Like every year, Carmelo Ezpeleta went to the editorial office of AS to address a whole series of topics.
Among these, some do not concern us (football), others hardly bring anything new compared to what we have already written (for example, tributes to Angel Nieto to take place during the Jerez Grand Prix), some have been seen and re-watched until exhaustion (not an example of what will Valentino Rossi retired…), but most are extremely interesting because they shed new light, reported by the famous Spanish journalist Mela Charcoles.
Excerpts…
So, always on Valentino Rossi, the boss of Dorna refuses the comparison with Fernando Alonso : “Rossi doesn't win (often), but he's there, and in 2017 he won a Grand Prix, which is very difficult. He knows himself better than anyone knows him, and he is not in races to make up the numbers. It's something he's done since he was 16 and it's his way of life. Don't compare me Rossi with Alonso! In his case, it turns out that the best driver on the grid couldn't even, on several occasions, make the first lap. For Rossi, if he hadn't broken his leg..."
Hence the comparison between MotoGP and F1…
“F1 needs to spend less on technology, like we did. An F2 goes eight seconds slower in Montmeló and is worth two million, while an F1 is worth 400 million. We realized, just before the crisis, that without tobacco money we would not be able to bear the costs. We decided to change the cylinder capacity to 1.000cc and set the maximum piston diameter at 81mm, in order to have more economical and competitive engines. From there came the CRTs (in 2012), which went from four million to zero, being three seconds slower. Then came the Open (2014) and the next step was to implement the single electronic power plant (2016). Then, and faced with the threat of factories wanting to go into Superbikes (mainly Honda), we bought the Superbike. The TV money is shared between the teams. In the past, satellite teams cost us 800.000 euros, whereas today they receive 800.000 euros plus two million euros per driver. So we give the unofficial teams 5,6 million per season for two riders, and the motorcycles of each rider cost them at most 2,2 million, because the factories cannot ask them for more money, since I also gives a million per motorcycle. In reality, the factories now sell them for 3,2 million, a little less than the 4 million before, and can no longer count on private teams to feed them. This, to be complete on the subject.
What happens to them in F1? First, they sold that the more advanced the technology, the better. And secondly, they have huge costs with what they pay to Ferrari or Mercedes. It's the opposite of us, because we pay the inferior teams more. I pay two million for the second Aspar rider's bike and I pay nothing for Márquez's bike, because Márquez is quite famous for generating money from sponsors. This evens out the grid and ensures you won't miss any marks. When the crisis came, Kawasaki and Suzuki left, but now they are not leaving. In motorsport, it is essential that each championship is economically viable. Aerodynamics have stopped because of this and they can only do two fairings a year, as long as they are safe, with fins in them, and some strange bikes have appeared. In short, we must maintain a balance between technology and the money we can generate. »
Examples of aerodynamic research during current F1 tests in Barcelona, with an infinite number of Pitot tubes (which are still on the verge of arriving in MotoGP...)
International deployment…
“There are nine countries waiting for a GP (including Finland, Indonesia, Mexico, China, India, Kazakhstan, Hungary and Brazil) and none of the four Spaniards want to leave the calendar. The popularity of the sport in Spain is visible at the four full circuits, with people paying to enter and traveling 400 kilometers from home. »
Women's day, with a possible championship reserved for girls...
" No ! That would go against what they want. Here, there were two girls who competed against boys and did well. María Herrera is as strong as Pedrosa. It would be an insult to hold a championship just for them. »
And the problem of the Umbrella Girls, now banned in F1…
“Let them make a law. I don't know how the law will tell a girl she can't work on the grid, and I don't care what F1 does. I'm not the one who places the girls. Sponsors and teams do it. Marquez, for example, almost always prefers one of his mechanics to hold the umbrella on the grid. I can't forbid women from showing lollipops with the numbers on the grid, because there is no law to say so. At Dorna, we have 9 directors out of 16 possible. This thing that has been put in place is artificial to create problems, and I respect the law. An economics major who wanted to pursue a master's degree at Harvard recently wrote to me and asked why she couldn't make a living as a model. Every day there are more and more forbidden things, which is not possible. We create problems about things that aren't problems. »
The Electric Motorcycle Cup…
“Electric mobility is important and we have decided to take the bull by the horns, with the purchase of the rights from the FIM. There are four main points. They will be all the same bikes with one brand (Energica), I will not let them increase the cost of technology, they will recharge the batteries in an ecological way and they will be used by the best teams in the world, with those of MotoGP , some from Moto2 and one from Moto3. We will do our best for three years and then we will see. I would like it to be about “all-out” racing, whatever the turns, and not about saving batteries, with adequate drivers and maximum television coverage. This will take place between the MotoGP warm up and the Moto3 race. The circuit will be complete and with our TV.
The batteries are lithium, not lead, and later they will be made of graphene. The main problem today is that motorcycles are heavy. When we get more power from the batteries, instead of doing more laps, we will make the bikes lighter. We don't want any other brands at this time. There will be circuits where we will not be able to go because on the long straights the batteries will be drained. In 2019, we will go to five European circuits which we will announce mid-year. We are testing on the circuits and I plan races between five and eight laps. »
