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When the Moto2 class was announced, its stated purpose was to make the intermediate class affordable for small teams once again, after a period in which the cost of leasing a factory-spec Aprilia RSA 250 - effectively, the only way to be competitive - had reached around one million euros. As the entry date for the class approaches, it seems that those "small teams" being targeted are increasingly being found in the MotoGP class, and not just among the many privateer teams currently racing in the 250 class.

Earlier this week, news emerged that Tech 3 had a very keen interest in the Moto2 class, and today, GPOne.com is reporting that another MotoGP team will be following their example. Fausto Gresini, owner of the San Carlo Gresini Honda team in MotoGP, told GPOne.com that he will be entering a two rider team in the series next season. "I will be entering a Moto2 team on Friday," he told the authoratitive Italian website. "It will be the first thing I do when I arrive at Mugello, after having talked to (Dorna CEO) Carmelo Ezpeleta."

The attraction for Gresini - as for Tech 3 - is the chance to enter a championship they have a chance of winning, an objective which is currently impossible in MotoGP. With engine performance expected to be identical - with engines to be allocated to the teams at random, and only handed over at the start of the weekend, to be returned immediately after the race - the series will be much more about having an efficient team and a talented rider, rather than enough money to afford competitive equipment.

That does not mean that the series will be cheap, however. "Initially, it won't be cheap to build a Moto2 bike," Gresini said. "I think the number will be around the same as the amount for a factory Aprilia. Obviously, though, that investment will pay off over time." At the moment, a factory Aprilia 250 has to be returned at the end season, leaving the teams with nothing. Whereas in Moto2, the teams will have a chassis to use as a basis for next year, or possibly even sell on to less well-funded teams.

But costs may be less of a factor. GPOne.com cites "well-informed sources" as saying that Dorna will be very generous towards MotoGP teams who decide to enter the class. That would be a logical step for the organization that runs MotoGP, as Dorna is very heavily invested in Moto2, and they have to ensure that the class is a success. If they can fill the grid with relatively competitive bikes and provide a training ground for up-and-coming riders, they will have achieved that objective.

The question of whether this new class will provide young riders with the skills they will need when they move up to MotoGP remains unanswered, however. The purists point to factors such as the lack of a cassette-style quick-change gear box in the proposed engine, which limits rider choices and encourages them to ride around a problem, rather than learn how to fix it. But with a full grid expected next year, right now the purists are very much in the minority. Only time will tell how big the step is from Moto2 to MotoGP.

Stepping up from one series to another as champion can be very hard. Just ask Brendan Roberts. The reigning FIM Superstock 1000 Champion has struggled just to score points since moving up to the World Superbike class, despite riding a Superbike spec version of the Ducati 1098R he won the 2008 Superstock Cup on. To add insult to injury, or rather, adding injury to insult, Roberts was one of the riders caught up in the huge first-corner pile up at Monza, the Australian not breaking anything, but coming away from the incident severely battered and bruised.

At Kyalami in South Africa, Roberts seat aboard the Guandalini Ducati was taken by the former BSB champion Gregorio Lavilla. At the time, speculation abounded that the Kyalami ride was basically an audition for Lavilla, and if his results were good enough, Lavilla would take Roberts' place in the Guandalini team permanently. Lavilla finished 11th and 12th in the two South African races, beating Roberts' best finish of 13th at Assen.

That audition has been successful for Lavilla, as the Spanish veteran revealed to the Spanish magazine Motociclismo that he will be riding with the Guandalini team for the rest of the season. When asked by the magazine if he would be staying in World Superbikes, Lavilla replied: "I can confirm that I am. I am going to stay for the rest of the season." As Lavilla put it, "I've achieved my objective for the season, a return to the World Superbike series."

Lavilla also told Motociclismo that although the points he had scored had been important in the decision, there was more than just the points. "In reality, it wasn't so much the results as the way we worked in the pits, even though it's obvious that if you take more points in one weekend than in the five previous races, this helps to make a decision. But I didn't approach the race like an exam."

