Is Rossi a seven-time MotoGP king or a nine-time motorcycle world champion?

The Hall of Fame was launched earlier this month at Misano and clearly defined the new F1-style strategy. Only MotoGP riders get to enter the HoF, so the current occupants are Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan, Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, Eddie Lawson, Jorge Lorenzo, Umberto Massetti, Dani Pedrosa, Wayne Rainey, Phil Read, Kenny Roberts, Valentino Rossi, Kevin Schwantz, Barry Sheene, Freddie Spencer, Casey Stoner and John Surtees.

I agree with Dorna’s idea of creating a separate space for the greatest kings of the class of kings. I’ve always thought no rider should be named a Legend unless they’ve won at least two MotoGP crowns (which, funnily enough, is the main requirement for entry to the HoF). Because winning the championship once already grants you entry to a very special club, therefore to be a member of the pantheon you need to have done more than that.

I was frequently bemused by some of Dorna’s choices of MotoGP Legend. Should you be a MotoGP Legend because you’ve won a single premier-class crown? No. But there are a few in there. Should you be a Legend if you’ve won a single intermediate championship? No. And likewise.

Losing 2001 250cc Daijiro Katoh in 2003 and 2008 250 champ Marco Simoncelli in 2011 were sad times for MotoGP, but I think making them legends was a mistake.

In other words, Dorna had got its knickers in a twist by inviting too many people to the party, so now it’s trying to make amends with its new VVIP area.

It’s not the only one. Bike racing’s governing body, the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme), now includes Formula 750 within its grand prix results book.

The 1980s paddock had twinkling motorhomes of premier-class superstars at one end and the rusting vans of the impoverished sidecar crews at the other

F750 was born in the earlier 1970s to answer a thirst among fans for large-capacity bike racing, because MV had turned MotoGP into a snore. The racing never took place at grands prix, so F750 wasn’t GP racing. Essentially, F750 was an early version of World Superbike, using street engines instead of street bikes.

Thus the FIM results book has Agostini down as the winner of 123 grands prix (68 x 500, 54 x 360 and 1 x 750). If that’s the case, Troy Bayliss is a 53-times GP winner (52 x WSBK, 1 x MotoGP). Counting F750 results as GP results is rewriting history, plain and simple.

If Moto2 and Moto3 are being marginalised, what else have the lower classes got to look forward to?

Dorna is planning to segregate the MotoGP paddock from the other paddocks, because it wants MotoGP to be all glitz and razzmatazz.

This won’t be the first time this has happened. A decade and a half ago, Dorna banned non-MotoGP riders from living in the paddock in camper vans to create more space for hospitality units, which had become such an important part of team/sponsor relations. Overnight the paddock became less of a global village and more of a mall (with many fine restaurants). Two-time MotoGP king Stoner cited this move as one of the reasons he fell out of love with racing.

I remember much further back than that, in the 1980s, when the paddock was a kind of microcosm of a bustling modern city, with the vast, twinkling motorhomes of the premier-class superstars at one end and the rusting vans and mouldy awnings of the impoverished sidecar crews at the other.

When Dorna threw camper vans out of the paddock it also turned the paddock’s MotoGP hospitality area into a kind of VIP area, to which a regular paddock pass didn’t grant you access. The idea was to create a highfalutin enclave but instead it became a dead zone, full of nothing except metaphorical tumbleweed. The idea was soon abandoned.

A VIP zone is once again under discussion. I recently had a chat with a team boss who told me, “The people in charge don’t want the CEO of some big company walking around the paddock with people wearing denim shorts and Crocs.”

Such is the modern world.

Pitlane garages are also likely to become MotoGP only. Currently, the top few teams in the lower classes get their own garages, while the rest are based in the paddock, working out of hard-framed tents, provided by Dorna. Most likely, all Moto2 and Moto3 teams will end up working out of the paddock.

Some teams say they prefer this idea, because currently only the top teams in both classes get to work out of proper garages, which gives them an extra advantage over everyone else.

Moto3 will soon become like Moto2, with a single engine supplier, but more so, because it may have a single chassis supplier as well: Kalex chassis powered by Yamaha YZF-R7 twin-cylinder road bike engines.

Thus grand prix racing is becoming a kind of bastard child of F750, with two of its three categories using road bike engines.

Cynics might even argue that is no longer grand prix racing in the traditional sense.

Does this matter? That depends on who you are. If you consider yourself a member of the cognoscenti, yes, it probably does matter. It will matter for many riders, too.

When Moto2 bikes replaced arguably the most perfect GP bikes of all time – the exquisite 250s – with mongrel machines powered by road engines, KTM‘s first grand prix team boss Harald Bartol said, “A 250 is a racehorse, a Moto2 bike is a donkey.”

I recall interviewing Pedro Acosta last year, during his rookie MotoGP season. He told me he was delighted to be riding a MotoGP bike because it was the first proper race bike he had ridden since he had been in Moto3. In other words, a mongrel road/race Moto2 bike isn’t a true race bike.

This means that in the very near future, the first GP bike that riders will race will be MotoGP bikes, after coming through the road/race classes.

If Dorna and Liberty want to reduce costs of the junior classes, why don’t they replace Moto2 and Moto3 with one-make two-stroke classes? In the early years of four-stroke MotoGP, team owner Fausto Gresini told me the 990s cost four or five times as much to run as 500 two-strokes had. This is one reason why money has been so tight for the last two decades or so.

Perhaps Dorna/Liberty could get KTM involved, to top up the troubled Austrian manufacturer’s bank account. KTM would manufacture customer versions of their reed-valve 125 and 250cc GP bikes, both racehorses, which would teach riders much more about the finer arts of riding GP bikes than any donkey. And they’d be cheaper to run than Moto2 and Moto3 bikes.

I know this is far too sensible an idea to ever become reality, but you’ve got to dream, right?

Finally, why do I refer to 500cc bikes, riders and champions as MotoGP bikes, riders and champions? This upsets some fans who think I’m disrespecting history, because MotoGP only became a thing at the turn of the century, but in fact, I’m 100% respecting history.

Separating the 500cc world championship from the MotoGP championship effectively consigns the 500s to dusty old history books. If you divide the two championships, the older championship will soon be forgotten and might well have never existed to new fans.

In fact, this already happens, with some people calling Rossi the most successful MotoGP champion of all time, because Agostini never won a MotoGP crown. Thus, they both need to live under the same name.