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Analyzing Marc Marquez’s Matchless Record at the Sachsenring

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Since the beginning of the season, the media has been buzzing with HRC’s tales of woe. After seven rounds, the factory sits fifth in the manufacturers championship, 91 points behind Yamaha and Ducati (who are tied for first place), and just 10 points ahead of Aprilia.

To put that into perspective, all four Honda riders – Marc Márquez, Pol Espargaro, Alex Márquez, and Takaaki Nakagami – have contributed to Honda’s total of 52 points, while Aprilia’s stopgap second rider, promoted tester Lorenzo Savadori, has added just a single, solitary point to Aprilia’s total, Aleix Espargaro having scored the other 44.

The situation for the Repsol Honda team is, if anything, even worse.

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Fabio Quartararo Gets Three-Second Penalty for Unzipped Leathers

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Fabio Quartararo has been hand a three-second penalty after the conclusion of the Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona, for riding with his leathers open.

The Frenchman’s leathers came open in the first half of Lap 21, after which he discarded his chest protector, and he went on to finish the remaining laps with the leathers completely open, the wind having forced the zip open completely.

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Saturday MotoGP Summary at the Catalan GP: The Art of Towing

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Saturday at Montmelo made several things crystal clear in MotoGP. We saw one rider emerge as the clear favorite for the win on Sunday. We saw just how critical tire choice and tire management is going to be at Barcelona.

And we saw just how much pressure riders are under, whether it be seeking a tow to get through to Q2, celebrating a quick time in FP3 like a victory, or crashing out twice in an attempt to save a seat for next year.

Above all, we saw just how fast Fabio Quartararo is in Barcelona. The fact that the Frenchman was the only rider to get into the 1’39s in FP4 was not that much of a surprise; the Monster Energy Yamaha rider has been quick all weekend after all.

What was a little more surprising is that nobody else managed it, Maverick Viñales getting closest, but still over four tenths behind his teammate.

What should be more worrying is the fact the vast majority of Quartararo’s laps in FP4 were 1’39s: 8 of his 12 flying laps were 1’39s.

His 9th fastest lap was quick enough to have secured fourth place, his 1’40.278 faster than Johann Zarco’s best lap of 1’40.286. Quartararo’s 10th fastest lap was a 1’40.290, just 0.004 slower than Zarco’s best time.

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Friday MotoGP Summary at the Catalan GP: Missing Grip Causes Tire Confusion

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Once upon a time, Barcelona was regarded as one of the great motorcycling tracks, all sweeping corners demanding the utmost concentration and skill.

So much of a motorcycling track was it that a couple of sections had to be put into it to make it a better track for cars, and especially for F1.

The grand sweep of La Caixa had a hairpin inserted, to give the cars somewhere to brake. And Turn 13 had a tight little chicane added on the inside, to slow the cars down before they got onto the straight.

Four fat tires meant they were at risk of going through the final corner so fast that would be within spitting distance of the sound barrier by the end of the straight.

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MotoGP Preview of the Catalan GP: A Changed Circuit, A Curious Crash, & A Strange Swap

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Another week, another race track. We are a third of the way into the 2021 MotoGP season (probably, possibly, pandemic permitting), and things are starting to move fast. A third of the way now, and in three weeks’ time, we will be at the halfway mark.

It is hard to overstate how important this part of the season is. Jerez, Le Mans, Mugello, Barcelona, and Assen are the guts of the season, the foundations on which championships are built.

By the time we pack up for the summer break – a long one this time, five weeks between Assen and Austria, with Sachsenring taking place before Assen instead of after, its usual slot – we should have a very good idea of who is in the driving seat for this year.

What makes the triumvirate of Mugello, Barcelona, and Assen key? They are fast, punishing tracks that test man and machine.

They are riders’ tracks, where a fast rider can make the difference, but they also need a bike to be set up well in pursuit of a good result. There are no shortcuts at those three circuits, no relying on one aspect of the machine to get you out of trouble.

The bike has to do a lot of things well, from braking to turning to accelerating. That needs a good crew chief to analyze strengths and weaknesses, a competent team to find the right balance between them, and a good rider to use that bike between them.

If motorcycle racing is about finding the best compromise between braking, acceleration, turning, speed, the Mugello-Barcelona-Assen is the ultimate test of that.

