Alice Team

Infobox Grand Prix motorcycle team
Short_name=Alice Team
Logo=
Last_season=2008
Long_name=Alice Team
Base=flagicon|Spain Madrid, Spain
Principal=Fabiano Sterlacchini & Felix Rodriguez
Riders=24 Toni Elías
50 Sylvain Guintoli
Motorcycle=Ducati Desmosedici GP8
Tyres=Bridgestone
Riders_champ= -

Alice Team is a motorcycle racing team currently competing in the MotoGP World Championship under the name Alice Team. The team was created in 2008 after securing title sponsorship from Italian telecoms entity Alice, having originally come into being as Pramac d'Antin in 2005 when the d’Antin MotoGP team and the Pramac Racing Team merged.

History

d’Antin MotoGP

The d'Antin MotoGP Team was set up in 1999 by Spanish former motorcycle racer Luis d'Antin. In 1999 the team raced in the 250cc World Championship with Yamaha and two Spanish riders Fonsi Nieto and David Garcia.

in 2000 the team moved up to the 500cc class with Japanese rider Norifumi Abe taking a win at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. José Luís Cardoso joined the team in 2001 as second rider alongside Abe. A podium finish was the team's best result.

500cc became MotoGP in 2002. The D'Antin team continued with the same riders and the same motorcycle the 500cc 2-stroke Yamaha YZR500. The 500cc 2-stroke motorcycle was not able to compete against the more powerful 990cc 4-strokes and top 10 finishes were the team's best results.

The team got the new Yamaha YZR-M1 in 2003. Shinya Nakano was the team's only rider.

The team switched to Ducati motorcycles in 2004 using the previous season's Desmosedici GP3. SBK|2003 Superbike World Champion Neil Hodgson and SBK|2003 Superbike World Championship runner-up Rubén Xaus joined the team. The team ran into financial difficulties mid-season and was not able to run a test program. The teams best result was a third place for Xaus.

Pramac Racing

Pramac Racing entered MotoGP in 2002 using the Honda NSR500 with Tetsuya Harada as a rider.

In 2003 the team used the Honda RC211V with Makoto Tamada it was the only Honda team to use Bridgestone tyres. A podium was the team's best result.

In 2004 Pramac Racing ran alongside Pons Racing under the name Camel Honda. Pramac ran Tamada using Bridgestone tyres while Pons ran Max Biaggi using Michelin tyres. Tamada finished the season with 2 wins.

Pramac d'Antin

in 2005 d’Antin MotoGP and Pramac Racing joined to form Pramac d'Antin. The team used the previous season's Desmosedici GP4 with Italian Roberto Rolfo as a rider. The team used Dunlop tyres and usually finished races near the back of the grid.

For 2006 the team was given use of the Desmosedici GP6 the same motorcycles the factory team was using. Alex Hofmann and José Luís Cardoso were the team's riders. The Dunlop tyres the team used were not competitive and once again the team finished races near the back of the grid.

Prior to the start of the 2007 season Pramac and d’Antin reached an agreement that saw the d'Antin team becoming an integral part of the Pramac Group. [cite web | url=http://www.aliceteam.com/en/news/47_list_news_details/news_detail3.php?id=3&sez=News&id_
| title=Pramac and d'Antin confirmation agreement for next season in MotoGP World Championship | publisher = pramacdantin.com| accessdate =2008-01-23]

For the 2007 season the team used the new 800cc Ducati Desmosedici GP7 and Bridgestone tyres. Brazilian Alex Barros joined the team alongside Alex Hofmann. Alex Barros had a strong season finishing regularly in the top 10 and taking a podium finish at the Italian Grand Prix. Hofmann had a more average season and he injured his hand in practice at Laguna Seca [cite web | url=http://www.trymysport.co.uk/sports_news/dantin_racing_news/2007/jul07/hofmann_injury_update.htm | title=Five Week Recovery Time For Alex Hofmann After Practice crash| publisher =trymysport.co.uk] . He was replaced at Laguna Seca by Chaz Davies and by Ivan Silva at Brno. He returned to racing at Misano but he was fired by the team following the Portuguese Grand Prix, after pulling out of the race while in with a chance of scoring points, due to a lack of motivation. [cite web | url=http://www.crash.net/news_view.asp?cid=6&id=154579 | title=Hofmann sacked. | publisher =crash.net| accessdate =2007-09-17] Chaz Davies replaced Hoffmann for the 3 remaining rounds of the season.

Alice Team

For the 2008 season the team continues using the Ducati Desmosedici GP8 and Bridgestone tyres. Sylvain Guintoli and the Toni Elías are the team's new riders. The team is now sponsored by Alice (Telecom Italia), and renamed Alice Team.

Luis d'Antin has resigned from the team he founded according to reports during today's German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring (source - British Eurosport, BBC Sports & Autosport - [http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69024 Luis D'Antin leaves Alice team] ).

References

External links

* [http://www.aliceteam.com/en/ aliceteam.com] Official website