MotoGP 2023

Paul G said:

... Pecco needs to buy a lottery ticket

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Serious. Living lucky.

Moments later it all went to ..... Aleix had a bad start and really benefited from the restart. He got swallowed up and narrowly missed the Enea wrecking ball.

I nominate this photo a Pulitzer Prize.


Pecco kicked asunder by unknown forces in the background,
the fallen pile, some call to their mothers,
Baby Marquez is praying in the foreground...

Some how reminds me of something like:

Team Gresini (Ducati) 2024, will be team Marquez brothers.
Not officialized yet, but the exit deal is done with Honda.
Lot's of discussion. Looking like a 1 year contract to start. Some say he'll bounce to KTM after a year. That's a lot of craziness for all involved.
Marc Marquez vicino al team Gresini per la stagione 2024: il pilota spagnolo, che si libererebbe da Honda (con cui ha il contratto firmato anche per il prossimo anno) senza dover pagare alcuna penale, potrebbe così raggiungere il fratello Alex e correre in sella a una Ducati

interesting... will be interesting to see how versatile he is... although everyone seems able to ride the Ducati now.

It's almost like MotoE now. Most everyone on Ducati. Jack. Then there's the guys in back.

Next season is shaping up to be pretty interesting.

You'd think he'd need more than a year to be truly world champ level competitive though.

bp_SFV4 said:

You'd think he'd need more than a year to be truly world champ level competitive though.

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Never know - Rossi went from Honda to Yamaha and won the title the same year.

Good point. I'd add the Ducati is a pretty well developed winning package right now. Plenty of teams seem to know how to make them do what's needed to win as opposed to Yamaha and Honda. If HE can adapt remains to be seen. Keep in mind he's finished what, one or two GP races all year?

Personally, I'm more in the Rossi camp than the MM one, so my MM comments reflect same.

bp_SFV4 said:

Good point. I'd add the Ducati is a pretty well developed winning package right now. Plenty of teams seem to know how to make them do what's needed to win as opposed to Yamaha and Honda. If HE can adapt remains to be seen. Keep in mind he's finished what, one or two GP races all year?

Personally, I'm more in the Rossi camp than the MM one, so my MM comments reflect same.

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Many subjects in conversation.
Yes he is no spring chicken. While there remain high regard for the masters that were, the young guns on the track are deadly fast even inexperienced. They stand on the shoulders of the ones that came before. A few even have them as coaches. The nationalism and the psychological game used to be such a big deal and results showed it Rossi to Marquez era. Seems like the younger riders are phased, 0 by the head tricks. They're all laughing, hanging out together. Such a new era.
93 has been one of the only ones ever to take off months and return to finish with any significant position. Rossi and Bayliss are others.
Stoner is another who won championships with different manufacturers. Bayliss was out, how many years, came back and got a podium in and Australian SBK race in his 40's! That guy is totally unique.
A championship is a whole other story.

<<<<<<<<<<< not much of a <<<<<<<<< SPOILER ALERT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Dani Pedrosa
Ya.
Dang. 26 is like wine. Maybe they ought to retire that number
Just let him keep popping in to kick some ass now and then.

Anyone notice the splendid video? Wow. Misano is so flat and so colorful, that they were doing a lot of very low altitude super telescope video. So cool.
Really nice shots the whole race.

"The riding style is quite different but, in the end, the problems are the same, so we need to keep working. Of course, you always expect more. If this is the base, if this the bike, then we are far. We need to work and change many things."
"There's plan A, plan B, and plan C, which I previously mentioned as two, there are three. I have the three plans, the three ideas very clear, I am clear about what needs to happen for each of them. But there isn’t much time. There is a deadline. Around India, Japan I will decide." -Marquez

Statement from Mat Mladin regarding Pedrosa’s recent performances and MotoGP more generally is circulating social media:

“How do we explain that a rider who never won a MotoGP world championship, who retired five years ago, who hasn't been on the podium in six years, who's best finish in the championship of second was over a decade ago can show up and make most of the best riders in the world look slow? Of course Dani is talented and even some past world champions like Casey and Lorenzo speak highly of him but a racer who has been out of it for a very long time returns to racing a couple of times per year as a paid test rider and beats up on the blokes who we are being told are next level and a different breed of human. Dani was near the top of the game but that was a long time ago in racing terms.

I would be comfortable saying that many team managers are saying nice things for the TV but the likes of KTM and Ducati are very tough organisations professionally. They are not seeing all of this as a beautiful fairytale for Dani, they are asking serious questions inside their respective organisations. There are a few guys in the minibike class looking to move up, with one of them guaranteed a seat in GP for 24.

