There’s a lot of speculation at this time of year. You don’t need me to tell you that. But this week we’ve seen a good few confirmations.

I’m oddly preoccupied by British Superbikes at the moment. Next season is starting to take shape now, with HM Plant Honda announcing Australians Josh Brookes and Glen Richards as their riders. Brookes - who competed in World Supersport this year - was already strongly rumoured after a surprise appearance for the team at the final British Supersport round at Brands Hatch recently. Richards, meanwhile, took this year’s British Supersport championship on a Triumph.

There are still more question marks than confirmed riders in BSB for 2009 though, as neatly illustrated on the BSB website.

Elsewhere, Sete Gibernau’s return to MotoGP has been confirmed in Valencia, ahead of the final round of the year. Following successful tests for the factory squad, his return comes in the form of a single entry satellite Ducati team - Grupo Francisco Hernando ONDE 2000. A snappy team name, then. Spanish property developer Francisco Hernando is the cash money behind the team, which will be run by brothers Gelete and Pablo Nieto - a fine motorcycling family.

Valentino Rossi would be the best thing that ever happened to the World Rally Championship, if he made the switch - which he won’t. He has confirmed his third WRC outing though: throwing a Ford Focus WRC around Wales Rally GB. I desperately want him to beat Sebastien Loeb.

Dani Pedrosa is, because following rumours that he’d be testing Bridgestone tyres, it’s been announced that he’s switching from Michelin to the Japanese rubber for the rest of the season. It’s quite the surprise.

Presumably he’s looking to next season already. He doesn’t stand a realistic chance of challenging Rossi for the title this year, so I can only imagine that he wants to get any experience he can on Bridgestones this year, in preparation for next year - when it may be that there’s only Bridgestone rubber on the track.

Not that Casey Stoner is particularly happy with his front Bridgestone tyre, blaming it for his exit from yesterday’s race.

I’m not sure that I buy it. Stoner seems something of an emotional chap to me, as shown by his overreaction to his on-track dogfighting with Rossi a few weeks ago. When things are going right - as last season - he’s basically perfect. But when things are less straightforward - this year, or his first season - he operates very much in a ‘win it or bin it’ mode.

Hayden and Lorenzo are saying they’re happy to stay with Michelin. But the French company has been behind since the rules changed to stop them from shipping in bespoke tyres partway through the weekend, something Bridgestone couldn’t do from Japan.

So for my money, MotoGP would be better off with a single tyre supplier. It hasn’t done Formula 1 any harm.

There’s a proud tradition in all sections of the specialist media of reporting on not news - stories purporting to be news, but which tell no-one anything new. With a quiet weekend ahead, not news has had a particularly prominent role to play on Autosport this week.

There’s the shock news that NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is aiming to win a race that he’s won four times before. Equally surprising is the news that Chris Vermeulen is targeting another MotoGP podium finish, after finishing on the podium at the last two races. Were it not for these important articles, I would have assumed that both men were intending to do really badly.

We have two revelations from the Ferrari camp. Kimi Raikkonen - who has qualified down in sixth for the last two races - says he needs to qualify better to keep his Formula 1 championship chances alive. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa - who retired from the lead of the last race three laps from home - says that Ferrari need to improve reliability to keep him in the championship fight. This sort of deep insight from drivers into how teams operate is simply invaluable.

Elsewhere, we have word from the A1GP technical director that the new Ferrari chassis the series will be using - which has been designed to encourage overtaking - will allow plenty of overtaking. I would have thought that he would be pessimistic about the new car, and tell us to expect really rubbish racing.

MotoGP chieftains Dorna have taken away Eurosport’s coverage of the series from next season. I’ve not had Eurosport for a while, so I’m not really fussed, but there’s a potential benefit to be had.

And that’s this: Eurosport pitlane reporter - and general motorcycle grand prix legend - Randy Mamola. He’ll be without a broadcasting home next year, and that’s a bad thing, because he’s chuffing excellent. The good thing would be for the BBC to hire him. They probably won’t.

