Kawasaki has not yet made it official but the news is flying all over the European web sites that Kawasaki is pulling out of MotoGP. Evidently, the same high costs of racing while doing business in a slow economy that have prompted Honda to pull out of Formula One and Subaru and Suzuki to pull out of the World Rally Championship have put sufficient pressure on Kawasaki to rethink racing in the premier series. An official announcement is expected soon.
Any guesses about who might be next?
Link: Gazzetta.it
Link: Tuttosport
Link: Motoblog.it
LADucSP says
this is a huge mistake. sales and development are going to suffer greatly. now that regulations align with street bike configurations, racing participation is essential for proper development and benchmarking with other manufacturers. the prestige and weekly exposure to buyers, supports product sales as well of course.
this is a myopic, shortsighted business decision. it’s flat wrong. guaranteed the decision was made by a bunch of MBAs.
this is also a shame for the series. the diversity we’ve seen over the past 5 years or so, since the switch to 4-strokes has been awesome.
honda’s making an enormous mistake with AMA, too. the U.S. is its biggest market, and they’re essentially saying: we can’t compete and we’re now irrelevant.
they better start winning in GP soon.
mototom says
those who stay the course will prosper. market share and mind share are related and if you don’t have the latter you will soon lose the former.
Thus spoke zarathustra
Stacy says
Hey, if AMA had a cookie cutter cruiser division, Honda would have won every race!
nic says
sadly… next would be the smallest company there, Ducati.
But Honda, as big as they are, have already pulled out of AMA and BSB citing economics reasons…and MotoGP is the biggest cash hog for them since they ALSO pulled out of F1! dont be surprised if we dont see a full grid in GP again for a couple of years
Earl says
Honda’s withdrawal from F1 was driven by shareholders. The compnay would have preferred to hang in there, due to prestige, marketing and being able to attract the best engineers. Probably much the same for other companies Kawasaki are a huge industrial corp, GP expenditure would be a drop in the corporate bucket, but not an especially productive one. Chalk one up for the beancounters.
chaz says
Kawasaki have had a resounding lack of success in MotoGP. The solution is to avoid more embarrassment by withdrawing, but blame it on the economy. If they were winning it would be easier to stay.
Steve Parker says
I would be strange if kawasaki pulled out of moto gp. They build ships, construction equipment and robotics; as well as the motorcycles. They should have plenty of money rolling in.
Dodgy says
I half expected this one… Kawasaki haven’t have never won a championship in the premier class (Kork Ballington won the 250/350 double in ’78 & ’79!), and their best results lately have been a second from Randy in the wet (Ant West may have even won except for a penalty?)
“It was a particularly special race for Kawasaki: the team’s first 800cc podium, the first podium this season, West leading a MotoGP for the first time and Yanagawa finally completing a premier class race. And all at the manufacturer’s home round.”
Kawasaki is the smallest of the Japanese factories, and either has the smallest budget, or are throwing a disproportionately large amount of cash at GP racing. Either way, they haven’t been getting the results to make it worthwhile.
Sponsorship is getting harder to find, and the situation isn’t likely to improve. (The main reason Ilmor never got off the ground?)
Moto GP has (unfortunately IMHO) followed F1 in trying to extract more performance by (simply) using more money (call it ‘technology’ if you like). When times are good that approach works OK, but when the money gets scarce the formula doesn’t allow for a ‘budget’ outfit,
It will be interesting to see if the original advocates of the 800 class, Honda, have a change of heart. Perhaps they will pull out too? Or maybe they will admit they have forced themselves and their competition into a corner?
Maybe they will realise that they can win every race if they are the only entrant, or maybe that the racing has become boring with the small ‘follow the leader’ field, and that the technology everyone is forced to use has worsened the racing, and the financial problems associated with it.
Time for a new class?
Here’s a ‘formula’ I would love to watch…
Let’s go back to 990’s (the factories can build new versions of the old bikes, saving $$)
No wheelie or launch control, and traction control can only be used in dangerous (wet) conditions.
A 15,000 RPM rev limit. Pneumatic valves should become unnecessary).
4 speed gearboxes. The (supposed) point of going to 800’s was to slow the bikes down, but the factories have simply extracted even more peak power, and compensated for the loss of flexibility with electronics. I drool at the idea of hearing a 200 hp engine wind up from 5,000 to 15,000 Rpm in top gear down the straight at Philip Island… (I can’t claim originality, Peter Clifford thought this up when Honda were pushing the 800 proposal).
