| Author | Message | ||
     Trojan |
Sadly it appears that the new Ilmor team is pulling out of GP's after just one race in 2007. Appaently this is due to lack of sponsorship and lack of form. However Mario Ilien said last year that he was prepared to pay for the team if no sponsor was forthcoming, so it appears that he may have had a change of heart now that things have proved more difficult for the team than he envisaged  At least it will give Jeremy some time to recover, but it all seems very unprofessional to me. This from Crash.net MotoGP's newest team, Ilmor, will sit out the forthcoming rounds of the 2007 world championship in order to work on sponsorship and machine development. Ilmor had hoped to secure full 2007 sponsorship by competing in two rounds at the end of the 2006 season, thus proving to potential investors the seriousness of its 800cc project, but the team's X3 was still unbranded during last Saturday's season-opening Qatar Grand Prix. To make matters worse, riders Andrew Pitt and Jeremy McWilliams have been permanently trapped at the tail of the field - between 3-5secs per lap from the front - making the team's chances of attracting significant sponsorship slim. McWilliams was forced to miss Saturday's race through injury, while Pitt retired from last place with a technical problem. As a result of such on- and off-track troubles, team principal Mario Illien has made the difficult decision to call what he hopes will be a temporary halt to Ilmor GP's racing activities in order to chase badly needed funding and further on-track performance. Ilmor's absence reduces the permanent MotoGP grid from 21 to 19 riders. | ||
| Skully |
That is disappointing! | ||
| Rocketman |
It's a bloody disgrace after all the hype and bullshit. How these wealthy engineering companies manage to secure a place on the grid beats me when they come into the fray half cocked without a hope in hell of winning sponsorship, never mind a bloody race. Rocket | ||
| Jscott |
Could McWilliams' availability breath life back into a possible Factory Buell FX effort? | ||
| Trojan |
I find it extremely disappointing, not just because the grid will be missing two bikes, but more because of the way this has happened and the damage it will do to the sport. Having been a very vocal fan and defender of the team I feel doubly disappointed by this sudden announcement According to reports, McWiliams and Pitt had no idea about this until AFTER the announcement was made today! As Rocket says, this team came into MotoGP with their eyes wide open and knew the costs involved. Illien promised everyone that he could run the team for the whole of 2007 even with NO outside sponsorship, so I don't buy that argument at all. Even up to last week they were confidently predicting that they would break into the top ten this year. I suspect that their engineering problems and F1 based design has just proved to be too difficult to make work in a motorcycle chassis. They won't be the first F1 designers to try their hand at MotoGP and fail, following hot on the heels of Aprilia and KTM's designs. However, if every new team that was at the back of the grid just walked away there would soon be nobody left. Dorna should levy a very hefty fine on Ilmor for this decision. | ||
| Hughlysses |
According to reports, McWiliams and Pitt had no idea about this until AFTER the announcement was made today! Wow, that IS lousy. Not a nice way to treat your riders at all. Well, maybe Jscott's on to something, and Jeremy will be back over for a few more XBRR rides this year. | ||
| Davegess |
It is really a tough deal for the riders. It will be tough for either to get any sort of top level ride at this point and tied in with Jeremy's injury may mark the end of his career. | ||
| Rocketman |
I don't understand why or even how Illien could invest so much money as to get this far only to pull out at the last minute. Are we all to believe the money invested so far in the Ilmor project is just wasted money? We are already talking millions I presume. I just don't get it. It makes Buells XBRR program look wholesome and justified in comparison. At least some can go out and buy an XBRR, and finish the 200 on one too. It also makes the efforts of people like Peter Clifford and the WCM entry in Moto GP look every bit as spectacular as it really was. Colour me suspicious but could Illien be into something else? Maybe selling their engine \ project to someone else? Maybe it's just a tax loss? Is a road bike by some other manufacturer the target of their engine? Rocket | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Damn those English!!!!!  That truly does suck. The grids looked small with 21 bikes. Now 19?! | ||
| Dtx |
I'm with Jscott. Lets see if we can get McWilliams back for some FX racing! | ||
| Trojan |
I don't understand why or even how Illien could invest so much money as to get this far only to pull out at the last minute. Are we all to believe the money invested so far in the Ilmor project is just wasted money? We are already talking millions I presume. I just don't get it. It makes Buells XBRR program look wholesome and justified in comparison. At least some can go out and buy an XBRR, and finish the 200 on one too. It also makes the efforts of people like Peter Clifford and the WCM entry in Moto GP look every bit as spectacular as it really was. Colour me suspicious but could Illien be into something else? Maybe selling their engine \ project to someone else? Maybe it's just a tax loss? Is a road bike by some other manufacturer the target of their engine? Rocket I have to agree whole heartedly old chap. There is something very fishy about this whole business if you ask me. Ilmor has stated that he would like to be able to supply other teams with engines, but at present who would buy it? Top speed is reasonable (7th quickest in a straight line at Qatar), but the problem appears to be viscious power delivery and terrible part throttle performance. These are things that wouldn't be a problem in a 4 wheeled scenario, as all you would get is wheelspin, but in a bike they are not good These are exactly the same problems that both Aprilia and KTM suffered from with their F1 based engine configurations, and found themselves unable to solve, so are not minor glitches. Maybe Ilmor have realised that the only way forward would be to go right back to the drawing board and start again, with all the expense this would entail. | ||
| Rocketman |
