Enea Bastianini has won the battle for the second seat in the factory Ducati Lenovo Team.
The leaders of Ducati Corse’s MotoGP project have now picked the Italian over his Spanish rival, Jorge Martin, for the seat alongside Pecco Bagnaia. Bastianini and Bagnaia will form the factory Ducati team for the next two seasons, through 2024.
Episode 293 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us looking ahead to the San Marino Grand Prix in Misano, Italy.
On the mics, we have the full crew of Steve English, Adam Wheeler, David Emmett, and Neil Morrison as they talk from the road about the next MotoGP round.
KTM North America is having to recall 17 models of KTM and Husqvarna motorcycles (model years 2019-2023) because their Continental TKC 80 dual-sport tires may develop cracks in their tread, which could lead to tread separation and a lack of traction.
MotoGP is set to follow the World Superbike Championship with the addition of a sprint race on Saturday, after qualifying.
The move is aimed at providing more on-track action during on Saturday’s, and adding a bit more spectacle to MotoGP’s racing format.
Sprint races have been a success already with the MotoE World Cup, where the electric bikes feature hard bar-to-bar racing in their limited racing distance.
The Saturday sprint race format in WorldSBK has also been a strong move for Dorna in the production series, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to see the powers are be implementing it in MotoGP.
GasGas, the iconic Spanish motorcycle brand, bought by the Pierer Mobility Group and KTM, is to enter MotoGP with the Tech3 team.
From 2023, Tech3 will become the GasGas Factory Racing Team, with Pol Espargaro confirmed as one of their riders. The team will compete with factory-backed KTM RC16s branded under the GasGas name.
South Africa is an amazing country, and well worth the visit for the wildlife alone (mind the Hippos though, they’re faster than they look).
But for two-wheeled fans, we cannot recommend enough visiting the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit and spinning a few laps. It’s divine, and one of motorsports best-kept secrets.
A beautiful sweeping track that flows with elevation, Kyalami is in my Top 5 tracks to ride around the world, and it should be on your bucket list as well. It’s certainly a circuit we don’t talk about enough.
Part of the reason for that is because it has been a long time since Kyalami has seen international motorcycle racing on its apexes.
Interestingly enough though, with the African track getting updates in 2015, the new layout technically doesn’t have an established lap record. That’s where Brad Binder and Red Bull come into the equation.
There is a bittersweet irony to motorcycle racing. On the one hand, we want the racing to be as safe as it can possibly be.
On the other, the element of risk, the thrill of watching a rider wrestle a motorcycle at very high speed on the edge of adhesion, teetering on the brink of disaster, is part of the appeal. Racing a motorcycle is difficult, and because the rider sits aboard the bike, in full view, it is obvious even to the most casual observer just how difficult it is.
Which brings me to the Red Bull Ring. The circuit at Spielberg is simple, and incredibly dangerous, because the bikes spend so much time either pulling hard in high gear, or braking hard into tight corners.
Episode 291 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us looking ahead to the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
On the mics, we have the full crew of Steve English, Adam Wheeler, David Emmett, and Neil Morrison as they talk from the road about the next MotoGP round.
Episode 90 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is out with another “weekly” episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.
In this episode, we did it…we finally did it. We finally produced the long-lost Honda Gold Wing episode, which is actually also our first video podcast.
There were many naysayers amongst you – and if we’re honest, there were some naysayers in the Brap Talk ranks as well – but we got it down, only two years and change after its original recording.
Petroleum brand Valvoline struck a deal this week with Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, which sees the American company selling its global products business for $2.65 billion.
The deal sees Aramco taking ownership of Valvoline’s products used globally, while Valvoline would retain its global rights to the brand name itself for use in retail services, except in China and certain countries in the Middle East and Africa.
With the summer break over, MotoGP is set to resume at Silverstone. Was a five-week break a long time? “It was short!” Pol Espargaro insisted.
He would say that, though, having ended the first half of the season with a cracked rib and a couple of disastrous weekends.
“I think it was the first time I enjoyed a break so much, because I was mentally and physically quite injured, and I needed to stop, to take a deep breath.”
The rest of the field were not quite as emphatic as Espargaro, but they all said that having a proper break, rather than just three weeks instead of two between races, made a difference. They returned refreshed, motivated, and genuinely keen to get back on a MotoGP bike.