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Maverick Viñales Changes Crew Chiefs, Yet Again

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Maverick Viñales’ lackluster 2021 season has caused another casualty. Today, Yamaha announced that his crew chief Esteban Garcia would be leaving his role with immediate effect, to be replaced by Silvano Galbusera.

Galbusera was the easy choice, as the Italian veteran is already involved with Yamaha as the crew chief working in the test team, working with Cal Crutchlow to help develop the YZR-M1.

The change has perhaps been predictable. Viñales has been making veiled comments about his team making the wrong decisions during the weekend.

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Brad Binder Will Stay in the Factory KTM MotoGP Team thru 2024

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2021 is proving to be a more normal year than last year in many different ways.

One of those is the fact that in addition to racing at the more traditional MotoGP tracks, MotoGP’s Silly Season is kicking off pretty much on schedule.

Mugello is traditionally the point in the season at which teams and factories start to think about next year, and 2021 is no exception.

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Saturday MotoGP Summary at the Italian GP: The Dangers of Racing

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For all the discussion of just how dangerous a track Mugello is, when a serious accident happens, it has nothing to do with the track.

Jason Dupasquier, Moto3 rider for the PruestelGP team, lost the rear at the end of Q2 for the Moto3 class and crashed. A fairly regular occurrence in Moto3, as riders push the limits of the bike.

Tragically, however, Dupasquier fell directly in front of Tech3 rider Ayumu Sasaki, leaving the Japanese rider nowhere to go. Sasaki’s KTM struck Dupasquier, leaving the Swiss rider gravely injured.

It took the FIM medical staff half an hour to stabilize Dupasquier sufficiently for him to be flown by medical helicopter to Careggi University Hospital, where he lies in critical condition at the time of writing.

Our thoughts are with Dupasquier, his family, friends, and team, and we fervently hope he makes a full recovery.

Dupasquier’s crash unmasks the elephant in the room of motorcycle racing. No matter what you do to circuits, no matter how far you push back walls, how much run off you add, it remains a dangerous sport.

If one rider falls in front of another, and is hit by the bike, serious injury, or much worse, is almost inevitable.

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Friday MotoGP Summary at the Italian GP: On the Relative Sensation of Speed, & Two Slow Riders

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The only thing missing was the crowds. It was good to be back at Mugello, the most glorious jewel in the MotoGP calendar.

Like all jewels, Mugello comes with sharp edges that need handling with care, and it took rookies and regulars alike some time to get used to the sheer speed at which they blasted down the straight.

Brad Binder had been impressed. “This morning was my first time ever at Mugello on the GP bike so it took me a while to find my feet and figure out where to go because it’s a bit different to how I remember it in Moto2; the straight is quite a bit quicker!” the South African said, with a fine sense for understatement. “Turn 1 is a lot more on the limit to find a good marker.”

Contrary to expectations, Johann Zarco’s top speed record of 362.4 km/h set at Qatar was not broken, the Frenchman’s temporary Pramac teammate Michele Pirro managing a paltry 357.6 km/h in FP2.

It may not have been faster than the top speed at Qatar, but it certainly feels a lot faster.

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MotoGP Preview of the Italian GP: The Peril & Power of Motorcycle Racing, Set in the Tuscan Hills

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There is nowhere that encapsulates the essence of motorcycle racing like Mugello.

The track snakes along the sides of the Tuscan valley in which it sits, echoing the country roads and mountain passes where racing first started, shortly after enough motorcycles had been made for riders to challenge each other to tests of skill and bravery.

That is precisely what Mugello is: a test of skill and bravery, of rider and machine, of guts and brains. Calculating risk is everything, both from the technical and human perspective.

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MotoGP News Round-Up: Miller Stays with Ducati, Silly Season Heats Up, & Fans Back at Races Again

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Five races into the 2021 MotoGP season, and with the Covid-19 pandemic abating in some places while flaring up in others, there are the first signs of movement in motorcycle racing.

Teams, factories, and riders are starting to open (and in some cases, complete) negotiations for this year and beyond, and races are slowly starting to open up to fans.

Although for a variety of reasons, the moves have not been covered in separate stories, here is a quick round up of the latest news and speculation from around the paddock.

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