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Too Many Teams in MotoGP for 2017?

There may be too many teams in the sport, as it is now, and KTM is also coming in 2017 to change significantly starting from 2016, and we are definitely going to see some of the teams calling it quits. Back in June, the Grand Prix Commission started to lay out the new guidelines for the future of MotoGP and things slowly start to roll.
MotoGP action at Brno, 2015 1 photo
Photo: motogp.com
We knew that the GPC was already eyeing having between 22 and 24 riders on the grid in the near future, but since the end of summer meant it's math time in the premier class, we start seeing an interesting situation. Namely...

KTM will make a comeback to the premier class in 2017, as a factory team, most likely without the help of an existing racing private outfit. We reported about how Mattighofen was pondering between choosing to partner with an existing team and going full factory.

The Austrians also have all the reasons in the world to show up as a full-factory team, keeping everything under the same roof for higher efficiency. What is, however, certain is that they will have to field two bikes.

There may be too many teams in the sport, as it is now, and KTM is also coming in 2017

In fact, this is what Dorna want, having each team lining up two bikes on the grid as of 2017. Currently, several teams only have one rider in the championship, and the rights holders to the MotoGP want to change this.

Still, doing the math, things look a bit funny. On one hand, we have the factory team, Yamaha, Honda, Ducati, Aprilia, Suzuki and KTM, which already make up for half of the grid. Three more teams are already confirmed to field two riders, Pramac and Tech 3 satellites of Ducati and Yamaha, respectively and Aspar, whose Jorge Martinez recently declared he will receive Marc Marquez' 2015 bike for his two riders.

LCR, Honda's satellite, fields two bikes, too, and may have thoughts about only one rider in the future, while EG Marc VDS, who runs the other satellite Honda, has only one rider. Avintia, plans to get two Ducati machines.

To all these we must add Iodaracing and Cardion AB, each with one bike and Forward Racing, with two, and we are already over the top. However, Cardion AB is rumored to call it quits, while Forward has no sponsor and no bikes, barely being able to get the bikes to the next round.

It looks like some teams will just have to let go, especially as Dorna is not providing funding for the last two slots, save for tires and overseas transport, and even more, has also reserved the right to buy back the slots of last two teams, as a safety, last-resort measure.

If anything, the fact that Dorna is trying to improve the competitiveness in the series looks quite okay, especially as teams whose presence in the premier class never really mattered are most likely to be eliminated.

By encouraging factories to lease more bikes to the rest of the teams, we might get to see a fiercer battle for the places behind those that are usually reserved to the handful of riders. And with more, similarly equipped bikes and the same ECU/software, the MotoGP might become even better. Time will tell, anyway.
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