Silverstone, Great Britain

2018 Misano MotoGP Thursday Round Up: Soaking Silverstone, Aprilia's Woes, And Rossi vs Marquez - Infinity War

Submitted by David Emmett on

The legacy of the Lost Grand Prix lingers on. Silverstone was on the minds of many at Misano, and there was still much to be said about the race. The conclusion remained nearly unanimous, with one dissenting opinion: it was way too dangerous to race at Silverstone, and the new surface was simply not draining correctly. Riders chimed in with their opinions of what had gone wrong with laying the asphalt, but those opinions should probably be taken with a pinch of salt. They may be intimately familiar with the feel and texture of asphalt, but the ability to ride a motorcycle almost inhumanly fast does not equate to understanding the underlying engineering and chemistry of large-scale civil engineering projects.

What riders do understand better than anyone, of course, is whether a race track is safe to race on, and all but Jack Miller felt the same way eleven days on from Silverstone. "The amount of rain was not enough to produce those conditions on the track," Marc Márquez told the press conference. "For me it was more about the asphalt, more than the weather conditions. And it was T2 and T3, that part was something that you cannot ride like this. Because there are many bumps, the water was there but inside the bump was even more water, and it was impossible to understand the track."

It had rained far more in 2015, when the race had been able to go ahead, than it had in 2018, when the race had been called off, Márquez said. "For example in 2015 it was raining much more, in Motegi last year it was raining much more. But for some reason, we already went out from the box and it was only light rain but the water was there. It was something strange."

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Provisional 2019 MotoGP Calendar: 19 Races With Minor Reshuffles

Submitted by David Emmett on

Dorna today unveiled the provisional MotoGP calendar for 2019, confirming much of what we already knew. The schedule will consist of 19 races, as the circuit in Mexico City will not be ready to host a MotoGP race next year, and the Kymiring in Finland is also still under construction. Both races are provisionally expected to be on the 2020 calendar.

The calendar is broadly similar to this year's schedule, with a few tweaks. The season kicks off at Qatar on 10th March, earlier than usual and a week before F1, which normally starts before MotoGP. Three weekends later, the series is racing in Argentina at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, and two weeks after that, the whole circus heads north for the US round in Austin.

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SilversTone: Tony Goldsmith's Photos From Before The Flood

Submitted by David Emmett on


Storm clouds gather over Silverstone. The storm would break on Sunday


If anyone could claim to have lost out at Silverstone, it was Maverick Viñales. The Spaniard was back to his old form during practice


Of course, Viñales only lost a chance to win a race. Tito Rabat lost the rest of his 2018 season after going down on some standing water

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Guest Video Blog: Freddie Spencer On Silverstone, Rider Power, And The Race That Never Happened

Submitted by David Emmett on

MotoMatters.com, in association with Motor Sport Magazine, is proud to feature the rider insights of 1983 and 1985 500cc world champion Freddie Spencer. After every MotoGP race, Fast Freddie will share what he saw and learned from the race.

Despite the fact that there wasn't a race at Silverstone, Freddie Spencer has plenty to say about the event. The former world champion starts off with a recollection of his own about the miserable weather at the Northamptonshire track, and about how he used terrible conditions in the 250cc race to his advantage in the 500cc race. He wonders why puddling on the track, which he saw back in 1985, is still a problem.

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2019 Calendar To Be Announced At Misano: 19 Races, No Mexico, No Finland

Submitted by David Emmett on

We are a week away from being able to book (provisionally, with free cancellation) to see a race in 2019. The provisional MotoGP calendar for 2019 is due to be published at the Misano round in just under 10 days' time. 

As the official MotoGP.com website revealed over the weekend, there will only be 19 rounds in 2019. The numerical symmetry of that may be pleasing, but there were plans to have 20 races next season. The debut of the Kymiring in Finland has been delayed by a year to 2020, as the circuit will not be ready in time for a 2019 date. And the planned round in Mexico at the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City has been dropped, unless the circuit is prepared to make changes.

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Guest Blog: Mat Oxley - Is MotoGP’s tail wagging the dog?

Submitted by Mat Oxley on

Should the riders have raced on Sunday? Do they have too much say in their own safety?

MotoGP has always existed on a knife edge, which is why we love it. And despite safer tracks, better riding gear and everything else, the riders exist on that knife edge more now than in many a year, because getting them and their 220mph motorcycles around a racetrack with no major injuries or fatalities is quite a feat, even on a sunny day. This miracle occurs almost every race, which fools some people into thinking that MotoGP can’t be that dangerous. But believe me, Race Direction leaves the track most Sunday evenings with a huge sigh of relief: we got away with it again!

However, sometimes things do go wrong.

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2018 Silverstone MotoGP Race Abandoned: A Bad Weekend Turns Disastrous For Everyone

Submitted by David Emmett on

On Saturday evening, Stuart Pringle, Managing Director of Silverstone Circuit, told a small group of journalists that the delays and problems caused by the wet track during FP4 were due to the unusually heavy rainfall, and not the resurfaced track. "It was a Biblical downpour," he told us. "It was more like a monsoon you’d see in Malaysia than heavy, normal rain. The drainage on the circuit is very good." He was not worried about racing on Sunday, because although rain was forecast, it was not a deluge. "It’s heavy rain, but it’s not the kind of cloud burst stuff we saw earlier. Is it going to be more of a challenge if it’s wet? All circuits are more challenging in the wet than the dry. So I think we’re set for a good race tomorrow."

Sunday proved Stuart Pringle wrong. It wasn't the quantity of water which caused the problems. It was the fact that water simply wasn't being drained fast enough to allow riders to ride safely, or as safely as can reasonably be expected of traveling at over 300km/h on a wet track, braking as late as possible in a close pack, as 23 riders battle for position in the opening laps. There was standing water in just about every section of the track, causing the MotoGP bikes to aquaplane while on their sighting lap, a lap taken usually at nine tenths, rather than ten tenths. They were aquaplaning while accelerating, at speed, and while braking.

Bikes aquaplaning had caused Tito Rabat and Franco Morbidelli to crash while braking for Stowe. But Morbidelli had crashed after Rabat, and the Italian's Honda had flown across the gravel and struck Rabat as he sat in the gravel trap, breaking the femur, tibia and fibula in his right leg, and putting him out of action for months rather than weeks. Nobody who saw that wanted to suffer the same fate. Or worse.

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Official Statement By Davide Tardozzi Of Ducati On Safety Commission Meeting At Silverstone

Submitted by Press Release on

Today, Ducati issued an official statement regarding the events surrounding the calling of the impromptu Safety Commission Meeting on Sunday afternoon at Silverstone, at which the riders decided th

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All Races Canceled At Silverstone MotoGP Round

Submitted by David Emmett on

Track conditions have forced the cancellation of the 2018 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The original schedule had been changed after problems with standing water during the FP4 session for the MotoGP class on Saturday afternoon, with the MotoGP race moved to an 11:30 start and the first race of the day. But after a series of delays due to water on the track, the races were officially canceled after a meeting of the Safety Commission at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.

The circuit had been hopeful of being able to hold the races. The MotoGP warm up had started in the dry, the first spots of rain starting to fall during the Moto3 warm up. The rain fell steadily, but not heavily, and the riders who returned from the sighting lap when they went to the grid reported aquaplaning all around the track. On Saturday, there had only been problems at the entry to Stowe and to Vale. On Sunday, there were problems everywhere.

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