Austria MotoGP Subscriber Notes: On Tires Front And Rear, How To Win A Championship, And Silly Season Nearing Its End

By David Emmett | Sun, 21/08/2022 - 23:21

Does MotoGP need something like sprint races to pack out otherwise empty grandstands? It depends on which you ask that question. On the evidence of Silverstone, where just 41,000 people turned up on Sunday, you would say yes, we need a change. Judge by the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, where 92,000 – pretty much a packed house – turned up on a gray and overcast day, when it looked like it could rain at any moment, and you would say that MotoGP is doing OK.

I spent a lot of time over the weekend talking to a variety of people about the way the sprint races will (or may) affect each MotoGP weekend, and so will save that subject for an in-depth look later in the week. But first, a few quick notes on the Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg, which featured a demonstration of the pointlessness of team orders in Moto2, a further settling out of the order in MotoGP, and saw the end of the 2023 silly season start to approach.

No such thing as team orders

To start with Moto2, the Idemitsu Honda Team Asia squad dominated the race. Ai Ogura dispensed with Alonso Lopez early on in the race, and was soon joined by Somkiat Chantra. Chantra chased his teammate for most of the race, making the team, led by manager Hiroshi Aoyama, rather nervous. So nervous, indeed, that they put "P2 OK" on Chantra's pit board as they started the final lap.

Chantra either did not read his pit board, or read it and ignored it, and unleashed a scintillating battle through the last section of the Red Bull Ring, reminiscent of the classic battles between Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez here before the pandemic. Chantra attacked up the inside in the penultimate corner, but left himself open to counterattack, which Ogura promptly did, getting back past and retaking the lead. The Japanese rider held off his Thai teammate to take the win, and the lead in the Moto2 championship.

That battle was a useful reminder that team orders have no place in motorcycle racing, mostly because they are invariably ignored in the heat of battle. And it serves as a warning of what teams will do should they ever get ship-to-shore radio communication with riders, as happens in car racing.

On to the MotoGP race, where the championship settled ever more firmly into its final shape. With victory at the Red Bull Ring, Pecco Bagnaia became the first Ducati rider since Casey Stoner, and the first Italian rider since Valentino Rossi to take three wins in a row. But more importantly than that, he took another 5 points out of Fabio Quartararo's championship lead, and 15 points out of Aleix Espargaro for second.

It was an impressive win, given how badly Bagnaia had been struggling since the start of the weekend. The nature of the Red Bull Ring – very high speed with a lot of hard braking and a few long and fast corners – forces Michelin to bring rear tires with a special heat-resistant carcass to Austria. But that different rear tire changes the way the bike behaves, and for a rider like Bagnaia, who uses the rear tire to help stop the bike, using engine braking and rear brake while the bike is leaned over, the different carcass needs time to set up and figure out. It took Bagnaia and his crew until Saturday afternoon to find a solution which allowed the Italian to ride as he wanted.

The decisive factor at the Red Bull Ring would be front tire choice, however. Most riders were caught between two choices: the soft front, which was ready to go from the start but needed careful management at the end of the race; or the hard front, which needed to be warmed up for two or three laps, but lasted better, had better braking stability, and was more resistant to temperature and pressure rises in the slipstream.

Bagnaia chose the soft front, as he knew and understood the tire, and was starting from the front row. "To be safe today, we chose to use the soft front tire. That wasn’t the best choice, I think, because I had a lot of front locking." While Bagnaia might believe the soft front was not the best choice, it was good enough to win.

There were two key moments in Bagnaia's victory. The first was at the start, the Italian taking the lead into the first corner, getting past Enea Bastianini and ahead of teammate Jack Miller. The second came several laps later, when Miller came past Bagnaia, and Bagnaia quickly struck back.

