2012 marks the beginning of a new era in Moto GP, with the grid moving to a 1000cc capacity and
expanding to include Claiming Rule Teams (CRT).

Kicking off in Qatar on 8 April, a race uniquely run at night, the championship looks set to be a corker with Aussie Casey Stoner keen to make it two World Championships in a row. His main rivals Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies (both factory Yamaha), team mate Dani Pedrosa and 2011 team mate Andrea Dovisioso (now riding for Tech 3 Yamaha) are keen to challenge the Aussie, but pre-season testing tells a sorry tale with Stoner securing the number one spot on the timesheet at the second test in Malaysia.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati) will again be one to watch, having made significant changes to the bike for 2012, most notably moving to a separate chassis. With 2011 consigned to the history books, the dynamic duo of Rossi and his crew chief, Australian Jeremy Burgess, are looking forward to a fresh bike and a fresh championship. Interestingly, satellite Ducati rider Hector Barbera (Pramac Racing) was the fastest Ducati at the second Sepang test in late February. Hmmmmm.

Another man to watch is Alvaro Bautista, taking the place of the late Marco Simoncelli at San Carlo Honda Gresini . Picked up in the final weeks of 2011, Alvaro was lucky to get a gig having stayed firmly loyal to Suzuki right to the bitter end. The factory cited tough economic circumstances and repeated natural disasters for its decision to leave the Moto GP paddock, but intends to return in 2014.

At the other end of the grid we have the Claiming Rule Teams. So what is CRT? In a nut-shell these bikes combine prototype frames (from the likes of Suter and FTR, names familiar to Moto2 fans) with ’worked’ production engines from Aprilia, BMW, Honda or Kawasaki (Yes I know… if it looks like SBK and smells like SBK…???). By way of comparison with the full prototypes, the fastest CRT bike at the second Sepang test (Colin Edwards NGM Mobile Forward Racing BMW Suter) was 3.2 seconds behind Stoner and 2.5 seconds behind the nearest ‘proper’ GP bike piloted by a MotoGP regular. To make up for this lack of poke, CRT riders will be able to carry more fuel (when’s the last time a MotoGP bike ran out of fuel during a race…?) and double the engine allocation. The concept of ‘claiming’ refers the ability of a factory team to ‘claim’ an engine used by a CRT for a fixed 25,000 Euro. This is intended to stop back-door entry into MotoGP by the likes of Aprilia and BMW who, with substantial funds and know-how, could have CRT engines outperforming the full-prototype factory teams.

So, whilst Casey Stoner looks set to have one hand on the 2012 championship trophy, the other steps on the podium are far from sureties. Watch out for Andrea Dovizioso, now on a non-factory Yamaha and looking to improve on his stella 3rd in the 2011 championship. After being dropped by Honda, and criticised during the year for his lack of attacking rides, he gave us a glimpse of the new and improved “Dovi” at last years final round in Valencia. Swapping positions, and maybe a little paint, a number of times with then team-mate Pedrosa, the two had a gold old-fashioned jostle for that number 3 spot in the championship. Expect more of the same in 2012!