Dorna and the FIM recently confirmed that Indonesia will hold a MotoGP and WorldSBK round beginning 2021. The site chosen is in Lombok.
However, when the announcement said that it’ll be the first MotoGP “street circuit,” the news attracted the same kind of negativity in social media as everything else. There were comments such as, “If it’s going to get riders killed then they shouldn’t ride there.”
Hey, guess what? Dorna and the FIM have better brains than armchair engineers.
The skepticisms were addressed directly by Mark Huges of MRK1 Consulting along with RoadGrip Motorsport. The two international companies were appointed by the Indonesian Tourism Development Corporation (IDTC) to plan, build and run the circuit.
“We are very conscious that when we announced this project there was a reasonable amount of scepticism about the concept of a street circuit,” Hughes said, during a presentation of the project at the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix.
“We have to make very clear that the track has been designed and will be built to the appropriate FIM safety standards for MotoGP.”
Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta also said that they will not compromise with safety.
“We’ve always said that we don’t race in a street circuit, but this has all the facilities of a street circuit – in a middle of a ‘city’, all the hotels will be there – but with full security (safety) for the riders,” declared Ezpeleta.
The Lombok circuit isn’t like other “street circuits” that we know of, for example Monaco and Macao. Instead, it is purpose-built for racing but opened to the public after the race. That means it is opposite of Monaco and Macao where public roads are cordoned off for racing.
“The master plan for the resort [layout] was actually finished before we got involved. And then between Roadgrip, MRK1 and ITDC we’ve tweaked that track design,” Hughes said.
“We knew we couldn’t go in and entirely change it, there had already been too much invested in that, and with the support of Dorna and also the FIM we then made some small changes to accommodate the safety requirements for a Grade A license.”
“When you arrive for the race event it will be like arriving at any other MotoGP track. It will have all the infrastructure there,” Hughes added. “But a large percentage of that infrastructure would then come out in order to turn the track back into a road network for the resort for the rest of the year.”
Infrastructure at the track will also be turned over for public use when there are no races. For example, the pit building will be used as a conference centre.
So, this is why the track is called “something special.”
Forward Racing has unveiled the MV Agusta F2 Moto2 race bike.
It signifies the return of the Italian marque after a 42-year absence in GP racing. Forward Racing has a new title sponsor hence the change in colour scheme from black to red/white and the team being officially called MV Agusta Idea Lavoro Forward Racing.
The F2 features MV Agusta’s red-painted steel trellis frame mated to an aluminium swingarm. Suspension is supplied by Öhlins and the engine is the new Triumph 765cc triple.
Team riders Stefano Manzi and Dominique Aegerter unveiled the F2 alongside Giacomo Agostini’s MV Agusta 500cc 4-cylinder championship winning bike.
The team had first signed Romano Fenati to ride the bike this year. However, Fenati went to on to grab Manzi’s front brake lever at Misano after trading hard passes on track. He was immediately dropped from his old Moto2 team and banned for the entire season. MV Agusta CEO Giovanni Castiglioni followed up by declaring that he will not allow Fenati to ride his bikes.
The team will join other Moto2 contenders at the first pre-season tests at the Jerez Circuit in Spain from 20th February and the final test at Losail in Qatar from 1st March. The 2019 MotoGP season kicks off on 10th March.
Sepang International Circuit (SIC) CEO, Dato’ Razlan Razali offers an opportunity to Malaysian rider Khairul Idham Pawi in the Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team in the MotoGP championship.
Khairul Idham Pawi shocked the world when he won two Moto3 races in his debut season in 2016. He was Malaysia’s first GP race winner in any category. Both wins came during wet races, but he didn’t score well in dry races. However, he was moved up to the Moto2 category in 2017 where he languished in the tail end of the field.
As for 2019, he signed up with the Petronas Sprinta Racing Team and remains in Moto2.
Dato’ Razlan told Crash.net that Pawi had been moved to Moto2 too early. On the other hand, he’s positive that Pawi had learned a lot in those two years.
“He came to visit our Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team in Valencia. We showed him around and said, ‘look, you have two years to do something because we want you to be our first Malaysian MotoGP rider in this team.’”
Dato’ Razlan hopes that “pep talk” will spur Pawi to perform his best during the 2019 season, as there is a path for progression in the team.
Besides Hafizh Syahrin riding for the Tech 3 KTM team this year, having a Malaysian rider riding for a Malaysian team will die the country’s fans much to cheer for.
Watch this space for the official launching of the Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team (MotoGP) and Petronas Sprinta Racing Teams in Moto2 and Moto3 on 28thJanuary.
Para penunggang Moto2 telah pun menguji enjin Moto2 Triumph 2019.
Para pasukan Moto2 kemudiannya akan membina kerangka motosikal untuk enjin ini.
Namun, berapa banyak kuasa kuda yang boleh dihasilkan oleh enjin perlumbaan ini?
All helmets in MotoGP, Moto3, Moto2 must conform to a new FIM standard.
Although there is still contention to whether this ruling is beneficial, there may be a positive aspect to it. Current helmet manufacturers may seek a certain safety certification, although most, if not all, conform to the ECE 22.06 standard. However, a manufacturer may produce helmets to conform primarily to other standards. Current helmet certification are standards JIS (Japan), Snell Foundation, DOT (American) and so forth.
For example, AGV and HJC (among others) conform primarily to the ECE 22.06 standard. Arai helmets need to pass the tougher Snell Foundation tests, on the other hand.
Each standard has different testing methods to qualify for certification.
With the new FIM mandate in place, helmets from AGV, Arai, Bell, HJC, Scorpion, Shark, Shoei, Suomy, X-Lite, et al need to conform to a single standard.
The FIM has not provided the parametres of their tests, however. But we can expect the helmets will be tested for a variety of criteria such as impacts at low, medium and high speeds as well as penetration.
An FIM-certified helmet will receive a hologram label with QR code. The QR code allows race officials to scan, identify and track each helmet used in competition.
The FIM hopes that such measures will result in truly race-tested helmets making their way to consumers.
Romano Fenati will return to the Moto3 championship in 2019.
Fenati gained infamy when he grabbed Stefano Manzi’s front brake lever at the San Marino GP in September this year. In the firestorm that followed, Dorna slapped a Fenati with a two-race ban. The FIM banned Fenati for the rest of the season, on the other hand. His Marinelli Snipers Moto2 gave him the marching orders.
If that wasn’t enough, the Forward Racing Team which is slated to campaign with MV Agusta in Moto2 in the 2019 season also dropped him. Soon, MV Agusta’s Boss, Giovanni Castiglioni tweeted that he will not allow Fenati to ride his bikes.
Moto2: MV Agusta Cancels 2019 Moto2 Contract with Romano Fenati
Ironically, Stefano Manzi is the current and future rider in the Forward Racing Team. He would’ve been Fenati’s teammate next year. It was later established that Manzi had provoked Fenati. Was Manzi playing mind games to establish the pecking order?
Anyway, Fenati announced that he’d leave racing and concentrate on continuing his studies.
But MotoGP.com has just dropped a bombshell by announcing that Fenati’s Marinelli Snipers team has re-employed him for the 2019 Moto3 season. The team has just signed on Tony Arbalino, thus Fenati will be his teammate.
Marinelli Snipers has good reasons to re-sign Fenati as the fiery Italian took 23 podium finishes with 10 wins in the starter class. He finished second overall in 2017, after all.
The team and Fenati have not made official announcements, but we expect that to happen at the final round at Valencia this weekend.
On a personal note, we hope that Romano Fenati puts his raw talent to greater use and keep his temper in check. This must be the very last chance he’d ever get.
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