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INTERVIEW P92 JAVIER ALONSO back when IRTA was founded, by Mike Trimby, basically, because at that time in the 1980s, the riders were not getting paid, there was a lot of problems with security, so IRTA has changed completely the very first ideas of team's association. Now they are helping us to work in the paddock with the teams and with the manufacturers. Here we go and not have that structure. We will have a meeting with all the teams today, directly, without a person like Mike Trimby or an association like IRTA, but many people have asked me if we think to make an IRTA in the future, but I do not know. Yet. I need to understand if we need an IRTA inside Superbike or not. Technical rules seem to have been the first thing Carmelo Ezpeleta spoke about, but it is much cheaper to race here than in MotoGP. The big difference is that the teams here do not get money from the organizers. Are there plans for this? Technically, we do not pay the teams in World Superbike because we do not have the money. Why do we not have money? Because this championship has a defined level. The only way we have to lower the costs to the teams is technically or other aspects that we are studying. One thing that will happen for next year is that we will reduce the amount of testing that they have right now. It does not make any sense to come here… they came two days of private tests, they make two days of official tests then the day after they start to race. I mean, what are they doing? The riders get tired, crash and nothing else. They do not improve anything by testing, you have been here for many years so you know better than me - it is nonsense. One team is coming to make a private test and then another needs to come because their rider is pushing them, so it is nonsense. So we have to limit tests, by limiting testing we will reduce costs. We have made a proposal – a proposal – of how we think we could reduce costs problems there will be technical problems" then I will say, "give me a solution"… Those teams are struggling then we have today 19 riders. If you have the possibility to be close to the people in front… one of the successes of Moto2 and Moto3 is that we opened the possibility for anybody to win if they are clever - it is not a problem of money. In the past you only had the opportunity to win if you had the Aprilia official bike, which cost 1.2 million. I remember also an example like Karel Abrams that is now in MotoGP, he wanted WE "THEHAVE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS BEST FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP TOGETHER WITH THE PEOPLE THAT ARE INSIDE THIS CHAMPIONSHIP. " technically, which is to put a maximum price and an obligation for the manufacturers to supply a number of bikes to the teams. In this way they cannot be out of control. You cannot control how much money they are spending at the end of the day, but… okay, you can say that if your bike is a good one, then you have to make it available for at least six people. In that way you can control. Carmelo said 250,000 Euros, but we are open to discussion. Again, there will be a meeting I have been invited to that meeting of the MSMA and we will try to put a start point for the future. If they say, "No look Javier, if we do it this way we have those to have an official bike but Aprilia did not want to give it to him. So it was not only a problem of Aprilia giving that. Today if you are clever enough you go, what is the best bike, the Kalex, how much does it cost the Kalex, 100,000 [Euro] and while Marc Marquez was making better last year and he was World Champion, or Pol Espargaro or Scott Redding, because he has a better team – not because the bike is better. This is the concept that we need to incorporate here. Interest in World Superbike from Spain is still a problem. As a Spanish-based company how do you see that improving?

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