And for anyone thinking that all the technology developed in GP racing benefits production vehicles, there is at least one exception. Pneumatic valves have never been used on any production vehicle AFAIK, cars or bikes. My guess is they never will.
tim says
Doesnt it just point up the irrelevance of MotoGP? Irrelevance to what you and I can buy I mean. I love the racing, but it seems to me that the premier “road relevant” class has to be WSBK. And I dont think anyones pulled out of that yet. In fact BMW, Aprilia and KTM (am I right about KTM?) are going INTO the class in 09.
Dodgy says
If Kawasaki put a quarter of their MotoGP budget into their WSBK effort they may just win…
Jason says
We’re doomed! But, this could be the time for smaller builders like Motoczysz to shine.
We should go back to the board track racing days. Fairly fast basic bikes, no brakes and splinters.
Jim says
OMG! The sky is falling! The sky is falling! The sun won’t rise tomorrow because manufacturers are pulling out of racing series. Development of motorcycles will stop and we’ll be condemned forever to ride R1’s, CBR 600’s and Duc 1198’s.
JSH says
I agree with others that the reason Kawasaki is withdrawing from Moto GP is their lack of success. Current economic conditions allow them an excuse.
Honda did the same thing with F1. Honda has spent billions of dollars and years of development to run around the track in the middle of the pack. Honda is a company that competes to win and instead of doubling down they threw in the towel.
I disagree with those that say we should limit technology in the upper classes. Technology is why F1 and Moto GP are the pinnacle of their respective type of racing. These are the venues were manufactures are allowed to show off their technological might. When you strip out the cutting edge technology your are left with a form a racing that is inferior to production based racing. What is the point of a class that races prototypes with nothing in common with production machines if you strip away the technology?
Earl says
What I’d really like to see is every Moto GP rider competing on Manx Nortons.
VMX1000 says
Matchless G50, Norton Manx, Seeleys, sigh, I love the old singles… Motogp started loosing focus when the 1000cc were swapped in favor of 800cc. They should go back to more primitive material with no electronic gadgets whatsoever, then we would have some serious racing again! And small teams, on limited budgets, would be able to participate, just like in the old days! :o)
Mike Holgate says
Both F1 and Moto GP have to be the ultimate technical exercise. That’s why they exist – so that teams and manufacturers can demonstrate their technical prowess, their organisational ability and their political savvy. For the likes of Honda it’s always been linked to sales. Success on the track sells products. Lack of success is therefore a problem – it may be better to withdraw temporarily than to get beaten by smaller. more focussed operations such as Ducati. Kawasaki has been a fringe player for so long now that their withdrawal will save millions and stop their reputation getting tarnished any further. Whether they will stay on in WSBK if things do not improve soon will be interesting, but it takes a real optimist to forecast success in 2009.
Den says
It is a pity to see these teams pull out of racing, I know Honda was not particularly successful at F1 and Suzuki only just started WRC, but they did use their participation to great effect in advertising and marketing. I do not think Honda would have pulled out of F1 if the old man was still around, in fact I think they would have changed tactics and started winning, he was just too keen and innovative, this still shows in some parts of the company.
I hope that pulling out of these premier classes does not have too much of an affect on the new types of racing that are emerging like the Isle Of Man TTXGP; http://www.ttxgp.com/, as this is the future. I think though, that alas it will.
Racing is more fun with more variety. To me Australian touring car racing got boring when the premier class went to rear wheel drive V8s, there are now two manufacturers, and it would be sad to see the same thing happen across the board.
Why not slow down the bikes by bringing back the 500cc class, we have enough technology now that it would still be very fast and maybe it would bring more interest back to the mid sized bikes that are on the show room floor.
hoyt says
It is difficult to think if Kawasaki was winning that they would pull the plug, regardless if GP cost a lot or not. They might catch more heat for pulling out if they were winning.
Just goes to show, you have to produce results, otherwise it is too easy for those in charge to turn the other way.
Hopefully, Dorna’s “crisis meeting” is also talking about their mistake to replace the 250cc class with the 600 cc class, which further reduced manufacture variety. KTM and Aprilia do not have a 600 cc platform so why would they take that class away from KTM and Aprilia?
aaron says
alice(pramac) ducati is out now too… http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/555/2092/Motorcycle-Article/MotoGP–Alice-Out–Canepa-to-Onde-2000.aspx
Zac says
Economy too tough for Kawasaki? I don’t think so:
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Ninja sales rocket by 400%
By MCN News Desk
Consumer news
27 December 2008 09:00
Kawasaki has honoured one of the Black Horse finance team for helping Ninja sales rocket by more than 400%.
Black Horse account manager Billy Bryce was instrumental in driving sales of the ZX-10R and ZX-6R by coaching sales people and helping create information for showrooms.
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