Journalists Banned from Sepang Tests

It's the wrong direction. It's also a result of the MSMA opening Pandora's box of aerodynamic trickery. The go fast parts are visible now, and maybe the MSMA are paranoid about the possibility of corporate spying. They have banned everyone except the crew personnel and engineers.

It's sad what MotoGP is becoming. Everyone has some axe to grind regarding accessibility. If they aren't banning the press, they are banning fans on youtube and social media for sharing content outside of the official channels. Makes me wonder if the business model requires fan participation at all, especially after surveying the fans, and then moving the exact opposite direction of fan sentiment.

Maybe MotoGP is just a giant B2B and B2G backscratching exercise. Fans = nothing?

Due to backlash the ban has been reversed, but no access to the pit lane still.

UPDATE: MotoGP teams reverse media ban for Sepang Shakedown test

Sources say a 'Japanese manufacturer' requested it.

Glad they reversed. The press should be there. I don’t really fault any manufacturer for wanting to keep press cameras away from their aerodynamic parts.

It doesn’t cost much to pay people to take spy photos so you can analyze a competitors aero developments and techniques. Hard to do when no one can get into the facility.

The problem is Lex, is MotoGP as a sport just had a fan survey not 6 months ago to try and increase engagement in the sport. Tip #1. Further restricting access is the antithesis of this. Press cameras aren't going to give away any more than an experienced Aero engineer from a rival team walking down the pitlane and taking a look. Even F1 has now banned teams from hiding cars behind screens.

David Emmet and Dennis Noyes were chatting on Twitter about it:

"It's also incredibly stupid. The level of technical analysis of MotoGP is woeful (and I speak as someone who really tries to focus on it), so even if they stripped the fairings off and put the bikes on a revolving pedestal for us, we still wouldn't have a clue."

To be fair, both David Emmet and Dennis Noyes work in media. It doesn't mean they are wrong, but they are biased.

I want the paddock to be open as much as the next fan, but the consequence of active ride height and aerodynamic downforce is that the teams don't want other teams paying "journalists and photographers" to take photos of their bikes for subsequent analysis by other manufacturers. This is just another unintended counterproductive consequence of letting ride height and aero downforce systems into MotoGP. Dorna can either let the teams test privately at their own closed facilities or Dorna can ban the press until after the first bodywork homologation so teams cannot counter developments by other manufacturers.

Personally, I hope they just ban active ride height, and they use bodywork homologation regs to tightly restrict aero development, but as long as Ducati are setting new sales records, they don't care what happens to MotoGP.