Daniel Ricciardo on anti-racism: ‘Silence worse than criticism’
Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo on anti-racism stand – staying quiet is far much worse than facing any trolls on the social media as a consequence of his actions
October 2020
Raphael Lessard emerges top in a wild truck race at Talladega
Canadian driver Raphael Lessard earned his first win in the NASCAR Trucks playoffs at Talladega superspeedway despite interrupting the race and having a very wild finish. Lessard and Stewart Friesen led the trucks on a restart with only two out of the 94 laps remaining and they raced side by side as only one lap was remaining to the end of the race. The two truck drivers took turns to block any advancing truck which led to Friesen getting turned, creating a crash that ignited in the backstretch as the race was put under caution. Just as the caution was being displayed, Lessard emerged to be the race winner as he was getting a pushe from the back by Ben Rhodes and a fraction of a second ahead of Trevor Bayne. This win emerged to be the 19-year-old’s first win in the NASCAR National Series while having 24 career starts. “Oh my gosh, that was awesome. First of all, I just want to thank everyone at home, my team Kyle Busch Motorsports, I can’t believe it. It’s just my second superspeedway race.” Lessard said. “To get my first Truck series win here is amazing. I don’t know who was behind me but he gave me a heck of a push. I can’t thank him enough. He pushed me as hard as I could and I was just along for the ride…The caution came out at the right time. I’m so happy. I got to do a burnout after the win. I’m hoping I can do some more.” Lessard also added by revealing his struggles since he moved to Mooresville N.C back in January, as it was very difficult for him to see his family much due to the Covid-19 restrictions. “It’s a crazy year to be the first time moving from home and my family’s in Quebec, Canada,” he said. “I haven’t seen them in a while and I want to say to everyone. I needed that. We’ve had a tough season but this one feels really good.” Trevor Bayne ended up being second in the race as Chandler Smith closely followed in third place. Ben Rhodes and Codie Rohrbaugh finished fourth and fifth respectively rounding out the top five drivers in the race. Christian Eckes and Todd Gilliland were out of luck as they were eliminated from further title competition in the playoffs. There was a break between stage 2 and 3 and several drivers headed to the pits but Brett Moffitt decided to remain on the track and took the lead. On the race restart on lap 45, Moffitt held on to the lead as Sheldon Creed, Derek Kraus, Johnny Sauter and Ankrum closely followed. Later on lap 47 Gilliland appeared to be experiencing issues with his truck as he was slowing down. Tanner Gray on the other hand lost control of his truck as the field was checking up and crashed onto the inside wall. After the caution was out, the race resumed on lap 54 with Moffitt leading the pack as Creed and Kraus followed. On lap 55 Ben Rhodes was able to take the top spot, but a lap later the lead was snatched by Sauter. As there were only 30 laps remaining, Austin Hill and Derek Kraus headed to the pits for their final stop of the race but Hill was penalised for speeding at the pitlane and had to serve a drive through penalty. When the stops were completed on lap 82, Sheldon Creed retook the lead as Brett Moffitt and Kaz Grala closely followed. As 10 laps were remaining to the conclusion of the race, Creed maintained a very small lead over Moffitt as Friesen followed being in the third position. NASCAR displayed a caution on lap 88 as Creed shredded a tyre and slowed down Friesen taking the lead even before the caution was out. He remained on the track even on the race restart as two laps were remaining, other trucks headed to the pits. Advancing to the semifinal round of the playoffs were Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Brett Moffitt, Sheldon Creed, Grant Enfinger, Tyler Ankrum, Austin Hill and Zane Smith.
What will be the driver line-up for Alfa Romeo in 2021?