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13
2022
MotoGP
Moto2
Spielberg, Austria
Aprilia
Ducati
Yamaha
Aleix Espargaro
Darryn Binder
Enea Bastianini
Fabio Quartararo
Francesco Bagnaia
Franco Morbidelli
Jack Miller
Marco Bezzecchi
Miguel Oliveira
Raul Fernandez
Remy Gardner
Andrea Dovizioso
CormacGP
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Comments

Like I predicted when KTM stopped making their own Moto2 chassis and started to use Kalexes, their next riders moving up to MotoGP would not do well anymore. The whole reason their rider feed through Moto3 and Moto2 was so successful, was that those riders were completely dialled in to riding the KTM steel trellis frames and WP suspension. It worked for Oliveira, Binder and even Lecuona, who actually was surprisingly fast from the beginning.

Now this year we have the two standout riders of Moto2 from last year and they are nowhere. And of course they struggle. They were fast on an aluminium beam frame made by a very different company, on Öhlins suspension as far as I know. So all the things that determine feel - frame material, stiffness distribution, geometry and weight distribution, plus the suspension components - everything is fundamentally different from the RC16. I don't see the point of having a 'KTM' Moto2 team that doesn't prepare riders for riding the KTM MotoGP bike. All that those Ajo Moto2 bikes are, is a KTM sponsor sticker, embarrassingly on another brand of chassis ánd engine. Which prepares their riders nicely for the other MotoGP bikes with aluminium beam frames and Öhlins suspension.

Which makes me hope that Remy Gardner will end up at RNF Aprilia, I think he deserves another chance. Hopefully RNF and Aprilia steer clear of the obnoxious entitled brat that is Raul Fernandez. I would prefer Darryn Binder every day over Fernandez, and if Oliveira does return to Tech3, I'd like to see Binder and Gardner both at RNF. Gardner is a bit of a slow burner like Marini, I think he will do better in his second year, especially on another bike. He didn't become world champion for nothing, he was definitely a cut above the rest (together with the obnoxious brat).

By the way, I don't think the KTM steel frame doesn't work or can't work, they won six MotoGP races with it and a whole lot more Moto2 and Moto3 races. I think it's just that a rider needs to dial in to the different feel, and not just the material, but the KTM chassis as a whole, with geometry, weight distribution, suspension and everything, the entire character. Feel is absolutely crucial. 

In short: to me, replacing Gardner with Augusto Fernandez makes no sense whatsoever. Same problem. There's always a tiny chance that it clicks anyway, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Compared to many of the champions Remy did take a good while to get his but there's a lot more to a championship than just the rider. If he had been with Ajo earlier then who knows. If Raul hadn't been with Ajo last year then who knows. Having a character like Wayne Gardner as a father might well have been a huge plus and a huge minus. Then again, such is life with all fathers. Remy paid his dues and then some during his two years with the SAG team alone. Neither Remy or Raul have stood out much this season. All their results are pretty scrappy but I think that is KTM as a rookie in 2022. Somebody is taking a gamble on Raul. Maybe KTM/GasGas would be better asking Ajo to run the team but even that will make no difference if the 'GasGas' turns out to be just hot air.

not using their own frame and WP suspension in Moto2 but I suspect the issue was an internal KTM question asking "what if we can't win Moto2 races with our frame and suspension?"  It would become a bit of a marketing issue given virtually everything else on the bike is controlled and if KTM couldn't win with their frame and suspension what would the general public conclude?

KTM raced their own tube based frames in Moto2 with some success during the late Honda engine period. Oliviera and BBinder came second and third in 2018, a year Bagnaia won 8 races. The change to Triumph for 2019 didn't go so well for KTM despite BBinder finishing second to AMarquez who won five races. The problem was that the runner up position seemed to owe more to BBinder than to the frame and most of the customer bikes struggled badly. BBinder improved significantly when they finally found the resources to change the frame too late in the second half of the season but they lacked the ability to cover all KTM users. Lecuona fought hard with the old frame and was rewarded with his surprise MotoGP role.

2020 onward they used Kalex in Moto2 branded as KTM and pointed the resources at MotoGP with good outcomes until recently.

A key thing about Moto2 is that it seems very hard to do well if you do not have one of the very top teams behind you.

Moto2 was introduced in 2010. There have been 12 riders titles and 12 constructors titles. Kalex have won all but two of the riders titles, they missed out on the first and then missed out when Marquez won in 2012. They have won all but three of the constructors titles. Suter managed to win the 1st three (two of those years they had Marc) and Kalex have cleaned up since.

