Ever since Valentino Rossi crashed at Mugello, people have been wondering who would step in to take his place. Jorge Lorenzo will be racing solo for the Fiat Yamaha team for the time being, but the MotoGP only allows for two races to pass until a replacement has to be sought. World Superbike rider Cal Crutchlow was asked to join the Tech 3 team, but Crash.net reports that Crutchlow has decided against the move. Crutchlow would have had to honor both WSBK and MotoGP commitments, which would have been too much for the 24 year old, and instead, Crutchlow will concentrate solely on his WSBK campaign
“It would have been difficult to do six weekends of racing back-to-back and keep jumping from one bike to another – and the differences in machinery are incredible. I've never ridden a GP bike, never ridden a Yamaha 800cc, never ridden carbon discs and never been to the three circuits they wanted me to do – and I would have had no testing beforehand because there was no time in-between the races," said Crutchlow.
“For me to jump on the bike in Friday practice and learn everything within 45 minutes just wasn't going to work, plus there would have been the safety aspect of changing between Pirelli (WSBK) and Bridgestone (MotoGP) tyres every time. I'm always up for a challenge, but I didn't want to go in there and do Yamaha or myself an injustice and not get competitive results.”
Tech 3 asking Cruthlow to join the team opens the door to further speculation. Is one of the Tech 3 riders, either Ben Spies or Colin Edwards making the move to the Fiat Yamaha team?
The Yamaha team has said that they would love to take on Spies, but since Spies is in his rookie season, it might be a tough sell. According to Davide Brivio, the Fiat Yamaha team boss, no one is thinking about replacing Rossi until Barcelona.
