Remember when Ducati was continually making headlines with their four MotoGP teams and even one of their Sporting Directors was admitting that the flood of red wasn’t ideal for the circuit?
Well, Dorna’s CEO, Carmelo Ezpeleta, wants to balance out the MotoGP grid for future seasons – and I’m not going to lie, the talks have revealed a lot about how everybody’s feeling.
To clarify, Ezpeleta has gone to Yamaha, Honda, Aprilia, KTM, and Ducati to hash out concessions to the current Grand Prix regulations; these new allowances need everybody’s approval in the interest of keeping the grid fair for all.
Out of the teams that Carmelo has approached, the man states that KTM and Aprilia wanted “more things to be taken away from Ducati”(Crash).
Er, more stricture, then.
Honda and Yamaha, on the other hand, have apparently been reasonably good sports and provided “some concessions that allowed everyone else to take a step forward.”
Ezpeleta’s role in all of this is certainly not enviable, but he remains passionate about changing as little as possible, and only when necessary:
| “I still have the theory that, when there is a regulation in force (and everyone has complied with it), changing it is not right… So what I have to do [now] is convince [everyone] that it is good to change it…”
“What have I done? Try to do this by convincing Ducati to leave things to these factories and that they have a little less.” – Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO, Dorna Sports (Crash) |
Carmelo recounts how it wasn’t always Ducati at the forefront of the Prix’s battle for the crown:
| “Nobody remembers that before eight Hondas, eight Yamahas and two Suzukis raced here, and that it was Honda and Yamaha that gave the OK so that the other bikes would have some advantages in training and other things. That allowed Ducati, first, then Suzuki and then the others to raise the level.”
“I, since I am the same, cannot forget that.” – Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO, Dorna Sports (Crash) |
While we haven’t yet received word on the updates, we look forward to seeing how Dorna plans on evening out the GP playing field. Goodness knows riders transitioning to new teams (Marc Marquez) will likely find a surprise or two waiting for them.
What do you think Carmelo and the MotoGP teams have in store for us?