It is something I hope to write about soon. Gather some evidence. But the real trouble is that MotoGP does not have a product to sell at the moment. The racing is ....... boring. If I am saying that as someone who makes a living from the sport, god knows what casual viewers think. There is no narrative. There is no entertainment. Races are decided by who gets set up right in FP3, there is one pass, and 40 minutes of riders displaying perfect bike control. That is only interesting if you ride bikes. If you don't ride a motorcycle, then you want something compelling to watch.
I don't think it is quite as simple as close racing, people were happy to watch valentino win 10 races a year or whatever for 5 years; I suppose casual observers weren't aware he could have won more easily than he did most of the time, but if you succeed in the assumed aim of turning such viewers into non-casual followers of the sport then the realisation would quickly have come.
It is patently obvious that the sport is financially unsustainable in the current form, even honda and yamaha have tacitly admitted they need to be saved from themselves. The current situation seems to be analagous to a squadron of bombers replaced by one B2 stealth bomber that costs more than the squadron.
I am very happy for them to reduce ridiculously expensive technology, perhaps the only way is to frame regs that make the marginal return on such expenditure low by measures such as rev limits as lex has argued. I can't see any way of having a salary cap as they do in some professional sports. Eliminating the barriers to the entry of new manufacturers whether due to expense or due to the MSMA framing tech regs which mean that to be competitive technology which only they possess is required is obviously also a very good idea.
Carmelo doesn't have to be a rocket surgeon to realise the problems, but he perhaps does need to be one to fix them, which is where my doubt lies. I am also somewhat cynical about his current anti-honda crusade, since he did not seem particularly delighted when a third manufacturer did defeat honda ( and yamaha) a few years back, in fact acting in the view of some to handicap that manufacturer. His current approach to tech regs seems to mainly involve stream of consciousness, and aping F1; the latter may be good in some aspects, but bikes aren't cars. Perhaps he can rapidly change to a similar set-up to F1, where independent teams are part of the tradition, and I have to say that my interest in F1 was greatest when it was formula cosworth. His current apparently successful moto2 series does however imo rely on the fact that it is a prelude to the premier class, and also on some collaboration/support from honda at least initially.
Fwiw where they will lose me is if they decide to try to contrive actual results, even including contrived last lap dices. I am happy to see the latter of course, but not if it is contrived which I see such things as the convenient yellow flags in nascar as doing. I realise I am in the minority.
