Crutchlow in Hayden out for 2014

[MarkT]

Crutchlow signed with Ducati, Hayden's out.

Espargaro will fill Crutchlows seat at Tech3 Yamaha.

I hope this isnt the end of Cal's career....

[Rabbie303]

Cal better enjoy the front of that pack now, because once he's on that Duc, he won't see above 8th place. Horrible move. Audi better performs miracles on that bike since it's their problem now.

[madvlad]

Wrong move.... Espargaro will do much better with the tech3 bike. Unfortunately I don't see Ducati doing much for him.... sad day.

[~Barn~]

Salary > Glory

[asp_125]

Factory supported team < Full factory team.

Still, maybe we won't see any podiums for Cal for a while.

[tecknojoe]

Salary > Glory

I was wondering why the hell someone would make the move Cal did, but then I was educated on how much mroe money he will make on a factory bike

So Kinda a smart move. he wasn't getting a Factory Yamaha anytime soon anyway

[~Barn~]

That and I have to believe that a certain segment of racers (like any true elite competitor really) have a desire to overcome that which others may see as a limitation. The do what you can't do gene if you will.

Either way, it's win/win for him regardless. The money obviously is huge and if he succeeds he's "that guy". If he fails he's on "that bike". :dunno:

[Mother Goose]

I'd rather be fighting for wins than making more money on an inferior bike. I'm sure he isn't hurting for money on the satellite team.

[rybo]

I'd rather be fighting for wins than making more money on an inferior bike. I'm sure he isn't hurting for money on the satellite team.

The delta is probably a factor of 10.

He is rumored to make about 300K on the tech 3 bike. It's probably closer to $3m on the Factory bike.

Given the short career span that most world level racers have (sure there are exceptions, but not many) 300K seems like hardly enough given the beatings their bodies take in the few years they are competitive.

How easy would it be for you to say "YES" to a career move that you knew you might hate, but paid you 10 times more than you make today?

[kawasakirob]

I would have liked him to go elsewhere, but that spot is occupied by someone who is riding the 46 bike. Also I'm not happy that he took Nicky's spot. But it would have been nice to see Cal on different machinery than the Duc.

[Mother Goose]

The delta is probably a factor of 10.

He is rumored to make about 300K on the tech 3 bike. It's probably closer to $3m on the Factory bike.

Given the short career span that most world level racers have (sure there are exceptions, but not many) 300K seems like hardly enough given the beatings their bodies take in the few years they are competitive.

How easy would it be for you to say "YES" to a career move that you knew you might hate, but paid you 10 times more than you make today?

Well, that's a bigger jump than I thought it would be. Holy crap.

[~Barn~]

http://www.ajreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/income-times-ten-box.jpg

[One-ops]

Sucks Nicky's out. Hope Cal does at least as well but hope he does better and duc changes things with the bike things just dont seem to be going right for them for years now. Plus we need more bikes up front I'm sick of seeing the honda Yamaha show

[kawasakirob]

Pessimist POV-
There goes Britains best shot at a World Champion. Hopefully Redding can do well once he moves up to MotoGP and also hopefully land a better factory team.

Optimist POV-
Cal loves challenges as well as proving people wrong. So maybe he can pull a trick out of the bag *ahem* like Stoner

[One-ops]

Doubtful he doesn't have it like stoner does.

[kawasakirob]

Yeah. I don't think so either

[AOK303]

Any idea how long of a term he signed

We are Forgetting AUDI does not like to loose and will dump Money to be at the front

[rybo]

Any idea how long of a term he signed

We are Forgetting AUDI does not like to loose and will dump Money to be at the front

2 year deal. Audi doesn't like to lose, sure, but what that have is an unfixable package. To make it better they have to start with a clean slate. If it was fixable, Jeremy Burgess would have fixed it.

THAT is an expensive game. I cant imagine what it costs to develop a moto gp bike from the ground up, but i know its lots because even Yamaha has complained that they dont really have enough resources to do any more than they are currently doing (including supplying Cal with a factory bike on the Tech 3 team, and that's a product they have already developed)

[madvlad]

Audi will probably run this bike to the ground with their so called "engineering" :lol:

[JustSomeDude]

I don't think any of us can really make any judgements about Cal regarding whether his decision was based on salary alone (which we can't even say for sure). Think about it... if some one offered you 10x more money to do busy-work with absolutely zero recognition in a basement corner office... would you really say NO?

I'd sign that contract in a heart-beat.

YES PLEASE! :)

[Klaiceps]

With Preziosi out the door, maybe there is a chance for Ducati. Then again, something's gotta be done about the frame of their bike. I wish Cal the best with Ducati and hopefully this move won't be a career killer for him.