MotoGP

Petronas Yamaha SRT has denied rumours and speculations that they are holding talks with Andrea Dovizioso who is the outgoing Ducatti rider, to join their team for the 2021 season. This is while they are seeming to have a stalemate with nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi who says he is ready to sign for the team. The Dovizioso rumours were dismissed by the Petronas Yamaha SRT boss Razlan Razali who took to social media to deny the allegations and rumours that they were holding talks with Dovizioso who is currenly seeking for a ride for the 2021 season after disclosing tha he will be parting ways with the Ducatti team at the end of the season. “Setting the record straight, we are not considering Dovi at all for 2021.” The Yamaha boss stated. The rumours had been going on for a couple of weeks but as well the rumours could just be a tactic to to rush Valentino Rossi and the Yamaha team to put the pen on paper for the 2021 season. There were speculations however that Dovizioso will be in the 2021 MotoGP season after he announced at a redbull event celebrating AlphaTauri’s Formula 1 win at Monza that he will be fighting for the championship come 2021. Well, this seems highly unlikely since the only remaining slots for the MotoGP 2021 are only Aprilia and Petronas Yamaha without considering Ducatti. Aprilia confirmed that they can’t afford Dovizioso as he is not ready to drop his asking price just to get a ride for 2021. There are speculations that there will be a major announcement this weekend at the San Marino Grand Prix as there are rumours that Valentino Rossi will be confirming his future in MotoGP after the race in his homeground. The contract delays with the Yamaha SRT have not only been evident due to finances but also the attempts to secure positions in the new team for his loyal crew. The veteran champion also requests for a full-factory specification bike besides a considerable salary. Yamaha on the other side pledged to support Valentino Rossi for 2021 even as the replaced him with Fabio Quartararo.

On August 15th, just a day before the Austrian grand prix Andrea Dovizioso made a shocking announcement that he was going to be parting ways with Ducatti team. The union that lasted for seven years did not rather end well as the rider said “There were no more conditions”. The 34-year-old went on to win the cup in Austria. Rumours have been going around on Andrea Dovizioso joining KTM Tech 3 as the Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal shot down the rumours that Andrea Dovizioso was going to replace Iker Lecuona who is a rookie in the team. Andrea Dovizioso had been asked out by the KTM team earlier on in the year but his price was quite high, even putting into consideration that the 2020 KTM RC16 proved to be very good this year. A similar price issue could have led to his ouster from the Ducatti team. Herve Poncharal(KTM Tech 3 boss) said he has not yet given up on the young rider who he believes is a star in the making. The Tech 3 boss has a very good reputation in spotting young talent, and Iker Lecuona proves it. “We told him all year that his job this year is to learn, We have Brad, Pol, and Miguel(Iker Lecuona’s teammates) and his job isn’t too compete with them,” Poncharal said. “He was only 19-years-old when he started testing, Of course, the first race in Jerez he stopped because of the heat, and I told him he needed to train more. The second race a stupid crash and I wasn’t angry, but I was unhappy.” “But even then Mike Leitner [works KTM team principal] was telling me that they could see on the data how fast he was, and it’s easier to calm down a fast rider than make a slow rider fast. We arrived in Brno and he did a perfect weekend, tried to pass Mir and made a mistake braking on the bumps and crashed and took Mir with him – and I thought ‘oh my god, three races and no finishes.” Herve added. “Then the media started to say that he needs to be better, that they’re going to kick him out for Dovi, we didn’t want to put him under too much pressure though, he went to Austria and he finished ninth, I was so happy. You can see his riding style is incredible too, and in the second race with more confidence it was coming you could see how close he was to Brad and Pol.” At the end the biggest mystery of where Andrea Dovizioso will land for 2021 season is still on, its believed there are talks with APrilia but finances might be an issue as the cant match with Ducatti and KTM. There are also news going round that Petronas Yamaha team may have reached out to Dovizioso and also securing in Valentino Rossi but tend to have problems in finalising the 9 time world champion.

Alpinestars have broken down data from Vinales Sunday near disaster during the MotoGP of Styria, in Austria which saw the 25-year-old jumping off his bike on lap 16 due to brake failure. The bike slammed into the air fence bursting into flames as he slid along the track into the gravel. Alpinestars have broken down the data of the incident which saw the Yamaha rider come out unscathed. A close look at the information shows that the rider was travelling at 218 km/h when he made a decision to jump off the bike as the built-in airbags deployed milliseconds before initial impact protecting the catalan as he hit the tarmac at over 20g. Vinales registered 23.45g while sliding along the tarmac which was quickly followed by another heavy impact which was well over 20g, as he continued to slide for another 4.8 seconds before slowing down to a tumble for 1.9 seconds. The airbag technology in the suit highly contributed to the safety of the Yamaha rider because he was immediately able to get back on his own feet. This was the second scary incident that the Monster Energy rider had been involved in, the first being a week prior as he was lucky to avoid  being hit by a flying motorcycle in the Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco crash.