Goose, we need you!

Sepang is always an interesting race. It comes at the time in the season when, mathematically, championships can be won, and lost. At the beginning of the weekend there were three riders who stood a chance of taking home the inaugural Moto3 honours; Sandro Cortese, Luis Salom and Maverick Vinales. However Maverick Vinales has removed himself from the running by refusing to race for his team, Blusens Avintia, due them being “a second division team,” and perhaps more importantly the fact that his manager, who is also the team manager of said “second division team”, had failed to inform him of other offers for next year. The situation is further complicated as Vinales had signed a two year contract (one year in Moto3 and one year in Moto2) with the Blusens team.

Most people understand that a formal contract, such as one outlining your employment for the next two years, is legally binding and breaking it without evidence of negligence on behalf of the contract provider. Even considering that there are most likely other factors involved in the split, it’s hard to see how Vinales will be able to break the contract without legal repercussions, most likely having to pay a sizable amount of money. Dorna, the parent company of MotoGP, may even take it upon themselves to deal with Vinales, although what they would do is much harder to predict. Some possible options are a ‘ban’ from riding for the two years that the contract would have been in affect, ‘You ride for us, or no one.’ This depends on how the contract is worded and perhaps more importantly how good the lawyers are for each side, if it does reach that stage.

There are much broader implications for Vinales too, the most severe being the risk to his career. Even for a teenager Maverick has proved himself to be a hot headed and despite being very quick on a motorcycle it makes him much less attractive to prospective teams. Many talented riders such as Cortese, Marquez and Lorenzo have been known to be hot heads on the track, especially in their younger days. But few of them openly walked away from contracts or refused to ride, their situation may have been slightly different but the point stands.

This incident also bring up the idea of a rider union, a collective of riders and legal representatives who ensure fair practice amongst the teams. There are several problems with this however, first there is the issue of funding. Teams are currently struggling for funding and this union would require funding, and probably a lot of it, but there is almost no where for the money to come from, apart from the pocket’s of the riders. This would be very unlikely as the majority of riders struggle to get paid as it is. There is also the issue of getting a ride being almost as competitive as riding the ride. This fact would potentially make riders less likely to join as they may feel that by helping another rider to get a ride it stops them obtaining one too.

It is likely that whatever happens Vinales will be back next season, probably in Moto3 aboard a KTM based bike. But it will take time to see how this issue plays out for both Vinales and Blusens and if any legal action is taken. It will also take time to see if Vinales’ career is in fact hindered by his antics because regardless of who the blame lies with walking out of a contract and with three races to go is not the proper way to handle a contractual dispute. Just as it is unprofessional for teams to release riders without valid reasons and proof so too is it unprofessional for riders to break contract without valid reasons and proof. 

However a further spanner has been thrown into the works as some Spanish journalists are reporting that Vinales may be in Australia, most likely to ride the bike in the hope that he will be able to terminate the contract in a more amicable way. Yet this too creates potential problems as it may make people view Vinales as a hot head, as mentioned before. There may also be the issue of how the legal troubles, if there are any, will play on the young Spaniards mind. We’ve already seen him falter under pressure at various stages and all these troubles could add to his problems. We saw in 2007 that Valentino Rossi struggled on track while dealing with off track legal troubles, and he had already won five of his premier class titles, unlike the young Vinales.

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Spies Leaves Yamaha and Silly Season Explodes

Just a few days ago it seemed as though silly season had settled down and the only change we'd see was Casey replaced by Repsol golden boy Marc Marquez. Then Spies announced he would be leaving Yamaha at the end of the season. Spies cited a "litany" of reasons for his departure from Yamaha and had previous tweeted about ending up "back where w(h)ere we are meant to be!" all of this sparking a storm of discussions about the subsequent changes in rider line ups for the 2013 season.

As always, the main subject of conversation was Valentino Rossi. For months rumors have floated around about the return of the 'G.O.A.T' to the Yamaha factory squad, that had for years helped him to accomplish greatness. At current Yamaha doesn't have the budget to pay both Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi and as such it seems that Rossi would have to bring a large, probably title, sponsor with him. For this there have been two main candidates, the first is Marlboro who currently sponsor the Ducati Corse team. This seems to be the least likely as sponsoring two factory teams is a stretch even for a company like Philip-Morris, especially considering they can't be named or shown on the bike itself. If Marlboro were to back Rossi completely then Ducati, even with support from Audi, would be left without enough money to compete in GPs, meaning that there would be 8 prototype bikes on the grid, four from Yamaha and four from Honda. If this scenario were to happen it would surely result in the death of GP as we know it, something the fans and Dorna don't want to happen. It's for this reason that the Marlboro sponsored Rossi seems unlikely.

A more likely possibility is that Monster will switch from supporting the satellite Tech 3 team and sponsorship the factory team, and pay much of Valentino's salary. Monster already pay Rossi a hefty sum as their logo not only features at the front of his hat, but also on the hat of the cartoon version of himself that adorns his Ducati and various other merchandise. Monster would most likely continue their sponsorship of Tech 3, although in a slightly reduced manor, as young Brit Bradley Smith is also sponsored by the energy drink giant and has a 'contract' to ride in the Tech 3 squad next year.

 The only slight conflict if Monster were to become the primary Yamaha sponsor would be that of Jorge's Rockstar sponsorship. Rockstar would likely bow out and find another rider to sponsor as Rockstar's reported net income last year was $48 Million, compared to Monster's $286.2 Million.

There are many permutations of Monster sponsoring Rossi and/or Yamaha, but this seems far more likely than the sponsorship of Marlboro. Despite the likelihood of this anything could still happen. Yamaha don't need Rossi to win another title, they have Jorge, and as such may take a cheaper Italian such as Andrea Dovizioso, who has shown excellent form on the Tech 3 bike, to fill the second seat. Or they could choose British fan favourite Cal Crutchlow who was meant to have a Ducati contract signed by Mugello. The Italian press is flooded with 'news' of 'deals' between Rossi and Yamaha and Ben's step away from the factory team seems to support this, but as with all things in silly season it is impossible to know what will happen. In all likelihood there are probably only 10 people who know for sure who will be taking the Yamaha seat next season, and none of them are about to talk before an official press release.

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