This year 1 team is MV, 1 team is Boscoscuro and the rest is Kalex. I'm not sure what MV and Boscoscuro have to risk, they have nothing to lose, they don't win anything.

Alonso Lopez just managed a 2nd on the Bosco, he replaced Fenati, maybe things are improving. Aldeguer is breaking into the top ten +/- five places or bust.

MV's best finish is 12th after they've tossed a coin to see if they finish the race or not.

If I was either company I'd be in a serious chassis builder training montage with hand stands, star jumps, treks into the Himalayas, Amazon and Sahara to seek the three ancient chassis sages from Mars. Design my next chassis blindfolded by using the force under the careful tuition of Old Ben from the Rose and Crown. I mean...the results couldn't get much worse. Maybe they just need a good rider.

It's was a bit harsh. With Lopez the Bosco is looking like it might win a race. It got me thinking though. What is Moto2 for ? If it's a rider category then it doesn't really matter which manufacturer wins. May as well be a completely spec series. I don't think MV are there simply to get nice promo shots though. If that was the case then their best solution would be to buy a Kalex and rebrand it as an MV, I guess it would be cheaper. Can't see any difference between paint jobs for sponsors and any rebranding. KTM Ajo results say Kalex though. I wonder what the results will say next year in MotoGP, KTM or GasGas ? Indulgence.

From 2010 to the end of 2021 there have been 210 Moto2 races run and 1 cancelled. Only 67 of those races were won by a chassis other than Kalex. So it comes out as...

Kalex: 143 wins, Suter: 32, KTM: 14, Moriwaki: 8, Speed Up: 8, FTR: 2, Motobi: 2, Tech3 : 1

Obvious Kalex dominance. The first year of Moto2 saw 7 of Moriwaki's wins giving Elias the title, he did seem like a bit of a ringer that year. Marc Marquez rode half of Suter's wins. All of KTM's wins were with Oliveira and Binder. The Speed Up total is 3 without Ianonne.

Kalex has a big dominance in numbers on the grid. They didn't in 2010 or 2011 but after Bradl won the title on a Kalex against the Suter of Marquez (injured last 2 rounds) the grid has steadily moved to Kalex. It's not the manufacturers who don't want to risk losing, it's the teams. It's a riders championship and the least you can do as a team is make sure your riders have at least an equal chance. Unless there is some knowable advantage in having a different chassis then best to stick with the herd. MV, Speed Up and anybody else who wishes to enter can only win by being different, they have to risk. However, with the numbers of Kalex on the grid, if they can't get an edge on Kalex through design or through rider then they won't be 2nd or 3rd or 5th, they'll be 20th+ !

Or just have any bike with Ajo running your team.

My sentiments exactly Powevalve. I was thinking exactly the same way.

If Remy doesn’t end up at RNF (which would be a crying shame) and he doesn’t plan on going back to Moto2, it is hard to imagine where he will end up. I initially thought he may go to the Honda in WSBK but Vierge has just been announced in that seat for 2023. Perhaps the Aruba Ducati (replacing Rinaldi), but he is the wrong nationality for that second seat. It is perplexing to think that the 2021 Moto2 world champion has a career already at the crossroads. He must be totally disillusioned.

I have always held Herve in quite high esteem, but I am now thinking he is more akin to a muppet and is a round peg in a round hole within the KTM family.

 

Unlike when they were fighting in Moto2, both KTM rookies have consistently been at the wrong end of the grid this year and based on B. Binder and Oliveira’s results the bike obviously isn’t quite there yet. I agree with others that it seems very unfair if Gardner is pushed out of the KTM/Gas Gas junior team. Mir hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire this year, perhaps Remy would be a cheap option for Honda 😊

Remy is very level headed and calculated for his age. He takes points over a win it or bin it attitude and is a much safer bet than Raul or Binder. It will be a real shame if he doesn't get a seat. Wayne has prepared him well for this stage and it shows.

