Since the Valencia test marked the official start of the 2024 calendar, I figure its time for a new thread.
Storylines:
Marc is already looking dangerous on the Ducati. With a 1 year deal on a satellite team, that's going to make some people at Ducati uncomfortable.
Trackhouse taking over for RNF, but immediately getting the 2024 spec bike. That's big, especially if Aprillia can fix the issues they had with hotter weather.
Honda seems to have already taken a step, will the concessions help them jump back into the fray?
Will Quartararo follow what Marc did if Yamaha doesn't get their shit together? Take the best available seat whether its factory or not?
Acosta looks like most talented rider to enter the scene since Marquez, how will he do in his rookie year?
I'm as Canadian as it gets but the Nicky Hayden tribute Livery is absolutely gorgeous here
The Fasthouse/Aprillia deal is awesome. Great to see American interests in MotoGP. The sport and series can only grow so much with it's current Spanish centric mode.
I found it extremely strange that Jaume Masia complained that Dorna didnt want a Spanish Moto3 Champion. Such a weird thing to believe when the governing body is Spanish lol
Not the right Spaniard for Dorna…
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I mean it came down to Masia(Spain) Sasaki(Japan) Alonso(Columbian)
the only other Spaniard that came anywhere close was Holgado but man did he fade in the late stages
I miss motogp
Gman. Do you still not believe the Yamaha was 20-30 kph slower a couple years ago?
Gresini 2024 livery
Ducati Lenovo Livery
Pertamina Enduro VR46 Team Livery
Trackhouse wants to make sure everyone knows they're all American.
Except for the Italian bike
And the Spanish rider, and the Portugese other rider
and the largely international team staff
but other than that, they're all American
cool looking bikes though
Honda's new tail aero looks absolutely wild.
Aprillia going a different route with theirs
The new tech regs coming in 2027 can't get here fast enough. Less aero, no more ride height devices outside of holeshot devices. Should put more of the focus on the riders again.
Should be an interesting season for sure and yeah I wish they could get rid of those Wings and all the electronic crap sooner than 3 years.
Have you guys seen the new price hike to renew your MotoGP subscription? 🤬🤬
Total BS!
KTM may have just debuted the most ridiculous looking aero piece yet, the front fender wing. A-la-Fourmula 1.
Nice to see the Yamaha duo of Quartararo and Rins near the top of the sheets, but with seemingly nothing different aero-wise on a bike that finished last year in desperate need of radical change, I'm worried that Yamaha still hasn't admitted to themselves that bike needs a serious overhaul. EDIT: Apparently they spent some of the day riding the 2023 bike. Weird, not sure why they'd do that, but that may have been then one in the pictures.
Looks like one of the first things scrapped by the new Argentine government is the motogp race.
Cool module for validating fluid flow FEA results. Video wouldn't post because if stupid Dorna restrictions.
https://youtube.com/shorts/uWXY0uopCLw?si=YbTVzJTFInQX5K68
Yeah that was a wild look!
Looks like the 24 Duc is miles better than the 23. KTM seems very happy with their bike too. Interesting that every headline has Quartararo complaining about the new bike, but when you read the whole quote he's actually quite happy with the direction and just basically says we're not there but we're getting closer
Honda changing their colours up. If I'm being honest, I'm not a fan. If they're moving away from the Repsol colours, make the bike primarily red. This just doesn't scream Honda to me. I hate all the black, especially because they've once again left the winglets plain black. Just a bad looking bike IMO
The LCR Hondas look miles better than the Repsol ones, wow. Zarco's bike is gorgeous!
Nakagami's Idemitsu bike looks solid too, but I think Zarco may have the prettiest one on the grid
KTM remains largely unchanged, but there will be big changes to the aero, new liveries are nearly always shown on the old spec bikes.
Pit Row
I actually like the new repsol bikes. But that Castrol bike is fuckin sexy! Naka's bike looks good but could use a little more red and white where the black is. Same for the repsol bikes but the still look better then the old repsol bikes to me.
Hard disagree on the Repsol Hondas, The orange was such a staple for so long and for so many legends. Doohan, Criville, Pedrosa, Rossi, Stoner, Marquez etc. Bike looks wrong without it. I would have much preferred they used the livery Bradl ran last year, or something close to it.
I can't imagine the "Repsol" becoming smaller a good thing by any means. Plus no red bull either. The loss of Marc looks to have shaken it up. Also agree, does not look nearly as cool.
For those that do not have the MotoGP video pass the races this year will be on TruTV channel here in the US with coverage now including the Tissot Sprint Race on Saturday.
For this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix:
Saturday - Tissot Sprint Race 10:30 AM EST
Sunday - Qatar Grand Prix 12:30 PM
Sprint race takeaways
Acosta finishing 8th in his first ever sprint race is damned impressive!
Marc is going to be a contender on the GP23
Someone needs to get in front of Martin, he's just too strong once he's at the head of the pack.
Wonder how Marini feels about ditching VR46 to finish 21st on the Honda
Motogp being streamed on hbomax now fyi
Somewhat underwhelming race. Seemed a bit of an extension of last season.
Bagnaia - Already starting the season strong. Looked great, watch out everyone else.
Binder - Awesome. Let's see if he can maintain a bit more consistency this year. Or is the KTM better this year? We know he (KTM) has it's bad tracks. Would love to see him go for the title.
Martin - Said once he figures the bike out, everyone needs to watch out. I believe him, but I also believe he is his own biggest enemy. Keep it on two wheels and we may see a pramac bike win the title.
MM93 - Great first race. Not a huge surprise for me. Let's see if he improves.
Bastianini - I honestly think he is a title threat. Do we forget that he was the only person to break pecco a couple years ago? He is my sneaky contender pick.
AM73 - I expect more. I think he needs to be better than his brother honestly.
Diggia - Eh.
A.Espargaro - No comment.
Acosta - Pretty impressive. He did go backwards, but seemed more of a tire issue than anything. Cool to have a rookie come in and compete like this.
10th - 21st
Jack Miller has to do something this year. I think Acosta will be on that bike next year.
Fabio. My heart really breaks for the guy. I'm not sure what his plan is next year, but I think he has to move on from Yamaha. He just doesn't look like the Fabio from past.
Honda and Yamaha suck.
I like the look of these Prima Ducati's
It's grown on me but their pre-prima era was always my favorite.
Espagaro should have won that race at least podium based on data. But again inconsistencies in the tires reared theor ugly head. Its easier now to see the tire issue with having the sprint race the day before. Before you could blame it on the rider or setup now how do they explain riders losing so much pace that they cant turn close to the same times as the day before when everyones dojng the exact same times. Martin pointed it out last year thats its getting bad.
Thing is everyone's on the same tires and tire management is part of the strategy and part of how you have to set up the bike. Aprillia is notorious for eating tires with their bike, that's why they can aways be fast in qualifying but can't replicate it in the GP.
Agreed, but what we're seeing now is the inconsistencies in tire manufacturing. Plenty of riders have complained that durning practice, qualifying and races that sometimes they would put on a fresh set and something would be off. Mount a new set immediately and the issue goes away. It doesnt matter if everyones on the same tore if one of those tires is a lemon i would say.
Like i was saying its easier now to prove this versus a the years prior to the sprint races where you could just say hey they missed the set up or rider just didnt perform. Its hard to cover up a rider doing 1'51's in a sprint but never getting close to that in the long race. The data and the sprint shows he had top 3 at a bare minimum lap times. Yet he couldnt replicate even his times from the warm up session. Thats all im sayin.
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