Alfa Romeo is a very strong team besides lagging at the back in the Formula 1 championship, but they remain a very attractive option to drivers in the market who are looking for a drive in the 2021 F1 season and even beyond. There are very many viable driver options for the team’s only two cockpits. Who are the most likely drivers to get the seats? One of the seats depends on Kimi Raikkonen’s plans to extend his tenure at Alfa Romeo to 2021, when his deal will be expiring. The finn has being going back and forth on whether to call it quits at the end of the 2020 season or decide to stick around. If Kimi would decide to call it quits then Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg would be very suited for the Alfa Romeo seat. They have been highly linked to the team over the recent weeks as Perez is believed to have gotten in touch with the team after Racing Point let him go. Fred Vasseur, the Alfa Romeo team principal on the other hand is known to rate Hulkenberg highly. Kimi Raikkonen will most probably remain with Alfa Romeo as the sources say, and it is something that the team is understood to want as the finn is proving time to time as he proves to be very critical to car development as the Red and white cars are showing a good form in the recent races with successful updates. It appears that Kimi Raikkonen’s teammate will be a Ferrari backed driver, as Antonio Giovinazzi’s seat is up for grabs as Mick Schumacher who is the current Formula 2 championship leader and his Fellow Ferrari juniors Callum Illot and Robert Shwartzman who rank 2nd and 5th respectively in the F2 championship, being the potential drivers for the 2021 Alfa Romeo ride. Vasseur says that he is very interested in the young drivers and so as Antonio Giovinazzi. “also Antonio is on the list. We have to discuss with Antonio to see what we want to do, what also Ferrari wants to do on their side.” Vasseur said. “We are not in a rush to make a decision, I think it’s important for the young kids also to perhaps finish the season, even if the last two races are quite late this season, but it’s important to have the final picture and not start the discussion in the middle of the season. “[Ferrari] have three very good ones. Shwartzman as a rookie is doing a very strong job. Schumacher and Illot are performing. It’s much better feeling to be in this situation to have the choice between good ones than no choice.” Alfa Romeo will have another opportunity to evaluate Schumacher, having already run him in the Bahrain in-season test in 2019, when he runs in a Grand Prix weekend session for the first time, taking the wheel of Giovinazzi’s car in FP1 at the upcoming Eifel Grand Prix. Sources say Schumacher is the favourite to get the second seat, however, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari are keeping their options open with two races still to go in the F2 championship. Shwartzman is set for a test in FP1 in Abu Dhabi, with Alfa Romeo expected to run him. It may be we won’t get a final decision, then, until just before Christmas at the earliest. What of Callum Illot? Well he is running for Romain Grosjean in FP1 in Germany for Haas, with the Briton in strong contention to get a race seat at the American team next season.
Ricciardo’s move from Renault to Mclaren ‘bittersweet’
Daniel Ricciardo has now accepted that his move to Mclaren is ‘bittersweet’ in the view of his current very impressive performance with Renault, but he is very resolute that he has no regrets. Ricciardo has been able to finish in the midfield, garnering very strong points adding up to 43 points in the last 4 races leaving him just 2 points shy to catch up with Mclaren’s Lando Norris who will be his teammate for the 2021 F1 season and is currently in the fourth place in the championship rankings. The Aussie is feeling the strength and the peak performance of his Renault R.S.20 as the 2020 season is progressing, and it apppears that he might have switched teams very soon, signing the Mclaren deal even before the 2020 Formula 1 season had started. But a confident Ricciardo stated that,”It’s obviously no disrespect to Renault and where I currently am, but no, I don’t regret it…am I happy to see us progress? Absolutely. All well and good, if it means we’ve got Renault as a competitor next year to push McLaren further then I think it’s good for everyone.” “So I’m not regretting it, but I’m also not unhappy with the progress. I want to be racing at the front.” “Every race in F1 is so important. Every chance I get to do it, the sooner the better. I am glad we’re making progress, and I feel a part of it, which is important as well to me and I guess my growth as a driver.” On the other hand, Fernando Alonso is set to join Renault in 2021, which has seen him trying to integrate with the team over the last couple of weeks but Ricciardo maintains that the team is is holding him firmly in a bid to take the third position in the constructors championship, as the team lies just seven points behind Mclaren team which is in the third position. “The team haven’t shut me out on anything. I’ve been doing simulator and all of it. It’s been really good to work with them. I know, for sure, bittersweet, especially for some guys in this team to know I can’t continue after this year, but I’m going to give it a red hot crack until the last day,” said Ricciardo.