How can any rider on that grid spin the fact they got beat in two races by Dani quite handily. I also felt great for Dani, this fairy tale of a retired X racer and how great it is for him personally to be achieving these results that honestly he shouldn't be. It's beautiful warm and mushy but it's embarrassing for the blokes he did flog. Atleast it should be

There is no doubt that MotoGP bikes are a specialist racing machine these days. You don't just show up from superbike anymore without GP experience and the bike still feels like a "motorbike". From what I see and speaking with someone who raced one not too long ago, those bikes are incredibly difficult to "get used to" but if you've been there long enough, as many in that paddock have essentially grown up in GP, they are not incredibly difficult to "ride" at a decent clip. Electronics are playing a big part but of course as witnessed last weekend, the world champ got fired over the bars, so if you get it wrong enough, even the electronics won't save you. The lack of movement in the bikes, the lack of sideways action and tire smoke these days highlights how controlled they are. Funnily the world champs boss last Friday at Misano was quoted regarding his crash " We looked at the data and nothing wrong with the bike and no mistake by the rider". Heck it must have been magic. I wish my crew would have said the same every time they had to work until midnight fixing one that I bent. They were saying "that ...... cost us a nice dinner and cold beer tonight"

Simon said at Mugello when he rode one of the bikes for a few laps that he couldn't believe he could hold it wide open down the front straight and the stability he felt nearing 350kmh when back in his two banger 500cc days he was scared to hold it wide open at 300kmh.

I watched a sit down interview with Mick and Casey recently and Casey stated that risking the high side by getting the power on just a bit earlier than the bloke in front, trying to set up a pass on the brakes in the next corner is essentially negated now by electronics and they atleast personally believe the aero and electronics need to be rolled back. I see both sides of the argument because I'm an X racer who wanted to win by outsmarting my competitor or being fitter and so on but I also see how much closer the racing is now they have numbed the bikes down with electronics and aero and how that appeals to many. I have mates who prefer the tire smoking two bangers and don't care if one guy wins by 20 seconds and mates who prefer the close racing and couldn't care less that the bikes look like slot cars in comparison to the 500's or even the early four strokes.

When I was a boy in GP, there was no one showing up on occasion, let alone being retired from professional racing for 5 years and racing with Mick, Kev and Rainey. Not only were they ridiculously fast they were ridiculously "no way is that ...... beating me" if you get what I mean. It's funny people say to me that I raced against the greats of GP racing and I laugh and say I was in the same race, very different to racing against them. Whether I think given the right team and timing and so on I could have done better is beside the point and always has been to me. That way of thinking just puts it inline with current standards which make me want to beat my TV to death when I hear the same stuff nowadays.

Racing is a tough game and the constant excuses that are made for the riders in the world's main category of motorcycle racing is the reason Dani can show up all these years later and do what he is doing. The cuddles and kisses, the participation awards and the but but buts and if if ifs is why Dani is still able to challenge for podiums.

There are 8 Ducati's, 4 KTM's and 4 very capable Aprilias on that grid. I don't have enough fingers but I think that's 16 very good motorcycles in the hands of "the next stars". Dani shouldn't be showing up on occasion and beating the majority of them let alone sniffing out a couple of podiums

And no I'm not saying I could have beat any of them in my day, it's purely an opinion piece written by a bloke with a little bit of racing experience so don't get all wound up and let me ruin your day, heck I was just a lowly superbike rider and won a few dirt bike races when I was a kid but the elephant is in the room

Writing all of this about electronics reminds me of when we "the Yoshimura Suzuki" team were being accused of cheating by using traction control when it wasn't allowed. Watch how fast Mladin opens the throttle they'd say. So to stop the evil empire, the AMA opened up the rules to allow a full suite of electronics from the Utah race in 2006. From that very race meeting, Ben, myself and our Yoshimura Suzuki team went on a 46 race win streak that I kept going seven races into 2009, all up ending at 53 race wins after Ben had gone to Europe. A story for another time .”

... seems like some "we walked to school uphill both ways" thinking

he's been a development rider for the bike and had another wild card somewhat recently IIRC

Most importantly, he's been doing drag races on Carwow

He may be old, but he's also fresh.... seems like everyone else that's good has been crashing or getting run over

Dani pedrosa is like the seventh winningest rider in moto gp history. (54 wins) the fact he didn't win a championship is circumstantial at best . he IMO is the most underrated rider in motogp history . to ask the question: "how is he doing this" from a 90's ama champion perspective is ok , but he is definitely talented beyond what many had given him credit for. The way Dani was treated by honda is one of the reasons I dislike honda. IMO they robbed Dani of a championship

Dani was always dangerous. Little gawdamned rocket half a real human’s weight, we used to gibe at him after he’d ruin someone’s day winning a random race now and then or beating the .... out of the front 3 all race on the way to a podium. Inconsistently. There’s the big WHY Dani wasn’t world champion. Teammate Nickey, God bless him Hayden won World Champion with a whole lot of P2 and some P3. Consistently.
Inconsistency IMHO is usually because someone has ‘issues.’ He was that silent, void of personality little figure barely making it on screen waste high on the podium next to a multicolore unicorn like Vale.
His why retiring quote, “(squeak) to make room for the younger riders…” How much of that was Honda MGNT taking a .... on him you think?
Maybe he grew up a little and doesn’t have these issues now. All that ridicule after knocking team mate Nicky off pushing back his World Champion title. Seems that was Dani’s day job back in the day.
Well dang redemption‘s come for him. Shaken off the ghosts and shackles of team pressure to do what he was always doing. I don’t see anyone offering an explanation for this inexplicable feat of retired heroics. Who cares any more - good on him. Way to kick ass out there with gray hairs showing through. Very inspiring.