As for HRC - tear up the Mir offer they're likely paying overs on and just sign Acosta while they can. He has easily the best upside potential, and is the Marquez successor they will need somewhere down the line. He will be cheap, has all of the right sponsors and has that mongrel in him. He will put bums on seats and again - the potential upside with him is next level. If you don't sign him now, someone else will. I can't see him twiddling his thumbs for two more years in Moto2. 

What a ride! Riding out of his skin is an understatement. That move on Miller was pure class. Another lap and we would have a different winner. But ifs and buts are not what this championship is made of. Cannot wait for the championship to unfold now, it is going to be tight.

Bagnaia's race in my view was as good, if only less flamboyant. He seems to so much more sorted given the  start to his season. He also seems to be getting the most out of what he is given. His last two races he seem to have struggled and yet come away with wins. He appears to riding in a very measured manner. People keep talking about how great the Ducati is, but do not see that many ducati's winning. Bastianini has last year's bike with all the data and is yet not consistent. Martin, Zarco, Miller seem to be missing at the party. So I think Bagnaia deserves a lot more credit for delivering results. He is the only one who has been making Davide Tardozzi dance of late :)

Moto 2- Chantra was faster. He saw his board. He proved his point. He did not make much of a mistake, but just did not defend. The victory was his if he wanted it. So he is still playing the team game. 

Moto 3- this win was probably the best of the lot. Nothing said about it here, but Ayumi Sasaki winning after a double long lap penalty. That ride was insane!! Also looking at the number of rookies at the top in Moto3 coupled with the fact that world champions are not finding rides, Dorna seems to be have a surplus of talent on their hands.

 

I thought the post race 'cool down' room chat was interesting. Ducati's weakness. Peco was talking about the soft front. As David writes above Peco had his issues with the tyre,  it 'wasn't the best choice' but chose it because it was 'more safe'. Both Peco and Jack then joked about not using the hard front at Misano obviously because last year they both crashed out dropping the hard front in the 2nd Misano race.

Most of the grid chose the hard front. The exceptions were Peco, Jack, Zarco, Enea, DiGi on the soft front and Rins, Bradl on the medium. Marini and Bez chose hard as did Martin. I haven't heard how the Mooney guys did but, sorry to say, I know there's a million other reasons, there always is, Martin went the way the 'more safe' and 'wasn't the best choice' soft tyre did not. All too familiar spill for the Ducati. Martin can take the risk, why not, he looked great. Martin's only battle was over when Enea retired. Might have looked different if Enea had finished though. When finishing is of importance the Ducati riders avoided the better choice hard tyre because mid corner the risk is too high. They accepted the locking and lack of support because they know from painful experience that with Ducati the hard is to be done perfectly or you're out.

The cool down room chat also had a little explanation for Peco's crash in last years Misano 2 race. If you don't brake very hard for turn 7 (which on some maps is turn 8) then turns 15 and 16 can be a problem. Turn 7 being the last left hander until turn 15...or is that turn 42, I'm confused now. This year, unless there is something special, Peco will avoid the hard front. That's unfortunate. Last year until the crash he looked great, he rode perfectly until he made a small mistake. He didn't take enough care or account of the left side of his front tyre at turn 16 following some variation in approach to turn 7 on that lap. Either use the hard front perfectly or no warning, you're off.

On Sunday the hard front seemed to sit right where Fabio is strong. Super hard braking, lots of support, in shape to carry speed into the turn and the Fabio/Yamaha can handle that front all the way to the apex. Last year at Misano 1 Fabio used the hard front but used the medium front for Misano 2. Results, 2nd and 4th. If I remember right the temperature dropped a little on Sunday for Misano 2 plus a finish was the championship for Fabio. For both 2021 Misano races Peco used the hard front. In the first race a win and the second a spill. Peco must finish this year, the hard might be the faster choice, he wont chose it.

Also. What is it with 2a and 2b ? Why ? Give it one number or give it two. They like to give even the slightest hint of a change in direction a turn number at some tracks. It doesn't bother me what they call the turns but I watched all weekend waiting for it, I knew it was coming, no way was Birty going to waste that chance. Then he did it ! Disgusted ! Why couldn't it have been 3a and 3b or 2.1 and 2.2 ? You can't give that man open goals like this.

