most of Rossi's sponsorship money goes straight into his wallet. Monster,AGV, Dainese, and the others are his sponsorships not the team's sponsorship. Maybe Fiat will join Marlboro and help with the cost off the team budget.
Steve Parish had talked abot how person sponsorships only help the rider gain money and don't do anything to help the team as far as funding or building.....and with money getting tight it can put a drain on the manufactures to stay in and race or reduce the number of bikes they put on the grid.
Right now Ducati is very lucky.....Marlboro covers their MotoGP budget. Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, all have sponorships but they use their own money as well to run their teams/develop bikes. If Ducati lost Marlboro and another sponsor did not come in and pick up the tab, I am pretty sure Ducati could not field a GP team or supply bikes to other teams.
The sponsorship money any rider gets might help offest the salary from the factory but we all know greed is out there.....Vermeulen is the only rider I know that was going to ride for free (no Factory salary) and just take in personal sponsorship money.
