MotoGP 2012

Now I've got the intro sillyness out of the way.

What are peoples opinions on the MotoGP Series in 2012?

My views;
Riders who have had experience of some sort in the 990 Era should do a bit better than those who haven't, similarly Ex-WSBK riders might be better set here.

Stoner to do well, but not quite dominate as he has this season
Lorenzo to take a bit of time to get used to a bigger bike, but getting better as the season progresses, also does well
Pedrosa, I think it's all or nothing this year with his contract up for renewal in 2013 and the prospect of MM moving to MotoGP he has to pull his finger out
Spies to do well, his WSBK experience hopefully puts him in good stead
Cal, again he's got to impress this year with Bradley moving up in 2013.
Dovi has also got to shine as he'll be fighting Cal for a ride.
Rossi, what can I say, I think he's in his twighlight years and the Ducati just doesn't suit him
Hayden has had some decent results in the past, but I think may struggle
Bautista, I think he should go well, but it really depends on whether he get a factory or satillite bike

CRTs I'm split on, I really think that they'll have to stretch the potential of production engines, as well as this they have the issue that the best riders are arguably on factory bikes, it could make it interesting (and I'll get ready to eat my own words) but I suspect it'll become 2 races with the Factory bikes at the front and CRTs at the back. (I certainly hope I'm wrong, but we'll have to wait & see)

Unfortunately I think that we've lost a great character, (and in my opinion) a champion in the making.

Unfortunately for MotoGP he wasn't just a great rider he was incredibly charismatic & a true character. For MotoGP, once Rossi retires i think they'll lose a very sizable following (rightly or wrongly), Simoncelli had the potential to, "Be the next Rossi" drawing people to the sport.

With no disrespect intended to the rest of the paddock, those boys can ride, but they're about as charismatic & interesting as Anne Widdicombe.

As to Moto2.
There's so many riders out there this year who did exceptionally well in 2010, but did nowhere near as well this year.

Iannone has great potential but has to qualify better if he's to stand a chance at winning the championship, or doing well in MotoGP
Marc Marquez is quick as anything, but really needs to mature more (The incident with Willarot was shocking).
Julian Simon, where the smeg was (as my girlfriend refers to him) monobrow this year?
Bradley, he's had some bad luck this year, and made some silly mistakes. But it was a learnning year for him & hopefully he does better this year.
Terol, I don't know what it is, but I can't stand the bloke.
Zarco, I hope he does well, but we will see.

And the 1st year of Moto3, I couldn't possibly say how it'll end up, all I can say is I hope it's as interesting as Moto2 is now.


Finally, I think I am a bad omen to whoever I seem to support
I had seen some of the video's of Peter Lenz on youtube (as I'm sure many others have) and really wanted to see what he could do when he got older.
I routed for Tomizawa from the 1st race of the season, even when he didn't do as well I didn't care.
I really had high hopes for Simoncelli, I was expecting him to do great things on the 1000s, and couldn't help but smile when he got his 1st podium.

Maybe you lot should tell me who not to support!!

Great topic mate, its going to be an interesting season, what with rider changes all over the smaller classes.

Gino rea possibly joing the brit contingent, on a gresini moriwaki, hopefully Kev Coghlan will get a good ride, Danny Webb & Danny Kent should fly on the Moto3 bikes, and crutchlow will go very well on the thousands.

I have a sneaky feeling that the testing ban being removed will bring Rossi into play next year, i would like to see him up there before he buggers off to wsbk in 2014.

Oh, and Stoner & Spies to be the stand out performers next year, Stoner champ again though

In 2012 i just hope we get some good racing in the big class as this year was pretty boring.

i hope rossi gets the ducati sorted as i feel he deserves to win 1 more title and to dedicate it to simo#58. 2011 was a sad season in that we lost one of the best riders in gp.

I also hope that eurosport show the main race live as bbc commentators r pants!

Roll on 2012!