Moody Blues: Silly season latest.

In the latest of his exclusive columns for Crash.net, Eurosport MotoGP commentator Toby Moody reveals the latest silly season news from round sixteen of the 2005 world championship, the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul...

Gibernau going to Ducati still seems to be an 80 for, 20 against deal - depending on who you speak to. It appears that a letter of intent has already been signed, perhaps as early as August, but that money remains a sticking point... particularly after his recent lack of decent results.

Gibernau was apoplectic with rage on Saturday evening in Turkey, lashing out at the ineptitude of seemingly the entire paddock with a barrage of rants. He doesn't seem very happy in this paddock, and something has rubbed him up the wrong way. Was it his lack of results, lack of a job, or anger at Honda?

But if Gibernau has a deal for next year already signed then surely he would just tick the days off riding the Gresini bike without getting worked up? Gibernau's relationship with Gresini wasn't helped by his Ducati discussion's last year, which upped his 2005 pay, and he has now lost his faithful partner in Telefonica - who are off to Flav's F1 team in a bigger way - while the results of team-mate Melandri aren't helping either.

All of a sudden Sete's 2003 and 2004 results do not put him second in the championship behind Rossi, he is now 6th overall; the biggest surprise of the entire season... He is well narked that Melandri is doing well; indeed, Melandri has now taken Gibernau's second place in the championship.

Sure, the honour of getting a win is very prevalent in Gibernau's mindset, but Ducati are going to have to be prepared for the highs and lows that come with him. When he wins, he wins very well, but when the chips are down, helmets can be bowled into the garage from way down pit lane.

Ducati are apparently set to make an announcement this week on what is going on, but is it really all done and dusted for next year? On Gibernau's side is that he was a Marlboro sponsored rider for many a year in the Spanish series, and then the world championship... The power of the friends in high places. And another thing that Phillip Morris (Marlboro) don't like doing is taking pups. They like older hands on the bike.

Gibernau is not too old to need to leave the paddock and it just seems that he may need some time away from the weary paddock environment to collate his thoughts and flush the travelling out of his system.

To be fair to Ducati - if Gibernau and Capirossi are on form with a bike that works, you have to say that will be an interesting thought. And also, who else would you really put on the second Ducati?

To be fair to Gibernau, he is top of the pile bearing in mind the Marlboro attitude to not taking risks. The last time they took a risk was with the KR3 Modenas. Never again are they going to take a risk....

The people who do have deals for next year are Melandri, Rossi, Edwards, Hayden, Capirossi, Hopkins, Nakano and De Puniet. Most of those have had solid results and deserve their rides and/or are going into the second year of a two-year deal.

Checa is reportedly cheap as chips and running out of options. Wherever he will be, it will not be Ducati. He is a rider who is charming and all that, but has only won two races in his life. The first as a young hero at Catalunya in 1996, and the other at Jarama in 1998 when the three who would have won the race crashed (Doohan), got nurfed out at turn one (Crafar), or broke down (Cadalora).

What would he bring Suzuki? He would start the season full of drive, taper off, crash a lot and then go well at contract time. Just like normal really. He told me in a hire car many moons ago that he would struggle to get back with Pons, but he may have to bite his lip there if the Spanish Camel element kicks in.

Has Biaggi really got the fire inside him of old? On current form, no. He even said on Saturday that he thought there a conspiracy against him from within. Maybe there is and Honda has actually had enough of him.

Honda is far too interested in getting their hands on Dani Pedrosa and procreating the form of Marco Melandri, than reading the Max Biaggi press releases. But will the personal sponsorship from Camel assist Biaggi into Pons?

What is true is the entire paddock is at its whit's end trying to decipher the decision of Kawasaki to sign De Puniet. Someone, somewhere high up the food chain at Kawasaki Japan, got one hell of a sweet talking from the De Puniet management, that's for sure.

Hell, even Harald Eckl was quoted as asking why he was even there to front the team with deals like that being done but, truth told, he still has his signature on De Puniet's contract. KHI, Eckl and De Puniet's. There is something we don't know there...

De Puniet is 8th in the 250cc championship after a solitary wet race win this season, plus two other podiums. He is headed in the 250 championship by Pedrosa, Stoner, Dovi, Aoyama, Porto, Lorenzo and De Angelis. I was with one of the best managers in the paddock one morning this year at Motegi when we saw De Puniet crash. "This is normal for De Puniet..." He said in between a drag on a cigarette.

Or is it that someone from above needs a Frenchman in the main championship? There is no terrestrial TV coverage in France, after France Televisions stopped their live coverage at the end of 2002 and their midnight highlight coverage at the end of 2003. Hopefully there is to be a renewal of a TV contract in France for the MotoGP championship and that can only be a good thing. As always, there are other things.

It will be a shame to see Chris Vermeulen leave Honda, but then again 'promises, promises' never came Colin Edwards' way did they? He even tested a NSR 500 V4 one winter, but still they kept him doing World Superbike.

"They kept me waiting and waiting, and then they never delivered," he still says. However, for CV, he will be in the paddock and in the forefront of people's minds. Already one could say that the battle for supremacy between he and Hopkins has already started, with the fairing bashing battle they had at Phillip Island. Can the Suzuki go any quicker? They are going to have to find some power to make that happen.

What Yamaha have to do is to chuck some money at a pup who will take the place of Rossi as a 'leader' once Rossi leaves. They don't want to be back in the position they were in post-Rainey, which went on until Rossi won last year.

They need to keep Elias. Ideally put Edwards as team leader of Yamaha B team, and Elias in as No 2 to Rossi. Honda, however, have to get Elias onto the other Gresini Honda if they have any forethought at all.

And as for what colour Rossi's bike will be next year, that is anyone's guess. I still say that if he wanted to spice things up, go for Bridgestone. He has nothing to prove on the bike anymore has he? As Dunlop's Jeremy Ferguson said about that possibility. "I'd pay for that..."

The bottom line of many of these 'who goes where' discussions is that sponsors still buy seats. The tobacco element within the paddock is still strong even though there is a supposed EU advertising ban on the weed.

I know that Gauloises only bought the Yamaha fairing for 15 races of 17 this year; one drop out race being USA, the other non-blue fairing was supposed to be Valencia next week.

Apparently that is all change, with word of full branding being discussed to appear at the Spanish track. (Remember that there has not been an F1 or MotoGP race in Spain since the 'ban' on August 1st.) If this is so, then the tobacco sponsorship may linger on.

For all the billions of dollars that tobacco has poured into the sport, Dorna must look towards the post tobacco years to get some 'clean' sponsorship in. This may well be the template that NASCAR used once Winston went at the end of 2003, resulting in fresh new blue chip companies arriving.

Whatever will shake out, there are going to be some riders on different bikes next year, whilst other established riders look certain to get the boot. Teams must wield the chainsaw and do an enormous amount of dead wooding. Get in there Elias, Vermeulen, Pedrosa, Melandri, Capirossi (he is not finished yet!) and indeed James Ellison.
Toby Moody