Bostrom to join Alex Hofmann in 2004.

Antonio Cobas, technical director of the Camel Pramac Pons team, describes the challenges that will face the MotoGP teams at this weekend's Czech Republic Grand Prix...