Lavilla's move leaves Brendan Roberts out in the cold. The Australian is still recovering from the effects of the crash, having sustained a very badly swollen leg. According to Roberts' website, he is having to wait for the swelling to subside and some of the fluid to drain from his leg before a further examination on whether there is any muscle damage or not, and whether he will require surgery. As a consequence, Roberts is unlikely to be even able to start looking for ride for another couple of weeks.

The Moto2 category, brought in to replace the 250 class, is proving to be a big hit with the people it was aimed at: The teams. The series organizer is already predicting that the 34 available places will be over-subscribed, meaning that the grid could feature no 250s at all in 2010.

Interest is not just coming from the current crop of 250 teams though. The Tech 3 team, currently active in MotoGP with Colin Edwards and James Toseland, has already expressed an interest, and in an interview with the French motorcycle magazine MotoRevue, the team manager Herve Poncharal explains just why.

"<Satellite> MotoGP teams like us have little more to do at a weekend than just adjust the bike and fiddle with the settings. We have nothing more to do, it's stipulated in our contracts that we are not allowed to make any modifications to the machines which have been placed at our disposal. If you have a highly-skilled team, it's hard to hang on to them if you don't have enough of a challenge for your boys for the entire year." Poncharal's problems are caused by the contracts by which the satellite teams are supplied bikes. The bikes are only leased to the team, and as a consequence, there's only a very limited number of options the teams have for setting the bikes up.

Poncharal sees Moto2 as a chance to hang on to the young engineers he is bringing into motorcycle racing, as well as a chance for fellow team founder Guy Coulon to get back to designing and building chassis, a skill he is currently unable to practice. "Moto2 will allow us to get back to what we used to do during the winter and the Grand Prix. We have young engineers who do fewer races than their counterparts in Supersport. If we can give them more work to do, they are more likely to want to stay with us."

The new category will also make it easier to find sponsorship. "Right now, a satellite squad can't sell their sponsors the possibility of a world title," Poncharal said. But Moto2 offered an opportunity for breeding talent. "We can take young riders from 125 or national championships, train them in Moto2 and then get them ready for MotoGP. I know that the people in charge at Monster are very interested in doing this."

The Moto2 class has so many advantages for Tech 3 that it could lead them to focus there efforts in the new class, and move away from MotoGP. "We are all being forced to reconsider our activities," Poncharal told MotoRevue.

Poncharal and Coulon's enthusiasm for the new class underlines a fundamental weakness with MotoGP. For the past 10 years or so, the factories have been tightening their grip on the machines they lease to private teams, allowing the teams to do less and less to the bikes. This discourages the teams in two different ways. Firstly, as Poncharal points out, it takes a lot of the fun out of being involved in MotoGP for the mechanics and engineers, as their creativity and problem-solving skills are limited more and more. The series is a lot less attractive to bright young engineers when the only challenge they face is working their way around the limitations imposed by the factory.

Secondly, of course, the restrictions prevent the teams from being competitive. While the factory continues to develop the factory bikes, improving them throughout the season, the satellite teams are left to wait for upgrades from the factory, and left without a means of taking their fate into their own hands, and testing their own modifications. If there is one thing the manufacturers fear more than being beaten by other factories, it's being beaten by their satellite teams. Restricting the flow of parts to the satellite teams and the amount of development they can do is one way of ensuring the factory teams don't get shown up.

If Tech 3 do pull out of MotoGP, there are plenty of people waiting to take their place. Not least the Aspar team, who have been engaged in discussions for over a year now about entering into the premier class. Aspar boss Jorge Martinez has hinted that Yamaha will be providing him with bikes in MotoGP next year, and while the current assumption has been that Martinez would be getting two extra machines to be provided by Yamaha - probably as a result of the one-bike-per-rider rule currently being suggested - it is entirely conceivable that instead, Aspar could find himself taking Tech 3's bikes. This would allow Aspar to bring Alvaro Bautista to MotoGP, something that Jorge Martinez has been working towards for some considerable time.

