I would be remiss in my position as esteemed Lanesplitter contributor and chief MotoGP correspondent not to point out that a 2017 Ducati D16 GP does not a 2011 Ducati GP11 make. That bike Rossi went to was utter garbage and it took Audi and Phillip Morris money plus 4 years of restructuring and redesigning with the…

Please forgive us!

Also, thanks for the clarification, I guess I will plead artistic license in using wrong graphics in order to keep the black-stripe theme, and also that if I were to time travel and spend the money on a 997.2 GT3RS 4.0 and didn’t like the graphics I would certainly get my way and have them put on…

I did the illustrations for this project, and this was the model that I went back and forth on most. The color is actually Chartreuse (I missed that typo). So it was a special order color, and the 997.2 had optional graphics. You could get the car with the older 997.1 logos.

In the interest of showing the more classic…

Your next article: This Icon Airframe Broke My Collarbone I Hate Lindsay Arrghhhhh

For what it’s worth, I 1000% stand behind the AGV Pista/Corsa.

A week or so ago Ducati and Honda tested at Jerez. Ducati was doing really, really well. Redding was a tenth off of Marquez, followed by Iannone and Petrucci. Marquez I think had the fastest single lap but Honda have major issues with the tires dropping off. He highsided pretty badly and wasn’t happy with electronics…

Yeah, the EVO slicks have a new, more Dunlop-profiled front tire which is great for trail braking. And the compound is pretty awesome. I considered making the switch (I race an R6) but for Superstock 600 some clubs still require DOT tires. When it comes to those, Dunlop GP Pros get my vote... I burn up Pirellis too…

I feel sorry for you.

I’ve been saying that for years. Along with a change to underfloor-biased aero and different tires.

Bridgestone was sole tire supplier since 2009. It’s not a great gig, you have to pay for that position and then give all your product away for free. The payoff being (you hope) good PR for your brand.

It’s to stop development of electronics to get so far out of hand that no one even has a chance. Honda literally have an army of data engineers, way more than anyone else. With the current price of racing a global series, it’s much smarter to reinvest in your product to make it more sustainable, while also making the…

To be fair, not only have Ducati worked their ass off with Gigi Dall’ingna, but any independent manufacturer was able to submit proposals for this. Everyone agreed upon Magneti Marelli hardware. It wasn’t a conspiracy.

2015 had 25 full-time riders. One slot was in jeopardy to be removed due to lack of results (no matter what team it was) and I believe it’s Karel Abraham’s that has been removed (the team are switching to WSBK). Dorna want to keep 24-rider grids. For a while it was feared Factory Aprilia would lose one of their slots…

For our R1 and R1M review I got to ride the new Michelin Power Slick Evo tires and they were totally awesome. More rear grip than Dunlop KR448 slicks but a really similar front tire that felt great (and familiar).

Aprilia is already in, and totally revamping their bike (RS-GP) for 2016.

True. But you know what they say: #yolo

No one has a budget to do actually open-regs racing. There’s too much risk involved in going down the wrong path. As romantic as we might want it to be, the reality is: whoever does the best design will quickly be copied and whoever has the money to execute that design best will generally be in a better place.

“And as for money spent to success, sure, bigger teams tend to be more successful. But there are times when they aren’t. Brawn GP in F1 is the easiest example- didn’t win as Honda, won as Brawn (bought for a dollar, no sponsors), then was Mercedes, and didn’t win for years.”

It’s still early days, but generally I think:

Sean MacDonald, please find budget for this. I promise it isn’t a lot (just... shhh... don’t look.)