Unless I counted wrongly there are only 18 races on the provisional calendar. China has been replaced by the Hungarian race?!

And it also looked like there were only a couple of races immediately following each other, the others were 2 weeks apart.

Yes you're right, Ivi.
Too many gp's won't do any good. It's a good decision too when they separate 2 weeks apart from each races.

When I said "19 GPs is enough for our riders" I was talking about this year.

But you're right about next year.

12th April Qatar Doha/Losail
26th April Japan Motegi
3rd May Spain Jerez de la Frontera
17th May France Le Mans
31st May Italy Mugello
14th June Catalunya Catalunya
27th June Netherlands Assen
5th July United States Laguna Seca
19th July Germany Sachsenring
26th July Great Britain Donington Park
16th August Czech Republic Brno
30th August Indianapolis Indianapolis
13th September San Marino Misano
20th September Hungary Lake Balaton
4th October Portugal Estoril
18th October Australia Phillip Island
25th October Malaysia Sepang
8th November Valencia Ricardo Tormo Valencia

Except that I see more than a couple of GPs following each other.
What I just want to say is that I can live with less GPs, less broken bones and painkillers, and a "fair" championship.
I'm not a fan of Pedrosa, but he did not deserve to score 0 points at Laguna Seca.

It can happen even to Vale himself...
I think it did happen way back in 2006?
Yes what happen to Dani isn't unfair. Let's hope he'll be okey for Brno and we may see him racing again.

Okay, got that

Well, you are definitely right about the following GPs, there are quite a few more than I saw at first glance.

Thing is though that however many or few races there are, an injury can always mean you won't be able to score points.

Yes, it can always happen.
But don't you think that there are more injuries than in 2004? (16 GPs)
And the bikes are less brutal.
So there must be another reason...

Yeah, there are more injuries but I dont think it has to do with it being two or three races more. And the bikes might be less brutal but they are faster so if the riders do get off then it is at higher speed and the chances of injuries therefore bigger.

Maybe they need to all have that Dainese airbag system installed that was tested by Simoncelli

Yes, lap times are faster, and it is probably one of the reasons that cause bad injuries.

But I think that there comes a time when adding 3 more races makes the difference between being on the edge and being over the edge. Like fighting for the extra 0.300 and getting the pole, or falling and being last on the grid.

Back to 18 races in 2009 is a sign that they may have been too far this year.

PS: this photo of Sic is really... funny and unusual.

yeah, i know. SuperSic in new attire

I agree, they must've seen that 19 races is just too much for the time they are having. I bet the riders also had a word to them saying that the physical strain on them is just a tad to much...
So 18 races should really be the max in my opinion, so hope they will keep it at that!

MotoGP » Masao Furusawa (Yamaha): Q&A

After eleven of the 18 rounds in the 2008 MotoGP World Championship, Fiat Yamaha's star rider Valentino Rossi has won four races and holds a 25 point lead over Ducati's Casey Stoner.

Meanwhile, rookie team-mate Jorge Lorenzo has already experienced the extreme highs and lows of premier-class racing, winning on just his third race start but being repeatedly injured thereafter.

Here, Masao Furusawa, executive officer of Engineering Operations for Yamaha Motor Company, answers questions on the 2008 MotoGP season to date.

Furusawa comments on both riders - describing Rossi as a genius and declaring that Lorenzo will dominate MotoGP in the future - whilst also addressing the development of the YZR-M1 and the issue of electronics in the premier-class...


Q:
What's been the biggest change to the M1 this year?

Masao Furusawa:
We have made many changes to the 2008 M1 compared to the 2007 version and we have improved it a lot; Valentino is satisfied with our work so far. Of course the biggest change for us has affected Valentino's side only - the change of tyre manufacturer [from Michelin to Bridgestone].

After the switch we had a hard time learning how to get the best performance from the new tyres and of course we had no data. Last however year Valentino predicted that changing would be the right thing for him and he was right, although of course we weren't able to predict how differently the tyre would behave.

Q:
What else have you changed on Valentino's bike?

Masao Furusawa:
We have had to work a lot on the chassis setting and we have also changed the geometry of the bike in order to get a good balance with the tyre character. Since we moved from 990cc to 800cc higher corner speed is needed in order to get faster lap times and to win.

Therefore we have tried many different chassis settings in order to find out the best of bike geometry, centre of gravity, rider position, wheel-base length, chassis stiffness and so on.

Q:
Do you think that your development since the start of the season has been a success?

Masao Furusawa:
MotoGP bikes are not production bikes and that's why I always say that Valentino, Jorge and all MotoGP riders are not human beings! Valentino has become more and more satisfied race by race and we have been able to find an ideal set-up for him that enabled him to win three races in a row.

I've added the link so you can read the other 3 pages.

Masao Furusawa (Yamaha): Q&A. | MOTOGP News | Crash.Net