It is official, Kawasaki have announced that they are pulling out of the MotoGP championship leaving riders John Hopkins and Marco Melandri without rides and the MotoGP grid looking increasingly small, standing now with 17 rider, 10 teams and just 4 manufacturers!

The official statement from Kawasaki on the MotoGP website states that

Amid the quickly changing business environment, Kawasaki has been promptly taking countermeasures to cope with the situation. As the world economy is not likely to recover in a short period due to the major impact of the financial crisis, Kawasaki decided to suspend its MotoGP racing activities from the 2009 season onward and reallocate management resources more efficiently.

You can view the full statement by Clicking Here.

On the plus side there is a possibility of a privateer team emerging, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has said that

under these circumstances we agreed to cooperate collectively, in order to find a possible solution to their problems which may allow them to continue as a privateer team.

We have seen privateer teams perform very well at MotoGP level, but they also benefit in using championship winning motorcycles and the collective development. Would Kawasaki be happy to continue the trend of chasing the rest of the grid and fighting for the 2 last spots? Though at this rate soon every team will be guaranteed points no matter were they finish! The full statement from the Dorna CEO can be found be Clicking Here.

Hopefully Hopper and Marco can find some other rides to keep them racing as they will be missed.