BMW throws in the towel on WSBK Factory Team

[Speeddog]

http://motomatters.com/press_release/2013/07/24/bmw_press_release_bmw_to_end_factory_inv.html

So much for staying in until they win....

[zooom]

must be the Melandri curse....

[Grampa]

dang... no more garage shots of marco's woman in form fitted bmw swag.

[Rob Hilding]

Unwritten message:

"since we can't seem to race for 9th or 10th place like Audi (Ducati) we decided to scram"

For you BP:

http://www.visordown.com/features/manuela-raffaeta---marco-melandris-girlfriend/15964.html

[gm2]

more like they're not interested in running a streetbike series.  factories go racing in order to develop...

[ZLTFUL]

more like they're not interested in running a streetbike series.  factories go racing in order to develop...

It'd be nice to see another marque show up in MotoGP but I ain't holdin' my breath.

[wantingaduc]

Is it possible they will drop the factory team and then a "well supported" satelite team will take over.
Ducati technically dropped their factory team a few years back but the bikes were still on the rid, just being campaigned by a private team.
After all the work they did and the results they've finally started to achieve, I can 't see them not having any representation in WSBK.

jimi

[MadDuck]

Is it possible they will drop the factory team and then a "well supported" satelite team will take over.
Ducati technically dropped their factory team a few years back but the bikes were still on the rid, just being campaigned by a private team.
After all the work they did and the results they've finally started to achieve, I can 't see them not having any representation in WSBK.

jimi

That's pretty much what BMW did this year.

It's very telling that Kawasaki hung in there and is now getting results.  I never got the feeling that BMW was totally committed to the WSBK series. They acted like they never really wanted to develop the bike in the first few years. Last year was pretty good but then it seemed like accounting got into the picture and said "No more of that" and then the second string team this year didn't have enough support to keep the run going.

Maybe Yamaha will come back.   

[gm2]

They acted like they never really wanted to develop the bike in the first few years.

er, i really don't think that was the case.  granted, they were trying their damndest to make their OEM electronics work, for obvious reasons, but a lack of effort was not there.  you don't birth a bike from scratch and start doing as well as corser was doing (in the first half of races) without working your ass off.

[gm2]

and then the second string team this year didn't have enough support to keep the run going.

it's not that.  the current team is a factory team just like ducati is, yamaha was, etc.  factory, but run out of a 3rd party shop.

they're leaving bc of the rule changes.  no interest in a series where they don't get to develop and push the envelope.  sucks but i don't blame them at all.  factories don't go racing so they can see how the bikes on the showroom floor do.

[MadDuck]

er, i really don't think that was the case.  granted, they were trying their damndest to make their OEM electronics work, for obvious reasons, but a lack of effort was not there.  you don't birth a bike from scratch and start doing as well as corser was doing (in the first half of races) without working your ass off.

That could be debatable.  Corser tried for what, two years, but they were stuck on their own software and he was burning tires off.  Just about like Sykes was doing.  Finally they had to go Magnetti Marelli, I think, to get good software and that's when Melandri & Haslam started doing good.

I've worked with the BMW product for years and even though they produce brilliant stuff there is still that bit of what I call "arrogant engineering" where they think they are God's Gift.  It doesn't always go the way they want.  The bikes take second fiddle to the cars these days.  Too bad.