Depends. They will try it for sure. They may even race it because at the moment they might be talking tandem bull. I think Peco figured out after Sachsenring he doesn't do easing the pace very well so I wouldn't bet on him making the same mistake as last year. He had Fabio beat in race 1 and before the spill he had Marc beat in race 2. Is any rider a worry after that ?

As was said though, no hard front.

They might turn up in Misano and it's hot hot hot. Hard takes care of itself.

Feel sorry for Remy he deserves his slot in MotoGP but with Suzuki going the numbers just don't work out riders to bikes. Cant understand the thinking of moving AF37 up if it happens.        

….how many people didn’t understand why Fabio was signed to MotoGP, of course Stiggy was the driving force of wanting to give him a chance since he saw his potential, and he was proved right, hence Stiggy works in MotoGP and you and other keyboard warriors don’t,  myself included 

Johan Stigefelt was team director of Yamaha Petronas SRT, the team which gave Fabio his first MotoGP ride. He's talking about what appears to be a gamble is often an informed choice. So somewhere some people have decided that Remy is not the rider they want. There's many other potential reasons for that choice but it could just be that someone is making an informed choice but from the outside it looks like a gamble, doesn't make sense etc.

I seriously believe that if Morbidelli does nothing at Misano, it will be goodbye, contract or not, he cannot ride the bike anymore. The new 2023 bike has been promised to FQ, so it wili be more of the same, and it will not be any good for FM. Sorry to say that but he was winning races 2 years ago on virtually the same bike and now he can't. I think another test for Toprak will be arranged before the Misano test in September and TR on a bike then and test the 2023 bike. As I have said before TR rides the bike just like JL and FQ, except a bit more elbows out. He is a natural for the M1. Yamaha have the answer to the needs in their team, the answer is not Frankie.

Unfortunately , it does seem Frankie has lost it , he was kicking butt , even when he was on the “B” spec machine …..maybe the knee injury has done him in. 🤷🏿‍♂️

It seems what is good for Fabio is not good for Franco or Dovi. However, Maverick could be just as fast as Fabio last year if and when he had everything right. Maverick was with Yamaha for 4.5 seasons. Maverick always has been a fast guy. Very difficult to know. You only have to look at the riders Franco was beating in 2020. He was performing at the top. That doesn't just vanish. Strange indeed. You might not expect Dovi to beat Fabio after a year off but neither would you expect him to finish where he is finishing. Franco is not alone.

No way Yamaha are going to get rid of FM for 2023 regardless of results.  Jarvis has been interviewed on BT sport a few times and has made it clear that Yamaha won't break a contract out of principle!

Regarding Gardners situation.  Definitely been hard done by.  I have never thought KTM were good at managing their riders.  KTM thinking that 'forcing' R Fernandez to step up a class was going to work was delusional.  The fact is their bikes are not good enough.  Anyone know if Gas Gas are going to get concessions as a 'new' manufacturer?  

Binder (D) has done ok this year but he never deserved the ride in the first place.  He only got the ride because he forced Razali to honour his contract (meant to have a moto2 ride but Petronas pulled out).  Moto2 is probably where he should be.

Why bring him into MotoGP when you already have the World Champion in FQ20 and he's riding so well? Especially when TR54 has already said that he would like to stay in WSBK?

They could have Champions in both disciplines the way the rider lineup is now. It's sad that Franky is off the boil since he got hurt, but why not bring a hungry young gun from Moto2 into MotoGP if FM21 can't rekindle the fire?

Austria was an entertaining race with a fair amount of intrigue. Fabio rode out of his mind, while Aprilia struggled with tire selection and the satellite Ducatis struggled with execution, leaving only Jack Miller to put space between Pecco and Fabio. 

I'm shocked that Remy Gardner is one of the odd men out. He's the son of a 500cc champion, and the reigning Moto2 champion. He can't find a ride? Maybe his manager is subpar, or maybe Remy has an attitude problem. He did embarrass the team on a couple of occasions, but the possibility of his departure is a bit crazy to me. 

