As MotoGP \u201csilly seasons\u201d go, the last few days before we went to press have been the silliest we\u2019ve seen in some time. Jorge Martin, fed up with Ducati\u2019s dithering about who will join Pecco Bagnaia on the Ducati factory team, did a deal \u2014 in a matter of hours, if we\u2019re reading his fit of pique right \u2014 with Aprilia to replace the retiring Aleix Espargaro.<\/p>\n
That leaves Marc Marquez, so long the face of Honda \u2014 whose sponsor, Repsol, just announced dropping their sponsorship after 30 years \u2014 now sitting pretty in the red livery of the Ducati Lenovo factory team. Meanwhile, Enea Bastianini, who finished a brilliant second in Mugello \u2014 with a dramatic last lap, last corner pass on championship-leader Martin \u2014 is out of a ride. I\u2019ve been covering MotoGP for nigh 40 years and I\u2019ve never seen anything as \u201csilly\u201d as this.
\nBut, believe it or not, the biggest news in motorcycle racing had nothing to do with MotoGP\u2019s latest game of musical chairs. In fact, it happened far away from any racetrack, in a quiet little room in a sleepy villa at a classic car show on Lago di Como, no less. That\u2019s where the ex-CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, now chief executive officer of Bayerische Motoren Werke\u2019s Motorrad division, all but promised that\u2026<\/p>\n
BMW Will Soon Be in MOTOGP<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, to be sure, there was no official announcement. For that we would have had a million kilowatts of flood lighting, a swarm of public relations flacks fussing and the entirety of MotoGP\u2019s press corps. I might have even worn a suit. Nonetheless, the evidence presented, not to mention the demeanor of the CEO in question, Marcus Flasch, says that the deal is all but done. Here\u2019s how he responded to Mojo\u2019s query about what the benefits might be of BMW joining the MotoGP circus.<\/p>\n BMW Needs The World Stage<\/strong><\/p>\n The primary reason Flasch gave for making the leap to motorcycling\u2019s premier class is that BMW\u2019s motorcycle division needs the world stage. \u201cWe are the leading premium motorcycle manufacturer in the world,\u201d said Flasch, \u201cand there is a champion\u2019s league of racing and the champion\u2019s league is MotoGP\u201d before noting that World Superbike, where the company currently runs the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team, \u201cis only a European championship with one race in Australia.\u201d In plainer terms, he thinks BMW has outgrown WSBK.<\/p>\n He\u2019s Impressed With What Liberty Media’s Done with F1<\/strong><\/p>\n Liberty Media, largely credited with Formula One\u2019s growing audience \u2014 mostly through its Drive to Survive docu-series \u2014 recently took over MotoGP and Motorrad\u2019s CEO sees this as an ideal opportunity to hitch a ride on what he sees will be a surge in audience for motorcycle racing. \u201cMotoGP will receive even more [promotion] in the future with Liberty Media taking over, and we see what happened to Formula One when they took over, I see the significance of MotoGP to be rising.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rider<\/strong><\/p>\n The timing also seems ripe for BMW to step up to the big leagues. In Toprak Razgatl\u0131o\u011flu, the company would seem to have the kind of star-in-the-making that would set the MotoGP world alight. His performance so far this year \u2014 he\u2019s but six points behind Alvaro Bautista atop the WSBK leaderboard \u2014 on his new-to-him M1000RR has made a mockery of Yamaha\u2019s rejection of securing his services for their increasingly-floundering MotoGP efforts. And, judging by recent testing, by the time the series leaves the next round, also at Mugello, he\u2019ll probably sit atop the leaderboard. Make no mistake, Razgatl\u0131o\u011flu will be a contender in any series he chooses and the whole of BMW Motorrad, including Flasch, knows it.<\/p>\n The Intangible<\/strong><\/p>\n At first glance, Flasch\u2019s curriculum vitae reads pretty much the same as any German auto\/motosports senior manager. He started out in engineering \u2014 as an aerodynamicist at Audi \u2014 and worked his way out of the technical departments into management before becoming, first, chief executive officer of BMW\u2019s M Division, then SVP in charge of Rolls-Royce and, finally, CEO of BMW Motorrad.<\/p>\n Not written into that official history is that he is a risk-taker. The accomplishment of which he is most proud, for instance, is climbing the Ortler\u2019s North Wall in Italy \u2014 the largest ice wall in the eastern Alps. On a professional level, depending on which story you believe, he either signed off on or was the instigator of BMW\u2019s return to the premier class of endurance racing with its current M Hybrid V8 Hypercar. Judging from the passion displayed in our meeting, I\u2019ll bet on the latter, an important factor considering that upper management were reportedly not all that keen. Closer to home, while BMW\u2019s brilliant R20 Concept may be the work of Alexander Buckan, the reason it will get produced is because Flasch believes in the project.<\/p>\n Show Me the Money<\/strong><\/p>\n As to what might stop BMW from being the latest European motorcycle manufacturer to join the ranks of MotoGP, it\u2019s the obvious \u2014 money. Or, more specifically, justifying the expenditure. As Flasch said, \u201cAs you know, with marketing, it\u2019s always hard to tell if the first or the second $50 million that you spent was the right $50 million. It\u2019s not exactly something you can do your due diligence on.\u201d And, no surprise, it does take big money to make it in MotoGP; KTM president Stefan Pierer, estimating that it takes as much as US$75 million to reach the podium in motorcycling\u2019s premier league.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, I fully expect that, come 2027, when the new 850-cc rules are implemented, there will be a BMW on the grid and Toprak Razgatl\u0131o\u011flu will be riding it. Bet on it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As MotoGP \u201csilly seasons\u201d go, the last few days before we went to press have been the silliest we\u2019ve seen in some time. Jorge Martin, fed up with Ducati\u2019s dithering about who will join Pecco…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":63284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2635,1876],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-july-auguat-2024","category-the-last-word"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n