MotoGP 2021

[sugilite:Me]

Well that did not go according to script!
Oliveira - was pretty much faultless - excellent ride. The commentators mentioned Pedrosa has helped a lot with improving this years ktm woes. Take that honda

Zarco - he is so consistent this year, though he must be wondering if he will ever get that first motogp win.

Miller - took another podium, is riding within his limits and looking like a real championship contender at last.

Mir - looked to do the best the bike would let him today. I was relieved to see him finish, I do not recall him being as aggressive in any other race as what he was in the first few laps of this race. He bought out the mongrel, and stayed on. Well done that man.

Viñales - did well, but I still reckon the only component missing is having his head in the game 100%.

Quartararo - clearly having spectators back at motogp got to him, and he wanted to impress the ladies with some manly chest on the final few laps. Seriously though, as shit as it would of been - he was lucky not to get black flagged.

Marc Marquez - he clearly still does not fear crashing. If he gets back to full strength he will be a race winner again for sure - though I'm "guessing" his class dominating days may now be behind him. It must be both frustrating and worrying for honda to wait for the one rider who can do well on their bike to come good.

Rossi - actually was within a 10th of a second off the front runners times for a few laps before throwing it into the kitty litter. Progress? I think so. Still should retire at the end of this year though.

[James Deuce]

Good thing we didn't have to see a Quartararo meat crayon. One of the privileges of being young and immortal. I sincerely hope the stewards get their shit together at some point and dock his points for this round.

[steveyb]

FQ: Agree he should have been flagged, but actually the black/orange would have been more appropriate and he could have pulled off onto a safe spot and done it up. Ditching the chest protector was probably problematic though and a penalty for not having that would have needed to be applied, regardless.

Soooooo, gotta feel for Asparagus P. Y'know, they say timing is everything in life and he is making a pigs ear of his timing. Leaving KTM just as they make the bike right and joining HRC just as the bike is a piece of merda. It really is pretty poor at the moment eh? Honda will come last in the constructors this year as long as AE finishes races.
Imagine what he would be doing now if he had stayed with KTM? OMG, he had a face like an arse that had taken an hour of beating, in his interview.
MM not so much, to be frank, he cares but sort of couldn't care less. He knows he has a job for as long as he wants it, Pol not so much.

Pissed off that Asparagus A dumped it. Really want them to get a result. But as I have pointed out elsewhere, he does not know how to win, or even run at the front. He has never done it before, at any high level. So of course he has no real idea. You only know when you know. And it is not the same as running in 6th place, not at all. I think the RSV-R is capable of podia, but only with a rider who knows what it takes, on board. Cue Dovi?

If I were KTM I would be dumping both Petrux and IL. I think they are failed experiments. DP must have bought money along with him. IL? No idea. I was skeptical about DP on the KTM from the first.

[iYRe]

I've looked but I cant find any explanation as to why FQ took off his shirt.. well definitive anyway... some said airbag went off and he had to ditch the armor, but does anyone know for sure?

[James Deuce]

Soooooo, gotta feel for Asparagus P. Y'know, they say timing is everything in life and he is making a pigs ear of his timing. Leaving KTM just as they make the bike right and joining HRC just as the bike is a piece of merda. It really is pretty poor at the moment eh? Honda will come last in the constructors this year as long as AE finishes races...

Honda will ditch him and it will probably end his career.

[pritch]

Quatararo.

Black flag situation?


Opinions?

If it had happened earlier in the race a black flag, or at least an enforced pit stop. As it was, it occurred very late in the race and the matter was going to resolve itself anyway.

[pritch]

You'd be black flagged for an undone helmet strap correct? Because in the event of an accident the required safety equipment wouldn't do its job. Watching those last laps, well I'm no praying man but I was hoping to high heaven he did not have a crash because that could've been potentially very horrific.

So if you'd get a black flag for an undone helmet strap, then yes I would agree with a black flag for both the leathers being compromised and the removal of the chest protector.

The rules list all the equipment and state they must be fastened.

[BMWST?]

I've looked but I cant find any explanation as to why FQ took off his shirt.. well definitive anyway... some said airbag went off and he had to ditch the armor, but does anyone know for sure?

the first explanation was that his airbag had gone off and he ditched the chest protector so he could breath,then he couldnt get the zip done up.
His own explanation was that the zip just unzipped (the chest protector fell out) and again he couldnt get the zip done up with only one hand.He zipped it back up with two hands on the in lap

[iYRe]

the first explanation was that his airbag had gone off and he ditched the chest protector so he could breath,then he couldnt get the zip done up.
His own explanation was that the zip just unzipped (the chest protector fell out) and again he couldnt get the zip done up with only one hand.He zipped it back up with two hands on the in lap

His explanation seems unlikely.. alpinestars must be rushing to change all their zips now :P

[iYRe]

https://www.motogp.com/en/videos/202...-bottom/377901

MM: my intention was to push from the beginning.. to show myself that I still have it, and I am happy with that... testing day tomorrow is more important than today, today we have nothing to lose (loose paraphrase if you dont want to watch it)

ie, I need to prove I can keep up, and I did.. the crash was unfortunate but we have bigger problems.. heh.

[BMWST?]

just goes to show that things must be very finely balanced...within 2 years the yamaha has become one of the best bikes and the Hnda has become the worst.And Honda reliance on the genius of MM has come to bite them hard.That fact was demonstrated very clearly by Lorenzo,and many before him.What now.Honda have the resources but can they change?

[James Deuce]

just goes to show that things must be very finely balanced...within 2 years the yamaha has become one of the best bikes and the Hnda has become the worst.And Honda reliance on the genius of MM has come to bite them hard.That fact was demonstrated very clearly by Lorenzo,and many before him.What now.Honda have the resources but can they change?