Rea wins Magny-Cours WSBK as he inches closer to the championship title
Jonathan Rea successfully defied the threat of both the weather and some stiff opposition in tricky wet conditions to take another important step towards the 2020 WorldSBK Championship title with victory race one at Magny-Cours. As it has been almost entirely throughout the weekend, steady but persistent rain awaited the riders for what promised to be a treacherous 21 laps around the French venue, but any hopes for Scott Redding it would literally unseat Rea as it did during FP3 became unfounded as the Kawasaki man rebuffed the challenges around him for another exemplary win. Rea had to work hard initially despite grabbing the lea d from third on the grid into Turn 1, not least because he was lucky to be just in front of a dramatic coming together into Turn 1 after both BMW riders came down in a disaster for the German marque. With Eugene Laverty – starting from pole position for the first time since 2012 – leading a BMW 1-2 on the grid, the Irishman suffered for a ponderous start which put him on the outside of Turn 1, so when BMW team-mate Tom Sykes to his inside was swiped down by contact with Garrett Gerloff it resulted in both S 1000 RRs barrelling through the gravel just seconds into the race. Both riders were unhurt and will get another chance to make the most of their qualifying efforts in the Superpole Race when they start 1-2 again. Out front, Rea was defending hard as positions swapped behind him, the riders ducking in and out of the spray, fending off the attention from an in-form Gerloff initially. However, his attempt to pass at d’Eau on lap three instead resulted in the line being chopped off by the Kawasaki, thus dropping him behind Loris Baz. Rea, Baz and Gerloff soon sprinted clear to form the lead pack, but the latter would see his hopes of a second consecutive podium ruined by a crash on lap seven at Nurburgring when he lost the rear of the GRT Yamaha and it flipped him back over into a high-side. With Baz left to take up the fight, he stayed close to Rea for the majority of the race and it was only until the latter portions that he began to lose ground before easing off to settle for second place. His tenth win of the year, it means Rea has extended his lead over Redding to 65 points. He needs 62 points in hand at the end of the weekend to be crowned champion for a sixth time in six years. A third podium of the year – and a first WorldSBK podium on home soil – for Baz and Ten Kate Yamaha – he was followed by Alex Lowes who despite being a distant ten seconds off the front notched up his first podium since the Australian season opener back in February/March. Making good gains from his ninth place starting position, Chaz Davies consolidated third overall with fourth position, ahead of Ducati team-mate Redding, whose fifth place result was a hard-fought reward for an eventful race. Struggling initially down in a distant tenth, the confidence returned as the laps ticked off to the point where Redding was on the back of a fierce race-long battle for fifth between Toprak Razgatlioglu and Leon Haslam. With the Yamaha and Honda pair swapping positions right up to the final lap, it was Haslam’s last attack into Imola that proved his undoing, the veteran getting the move done, only to high-side dramatically on the exit. That slowed up Razgatlioglu, allowing Redding to jump from seventh to fifth, with the Turk left in sixth. With everyone behind jumping a late position, Michael Ruben Rinaldi was seventh, ahead of Xavi Fores – for his equal best result of the year – and Michael van der Mark, who ran fourth for much of the race before a crash at d’Eau dropped him down the order. Leandro Mercado returned to the top ten on the Motocorsa Ducati, with Federico Caricasulo and a lacklustre Alvaro Bautista left to fly the flag for GRT Yamaha and Honda in 11th and 12th after their respective team-mates’ incidents. Sylvain Barrier, Valentin Debise and WorldSBK debutant Xavier Pinsach – another to fall and remount – picking up the final points’ paying position.
