Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128241
o n w ard , and th e cyru c is rn of larg e sectors of the SBK/SPS pa ddock t hat g ree te d t he new s th at this ti re wo uld be a fell o w -Ital ian co m pa ny call ed Pirell i, a t rip to Ro me be came imperativ e . I had t o quiz both F lammini broth ers in th eir FGSport HQ ab out t he dire ction of th e seri es, which is still t he top card in world motorcy cle sport in k ey countries such as th e USA and Gr eat Bri tain . (I n rep orting th em , th e responses of each ind ividual broth er to so me to ugh q uestions have been grouped together. ) Maurizio and Paolo - who f irst of all r eally now owns the Wor ld Supe rb ike Champ ionship? We do - we complete d the deal with Octago n, which we arranged in March t hi s year to reac q uire t he ser ies, w hic h now be lo ngs 100 perc en t to FG Sp ort - and we in t urn are the sole owners of that co m pa ny , w ithout any exte rna l partner s at p resen t. H OW much did you pa y to buy World Superbike back from Octagon? (La ughing) T ha t 's a very co m p licated qu est ion - eve n in one ho ur we co uld n' t ex pla in that to y o u! How many people are employed by FGSpo rt? Q A In t ota l, we ha ve 73 people working for us , includ in g the other d ivision of o u r compan y , which t ak es care of sales promotion activities. For ex am p le, we run th e worldw ide product launches for Ford of Europe and ot he r similar proj ects. But World Superbike, World Supersport and the World Endu ran ce Champ i onsh ip are th e o n ly sport ing activities we are c oncerned wit h at pr esen t . How lo n g i s t he du ra t ion of y o u r c o n t r act wi th the FIM to promote these se ries? It is currently valid until 20 I I and runs co nc ur rentl y with the Dorna contract r e l a ti n g to MotoGP - the two co m e up for rev iew simultaneously. What specifically does your contract with t he FIM cover? We have the exclusive righ ts to o rga nize both Wo rld Cha mpion ships an d International Cham pionsh ip s fo r m otorc y cl es derive d fro m produc ti on st reetbi k es, on behalf of th e FIM. YOU specifically mention International Cham pionships - does this mean that even if the series isn 't officially recognized as a World Cham pionship , only FGSport has the right to organize such events fo r street -derived bikes? If so, that 's a fact that has not been very well -pub licized recently. T hat' s exactly the case - we have the excl usive co ntract for such seri es, taking place under th e control of th e FIM . It's important t o refe r to what Mr. Francesco Zerbi, th e pr esid ent of th e F IM , said pub licly at the Gen eva Press C onfer en c e o n M ay 2 J , when he sta te d this to be th e c ase . Th e FIM, which is th e world aut ho ri ty for m otorc ycle sport, has co ntracts with severa l promoters i n di fferen t sec t o rs , and th is is th e area it has unde rli ne d is co vered by its agree ment with FGSpo rt . So t he rum ors of a riv a l Supe r spor t World Series, not a World Cha m pio nship , being run at MotoGP, or a 6 00 Supers po rt -based GP2 class or an en d-of-season Ma sters of S up erbik e three ra ce series run for TV as well as spectat ors by rival promoters that would unite t op teams from A MA, B SB, All -Japan , Europe and Australia , all have no foundation? Let 's loo k at th e two separate ly . Th e id ea of a Su p er sp ort o r eve n S up e rb i k e ser ies ru n at M oto G P i s comp lete ly co unter to t he co ntracts w hich both we and Do rn a hav e w ith th e FIM , and they q uite simp ly wo uld nev er allow it. It ca n't, and Q A Q wo n't, happen - we are very relaxed abo ut that. The Masters idea is supposedly poss ib le, but it's hard to see how a two - or three-race postseason tourna me nt coul d be in any way alarm ing fo r the season -lo ng World Superbik e Ch ampio nship , eve n sup po sing th e cost