What if a team decided to change BIKES mid season. Forget the contract ramifications for a moment. If a team changed bike makes, would the rider still earn points toward the championship?
Even more ridiculous, could a rider qualify with one make, and then race with another?
This all has to do with the book I started writing a while back.
Im not sure how the current rules read, but I know in the past it can and has been done. IIRC, one guy won the endurance title a few years back having finished the season with a different team. And back in the early days of GP racing it wasnt too uncommon
What if a team decided to change BIKES mid season. Forget the contract ramifications for a moment. If a team changed bike makes, would the rider still earn points toward the championship?
Even more ridiculous, could a rider qualify with one make, and then race with another?
This all has to do with the book I started writing a while back.
It would not be a problem as long as it was contractually permitted which I seriously doubt it would be today unless there was a material breach on behalf of either the team or the manufacturer that would enable the parties to sign elsewhere. Highly unlikely though. Honda, for example, leases their bikes over the course of a one year agreement which includes the supply of updates, spare parts, etc. I would imagine that all this is typically paid for, in advance, by the team which in turn got most of the money from its sponsors who naturally paid for a SPECIFIC bike and rider combination that corresponds in turn to their own marketing/advertising program. That means that if a team had a legal basis to extricate itself from a lease agreement with Honda, it would still have to:
a.) get permission from their sponsor(s) to do so,
b.) get more money from their sponsor(s) to pay for/lease bikes from another manufacturing source,
c.) find a way (if any) to recover monies from their original deal (which would have to paid back to any sponsor that was dumb enough to fork over additional funding way above and beyond the original sponsorship agreement,
d.) find and manufacturer willing and able to supply bikes, parts and support in the middle of the season, and
e.) get permission from Dorna to make the change.
I really could not realistically see it happening as their are far too many contractual moving parts in the equation. Even if it was someone like Rossi, it would require a truly bizarre conversion of events for such a scenario to be even remotely possible.
What if a team decided to change BIKES mid season. Forget the contract ramifications for a moment. If a team changed bike makes, would the rider still earn points toward the championship?
Even more ridiculous, could a rider qualify with one make, and then race with another?
Simple answers to simple questions:
1. Yes
2. No. Not permitted by rules. You have to race what you qualify.
What if you had mini Mike Ditka vs. Mohammed on Schwinns?
-Rocky-
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Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
I remember reading someplace that a rider( I'm thinking Kato or Haga? maybe) ran two different brands of tire for a few races during a switch over because one the new supplier didn't have a suitable compound. anybody have the skinny on that?
sorry to thread jack, but it's sorta in tha same ballpark.
I remember reading someplace that a rider( I'm thinking Kato or Haga? maybe) ran two different brands of tire for a few races during a switch over because one the new supplier didn't have a suitable compound. anybody have the skinny on that?
sorry to thread jack, but it's sorta in tha same ballpark.
I think that may have been Rainey. Dunlop and Michelin.
I remember reading someplace that a rider( I'm thinking Kato or Haga? maybe) ran two different brands of tire for a few races...
That was Luca Cadalora. They (Team Roberts Yamaha, Wayne was his teammate) were having problems with the Dunlop...front? Or rear? I don't remember which, but Dunlop let them buy customer Michelins to try and Luca wound up running one of each for a couple races. If I remember correctly, he won a race on that combination.
I think that may have been Rainey. Dunlop and Michelin.
Yup, Rainey and Caladora on the Team Roberts bikes. The Kobe earthquake in japan damaged Dunlop's motorcycle race tire production facilities, so they excepted dunlop teams and riders from their contracts until they could make repairs.
I remember seeing a pic in a mag of a Roberts bike with DUNLOP in big letters on the front fender, and MICHELIN on the tire sidewall.
That was Luca Cadalora. They (Team Roberts Yamaha, Wayne was his teammate) were having problems with the Dunlop...front? Or rear? I don't remember which, but Dunlop let them buy customer Michelins to try and Luca wound up running one of each for a couple races. If I remember correctly, he won a race on that combination.
1995, I'm thinking?
bingo! wtf was I thinking? still I thought that was an interesting story.
Yup, Rainey and Caladora on the Team Roberts bikes. The Kobe earthquake in japan damaged Dunlop's motorcycle race tire production facilities, so they excepted dunlop teams and riders from their contracts until they could make repairs.
I remember seeing a pic in a mag of a Roberts bike with DUNLOP in big letters on the front fender, and MICHELIN on the tire sidewall.
That's right, the Kobe earthquake. Yer good!
I'm thinking Wayne elected to run the Dunlops and only Luca raced with the Michelin front, which is why he beat Wayne in a couple races. Was that right? Or is my mind inserting facts that don't exist?
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