Magny-Cours FP2: Gerloff emerges top in wet practice, Rea second
Garett Gerloff(GRT Yamaha) set the pace in the WorldWSBK Free Practice 2 held at Magny-Cours which remained wet for the second practice session, after setting a benchmark timed lap in the last minutes taking on Jonathan Rea. Jonathan Rea had topped the morning practice session after recording a time of 1m 49.356s and his dominance continued for the better part of FP2 and continuously improved his time from 1m 53.140s to 1m 50.381s in the first half of the session. Later on, with only 21 minutes to go to the end of the session Team Go Eleven’s Michael Reuben Rinaldi was able to beat Rea’s time after recording 1m 50.489s and a few moments later improved on his time, recording 1m 50.122s. Jonathan Rea was able to take back the lead recording 1m 50s 10 minutes later, and later improved on his record creating a gap between him and the other riders as he set a series of fast laps. His final effort landed him at 1m 48.991s which was the fastest lap so far in the two Friday practice sessions and appeared to have sealed the practice honours to continue leading in the championship standings to get his 6th world championship title. Garett Gerloff would later challenge the benchmark time by recording 1m 48.830s moments before the chequered flag was put down, emerging the fastest in the Friday afternoon session. Rea had to settle for the second position after he was beaten by only 0.015s. Michael Reuben Rinaldi took the third spot being the only rider to achieve the 1m 48s time bracket. Ten Kate Yamaha’s Loriz Baz finished fourth as Alex Lowes took the fifth position only a tenth of a second later finishing the second of the Factory Kawasakis. BMW’s Tom Sykes finished sixth after recording 1m 49.717s, which had been ranking as high as 2nd in the better parts of the session, but his record was later challenged. Ducatti’s Scott Redding finished seventh, despite being Rea’s closest challenger in the title fight. Honda’s Leon Haslam, Eugene Laverty(BMW) and Michael van der Mark on the factory Yamaha finished 8th, 9th and 10th respectively rounding the top 10 riders of the Friday afternoon session. Chaz Davies (Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) were 11th and 12th respectively, both setting their quickest times in the afternoon session.
Jonathan Rea first in wet FP1 at Magny-Cours as Caricasulo crashes
Wet conditions welcomed the WorldSBK riders for their First Practice at Magny-Cours as Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea emerged on top in the morning session. The second last round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship started on Friday morning at Magny-cours for the Pirelli French WorldSBK round and it was a completely captivating session which was topped by Jonathan Rea who is the current championship leader. The 33-year-old Kawasaki rider was the last to head out to the track and put in very quick laps to subdue Ten Kate Racing Yamaha rider, Loriz Baz who was in the lead. With only thirty minutes to go, Rea went ahead to set a time of 1m 51.924s, which was over 1.5 seconds over Loriz Baz and BMW Motorrad’s Tom Sykes. The last 10 minutes to the conclusion of the session were spent by Rea to bring down the time benchmarks that Baz had made. Rea went ahead to be the only rider that made a lap time below the 1m 50s bracket. Pata Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu managed to get the fourth place as he was continuously progressing in his lap times throughout the session. He was closely followed by Xavi Fores(Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who had mentioned earlier in the week that he would not be remaining with the Kawasaki satellite team for the 2021 season. Alex lowes finished 6th as the second Kawasaki Factory rider after Rea. Scott Redding(Ducatti ARUBA.IT Racing) who is a rookie managed to be the seventh fastest as he is contending for the world championship being second after Rea. Team Go Eleven’s Michael Reuben Rinaldi finished eighth despite a crash at Turn 15 late in the practice session. The ninth place was taken by Michael van der Mark(PATA Yamaha WorldSBK) although he experienced a mechanical issue at the end of the session. Team HRC’s Leon Haslam rounded up the top ten riders in the practice session. Chaz Davies(Ducatti ARUBA.IT) finished all the way down at 16th place as the wet conditions proved to be very tough for him as Team HRC’s Alvaro Bautista finished all the way down at the 19th place. Federico Caricasulo on the GRT Yamaha had a very huge crash at the Adelaide Hairpin around Turn 5, the rider was however able to walk away from the incident as a red flag was brought out to give some time for his bike wreckage to be cleared from the track, the 24-year-old however ended up ranking 13th in the session. Samuele Cavalieri(Barni Racing Team) was also not spared by the wet conditions as he also crashed at Turn 2 with only 20 minutes to go to the conclusion of the session, the Italian however managed to rank 21st in the practice session.
NASCAR releases new rules for the Cup Series
New rules have been released for the 2021 NASCAR Cup series and they will mainly target the High downforce and low downforce strategies for another time. Nashville and Darlington will be utilizing the low downforce 750hp package which is 250hp extra from the previous 500hp package, which all rounds longer than 1.1 miles ran for the 2020 NASCARCup season. Gen-6 will be bidding farewell to NASCAR at the end of 2021 season before the Next Gen car hits the track for the 2022 season. In addition to the high downforce and low downforce packages, the following changes on low downforce were also made: 1.Smaller rear spoiler, shrinking from an 8-inch height to 2.75 inches. 2. The front splitter overhang measures a quarter-inch (down from 2 inches), with approximately 2-inch wings (reduced from 10.5 inches). 3.Alterations to the radiator pan, removing its vertical fencing in an effort to reduce front-end downforce. The dimensions of the pan remain the same. “We constantly review the race packages to try to put on the best possible racing for our fans,” said NASCAR’s senior vice president of innovation and racing development, John Probst. “When we brought in the short track/road course package this season, Darlington was not part of it due to its unique size. We’ve been evaluating data from both race packages, as well as feedback from drivers, teams and OEMs and feel that the 750 hp/low downforce package best fits the track.”
