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.
If it’s scenery you’re after, the Red Bull Ring, or Spielberg, or Zeltweg – choose your favorite name for the Austrian circuit – is hard to beat.
Mugello maybe? The Italian track sits in a valley, rather than being set up against the lower slopes of a mountain, but Spielberg wins on the mountain backdrop behind it.
Phillip Island, perhaps? The Bass Strait makes for a stunning setting, but is it more dramatic than the Austrian Alps which frame the Red Bull Ring?
Episode 225 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one welcomes back the MotoGP Championship from its long summer break, as we preview the Styria GP in Austria.
On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they discuss the headlines from the summer break, and what we can expect to see at the fast Spielberg track.
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.
The first race after the summer break will see retired racers returning to the MotoGP grid.
After Dani Pedrosa was confirmed as a wildcard at the Styria GP at Spielberg, Cal Crutchlow has now officially been confirmed as replacing Franco Morbidelli at both races in Austria and at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Links between Jonathan Rea and the MotoGP paddock happen every year, and it probably has something to do with the Northern Irishman’s complete dominance in the World Superbike Championship.
For 2021, the situation is no different – though Rea’s absolute reign in WorldSBK is certainly under question from the results posted by Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, now that the Turk is on the PATA Yamaha YZF-R1.
Still, Rea is perhaps the most deserving rider of a GP ride in motorcycle racing right now, and there are hints that the six-time World Champion could be headed to MotoGP.
The old guard of MotoGP are making something of a comeback after the summer break. Two familiar names and now test riders are to make a brief return to racing, in Austria and beyond.
Only one of those riders – Dani Pedrosa – has been officially confirmed as a wildcard at the first race at the Red Bull Ring – but Cal Crutchlow is widely expected to replace Franco Morbidelli for the next three rounds.
Episode 222 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this show covers the MotoGP action from the Catalan GP at Barcelona.
On the mics, we have Steve English, David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they check in during the MotoGP summer break to look back on the grand prix season thus far, and where the series is heading for the second-half of 2021.
The ongoing fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reshuffle the 2021 MotoGP calendar.
This morning came news that the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island has been canceled for 2021, with an extra round at Portimao added before Valencia to take its place.
Toprak Razgatlioglu is to remain in WorldSBK for two more seasons. The Turkish rider agreed a deal with Yamaha that will see him continue with the factory World Superbike squad through the 2023 season.
I was supposed to have an interview with Yamaha Racing managing director Lin Jarvis this weekend, arranged well beforehand. That ended up not happening, unsurprisingly.
Lin Jarvis had more important things to deal with than answering my questions. And my list of questions seemed a good deal less relevant this weekend than they had a few days earlier.
For this weekend was all about Maverick Viñales. Whether he, or we, wanted it to be or not.
The Monster Energy Yamaha rider (but not for long) arrived at Assen after finishing dead last at the Sachsenring, topped both sessions of free practice on Friday, had an explosive meeting with Yamaha on Friday evening, secured pole with a blistering lap on Saturday, then found a way to only finish second on Sunday, well behind his teammate Fabio Quartararo.
Oh yes, and there were the reports that he had signed for Aprilia for 2021 on Saturday night as well.
The last time we had a weekend like this was at Austria in 2019, when Johann Zarco announced that he had asked KTM to terminate his contract with immediate effect.
But, though that rupture was more dramatic, Zarco stepping away with immediate effect and leaving KTM scrabbling around for a replacement rider, at least it made sense from a results perspective.
Zarco had had one top ten finish and one front row start, after three podiums in each of the preceding two years.