It was about time that MotoGP bosses realized that they needed to change the testing rules for contracted riders.
We all know that MotoGP tests have been limited due to the past economic climate (not that it has drastically changed in the past two-three years, acutally in some cases it is worse, with all the austerity measures that European governments are adopting to reduce their sovereign debts) which teams had demanded as a savings measure against the spiralling costs of racing.
The manufacturers however, had free reign to carry out unlimited tests as long as they used test riders, which at the end of the day resulted in more or less the same amount of money they were previously spending, without receiving the highly valuable feedback and necessary speed that only factory riders could give.
According to Italian sports weekly Motosprint, this is all about to change as manufacturers will be allowed to test with their factory riders as much as they want, as long as they choose one test track and stay within the limit of number of tires they are allowed to use, which was 240 this season.
This will no doubt bring a smile to most of the riders who found the testing limits basically wrong, but the happiest rider will be Valentino Rossi and Ducati who compaigned hard to bring this change about, following a very complicated and dismal season (even Superbike World Champion Carlos Checa who tested the GP12, was rumored to be five tenths slower than test rider Franco Battaini).
