Wednesday, 09 March 2011 18:59 by rm

This will be a very strange world championship, the one set to start next Sunday in Qatar.  In 2012 the 800cc engines will be retired, making way for a return to a full liter of displacement.  The chassis will remain largely unchanged, however, leading us to believe that the 1000cc bikes will be ready for track testing sooner rather than later... but when exactly?

For sure at Brno, on August 15th, the MotoGP riders will be testing the new prototypes, but there is reason to believe that the machines will make their debuts much sooner.

Probably not on May 2nd, at Estoril, because the focus of the manufacturers will likely still be the 2011 title, but July 4th, at Mugello (which, by the way, is being repaved at the rider's request), could represent the ideal middle ground between the other two dates. That these will be the only three post race tests of the year, lends further credibility to the idea.