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Anyone sure about at what point it goes from getting a warning for exceeding track limits and getting a penalty? Roberts got docked for a one time deal of about a foot.
I wouldn't count Marquez out even though his return has been quite disappointing.
The Shop
https://motomatters.com/analysis/2021/06/08/barcelona_motogp_race_subsc…
I think they mainly look at track limits when they are in a battle and it makes a difference.
I think Marquez can win again, he showed signs last weekend. His return to action was likely too premature, it's clear he's still building strength in his arm and having to adapt his style. I think both he and Honda thought he could return and score a few points, then lock in and go on a run and potentially challenge for the title even with no scores in Qatar.
Honda has to sort out the bike though. It's clear that only pre-crash Marc had the ability to make it work. Pol is on suicide-watch after seeing Oliveira the past 2 weeks, A Marquez cannot stay upright for more than 10 minutes if he pushes, and Nakagami has regressed from the speed he showed in 2020.
Those guys are all gladiators, and the margins they perform on are incredibly small. I have massive respect.
Can’t wait to see it all play out in front of our very eyes.
He’s struggling to turn right due to his injury. So it’s likely that today was fools gold.
The bike sucks. But it has for a long while. He’s always been able to ride around the issues.
He’s not riding around the issues anymore.
He’s still not the old version of Marc.
I wonder if we’ll ever see the same Marc again.
The benefit of being a guy that’s gone your whole career having never been injured? Your confidence is thru the roof.
The downside? That first injury is a real head fuck. This situation reminds me of McGrath.
Every GP rider is always 70-80% healthy for most the season. They’re always dealing with one nagging injury or another by the first quarter of the season. The crashes might not cost them races but they do ride hurt A LOT and rarely mention it publicly. It’s part of the race culture.
Marc on the other hand has had a remarkable career in that he’s never hurt. Even a little bit. Despite crashing more than anyone in the paddock. He somehow has perfected the crash. It might be his best kept secret to his success. He’s always 100% and his competition is always less than healthy. It’s a major factor in his dominance.
What you’ve seen this year has been a leveling of the playing field so to speak.
Worth noting that Marc almost lost his eyesight when he was in Moto2, so I wouldn't say his career has been absent of major injuries.
Still, that Honda is a turd and until they get the bike sorted out or until Marc is back to mid-2019 form, I expect a lot of Hondas in the gravel traps and not much in terms of results.
Rossi.
He’s posting the fastest lap times of his career. Yet he’s a backmarker. One might think “he just got old” but that would be objectively false. His overall race times from this current season would put him consistently on the podium if they were posted in last years races.
Huh?
What that means is everyone else got faster. And the timesheets show they’ve gotten a LOT faster.
Average overall race time by race winner? Roughly 15 seconds per race compared to last year.
Rossi is going faster than ever. His competition is going 15 seconds per race faster.
To put that in perspective of how significant that is - the average year by year improvement is usually 1 second per race. As in, it took 15 seasons to chop off the previous 15 seconds. Yet between last year and now they matched that same jump in ONE YEAR according to the motoGP statiticians.
Why?
And more importantly, why is Rossi the ONLY front runner that couldnt make the same significant leap?
Here’s my theory...
Due to the scamdemic, motogp put a freeze on engine development this year. They’re all on nearly the same bikes from last year. Very little in the way of new parts to test and certainly much less to learn as the bikes arent a evolution except for some chassis tweaks that are somewhat limited by the engine spec freezes. Riders have never had so much freedom to dial in setup as they are this year. A guy like Zarco would normally be Ducati’s test mule. Now? He gets to try to win races. They get to build on last year’s setups instead of learn what would normally be their new bikes.
This hurts Rossi in one way because one of his greatest attributes is bike development. He can handle loads of test work in a short period of time. He knows how to get a bike right quickly when there are big margins to discover. Now? There isnt much to have to figure out. This works against him and in favor of his much younger competition.
A related factor...
Since Marc and the others got on the scene, the style of racing has changed. These “kids” are all confortable riding on the sharp edge of the limits. With them all on heavily refined machinery, they have to push those limits even farther.
Fine for them. Not for Rossi. He’s never been one to ride on the edge. His style is to make the bike easy to ride via his skills communicating with the engineers. Well the bikes arent being developed this way anymore, especially the Yamaha. The mfgs arent trying to make easy bikes to ride. They’re making the bikes as fast as possible and expecting the rider to adapt & get comfortable on the edge. Basically the Ducati philosophy that only Stoner could handle in the past, has now become the paddock norm thx to Marc (and now Fabio). Ever wonder why Lorenzo fell off a cliff? This is why. He’s just like Rossi in this manner.
Rossi didnt get slow or forget how to ride. The bike style & development curve (or lack thereof) finally passed him by. In combination with the fact that he’s being forced to ride on uncomfortable limits that dont suit his personality. He needs it to be true prototype racing.
If my theory is correct, it has to make you wonder if it’s better to letting riders stay on their bikes an extra year isnt a good thing. 15 seconds is huge. But it comes at the cost of long term development? And maybe can leave a team stuck unable to adapt the bike to the current year tires.
Whatever the case. He didnt forget how to ride.
Pit Row
I don't know where you are getting your numbers but I took a look at a small sample and it doesn't really check out.
Race times
Sachsenring
2019: 41:08
2021: 41:07
Lemans
2020: 45:54
2021: 47:25
Catalunya
2020: 40:33
2021: 40:21
Of course its hard to compare one day to the next in roadracing given weather conditions and track temperature, and some 2020 races were held at drastically different times of the year. I wonder how much the tire compound has changed between last year and this year if at all.
If anyone wants to take a closer look at race times you can find them here.
https://www.motogp.com/en/Results+Statistics
I was going off their numbers entirely. I didnt think I’d need to “fact check” lol.
And ya you’re right, it’s disingenuous to compare day to day much less year to year in road racing. But apparently such a trend had developed that people were taking notice.
Based on how much testing these guys are normally saddled with on race weekends and how little they actually get to work on setup. This is a unique year.
The true test of my theory will be to see how things change next year once new bikes are allowed again (will lap times go back to normal advancements). And if Rossi is once again competitive.
A possible counter argument to my theory? Look at Aprilia. They have the newest bike on the grid. With the most development margins to be had. And now they’re regularly up front. Their bike clearly got more competitive while everyone else’s stayed the same. But the riders all made huge leaps. Except Rossi.
My theory is father time is grabbing rossi and he will nicely step into his team owner/ manager role at VR46 SKY Ducati motogp next year
Also Garrett Gerloff will be a replacement rider for Morbidelli at Assen.
Probably not going to happen and that bums me out.
But yes I am happy for Gerloff
https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/yamaha-wsbk-rider-gerloff-replac…
Not good to be DRUNK before noon!
https://www.constructionjournal.com/projects/details/66220d7834a24dd1b9…
https://www.attesa.com/about/
Here ya go bud. I know you got your head up the suns ass a little bit.
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