Thank you Matt for making me at least this once look like I'm talking some sense. Of course, your years at the sharp end and your wonderful insights into motorcycle racing are always great to hear, but more importantly, your words of racing often come from fact based information. Mine are mostly just observations, but I do try hard to understand not just the racing but the politics too. The BadWeB is fortunate and lucky to have you. Keep up the great work. And by the way, your XB at the TT is super bloody marvelous, even though I suspect selling it broke your heart and wallet! Rocket | ||
| Trojan |
Geez you'll make me blush next  I suspect selling it broke your heart and wallet! Very true on both counts, but I am still over the moon to see it go to such a good home I was dreading the 'collector' buying it. | ||
| Davegess |
You guys are right, it does smell funny. | ||
| Rocketman |
Well Dave, we're about 5000 miles closer to the smell than you, but if you can smell it too maybe we're onto something really stinky, lol. Rocket | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Let me go out on a limb here and shed a different light on it. Is it possible that, at the MotGP level, he realized that his bike is at the bottom of the barrel. And it's easier forgotten that he ends it quickly rather than drag it out for an entire season and become the butt of all jokes, plus loose possible future business? Just a thought. | ||
| Rocketman |
But we are talking Ilmor here. The second season of their business they won the Indycar Series. They did similar when they entered F1. Whilst the McLaren hasn't won a F1 title in a few years, it's still one of the most powerful engines on the grid, and whilst the McLaren has been somewhat unreliable in recent seasons, it's not been the engine that has been the problem. Ilmor, with all their expertise and knowledge should not be building a motorcycle race engine that is so far off the pace. But it isn't off the pace is it. The package is. Given Ilmor are the engineering side, and the bike is Eskil Suter's design, maybe their lack of performance is with the bike and not the engine. If this is the case, which I suspect is more likely, I'd be asking why Illien would put all his engineering eggs in Eskil Suter's basket. Me thinks Illien will distance himself from the project, and sell his engine elsewhere. In other words, I believe Illien has hyped his engine onto the Moto GP grid in an effort to promote his engine no matter the outcome of the bike itself. After all, Illien is in the engine business. Not motorcycle manufacture. Of similar deception is Ilmors website. Their website states they have a dedicated website for the Moto GP project. Here's what it says when you link to it... Thanks for visiting the Ilmor GP website. Both the media and fan site are currently under construction. We anticipate that the media site will be live in the next few days In the meantime, for further information on Ilmor GP please visit www.ilmor.co.uk For media enquiries contact Liz Brooks: liz.brooks@ilmorgp The whole Ilmor GP thing is a sham. Rocket | ||
| Trojan |
Ilmor, with all their expertise and knowledge should not be building a motorcycle race engine that is so far off the pace. But it isn't off the pace is it. The package is. Exactly. The engine is actually pretty powerful and certainly not the slowest out there. The chassis is also pretty good, and being designed by Eskil Suter is probably very close to the Kawasaki n terms of design. The problem appears to be that the two just don't gel together, and that hampers corner speeds more than anything else. Both riders have complained that they cannot open the thottle anywhere near as early as the other teams, and when they do the throttle response is way too harsh. So it would appear that the majority of the problems lay in engine management and electronics rather than in mechanical or handling issues, and it just this area where Ilmor is weakest when it comes to motorcycle technology. I would have thought though that a company such as Ilmor could have hired, kidnapped or stolen the right people to get the job done. It will be interesting to see if they do come back from their sabbatical, but I doubt it. I think they will hope that we just quietly forget them. Latest quotes from Mario Illien make all the right noises but are short on exactly what is going to happen. Tome it sounds like a good-bye message more than a positive step. 'As a result of such on- and off-track troubles, team principal Mario Illien has made the difficult decision to call what he hopes will be a temporary halt to Ilmor GP's racing activities - while continuing machine development. "We discussed the situation in great detail internally and obviously it was an extremely difficult decision for us to make," said the F1 engine guru. "However once we went through all the options, we decided that the best course of action for the sake of the project as a whole would be to put the racing side of things on hold and continue developing. "I would like to thank Dorna, IRTA, FIM and our technical partners and suppliers for their on-going support and patience during this time. My heart is still very much in the team - we have had fantastic support from the public and the media with some great coverage worldwide. "I would also like to say how enormously proud I am of what we managed to achieve in a short space of time - we have a good group of people who have worked incredibly hard over the past few months. Both riders, Jeremy McWilliams and Andrew Pitt have given their best during a difficult development time - I couldn't have asked for more than that. "We have important meetings and discussions over the next few weeks which will help us to establish the future of the project and team - I am determined to explore all opportunities available to us and I'm hopeful that there will be a positive outcome," he concluded. I fully expect the next announcement to be something like: 'We are peased to announce that we have sold our complete MotoGP team to Hyosung' (Message edited by trojan on March 17, 2007) | ||
| Rocketsprink |
"I think they will hope that we just quietly forget them." EXACTLY! Which is why they ended it all at once, rather than drag it out for a whole season. | ||
| Rocketman |
Reading the Ilmor website, I didn't realise Mercedes had bought Ilmor (but not the name) and Illien had gone with Honda in California, where the 'new' Ilmor are having great success in IRL and NASCAR. Interesting how businesses change hands and directions at the drop of a hat. McLaren out, Honda in. Just out of curiosity, and not suggesting any conflicts of interest, I wonder how the Ilmor / Honda relationship works on the Moto GP grid. Rocket |
