Yamaha MotoGP

[Jester]

So what do you think the odds are that Yamaha takes 4 out of the top 5 season ending standings this year?  It could happen if Honda doesn't get sorted.

[Spidey]

Not great unless Pedrobot is seriously injured and misses a good portion of the season.  The points structure rewards podium finishes, so Dickweed McTiny could not show up for most of the season and win a coupla races at the end and he'd have a good chance of doing as well as fifth.  And we all know that Honda isn't going to struggle for the entire season.  Moreover, even if he was out of the running, there'd still be Hayden and Dovi (and maybe Capi if they get that Suke sorted) for Edwards to deal with.  

I'd bet against it.  

[Speeddog]

It could happen, I wouldn't put money on it though.

Some of the Hondas have it together, DePuniet and Dovi.

[desmoquattro]

No way. I think Suzuki's gonna be right up there too

[gm2]

re RDP (and, hopefully, at some point, team Marco), we know that the current state of the customer RCs is that they are mechanically the same as the factory bikes, with only the electronics being 'not quite as good'.  ...but you can bet that parity won't remain the same all season.

but yeah, you gotta hope pedro gets back up to speed right quick.  at least before he or dovi hand over their bike to george.

[Spidey]

As an aside, does anyone know what the rider salaries are?  I mean, WTF is Yamaha spending between Rossi, George and The Ben?   (My understanding was that The Ben's Tech3 seat is paid by Yamaha).  Jeebus.  They may have gotten George for a good price when he first came up, but he's worth at least $7m Euro now.  And I know The Ben was at least a coupla million Euros.   Cuz you know that neither Honda nor Ducati are paying that kind of money for their two-rider line-ups.

[derby]

As an aside, does anyone know what the rider salaries are?  I mean, WTF is Yamaha spending between Rossi, George and The Ben?   (My understanding was that The Ben's Tech3 seat is paid by Yamaha).  Jeebus.  They may have gotten George for a good price when he first came up, but he's worth at least $7m Euro now.  And I know The Ben was at least a coupla million Euros.   Cuz you know that neither Honda nor Ducati are paying that kind of money for their two-rider line-ups.

colin's last-year ride was paid for by yamaha. they (yamaha) basically told herve to give "take care of colin" so they could put ben in "their seat" on the team.

ben was asking $3M as an "unproven" rookie. after decimating the worldsbk field, i'm pretty sure he got a raise with his move to motogp.

[ducpainter]

euros or dollars?

[gm2]

dollars

roughly an amount he was getting from yosh before that.

[avizpls]

Uh...Stoner? Hayden? ye of lil faith! I would expect at least stoner to be in the top 5, come on! I figure something like

Stoner
Rossi
Lorenzo
Pedrosa
Hayden



that'd be good for me

[gm2]

Stoner
Rossi
Lorenzo
Pedrosa

really going out in a limb there 

[avizpls]

one race into the season, ANYthing is on a limb

[gm2]

not really.