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Fast MotoGP News: Only 4 Honda RCV1000R in 2015, Suzuki Wildcard Confirmed with De Puniet

Honda Racing Corporation announces that it will not supply more production racers for the 2015 season, and the number of RCV1000R machines will remain the same, namely 4. After Honda’s announcement that the RCV1000R production racer will receive pneumatic valves in 2015 to make the engine more in the image of the factory RC213V, the interest in these machines instantly grew. However, Honda is firm about the number of bikes it will field in 2015.
Honda RCV1000R in the Aspar livery 1 photo
The Japanese manufacturer will have two factory riders on the grid (Marquez and Pedrosa, in case a new contract with the latter will be inked), two satellite machines, one for LCR Honda and one for the GO&FUN Gresini, and 4 production racers which are said to remain with their current teams and riders. That is Drive M7 Aspar, which has Nicky Hayden and Hiroshi Aoyama at the helms of their RCV1000R bikes, Scott Redding and Karel Abraham. Gresini and Aspar have already confirmed that they will be powered by Honda for the next season.

Honda’s Livio Suppo said that despite the lack of power the RCV1000R riders have constantly mentioned so far this season, the bike has “more than enough to show the potential of a rider in some tracks.” Still, with the addition of the pneumatic valves, the performance and competitiveness of the Honda production racers are expected to be better. To what extent, remains to be seen in the post-race test at Valencia and after that.

rd appearance in the 2014 MotoGP was fixed for the last race of the season, at Valencia. Even though rumors of more such appearances have been circulating since the beginning of the year, it appears like Suzuki decided to only pit its new in-live 4-cylinder machine once against the Honda, Yamaha and Ducati bikes. Frenchman Randy De Puniet will be at the heml of the 2015 XRH-1 Suzuki prototype.

Suzuki boss Davide Brivio says that the team chose Valencia because the post-race test is the first official one for 2015, and it only makes sense to apply the info from the race on the same circuit, as the best method of verifying whether the solutions work as intended. Still, no word on the two riders who will get factory seats for 2015 and beyond. Crutchlow, Dovizioso, Aleix Espargaro and several more are rumored to be among those Suzuki will choose from.

Speaking of Cal Crutchlow, MCN reports that Honda has officially denied having discussed with the Manx rider as far as a potential ride aboard a satellite bike was concerned. Even though the seats of Stefan Bradl and Alvaro Bautista at LCR and Gresini, respectively are still in doubt, Livio Suppo says that Honda has never considered Crutchlow as a potential replacement. “We haven’t spoken about a move for Cal. Cal is an interesting rider but honestly the strange thing is to understand why he is struggling so much at Ducati. This is really surprising for me but at the moment there is nothing going on between Honda and Cal,” he told the British magazine.

It looks like Crutchlow has until the end of this month to decide whether he will pull out of his contract with Ducati or play the risky card and continue with the Borgo Panigale bikes and hope that the GP15 machine offers him the chance to show his true potential.
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