MotoGP: Summary of Factory, Factory 2, Open categories
Let's clarify the new rules of the Top Class
Let's try to clarify the MotoGP class regulations decided two days ago. Initially this year there were two categories, the office , Open. Subsequently, when Ducati decided to "embrace" the Open concept (24 liters against the 20 of the Factory ones, 12 engines against the 5 of the Factory ones with the possibility of development, extra-soft rubber and Dorna control unit) the other official Japanese manufacturers (Honda in first) they protested. In fact, the spirit for which the Open class was born was lost, that of reducing costs and which did not foresee official houses for this category.
We then decided on this solution:
A manufacturer with drivers entered under the Factory option who has not achieved a victory in dry conditions in the previous season, or a new manufacturer entering the Championship, is entitled to use 12 engines per driver per season (without freezing), 24 liters of fuel and the same tires as the Open category. This concession is valid until the start of the 2016 season. In practice the current Ducati, which will therefore be able to use its own control unit.
However, if a driver, or a combination of drivers nominated by the same Manufacturer, participating in the conditions described in the paragraph above, obtains one victory, two second places and three podiums in dry conditions during the 2014 season, for that Manufacturer the capacity of tank will be reduced to 22 litres. Furthermore, if the same manufacturer obtained three victories in the 2014 season, it would also lose the right to use the soft tires available in the Open category. It has also been decided that the Dorna control unit will be mandatory for everyone from 2016, but manufacturers will be able to participate in its development.
Below we summarize the current situation:
office
Marc Marquez – Dani Pedrosa – Honda
Jorge Lorenzo – Valentino Rossi – Yamaha
Pol Espargaro – Bradley Smith – Yamaha
Stefan bradl - Honda
Alvaro Bautista - Honda
Factory 2
Andrea Dovizioso – Cal Crutchlow – Ducati
Andrea Iannone – Yonny Hernandez – Ducati
Open
Aleix Espargarò -Colin Edwards – Yamaha FTR
Nicky Hayden – Hiroshi Aoyama – Honda
Scott Redding - Honda
Karel Abraham - Honda
Hector Barberà - Mike Di Meglio – Avintia
Michael Laverty – Broc Parkes – PBM
Danilo Petrucci – ART
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I don't understand why, but here we keep talking about factory 2 even though factory 2 nominally doesn't exist.
The categories remained the 2 initial ones, Factory and Open and Ducati returned to being part of the factories.
Having clarified this concept and having read the subdivision made in the article (I don't know to what extent official or personal), I have some doubts to express.
In the factory (2), all (and only) the Ducatis were included, including Hernandez's. If nothing has changed, Hernandez has a 2013 factory version Ducati at his disposal and not a 2014 one like the other 3.
Aleix Espargaro also has the 2013 factory version of the Yamaha.
Aleix's frame is a "copy" of the Yamaha frame, only nominally it is an FTR frame.
I believe that, if Hernandez can also suffer the limitations listed in the article, the same thing should also be extended to Aleix.
As I wrote some time ago, these new regulatory parts are not (as many claim) helping Ducati to recover, but they are confirmation that a Ducati (because it is the only manufacturer that can suffer those limitations) must not win the world championship , spin it however you want, but the gist is this.
In this race (Qatar), Ducati runs the risk, in the event of finding itself with the possibility of winning the GP first, of having to "give up" the victory.
I don't think that Ducati will have an actual chance of winning, let's be clear, but if this very small possibility transforms and becomes concrete, I really can't say if it could be useful to him (hell, debut with victory would be the best after 3 years really poor in satisfaction), or whether it is counterproductive.
Already after the first race, in case of victory, we would switch to 22 liters of petrol and 9 engines.
The problem would be, not so much for the 3 fewer engines, but for the 2 liters less for the rest of the world championship.
A victory (which I repeat, will not happen), in my opinion, at this moment, would be counterproductive and it would be truly pathetic to see a Ducati forced to give up the place and the victory to a rival bike due to a regulation "made with the feet" rather than using the head .
I have other doubts to express, but I think there are enough "irons in the fire".
I hope there is someone who wants to express their thoughts on the topics set out above.
Certainly the added regulation does not fully satisfy anyone.
One final clarification outside of the topics just outlined.
Honda is pissed off and has done everything to hinder both the birth of the Open class and the Open classes derived from the factories because it doesn't want to make its software public.
This year, as you well know, the Honda Open is equipped with an engine without pneumatic valves so it cannot properly exploit the software proposed by Ducati.
It has nothing to do with the supposed "excessive complexity" of the program which made it difficult to apply to other motorbikes which, according to the regulations, were not even obliged to use it.
Honda Open has its own software, logically approved by Dorna which I believe is also in use by other teams.
Honda has no intention of equipping its Open bikes with a "hydraulic" valve engine in the future because it absolutely does not want to make the management software for the valves themselves public knowledge.
Here is revealed the real reason for Honda's fussiness which has absolutely nothing to do with the "cost" of the bike.
Their motivation really has nothing to do with it, accusing Yamaha and Ducati of having distorted the real purpose of the new Open class.
They are only interested in being able to keep the issue of their management software secret.
I used Factory 2 for the sole purpose of making people understand the differences between Factory and Ducati. As for Aleix Espargarò, he is registered as Open, then it can be debated how much Open that bike has, but that's the facts.
Thanks for the clarifications.
In my opinion there could be, with this regulation we are trying to attract other manufacturers, and to keep the current ones who haven't won for a long time.
Giving an advantage even to the factories that don't win seems like a good thing to me. If Ducati or Suzuki or others return they will have a better chance of being competitive and of hoping to win some or at least go to the podium, an extra motivation of hope of competitiveness.
I don't think anyone with the possibility of bringing home a victory or a podium will put on the brakes and let someone else pass because of the regulations.
22 liters are enough and more than enough in my opinion even for a less renowned factory, they are 2 liters more than the Yamaha and Honda factories.
In my opinion, if they want to bring in other manufacturers they should keep these regulations for longer, perhaps with a single software and control unit.
As far as the software is concerned, in the end I believe that everything cannot be adapted to all bikes, a Ducati has the Desmo, a Honda has pneumatic valves on a V engine and the Yamaha has an inline engine, furthermore I believe that it is probable that the management of the engine braking and seamless gearbox for those who have it and who also need a dedicated piece of software.
Everyone would like to keep secrets about the software, but in my opinion you can hide a lot of functions, just add a multitude of useless things, put random variables without explaining what they are, to hide the important ones, it would take months, even years to understand what and how certain things work, especially because the software is dedicated to very specific components and types of engines, and without knowing what is attributed to what and why many things are not even understandable. It's like a computer program having the .EXE file doesn't allow you to see the code behind it and how it was built and why.