Unofficial Moto2 List: 39 Riders, Many Still Doubtful

Over the past few weeks, news of the Moto2 class has flooded the media. Such has been the volume of news, announcements and rank speculation that it has been hard to keep up. Fortunately for us, our friends over at the highly respected Italian website GPOne.com have set their minds to this tricky task, and have produced a list of the current state of entries in the Moto2 class.

The list is still very much provisional, and many of the teams are still in doubt. Despite the fact that the Moto2 class is meant to reduce the costs of competing in the support class, the amount of money required to take part in the world championship remains high. Estimates and budgets have varied, with teams spending between 1.5 and 3 million euros to field a two-rider team for a year, and in these straitened economic times that kind of cash is proving more difficult to raise than expected.

The fact that teams such as Campetella Racing have not yet announced riders make them a doubtful prospect to make the first ever Moto2 race at Qatar. But even established teams are not safe. Rumors persist that the Gresini team will not make it onto the grid, as the team is short of funds for its MotoGP effort, and cannot afford the extra to run a Moto2 team alongside its premier class team. The team was due to announce Toni Elias as one of their riders on Thursday, but that announcement has been pushed further and further back, with the Spanish press now reporting that a decision will be made on Monday about the future of the team.

The financial problems facing the teams have been clear from very early on in the development of the class. Almost from the very beginning, the only way to obtain a ride in the class was to bring a large amount of personal sponsorship to a team, with sums between 200,000 and 500,000 euros being the price of entry. Even established and hotly-tipped riders such as Bradley Smith and Scott Redding were only offered rides on condition that they brought money to the team. The onus for funding a team, it appears, has shifted significantly from the teams to the riders.

Whether there will be 39 riders on the grid at the inaugural Moto2 race in Qatar remains to be seen. Even if only 30 riders actually start the race, the move will be considered a success. The questions will start to arise once the number drops below 25. Despite the first green shoots of economic recovery being spotted, it is still hard to find money to go racing.

Provisional, unofficial Moto2 line up