Dorna’s reason for doing away with Eurosport’s coverage is interesting:

“The decision is part of Dorna’s new strategy of working with national network broadcasters around Europe, always focusing first and foremost on free-to-air coverage to bring MotoGP to wider audiences.”

That is undoubtedly the right thing to do. I just wish the Superbike World Championship would follow their lead, and get something - anything! - on British free-to-air TV. I reckon it’s the only major motorsport championship with nothing at all on Freeview, and frankly it’s not good enough.

It’s easy to forget that, particularly when factory teams are involved, motorsport is generally a team competition. Individual drivers and riders obviously want the glory of a world title for themselves, but for car and bike manufacturers, the team title is above all a valuable marketing tool.

The most obvious example of this was the 2003 World Rally Championship, when Citroen told Sebastian Loeb to back off in Wales Rally GB to ensure that Citroen took the manufacturer’s title, in the process ensuring that Petter Solberg beat Loeb to the drivers title. I think it’s probably fair to say that Loeb’s over that disappointment now though.

What we’re seeing this year is that having two racers performing well - though perhaps not leading their championship - is paying dividends for the teams.

Like in Formula 1, where the leading driver in each team is effectively irrelevant; the order of the top three teams is determined by the points scored by their second driver.

Ferrari are leading, with their 73 points split 38 to Massa and 35 to Raikkonen. Nice and even. Good. You win. In second, BMW have championship leader Kubica on 42 and Heidfeld on 28, totalling 70. Then come McLaren with Hamilton on 38, but Kovalainen on 15, making just 53. Without an experienced second driver, McLaren are looking pretty much out of contention for the constructors title.

The second rider is proving an interesting beast in MotoGP too. The factory Yamaha team (142 + 94 = 236 points) is deservingly well in the lead, with Honda (135 + 48 = 183 points) equally deserving of second, even if Nicky Hayden is letting the side down a bit.

It’s third and fourth in the team standings where we see the real benefit of having a couple of good riders on form. Consistent results from Edwards (69 points) and Toseland (53 points) give Tech 3 Yamaha 122 points. That’s one ahead of the factory Ducati team, where Stoner’s respectable 92 points are rendered impotent by Melandri struggling to only 29.

The best example remains the WRC though: for a third year, Citroen’s Dani Sordo is single-handedly making Ford’s attempt to take another manufacturers title much simpler than it should be.

With people telling Autosport how impressed they are with Felipe Massa, it seems like a good time to check on my season’s wagers. My Formula 1 money’s on him to take the title, and standing third in the championship, one point behind Raikkonen and four behind Hamilton, that remains a real possibility. And as we’ll see, the only possibility of me getting any of my money back.

I took a punt on Nicky Hayden for the MotoGP title, because pre-season noises were vaguely positive, and there were attractively long odds. Long odds for good reason, it seems, because he’s currently a distant 9th. With Lorenzo dropping back, it’s starting to look like a two-horse race between Rossi and Pedrosa. Which Rossi has to win, because everyone hates Pedrosa.

I also had optimistic money on James Toseland to be MotoGP’s top rookie, but he’s currently behind Dovizioso and Lorenzo, in touch with the former but with little chance of catching the latter.

In the 125cc Championship, my man Bradley Smith is currently ninth, and although it’s much closer than in MotoGP, it’s going to take quite a chain of events for him to make up the ground to the front couple of riders, on 87 points to Smith’s 47.

So in summary: go Massa!

I’ve suddenly become a big fan of Jorge Lorenzo. Talking to Suzi Perry on Sunday’s MotoGP coverage on the BBC, he talked about how he finds Dani Pedrosa to be a rude person, due to his “attitude after the race”. Good man!

I’m always suspicious of Spanish drivers and riders, thanks to Fernando Alonso and the aforementioned Dani Pedrosa. Irritating human beings of the highest order. I forget about the likes of rally legend Carlos Sainz and McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa, who I consider to be top chaps.

