P116
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
C
hange the numbers, but
don't change the music.
Switching the date as we
embark on the third decade of
the new millennium sees more
of the same, but all the same,
constantly changing.
The second new-millennium
decade of World Championship
racing that ended last November
was very, very Iberian. In the
previous 10 years, dominated by
Rossi, the last champion to come
from Italy was joined by repre-
sentatives from the USA (Rob-
erts and Hayden) and Australia
(Stoner). From 2010 to 2019,
however, Stoner has been a one-
off interloper in an all-Spanish
fiesta. It started with the first of
three titles for Jorge Lorenzo,
and has finished with a serial run
from Marquez.
This constancy came against
a background of rapid evolution.
During the decade, Dorna com-
pletely remodeled the landscape.
At the start of it, the classic
Grand Prix series was in danger
of disappearing up its own funda-
ment; with shrinking grids utterly
dominated by a small handful of
factory teams, and the dwindling
numbers of private entrants who
had put meat on the bones of
the championship starved into
submission.
In 2010, big chief Carmelo
Ezpeleta was already engaged in
battle to cut the factories down to
size. This basically meant Honda,
and to a lesser extent Yamaha,
DECADENT DECADE…AND MORE
TO COME ON SUNDAY
Years and decades
change but the one
thing that won't change
is racing on Sundays.