Imola will allow more than 13,000 spectators a day for the Emilia Romagna GP
Race promoters for the Emilia Romagna Formula 1 Grand Prix announced on Thursday that they will be allowing more than 13,000 spectators a day at the Italy’s Imola circuit for the Formula 1 race that will be held from 31st October to 1st November. The race will be missing the Friday practice and all the events will be squeezed into two days. This race will also be the third race to take place in Italy for the 2020 F1 season. The circuit last hosted a Formula 1 race back in 2006, as it was designated the San Marino Grand Prix, but it will be making a comeback this year after being included in the revised Formula 1 calender, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “Thanks to the precise and meticulous anti-Covid health security protocol presented to the Emilia-Romagna Region, it was possible to obtain a significant public presence, more than 13,000 people for each race day,” the Imola race organisers said in a statement. The organisers also added that the tickets had been on sale for a week and some of the outlets had already sold out. The eight rounds of the 2020 Formula 1 season have taken place without spectators but during the Tuscan Grand Prix held last month, some 2,800 spectators were allowed a day at the Italy’s Mugello circuit. On the other hand, last weekend’s Russian Grand Prix had the biggest crowd of spectators, having around 30,000 fans visit the Russian’s Sochi Olympic Park every day.
Honda to leave Formula 1 at the end of 2021 season
Redbull Racing team and its junior team AlphaTauri are now in search for a new engine supplier after Honda made a shocking announcement that they will be pulling out of Formula 1 at the end of 2021 F1 season. The Japanese motor manufacturer had returned to Formula 1 back in 2015 producing engine units for Mclaren, after getting their inspiration from the new breeds of power units that depended on the hybrid and energy recorvery technologies. Later on they suffered a difficult and very unsuccessful partnership and eventually parted ways with Mclaren. Honda later joined forces with Toro Rosso which is curently the Redbull junior team, AlphaTauri. Much later in 2019 they went ahead to join the Redbull senior team as a works team. Honda’s collaboration with the two Redbull teams have seen them achieve five race victories in their two and a half year partnership. However, now Honda have decided not to continue their partnership with the Redbull family, which will exist up to the end of 2021 season. They said that their decisison to leave Formula 1 because the automobile industry was going through one in a hundred years period of great transformations and they will be leaving F1 having attained their goal of earning victories. “Honda will work together with Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri to continue competing with its utmost effort and strive for more victories all the way to the end of the 2021 season,” the Japanese company, Honda revealed in a statement. The company’s retirement from Formula 1 racing will narrow down the engine suppliers to three, Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari. However, looking back at the current FIA rules, Renault are the most suitable to provide Redbull with power units as they have the fewest customers at the moment. On the other hand, they can also convince Ferrari or Mercedes to supply their power units. All options are very open. Redbull, on behalf of their works team, Honda and its junior team AlphaTauri are very commited to the new Concorde Agreement, which binds them to the Formula 1 championship upto 2025. “We look forward to embarking on a new era of innovation, development and success,” said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who also added that he understood and respected Honda’s decision. “As a group, we will now take the time afforded to us to further evaluate and find the most competitive power unit solution for 2022 and beyond.”
