Ducati withdraws from World Superbike in 2011

[deanp]

Ducati signs Rossi and drops out of World Superbike for the 2011 season.

16 mfg titles in the series in 22 years, have now decided to limit participation to supplying and supporting private teams.

They'll never say it was the cause, but just how much is the Rossi deal worth?

In other news - was good to see Yamaha officially announce the move of Spies to the factory team for 2011.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Bummer

Money?

[deanp]

Claiming they want to focus on moving technology from MotoGP to street faster, that World Superbike was moving more towards prototype based and away from production based - at the end of the day everyone is going to question just how much the 2 year contract for Rossi in MotoGP is worth.

Ducati Will Not Run Factory Team In 2011 Superbike World Championship News Article // RoadracingWorld.com

[gtc]

Sounds like Citroen dropping out of WRC for 2006.. Loeb still dominated as a privateer.

[Zeke]

So, what happens to Rossi?

[Jeff Higgins]

Rossi rides Moto GP, Milt, sorta like the "Formula One" of motorcycles. Purpose built bikes with no production counterparts. World Superbike is supposed to be production based, like ALMS GT racing. It's where the manufacturers show their wares on their street bikes (although it's drifted a bit from there). They are two entirely different venues for racing motorcycles. In other words, Rossi still has a ride next year, and Ducati is pulling out all the stops to make sure it's a championship ride. The reason it is big news that Ducati is pulling out of the production based WSB series is that they were one of the founding marques, and are a kind of Johnny-come-lately to Moto GP. It would be like Porsche dropping GT racing to go into F1.

[Zeke]

I was always confused by the various series. Way back when I had more interest, it was Grand Prix or AMA. We had one Grand Prix in the US similar to the F1 arraignment world wide, one per country. AMA had lots of series, I think all stateside with Daytona being the coming together of all the factions once a year.

It's almost hard to keep track of ALMS and Daytona Protoypes. Throw in a bunch of Porsches and the field looks pretty much the same until you look more closely at the top class.

Glad Rossi has his ride. He should be spectacular as usual. I wonder if Spies will be up to speed.

[Jeff Higgins]

Yup, I grew up with motorcycle grand prix as well. There was a 125, 250, 350, and 500 world championship, and they were all "grand prix". AMA started "superbike" in the '70's as a production based series for its top pro's, then the FIM started the "World Superbike" series because the AMA's was so succesful.

Somewhere along the way, they dropped "grand prix" from the motorcycling lexicon. I'm not sure when that happened - I wasn't paying attention anymore for a couple decades. When I started watching again, the 500 class was gone, along with the nasty two strokes running in it, and four stroke bikes were running "Moto GP". I don't know if it was a marketing thing, a trademark thing, or what. It does get confusing.

[deanp]

World Superbike seems to have had better racing this year and the field grew. MotoGP, while the pinnacle of the sport, has a shrinking field. Kawasaki is gone and Suzuki may as well be.

Haga, Fabrizio and Ducati would have absolutely dominated last year if it wasn't for Spies. I guess that's what is surprising - they fell off the pace a bit this year - but won the manufacturer's title 16 out of 22 years in World Superbike.

[holtjv]

Rossi must have been the deciding factor in leaving WSB; motogp is seems so dead now--look at the grid size!

But Haga has had a terrible year, to be sure and not sure why. Anyone know?

[Noah930]

What I've heard is that Ducati is unhappy with World Superbike's governing body. Rossi's MotoGP salary is largely being picked up by Marlboro.

Ducati is unhappy with the air restrictors (something like 48 mm smothering their 60 mm throttle bodies) and added weight penalties. In the meantime, Aprilia is getting away with running chain-driven cams on their race bikes, while their street bikes (as this is a production-based series) are have belt-driven cams. Aprilia made that change after the season started.

So Ducati is down on HP and up on weight (or, rather, their weight advantage from running a twin as opposed to a four cylinder motor is not as significant as it used to be) based upon mid-season legislated rules. So Ducati is threatening (posturing?) to bail from WSB, which they've dominated since 1989. Or something like that. It's not about finances surrounding Rossi.

[Oracle]

Rossi will drive F1 next year. Massa is out... just wait and see...