It’s not just his opinion of Pedrosa that makes me like Lorenzo. In the same interview, he talked very seriously about his relationship with his father, showing that he has some substance and is willing to open up. Unlike Alonso, the arrogant idiot.

I’m starting to warm to the BBC’s coverage of MotoGP now. I ‘lost’ Eurosport about a year ago, and was genuinely disappointed to be without their commentary with Toby Moody, Julian Ryder and Randy Mamola - to the point that I refused to enjoy the BBC’s work.

Mainly because I thought that Steve Parrish and Charlie Cox’s coverage was a bit forced by comparison. But I can see through their slightly annoying buddy gags now, and enjoy the ludicrous turns of phrase - particularly from Charlie Cox.

Highlights from Sunday’s commentary were: “he needed that like a third armpit” and “lashing yourself to a corpse”. It turns out he’s used the first of those before.

I wasn’t a fan of Felipe Massa before his move to Ferrari, and was unsure that he’d deliver to say the least. I thought I’d been proven wrong, particularly after last season, when I reckon he would have won the championship had it not been for unreliability.

But this season he’s looked a bit bloody ropey, hasn’t he? Is it just a coincidence that driver aids have been taken away this year? I thought we’d see a few drivers embarrass themselves, but I didn’t think it would be Massa. And of course he might just be getting his dodgy moments for the season out of the way nice and early, but, well, I’m unsure again. And I’ve got money on him this year. Shit.

And after today’s MotoGP race, I’m wondering whether Casey Stoner is returning to his previous erratic ways. Admittedly he didn’t bin it quite as emphatically as he did so many times in his first season in the big class, but given that he was basically faultless last season, a couple of trips through the gravel in one race start alarm bells ringing.

I hope those bells are premature though, because I really don’t want Dani Bloody Pedrosa to take the championship.

Brits in the 125cc Championship: Bradley Smith, Scott Redding, Danny Webb. All brilliant.

Bradley Smith, of course, had pole in Qatar. But he had a multitude of mechanical problems before the race, and after leading for the first few laps, drifted back to finish in 16th. Still, he’s got the pace, and if the bike can keep going, he’s going to be there or thereabouts.

Scott Redding, 15 years old, started from 3rd on the grid, and finished in 5th after a quite excellent race throughout. Stunning.

Danny Webb had a very mature race, holding it together to finish in 6th.

It’s superb to have a good number of British riders competing at the sharp end of such a tough championship, both in the short term - it’ll be an interesting season - and in the long term - hopefully they’ll make their way up to MotoGP.

Alright, I’m really excited now. I love motorbike racing, and it’s exciting even at the worst of times. But when there are Brits doing well, I start to lose control.

Bradley Smith is on pole for the 125cc race in Qatar. I’m so excited, I almost want to cry. It’s ridiculous, I know, but this feels like it could be the start of an amazing year for Smith. He’s on a top bike, he’s got a bit of experience now, and it just seems like the planets are aligned, or some other spiritual toss. I can’t wait for the race later this afternoon. Literally.

Then James Toseland is starting from second for the MotoGP race. He has no right to be doing so well so soon. But clearly Yamaha and Michelin is the combination to have, with Lorenzo - the only factory rider with that combination - on pole, and Toseland’s teammate Edwards on third. Rossi’s down in 7th, proving that - so far - he was a spanner to change to Bridgestone tyres. Serves him right if you ask me.

Stoner’s 4th looks excellent when the next Ducati is down in 14th. Are people still going to try to insist that it was the bike that got him the championship last year? He’s clearly the shit. Randy de Puniet on the LCR Honda in 5th is a shock - how the hell is he the top Honda? The factory Hondas are in 6th (Hayden) and 8th (Pedrosa), which isn’t a bad start to the year. Unlike Kawasaki and Suzuki, in 10th and 18th, and 11th and 13th respectively. Not what I was expecting from them at all.

But it’s the first race of the year, and a night race at that. There’s no reason to think it’s going to be representative of the season as a whole. I’m still fucking excited though.