Perez admits disappointment at how his Racing point exit was handled
Sergio Perez admits grievances over how his Racing Point exit was revealed. Speculation about the Mexican’s future began a few weeks after it was announced Sebastian Vettel, who is replacing him, would be leaving Ferrari at the end of this year back in May. It was revealed Perez had options in his contract that allowed it to be bought out by team owner Lawrence Stroll and it was initially rumoured Vettel’s arrival would be made official over the two weekends at Silverstone. That didn’t happen, with the actual confirmation coming just before the Tuscan GP, although Checo has now confirmed he first heard of his exit after overhearing Stroll discussing Vettel’s contract over the phone with his lawyer in the hotel at Monza. “It’s true, I found out on Sunday that I was not going to stay,” said Perez. “They still did other things in that regard. So I already knew in advance. “I’m surprised how things go into the media so easily, I think in a way I’m a bit disappointed in that regard because I feel that those things should stay internally within us.” Perez added. “We know what happened, what we did and so on.” While Racing Point has frequently praised the 30-year-old for his contribution over the years, Sergio also revealed his unhappiness at the lack of recognition he’s got for saving the then Force India team from financial collapse back in 2018. “I was also disappointed that not really pretty much no one has said anything about that,” said Perez. “I heard that it was not going out in the press release but they were going to mention that, Otmar was going to mention that in interviews and so on. I didn’t see anything.” “But it’s fine, I never did it for people to give me anything. I guess this is Formula 1, but I just found it a bit difficult that we’ve been together for so many years, I expected a bit more transparency. At the same time I think [team boss] Otmar [Szafnauer] is not in an easy position too,” Perez conceded. “From Lawrence’s point of view, I understand everything. I’ve got nothing against him. “And for the team as well, this team is such a big part of me that I want them to do very well in their future. That’s the most important thing for me.” Perez’s criticism came on the same weekend which he began by suggesting Racing Point had begun to “hide things” from him since his departure was announced. “Those conversations are for next year’s car, basically,” technical director Andrew Green responded. “We’re not excluding him from anything we’re doing this year. It’s in our interest to have him as fast as we can get him for the rest of the season. We’re in a fight for the championship. It does us no good at all to start to treat him any differently and we haven’t done, that’s why we were surprised that instead of talking to us about any issues he had, the first we read about it is in the press. So that was a bit strange.” After talking to the team following his comments to the media, Perez also then confirmed the situation was clear. “I have known this team for seven years and they are like family,” he wrote on social media. “I have spoken to the team and they accept my explanation. There’s no way after seven years we can finish in bad terms, the air is totally cleared. “And we all move forwards now. We all want the same thing: to score as many points and be successful in our remaining races together.”
Fabio Quartararo can’t replace Rossi at Yamaha factory team
Petronas SRT rider Fabio Quartararo says he ‘can’t replace’ Valentino Rossi as he will be taking his current seat at Petronas SRT for the 2021 MotoGP season. Quartararo says that switching to Yamaha factory team in 2021 would simply mean he is taking Rossi’s bike. The 9-time world champion was announced to be joining the Malaysian outfit in a one-year deal, that was announced last weekend. Yamaha made a move to sign Quartararo as their vacant seat is getting very keen attention from Ducatti on the 2019 rookie sensation as Rossi’s original plans were to assess his performance in the opening rounds before making a decision on where to base his career in the future which triggered him being ruled out of the Ducatti works team. Quartararo’s deal with Yamaha to ride beside Maverick Vinales will last for two years, running through to 2022. In an interview Quartararo said that he was pleased with Yamaha for believing in him for its future back in January, but also feels that nobody can touch Rossi’s place. “I was quite surprised because we make the choice quite fast in the beginning of the year,” Quartararo said when asked if Yamaha signing him over Rossi was a boost to his confidence. “Even the end of last year. But it was good. I’m really happy that Yamaha believes in me for the two next years in their team…So, will feel strange to have the bike of Vale, not the place, the bike. “So, I’m really happy, but we need to keep focusing on this year to be in a position to face the grands prix. For me, I can’t replace him because Valentino is Valentino. I’m taking his bike, of course it will be a new bike.” “But I’m not taking his place. His place is still there because he made history with Yamaha. I think they spent close to 10 years together, So, for me, the place of Valentino nobody can touch it and I’m just taking his bike, and his place will be there forever.” Valentino Rossi will be receiving full factory support and also machine specifications with Quartararo and Vinales at Petronas SRT for the 2021 MotoGP season. He had also pushed to have his crew move with him to the new team but after holding several talks with the team, he will be only be able to move with crew chief David Munoz, rider coach Idalio Gavira and data analyst Matteo Flamigni. The 41-year-old’s deal with Petronas SRT will be lasting for only one year contrary to the 1+1 he had originally requested with Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis explaining last weekend that this was a result of technicality in that the Japanese outfit doesn’t have a deal in place with MotoGP or SRT past 2021.