The big news is the introduction of sprint races, though. I really doubt Dorna receive glowing feedback from the fanbase in the global fan survey, but they are fundamentally altering the way the championship is scored. It's a bit of a Hail Mary. How bad are Dorna's finances? or is this some sort of gimmick to raise revenue slightly so Bridgepoint can offload the series? Maybe it will work out, but I don't see the need, and I'm not keen to invest more time (and money?) in a series that won't even fix its cost structure or sporting deficiencies. Why should I pay more money and invest more time in their brokedown palace? Maybe we will get lucky and the subscriber price for motogp will decline? Hah!

…MotoGP and WSBK are on the Foxtel subscription channel which alone makes the subscription worthwhile but I also get footy, tennis and various other sports.

Currently I pay for both the MotoGP pass and Eurosport pass. The latter gives me WSBK and BSB, for a quarter of the cost of MotoGP. As I feel less invested in this post-VR46 era and I’m coming up to living off a pension, chances are I’ll drop MotoGP next year, just because it’s so expensive and I’m probably more interested in who wins in WSBK and BSB. For context, I also pay the ubiquitous Netflix sub for the family, and the mandatory UK licence fee, so an extra £200 a year for MotoGP is just a bit much. I know we could argue that £200 for 20+ races (x 3 if you include the support races) is great value, but it feels to me that Dorna are milking us. Over the fence, F1 followers get the equivalent for around £80 a year.

Lilyvani, that is expensive, you're right, about $235 USD for motogp at current exchange rates. Here in California I pay $120 annually for motogp video pass, which allows me to watch on my tv, (with the help of an Apple product or two). WSBK is $70 annually (it does help that both are priced in euros, which have dropped dramatically in relation to the USD).

I justify it by having dumped Comcast (evil cable and media empire) for both content and wifi a few years ago, and am spending my savings on racing.

I use to subscribe for the package years back, but got spoiled living in Asia and seeing the races for free on FoxSports Asia. Unfortunately, last year Fox stopped broadcasting it so I started watching it online for free at www.servustv.com. It's a station in Austria so you'll have to use a VPN in Austria to stream it in 1080p.

They have local language and International English broadcasts. The only downside is that you have to watch live to see the races. But can't complain since its somewhat free (VPN cost).

Dorna needs to change the promotions manager/team. They have to bring back a revamped version of MotoGP Unlimited and not rely on Saturday Sprint races to boost interest in MotoGP, which afterall, an extra race is putting the riders at more risk than they are facing with one race a weekend!

When you how many races you get on a Saturday & Sunday at a BSB weekend - from 2 Honda Challenge cup races all the way up to 3 superbikes races - there is a lot of padding in Motogp over the 3 days. Perhaps there ought to be 2 MotoE races per weekend as well and these needs to be shown on the main feeds. I am a big fan of WSBK with its 3 races per weekend and I dont see them complaining about too much racing.

Sounds like a good idea to keep Remy :) A first thought would be to look at how Fabio has changed the numbers in France but I don't think that's relevant. France's first champion has got to be a pull and no matter which race you watch he's on the screens. I'm not so sure how much interest a home town hero can generate if they never feature in the action.

Remy is a good example, I can't speak for the coverage in Australia but short of the very odd debrief comment or video you'd be forgiven for wondering if Remy even attended half of the races.

We know what is going on with Dovi because his performances do not fit with expectations. Same can be said of Franco. If Dovi carried on next year with the same results we wouldn't hear much at all. Once everybody was settled with Rossi staying where he was near the back of the grid we heard a lot less of him relatively speaking. 

