As the start of the MotoGP season grows closer, the news cycle is starting to ramp up.
Websites are starting to be able to report on things that are actually happening, rather than desperately thrashing around looking for filler content. So here’s a round-up of the latest developments in MotoGP.
Episode 258 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us looking back on the career of The Doctor, Valentino Rossi.
On the mics, we have Steve English, David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, and they are joined by esteemed MotoGP journalist Mat Oxley, who has just completed a book that chronicles the career of Rossi.
Episode 252 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one covers the MotoGP action from the Valencia GP at Spain.
On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they dive into the final round of the 2021 MotoGP Championship season.
The danger with making predictions is that it can go horribly wrong. Yesterday, I confidently predicted that it would remain dry all weekend. That prediction lasted until the end of Moto3 FP1.
As the final minute approached, the dark clouds which had been slowly creeping up on the Circuito Ricardo Tormo started to sprinkle the track with rain. Just a little at first, then growing heavier once MotoGP got underway.
The rain stopped during the Moto2 session, leaving the track wet throughout (and giving Sam Lowes the opportunity to suffer a horrible highside and injure his right foot), the cool, overcast weather meaning the track dried out quite slowly.
It is a strange weekend, the last race of the season. For all intents and purposes the season is already over, the championship is done, officially in MotoGP and Moto3, and as good as in Moto2 – Raul Fernandez can’t afford to throw in the towel, but he has to win the race, and the chances of Remy Gardner finishing lower than 13th are pretty small. But not zero, of course, which is why they will line up on Sunday.
The constructors’ championship was settled at Portimão last week, and the odds of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli outscoring Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller by a combined 28 points on Sunday is pretty low (but again, not zero), which will hand the team title to the factory Ducati Lenovo squad.
So why are we bothering to race at Valencia? Well, apart from the contractual obligation – Dorna has promised TV broadcasters 18 races, Valencia has a contract to host a grand prix, and sponsors have backed teams on the basis of a full season, not knocking off early just because the title is wrapped up.
Maverick Viñales’ decision to leave Yamaha at the end of the 2021 season raised all sorts of questions.
Who would take his place in the factory Monster Energy Yamaha team? Can Franco Morbidelli be bought out of his contract with the Petronas SRT team? And if Morbidelli goes to the factory team, who do Petronas take to replace Morbidelli?
Valentino Rossi added another layer of complexity to those questions at the Styria Grand Prix by announcing he would be retiring from MotoGP at the end of this year. Now, Yamaha had not one, but two seats to fill.
Episode 72 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is out with another “weekly” episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.
In this episode, we tackle a slew of motorcycle-related topics, and some topics that aren’t so motorcycle related (naturally).
It was an odd day today. The moment we heard that there would be an extra press conference to be held by Valentino Rossi, the work of a journalist goes into overdrive.
Preparing a story for if he announced his retirement, worrying whether to write an alternative story, for if he had announced he would be switching to Ducati and racing in his own team, putting out feelers to see what people thought the announcement would be.
Weighing rumors that he would be doing one thing or another.
The most remarkable thing about today’s announcement was that nobody knew which way it was going to go.
Normally, decisions of such import leak out; there were rumors that Jorge Lorenzo was going to retire for weeks before hand, Casey Stoner’s retirement had been credibly reported at least three weeks before the announcement, and Dani Pedrosa’s retirement had been telegraphed for a long time.
Even Rossi’s decision to drop long-time crew chief Jeremy Burgess had been leaked to the press a week beforehand.
And in truth, the leak probably forced Rossi’s hand, and into making an announcement before the Valencia race, instead of after it. Rossi got his revenge later, however, planting a false story with the same journalist a year or so later.
Valentino Rossi has announced that he is to retire from MotoGP racing at the end of the 2021 season. The legendary Italian has decided to call it a day after 26 seasons in Grand Prix racing, as results were becoming more difficult to come by.
It’s race week again. For both the MotoGP and WorldSBK paddocks, with the World Superbike series also making its debut at a new track, the Autodrom Most in the northwest corner of Czechia 55 km south of Dresden and 75km northwest of Prague, and which looks on paper to offer a nice, varied array of corners and challenges.
But WorldSBK at Most (be ready to be drowned in a tidal wave of superlative-based puns) comes after just a single weekend away, the production-based series having raced at Assen two weeks ago.
MotoGP is back after its longest summer hiatus in recent memory, a whole five-week absence from racing.
As expected, Valentino Rossi’s Aramco Racing Team VR46 MotoGP squad will be on Ducati machinery when it comes into the premier class next season.
Considered widely to be the best bike on the grid, and with Ducati eager to expand its ranks in the grand prix class, the leasing of Italian machines by VR46 was widely tipped, despite Rossi’s links to Yamaha.
As such, the Saudi-funded race team has a three-year contract with Ducati Corse for Desmosedici race bikes, which will span the 2022-2024 seasons, while the Saudi government has a five-year deal with VR46.