of staging it co uld be m et . You mentione d Dorna. Are the two o f y ou su ch bitter enem ies as you're sometimes portrayed as be i ng in s ome areas of the p ress? H ow wo ul d y ou ch ar acterize your rel ationship with Do rna corporately, an d with Car m elo Ezp eleta specific al ly ? To say we ar e en em ies is tota l nonsense. Cle ar l y , the re is a sporti ng a nd co m m er cia l rivalry between MotoGP and World Superbike , and this is norma l. Ou r approach has always been that we are not ve ry interested in c ompeting again st MotoGP we are m uch more concerned with co m peting joi ntly together with them in promoting motorc ycl e rac in g aga inst the big sports li k e soccer, Fo rmula I , te nnis, etc . Each of t he two of us k nows w ha t is his own defined area of activities , and c ont rary to w ha t the press is always trying to sug ge st, eac h of us believes in a strong MotoGP seri es an d a str ong World Super bi ke series . I ca n't sp eak for Carmelo, but we m eet at least onc e a yea r together to discuss t hings in a co rdial w ay, and indeed we ha ve a per sona l fri end sh ip , which goes back to whe n th e Fla m mini Gr oup was a pro moter of Gr and Pri x r a c e s i n It al y , Yugoslavia an d so on . T h e current controversy surroundin g World S upe rbik e has two key issues - one i s the new SBK reg ulation s; the ot her is the control tire. Let 's look at the technical rule s first. How d id t he p resent co nfu si on come about? Let 's tr y to m ak e a ver y lon g story fairly short but no t too short , bec ause it' s im po rt ant to rec og ni ze the historic ba ckground we 're dea ling w ith . Go back to 1988, when World Superbike was born , embracing 750cc four -cylinde r bikes and IOOOcc twi ns. T he reason for making this differe ntiatio n was not on ly a performance reason , because twin-cylin der bik es at that time fra nk ly d id not have competi tive perform anc e against fou rs of t he same ca pacity, but also bec aus e since the ea rly 19 80s , th e four cyl inde r sp ortbik e ma rk et for t he st ree t was ex cl u sively 750 c c. D uring the de cade tha t fo llowe d , two thi ngs happened : O ne, D uc at i inv ested lo ts of ti me, b ra in wo rk an d mon ey in d ev el op ing twin-cy linder Superbikes to unthought -of lev els, and two, the mark et became once again a 1000cc category for ev erybody, just as it had be en in th e earl y da ys of Superbike in the U SA, ba ck in th e 1970s. So by 1998, ten y ears on from th e founda tion o f Wo rld Superbik e, we fo und o u rsel ve s aski ng why it was necessary for a m anu facturer who wanted to co m pe te in SBK with a fo ur -cyli nder bik e shou ld have to produce a spe ci fi c m odel targeted at ho mologation for racin g, when th is cham pions hi p , by defin iti on , sho uld be based o n volume producti o n m oto rc ycl es. So r r y to interrupt , but w as it y ou , Fl ammini/Octagon as it was bac k then, wh o identified this problem , or the manufa cturers who asked for this aspect to be considered? We at O ct agon raised it as an issue, and in 1998 we st art ed talking with the man ufacture rs and suggeste d t hat w e should move to a 10 00c c li mit ac ro ss th e board , ir respective of t he engine co n fig uratio n - whic h m eant we had to find a way to adj ust t he performance in orde r to eq uali ze the diffe re n t k in ds of engine. It goes without say ing that we di dn't fin d m uch aware ness of th is as an is su e , be c au se clea rly, not hing hap pen ed for m an y years. How ev er , dur ing t his discussion t he idea c am e o ut of havin g kitbike ru les to make it easier for privateers to have cu e access to a good level of tech nology and pe rfo r mance, at an afforda ble cost. T his idea c ame fro m t h e man ufactu rers themselves a nd was aim ed at reducing t he high cost of go ing Superbike raci ng , which at t ha t time was