How was Raul's last race ? Bradl ? Little to no idea beyond a tiny vid clip of an interview (what do some of the riders think in 10 words or less), the result sheets and maybe they feature in the 'other battles' video which lasts all of half a minute. Such an annoying vid. So much video that they could present and never do. For me personally forget drive to survive and all the contrived crap that goes with it but if Remy had some good battles why not stitch the best bits together from all cameras available etc. Make a vid, max 10 minutes. It really is possible in 2022. Instead it's 24 riders, 25 laps, we present you with 5 passes from the 'other battles' and wouldn't you guess half of them were on the live feed anyway. Really poor vid every time, well made, nice music, near nothing other than a slow mo of one bike moving past another, zero context, brief description, 'here is a bird on a volcanic island doing a fancy dance' without any mention that he's doing the dance to get his leg over. I can almost feel the Dorna staff switching to defensive tweet mode but no matter how right they are...and they always are because they are doing it for real like a pro...they'll never, no matter how hard they try, be an ordinary fee paying customer. Blah blah blah rant over.

 

A rant, but a good one from my viewpoint. Dorna has so much good content that they seem too lazy to use.

As an example, being a Dovi fan to the end, I would enjoy 10 minutes stitched together of on-bike shots from the bikes around him, a full lap, etc. They could do the same for Remy to feed to the Australian media, highlighting some battle with, say D Binder, even though it was for 20th.

Yeah sort of like that. It feels like there is a rush after the race to throw out all of the usual videos. I'd actually like to know what all of the riders thought. I'd like to see the stuff which wasn't on the live feed. Remember Qatar ? There was an race long battle between Gardner, Binder and Fernandez...we saw...hmm it was well under 1 minute, probably closer to 10 seconds of it. Sometimes it's better sometimes it's worse but more often than not you look at the website post race vids and think...yeah nothing new there, nothing I didn't see or hear already. If a rider has sat in 15th position all race with 4 seconds to the rider ahead and 4 seconds to the rider behind then ok, not much to say about it but judging by the lap charts Dovi had a more interesting race than usual, saw a lot of that eh ? Darryn had a good race until he dropped it. Plenty of stuff going on back there. Zero f**** given by the website. So, home town hero, sit's on his/her GasGas or whatever...or maybe not, you might not notice.

From a personal perspective, I would like to see a lot more of the rider's post-race stories. I think that aside from the performances, it's the personal stories that gets one interested, things that people can relate to on a personal level. And if the post-race rider's stories were combined with video footage from the race, as you suggest, that would be very satisfying. But this opinion is coming from an engaged fan that already has a subscription. I do not know how this would attract more fans. Unless Dorna made these videos free. Then a non-subscriber could see bits of racing while listening to the rider. That might generate enough interest to entice someone to buy a subscription. But I don't know how this would get more butts in the grandstands. Big crowd at RBR though. 

I went back to watch Espargaro's onboard footage of Assen. After getting pushed into the gravel almost his entire race was a view of his backside. Couldn't see him gaining on other riders and initiating passes at the Geert Timmer chicane. Just a brief shot of other goys slipping to the rear. Is Dorna stingy with the content to paying subscribers? A guy ponies up 140 euros and doesn't get to watch the salivating content that they must have. What's up with that?

Gardner? KTM's logic is baffling. I took a liking to Remy after reading an interview at On Track Off Road. Very promising Motogp rider, last year's Moto 2 champ, that just got dumped. And weird contract stuff with Fernandez. And Lecuona was producing some decent results when he was let go. And KTM refused to "redesign" the bike for big boy Petrucci. And Smith got sacked for Zarco who had the rug pulled out from underneath him mid-season. And Binder was promoted to the factory squad ahead of Oliveira. Even Kenny Roberts KR engine project was shelved. KTM management seem to operate through knee-jerk reactions that can be seen as off-putting. And isn't Guidotti an awesome people person? Fair and balanced guy? I'm not seeing his bubbly, affable character coming through as much in the few videos of him I have seen. 

There's a Puig interview over at Marca. He is of the opinion that Honda's losing the race of the factories is mostly due to the pandemic's crimp on logistics, not having a European-based factory, and also partly due to the Japanese culture. And he's sure that Honda will not go for Acosta. They see Acosta as a KTM guy, and they respect that. Honda is not "go-getters."

