It's official: Kawasaki out of MotoGP (updated)

January 10, 2009

After weeks of speculation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries has finally announced it's pulling out of MotoGP.

The official statement read as follows:

"Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has decided to suspend its factory MotoGP racing activities from 2009 season.

Amid quickly changing business environment, Kawasaki has been promptly taking countermeasures to cope with the situation. As the world economy is not likely to recover in a short period due to the major impact of the financial crisis, Kawasaki decided to suspend its MotoGP racing activities from 2009 season onward and reallocate management resources more efficiently.

Mr.Yoshio Kawamura, the Managing Director of Kawasaki Motors Racing B.V. deeply appreciates the contribution and the dedication brought by staff members of the MotoGP team."

For those into critical interpretation, the two key words in the statement reside in the opening paragraph: "suspend" and "factory".

Although Kawasaki may not be involved at the factory level, there is still hope, which was reaffirmed by Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpelata in a separate statement (here), that a private team -- read Jorge Martinez's Spanish Aspar operation -- will race Kawasakis in 2009, allowing 19 bikes to line up on the grid in the season opener in Qatar on April 12 after all.

If that does occur, it's uncertain whether it will be with Marco Melandri and John Hopkins, Kawasaki's 2009 contracted riders, or one of them, or none of them in favour of what would almost certainly be sponsor-dictated Spanish personnel.

Martinez has aspired to go MotoGP racing for a long time, but he'll want to do it on his terms - not as a stop gap until the economic situation improves.

While the behind the scenes negotiations continue, Kawasaki has debuted the new ZX-RR in a private test session at Sydney's Eastern Creek with test riders Olivier Jacque and Tamaki Serizawa.

The new bike has an updated chassis, a new swingarm and a new engine. Both riders completed a number of laps on the 2009 machine, with Jacque returning to a circuit where he was third in the 250cc race in 1996 -- the last time Eastern Creek hosted the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

For video footage of the two-day test, click here.

Kawasaki raced MotoGP full-time for six years, but it struggled to match the pace of the other factories. It achieved three podiums during that time.

Kawasaki's world Superbike operation will be unaffacted by the MotoGP withdrawal.