3 replies to this topic

[Locai]

Would somebody mind explaining to me who owns and who runs the MotoGP & WSBK teams. And the AMA teams for that matter.

I know that there are "factory" teams and "privateer" teams. What exactly is the factory's involvment with the "factory" teams. Are the "privateer" teams running showroom bikes with some "go fast" parts or are they ground-up race bikes.

Are the riders signed to the factory or to the team?

I know these may seem like stupid questions, but I'm still puzzled by the whole thing. I'm just trying to gain a little clarity. And maybe there's a lot more people out there like me who just don't want to admit it!

[lulup]

That's very simple,the "factory teams" are owned by the factories directly.;)

Team - Owner :
Factory Teams :
Repsol Honda - Honda
Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha - Yamaha
Marlboro Ducati - Ducati
Suzuki - Suzuki
Kawasaki - Kawasaki
Aprilia - Aprilia

Private Teams :
Telefonica Movistar - Fausto Gresini (ex-125 World Champion)
Camel Honda Pons - Sito Pons (ex-250 World Champion)
Pramac Honda (Tamada) - Pramac (a Italian company who's the biggest client for Honda in Europe for industrial motors)
Tech 3 Yamaha - Herv?Poncharal (I don't know who's he)
D'Antin Ducati - Luis D'Antin (ex-250 rider)
WCM - Bob McLaren & ? (can't remember the other guy's name and I know nothing about this 2 guys)
Proton KR - Kenny Roberts (ex-500 World Champion)

Except WCM & Proton KR who built the bikes by themselves,all the private teams have close relationship with the factories (Honda,Yamaha,Ducati),their bikes (including technical support) are loan from the factories.

How fast or how up-date those "loan bikes" are are depend on the "contracts".Most are year-old bikes (D'Antin Ducati) or current-year bikes with no or lesser update parts.
1 thing for sure is that the riders in the "factory teams" are always the firsts to get the new parts.

[Locai]

Thank you for clearing that up!

That's what I figured. I thought that Repsol Honda was the factory Honda team. However, when I saw Biaggi showing up on the podium this year on a regular basis on a Camel Honda I started to get confused. I was thinking, "How is a privateer able to beat a factory rider?" Plus, I knew that the MotoGP bikes were not based on street-legal bikes, so I didn't know where the privateers got their equipment.

Are the WSBK bikes modified showroom bikes or are they ground-up custom built bikes that kinda-sorta resemble a showroom bike?

[lulup]

The WSB bikes are production-based bikes.
For example,Honda have to build a X-amount of road-going CBR1000RRs for homologation,and then Honda can modify the CBR1000RRs to race in WSB.The basic structure,engines' size & format and many other things in the bikes must be remain the same.(But there're still many things the factories can changes!)So,it's very important to have a nature-born good bike to be competitive in Superbike racing.

The small factories (mainly Ducati) have a huge advantage from this rule.Because there're 2 set of rules,1 for small factories which builds under X-amount (I can't remember the excalt numbers) of bikes overall per year;another 1 for large factories which builds over X-amount (I can't remember the excalt numbers) of bikes overall per year.
The small factories only have to builds at least 150 road-going version of the bikes for homologation.
The large factories have to builds at least 1000 road-going version of the bikes for homologation.

Which means Ducati can design a very expensive & specialize bike,and not to think about it's marketable or not.THe Ducati WSB bikes are basically semi-prototype bikes.
But when Honda,Yamaha,Suzuki & Kawasaki design their bikes,they've to compromises the design due to the marketing factors.

This is just 1 of the rules the FIM set to "help" Ducati.If you're wonders why Ducati is so good in WSB!