Had never heard about the smoking R1 till I seen this thread.

Quite shocking, and if Dean's does go pop during the race there will be a huge question hanging over both Yamaha and more importantly the organisers for letting it race!!! Safety SHOULD and WILL always come first.

MD is a strong enough character to stand up to these manufacturers when things aren't going right. This screams of a football manager (Yamaha) parting ways as "mutual consent"

I read in the thread that the SuperBike is the same as last years. I thought MD had the German Lady Technician rebuilding the SuperBike engines in between practice and races last year? ... not sure she's there this year, or if she is, pretty sure she's not there at his specific beckon call!!