Is MotoGP next??

BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula One | Global crisis ends Honda F1 era


another article mentioned that they're cutting 700 jobs at 4 plants including one motorcycle plant.

I am wondering how much budget a MotoGP team needs for a season to be in the running.

[setanta]

Same thought here

[madkaw]

Isn't it something like $5-7million?

[lanbrown]

Honda spent a lot of money on F1 and had nothing to show for it. If you are lookin to trim costs and invest where it makes sense, then that would be the first to go. If they were leading F1, they would not be leaving.

The motorcycle plant is probably the one in the US. This was announced about a year ago that it will be converted to car parts and the motorcycle functions moved to a new plant in Japan.

Originally Posted by madkaw

Isn't it something like $5-7million?

No, that sounds more like a Satellite team. The factory teams spend a lot more than that but it's no where near F1 costs, not even in the same ballpark.

But you also wonder about cost of racing vs the equivalent income.
Honda bikes are under a different section to cars, so its quite possible that the MotoGP costs are about the same percentage of income as the F1 was to the car section.

Ok - probably not! The F1 is bloody expensive.

I am thinking that MotoGP is a better advertisement tool than F1.

I figure that a competitive bike will attract more buyers than a great F1 racer because of association. I see the bike, I see it win, I want one and get a bike that looks just about like it, and I become a racer just like a MotoGP rider.
As for a F1 racer - I see it and can't match it to anything similar that Honda currently offers on the road.

However, the thought of a soccer mom van with F1 technology is intriguing.

Originally Posted by FB1000inPA

I am thinking that MotoGP is a better advertisement tool than F1.

I figure that a competitive bike will attract more buyers than a great F1 racer because of association. I see the bike, I see it win, I want one and get a bike that looks just about like it, and I become a racer just like a MotoGP rider.
As for a F1 racer - I see it and can't match it to anything similar that Honda currently offers on the road.

However, the thought of a soccer mom van with F1 technology is intriguing.

Either way you are selling the brand.

While a cbr1000 looks closer to a motogp bike (and performs closer than any car does to a F1), if you think there is any relationship between winning at Motogp and the bike you ride then you have been suckered in!

[lanbrown]

I wouldn't go that far. if they find a way to get better power to the ground doe to suspension geometry, then I you will see it on a production bike. Our engines are also making more power than the MotoGP bikes did 10 to 15 years ago. So, some of what they have learned has been brought to the street.

Sure technology trickles down over time.
But the "buy the R1 because Yamaha won MotoGP" is strange logic - based pretty much on image only, not due to any relationship between the road bike and the race bike.
At best you might argue - buy the R1 because Yamaha won 10 years ago.

[lanbrown]

I will agree that the technology trickles down. In F1, it will take a lot of time. The engine technology, not likely as the power is too peaky and the revs are too high and the mileage would be horrible.

Originally Posted by dicknose

Either way you are selling the brand.

While a cbr1000 looks closer to a motogp bike (and performs closer than any car does to a F1), if you think there is any relationship between winning at Motogp and the bike you ride then you have been suckered in!

I understand and maybe that might be true for you and me and we choose our bikes according to our criteria. However, many folks are not as informed as others when it comes to motorcycle technology. For them it counts that the same bike from a specific company won the MotoGP championship last year. They might not even know what MotoGP is and how it works and that the bikes in stores are not the same but what it says to these folks is that the bike must be better than the one that was in second place.