While watching Fabio chase down (I think it was Jorge) the MotoGP feed was showing both rider’s machines data (throttle, brake, gear, etc.) and I noticed the difference in the gearing. So many technical strategies at play. Fabio really is on a whole different level. I hope the battle for the title stays close as I’d love to see Aleix grab that trophy but wow! Just wow! 

Overrated: Fernandez, Martin, Morbidelli, Zarco, A.Marquez

Underrated: Quartararo, Bastianini, A.Espargaro, Gardner

Big question mark: Mir, Marc Marquez as currently battered and on this Honda.

About to hear of signing: Ogura, Mir, godamn Raul Fernandez

I read somewhere that Gardner has convincingly beaten Fernandez on track. Since Raul got injured in Portimao Remy has out qualified Raul every time I think and has been the one who seems to be making progress up the grid. However, in the races, the races they have both started, the score is 5-5. Difficult to understand what is going on at KTMGas. Didn't go well for Zarco, Petrucci, Lecuona, doesn't look palatable for Oliveira, Remy doesn't sound very impressed. Have you ever wondered if Raul knew ? Things going very Hugo Boss.

….underrated? FYI, he’s currently 4th in the standings.

AM I think we can’t  fairly judge him yet since he’s been on a Honda his whole time in the Big Boys Class.

Remy? Hasn’t done anything really special this season besides being faster by his fellow rookie team mate, who obviously has been more or less coasting this season. 
 

 

We'll soon see if he has....

I do agree he doesn't seem to have pulled his finger out. 

It does seem strange that even if he's in a situation he doesn't want to be in, on an uncompetitive bike he'd ride to the best of his ability and spend the year learning how a MotoGP bike works.

….I don’t know if he has been “coasting”, that’s just something I pulled out of my a**, but like you said, we’ll see hopefully next year if that was true or not. 

From what I read Raul told KTM very early in the year that he would be going elsewhere. Was it May ? He hurt himself in Portimao. If he is going elsewhere and the KTM is as would seem, not good, why risk an injury which may very well damage him for 2023 ? If he already had an agreement in place why would his future bosses want to him to risk too much also ? Another rider in another position might push themselves for the sport, for fun, for results etc but if, as would seem to be the case, the relationship soured a long time ago then why would he care about KTM ? Maybe you might feel like showing them the results of pushing riders into positions they do not want to be in.

Nobody has done anything special on a KTM except Brad in Qatar because it's Brad on a Sunday (plus dnf from Peco, Miller and Martin) and Oli in the Mandalika rain because as usual, when the opportunity is there, sublime. Depends what you rank as special. Opinion is that Brad has produced some great performances which given his finishing positions says a lot about this years KTM and/or says a lot about having eight Ducati on the grid. If the factory riders are struggling then the effort will focus on the factory. Not a good place to be a rookie. Swap Bez and Remy....how would it look now ?

…that Remy has not been sacked for his riding performance but for impolitic remarks he made about the bike. You can’t put an old head on young shoulders.

If that's what they are saying then they are either using those comments to justify something that actually doesn't need any justification or they are one foot into a pit of oblivion. Remy seems a nice lad and I think everybody would like to see him have a better chance. However, all teams are free to make good and bad choices. Time will tell. If Mir and Rins were still at Suzuki next year then things would look different but that is not the situation. I don't see KTM doing anything but run around the mid field bar some brilliance from their riders.

We are losing two rider positions with the loss of Suzuki.
Dovi is retiring so that means one less position available than in 2022.
Everyone else seems safe except the three rookies from last year who haven't done much this year (In terms of highest points to lowest) DBinder, Gardner, RFernandez. Of the three DBinder has probably overachieved the most given the bike he is on.

I don't really see anyone from Moto2 who has demanded promotion beyond a possible swap with Nakagami's position for one of the Team Honda Asia riders. I see that being more likely a year on with HRC needing experienced feedback.
AFernandez possibly but is anyone clearly better than the two riders who dominated the class the previous year and now have a MotoGP season of experience.

If no one comes up one rider has to go out.

One point against Gardner is that he is an Aussie whose native language is English and KTM will have one of them and a South African as well so may be keen for a European rider. He can also present as morose and negative when things aren't going well.