MotoGP New Testing Rules Announced

The Grand Prix Commission which earlier in the season hinted at changes to the MotoGP testing rules has now confirmed the new rules

The governing body officially announced changes had been agreed to the 2012 testing regulations for MotoGP class machines in their meeting at Valencia week commencing 5th November 2011 .

Following a meeting in Valencia held on November 5th the Grand Prix Commission passed a unanimous decision on the changes to the regulations on the testing of 2012 MotoGP machines.

The GP Commission, of Dorna, Chairman Carmelo Ezpeleta, FIM Executive Director, Sport Ignacio Verneda, Hervé Poncharal (IRTA), Takanao Tsubouchi (MSMA) Javier Alonso also from Dorna and Paul Butler - Secretary, decided the outlines of the new rules at a meeting during the final round of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship. .

The FIM announced in a statement that the Commission had “agreed that with effect from 2012 private testing of MotoGP class machines may be carried out by any rider, subject to a limit on the total number of tyres being supplied by the official MotoGP tyre supplier”.

Final details will be confirmed at the next Grand Prix Commission meeting in December.

It was also agreed that manufacturers may used any rider for the completion of their 2011 testing programme during November 2011 something that teams such as Ducati say will be a major leap forward in the developing of new machines. Not only will it allow them to use their Grand Prix riders more therefore getting data back from the faster riders but it will also help reduce costs as they will not need to employ the services of as many test riders.

Valentino Rossi was a great supporter of this new rule having often stated he would rather be on the machine during testing instead of sat studing data provided by a much slower test rider.

Another exponent of the rule changes was Ducati Technical Director, Filippo Preziosi who voiced his opinion a few weeks ago saying he saw the changes as enabling his team to be able to close the gap on the dominant Japanese manufacturers and make the sport more competitive.