So far, though, Tech 3 are still in MotoGP. But with the Moto2 class such an attractive prospect, and so much more affordable than MotoGP, the new class could end up being as much of a threat to the premier class as World Superbikes.

Last year, we complained about the silly season starting early, yet in 2009 it seems to have started even earlier yet. With a host of young riders on the verge of entering MotoGP, there is already a veritable tsunami of speculation concerning who will be filling which seats next year. Marco Simoncelli and Alvaro Bautista look almost certain to move up to the premier class from 250s, and over in World Superbikes, Ben Spies is widely tipped to move across to MotoGP, while there are even whisperings of a couple of the standout young British riders - such as Leon Haslam and Johnny Rea - taking a chance.

With all these young guns getting ready to kick the door down, and any increase in the numbers of bikes on the grid extremely unlikely - whether or not the Grand Prix Commission decides to go to a single bike for 2010 - that means that some of the riders already in the series are going to have to make way. Some are safe by virtue of their nationality - James Toseland's seat in MotoGP is safe (though not necessarily his seat at Tech 3) for as long as the BBC has a deal to televise MotoGP,  or until another British rider can be found to take his place, and Yuki Takahashi is safe as long as Hiroshi Aoyama decides to stay in the 250cc / Moto2 class next year - but others are less fortunate.

One possible candidate for the transfer list is Colin Edwards. Despite the fact that the Texan is having a pretty good year and is a fair bet for at least one podium this season, the Yamaha veteran is simply becoming too expensive to maintain. The economic downturn has hit motorcycle sales in the US very hard, and as Yamaha is paying for most of Colin Edwards' considerable salary, it looks unlikely that they will be able or willing to do a similar deal for 2010.

This leaves Colin Edwards looking elsewhere, most notably towards World Superbikes, a series where he took two World Championships. According to the British weekly Motorcycle News, Edwards is already talking to Aprilia about a return to World Superbikes to ride their impressive RSV4 machine. Edwards has a good relationship with Aprilia, having ridden their terrifying RS3 Cube machine in the early days of MotoGP, and with the demise of the 250 class, the Italian factory is investing an increasing amount of resources in the World Superbike championship.

Edwards' father confirmed that the Texan has been talking to Aprilia about World Superbikes next year in a post on Colin Edwards' fan forum. Even more interestingly,  he also mentioned that Edwards had also been talking to Ducati. Colin senior did state that nothing firm had come from any of these talks so far, but a factory ride is the only place where Edwards would be able to retain anything like his current salary level, and after 6 years in MotoGP, a factory ride in the premier class is highly improbable. This leaves World Superbikes as Edwards most likely option.

A move to either the Ducati or Aprilia factory teams in World Superbikes faces a good many obstacles, not the least of which is the fact that the teams' current rosters are already well entrenched. If - and it's still a big if, this early in the season - Noriyuki Haga wins the 2009 World Superbike crown, he is unlikely to want to go elsewhere, and even less likely to be sacked. Michel Fabrizio's strong form, allied to Ducati's preference for at least one Italian rider in the factory squad, makes Fabrizio a strong candidate to keep his ride too. Over in the Aprilia garage, Max Biaggi looks like being a firm fixture with the team for next year, and has scored some outstanding results on what is a brand new bike, untested before this season.

Yet Aprilia looks like being the most likely destination for Edwards, if he does decide to move to World Superbikes. Biaggi's team mate Shinya Nakano has had a solid, if not spectacular season, scoring top ten finishes where Biaggi has been top five. Aprilia may well feel that a rider with the amount of development experience that Colin Edwards has would be a better bet for helping to develop the still new RSV4.

Of course, this is still just early speculation, based on early reports of talks. Deals are a very, very long way from being signed yet, and a couple of podiums - or better yet, a win or two - could completely turn Colin Edwards' position in MotoGP around. There's still a long way to go before contract season begins in earnest.