They'll change riders before they'll change the habit of building a relatively unrideable engineering marvel. Generally speaking they've built their teams around genius riders who can exploit Honda's engineering decisions, but the cost is usually career-ending injuries for the rider, or dissatisfaction at being treated like a replaceable plug and play unit prompting a defection to a different manufacturer.

[pritch]

just goes to show that things must be very finely balanced...within 2 years the yamaha has become one of the best bikes and the Hnda has become the worst.And Honda reliance on the genius of MM has come to bite them hard.That fact was demonstrated very clearly by Lorenzo,and many before him.What now.Honda have the resources but can they change?

Their current efforts are making Crutchlow look a lot better than we gave him credit for.


For anyone who listens to podcasts, "Rusty's Garage" is worth a visit. I was drawn by his recent interview with Alex Briggs. But he's been going for a while and there's a lot of interviews with mostly Australian motorsport people. Of particular interest to us perhaps: Wayne Gardner, Aaron Slight, Casey Stoner, Graeme Crosby, Steve Parrish, Jonathan Rea, Troy Bayliss and Jerry Burgess.

I've sometimes wondered what GP mechanics were paid. Briggs said that as a bus mechanic he was on AU$30,000pa. He went to MotoX and dropped to $20,000. When Burgess picked him up for MotoGP he was on close to AU$100,000. Twenty nine years ago!

Briggs said he has had offers from GP teams but the travel conditions were not to his liking. He and the others with #46 normally had business class travel to each race. Nobody will pay that now. Apparently the various offers he received expected him to stay in Europe for the duration of the season.

[Autech]

They'll change riders before they'll change the habit of building a realtively unrideable engineering marvel. Generally speaking they've built their teams around genius riders who can exploit Honda's engineering decisions, but the cost is usually career-ending injuries for the rider, or dissatisfaction at being treated like a replaceable plug and play unit prompting a defection to a different manufacturer.

Yup they built it round Dani, who could ride it well but he didn't bounce as well as MM. MM has stopped bouncing as well so now we can see what its really like with him unable to work his magic. Gotta give Taka his credit though, he's riding well.

There's got to be something in Dani leaving too, if his turn around of the KTM is anything to go by and we wind back the clock a few years, it looks to me like they started really struggling when he left. I'm biased though as I'd marry the guy, but it looks about right going off the stats. That's about when CC and co got the most vocal about how unridable it was too. He retired in 2018, so the 2019 would have been the last bike he had any input into:

Races won: 81

2012: Pedrosa 7, Stoner 5 (12 in total)
2013: Márquez 6, Pedrosa 3 (9 in total)
2014: Márquez 13, Pedrosa 1 (14 in total)
2015: Márquez 5, Pedrosa 2 (7 in total)
2016: Márquez 5, Pedrosa 1, Crutchlow 2, Miller 1 (8 in total)
2017: Márquez 6, Pedrosa 2 (8 in total)
2018: Márquez 9, Crutchlow 1 (10 in total)
2019: Márquez 12 (12 in total)

Pol is another ride the wheels off whatever is under him sort too so I'm not convinced he'll help fix it.

Their current efforts are making Crutchlow look a lot better than we gave him credit for.

Yup, the old Crashlow nickname probably wasn't earned.


The race

Fuck yeah Olivera! He's pure class that guy, good mix of talent and brains. Shame Binder got knocked back a bit as he'd have been right in it too. Still, waiting on tyres to confirm if this is a magic fix or not, but bloody impressive they managed to fix the bike so quickly, makes HRC look a bit limp really lol. Was down to my last $10 from my personal $50 betting challenge, so Olivera turned $5 into a handy $90. Thanks to Peco Bagniaia for the betting tip

Aleix and the Aprilia. He NEEDS a good rider beside him to compare data with, if they can't land Dovi next year then it'll remain a top 6 bike IMO. Its a hard bike to read as from my couch it doesn't seem to have any strong or weak points, a bit like the Suzuki really just goes about making its laptime. Anyone got any thoughts on its strong and weak points?

Mir, he's gunna bide his time and strike eventually again, I'm seeing not much of a step in the bike though which may cause him some issues vs the others that seem way better. I wonder if they should freeze the engines more often as they've done some magic on the chassis side. Look at the Ducati, finally doesn't look like a Harley vs the Yamaha.

Yamahas... Fabio still is a passionate Frenchman at heart, it's his temperament that worries me with regards to a title challenge, he's got the speed for sure but that was dumb, as was keeping it pinned turn 1, a wise rider would have slotted in behind Miller to be safe... Easy to say from the couch, but these are the best riders in the world not club racers.
Maverick still the hardest guy to read on the grid, ya never know with him eh?
Rossi... Please retire! I hate seeing him like this.
Franko, doing the best on the oldest bike on the grid, would LOVE to see him in blue.

[iYRe]

Yup they built it round Dani, who could ride it well but he didn't bounce as well as MM. MM has stopped bouncing as well so now we can see what its really like with him unable to work his magic. Gotta give Taka his credit though, he's riding well.

MM said he wasnt doing the bike any favours (because his shoulder is weak), and the bike wasnt doing him any - so at least they have a starting point

There's got to be something in Dani leaving too, if his turn around of the KTM is anything to go by and we wind back the clock a few years, it looks to me like they started really struggling when he left. I'm biased though as I'd marry the guy, but it looks about right going off the stats. That's about when CC and co got the most vocal about how unridable it was too. He retired in 2018, so the 2019 would have been the last bike he had any input into

They also didnt have MM input either, for most of a year. Perhaps they had all their eggs in 2 baskets...