escalating steeply, beca use to make the 750cc fo urs competi tive against th e 1000cc twi ns at th at t i m e was a very d ifficu lt and expensive exercise. John Ko cinsk i wo n t he cha m pion shi p o n a 750 Hond a RC4 5 in 1997, but thi s was a very costly bike even for someone of Honda's stature to pr odu ce . Wh en we st arted to d is cu ss th e k itbi k e regu la tions, we at Octagon were absolutely in agreement with the philosoph y , becau se we always believe d that too high costs an d too so ph isticated a specifica t io n were absolutely contra ry to t he ph il o sophy of Superb ike raci ng , even at wo rld level. Unfortunatel y , b y J une, 2000 , the de v elopm ent of t he ki t bi ke rul es was not c om plet ed at all, and in fact t he re wa s a sig nificant probl em i n t hat the m an ufactu re rs fo u nd th em selv es una ble to det erm ine w hic h parts sho uld co m p rise th e ki t, and th us wha t would be the co st of that ki t. Therefore, in that m on th in a m eeti ng at Mi san o , it was co m monly dec id ed that it was impossible to go ah ead wi th th e ki tb ik e idea , sin ce it was not pos sib le technically speaking to publish a rul e that sho uld h av e bee n in pla c e for t he 2 0 0 I season, if no body co uld tell which part s sh oul d fo rm th e kit! It was publicl y presen ted as bein g O cta gon 's un ilatera l decision to scrap t he kitbike ide a, bu t t here w as n o c ha nce t o sw it c h t o t he n ew fo r m u l a if no bod y co uld ag ree at tha t la te sta ge wh at the k its should be, and so few manufacturers had in fact prepared the bas is for producing them . Ther e was a lot of c ri ticism and name-ca lling about th is , but to be hon est , th i s w as all j u st pe op le tryi ng t o p ick an argument to cover the ir ow n posit ions, and we didn't ca re very much about that - though t o be hon est, it s relevance be came clearer i n th e past co u p le of months. When the MSMA wa s formed at the end of 2000, with the four man ufact urers i n the GPM A , which it replaced , joined b y K awasak i and Ducati , a m o re fo rm al rela tionship was esta blished among the FIM , t h e m anufac tu r e rs a nd u s in t erm s o f ge nera ti n g Wor ld Supe rbike rules , and t his led to the fo unda tion of t he FIM Super bik e Commi ssion . T hese three pa r ti es p lus the T eam s' Association ga the red aro und a table to de cid e the ru les , and at th is po int we started to discuss more in tens ive ly th e need to go to 1000cc ac ros s th e board for Superbike racing ev erywhere, as pressure from the industry was building fo r it to do . Th e o ther three parties acce p te d th e MSMA's pro posal that th e air restrictor was the appropriate way to bal an c e performance among the different k in ds of eng ine - and in an FIM p ress release on September 3 0 , 200 I, the ne w Superbik e regu lations ann ouncing th is were unanimously p resented in writing as based on certai n underly in g assumpti ons. T he first of th ese was to mainta in t he partic ipation of all six MSMA member m anufact urers in the World Superb ik e Cha m pionship - whic h all of th em were at that time taking part in on an official ba sis - and this was exp licitly decla red by them , again in wri ting . Secon dly, to increase the p resence of p ri vatee rs through a more affordab le cos t of th e b ikes and , thirdly , to have this air res trictor reg u lation applied to all the Natio nal Supe rbike cha m pionships aro un d th e wo rld , as the FIM had spec ifica lly manda te d us all to do , t o avoi d t he frag me nted natu re and in cr eas ed develo pme nt costs of hav ing ma ny different rules in each differ ent co unt ry , and at world level. An d , final Iy , t o b rin g Su perb ike racer s near er t o p rodu cti on st ree tbikes, as before . B ut subseq uently, after almost two yea rs of endI e n e vv S • N OVEM BER 1 9 , 2003 13