When you don’t have an orange media vest to guarantee you access to all the secrets of the MotoGP paddock, you have to keep your eyes and ears open for news coming from the sources closest to the sources who are stirring the pot, particularly on the Valentino Rossi and Ducati rumours.
And that’s how we can now share with you some juicy information, purely from the rumourmill so take it or leave it as pure gossip or rock solid news.
Firstly, the less curious news.
It’s said that Marco Melandri, will move from the San Carlo Honda Gresini team to the superbike series to ride with BMW.
Another Italian rider, Loris Capirossi, instead of retiring, looks to be making a move to the Pramac Racing team instead.
The cynical or smart comment on that is that Capirossi will make some money before he does decide to retire and heck – wouldn’t we all in his position?According to the paddock gossip, Aprilia could enter the MotoGP in 2012, in the context of the move back to 1000cc bikes.
In what has so far been an exciting and successful year for the Italian motorcycle company in superbike, this could be a shake-up for other teams and would introduce a new element into the MotoGP.
We’re not overly surpised by this possible fact, but it is certainly a tantalising prospect.
Finally to Rossi and the Ducati rumour: Word has it that Rossi has been offered a deal with Ducati to ride for two years, with time dedicated to Formula One testing and then a move to rally car driving when he retires from motorcycle racing.
There’s no word that Rossi has accepted and we doubt anything has been signed yet, but the offer would demonstrate that Ducati wants Rossi onboard and is prepared to set up a tailor-made program for the rider.
In addition, there is a water-tight vacuum on who Rossi’s substitute might be.
What we can say is, from a source in Yamaha, that it won’t be another MotoGP rider, that he’s very good (repeated) and could be in the top 6 riders around.
Whenever the announcement is finally made, the source said that this is, in fact, “non-news”.
While we’re not sure what that means, the old-school journalists are desperate to find out while some of us prefer to focus on Lorenzo’s convincing win and the young talent that was on show at yesterday’s podium.
We’ll have to wait to verify whether these rumours are true, but if we hear anything else from the paddock at this weekend’s MotoGP Assen, we’ll be sure to share it with you.