Episode 188 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one covers the launch of the Petronas Sepang Racing Team and the dynamic between the squad’s two riders: Franco Morbidelli and Valentino Rossi.
On the mics, we have Steve English, David Emmett, and Adam Wheeler, along with some audio from Franco Morbidelli’s media scrum from the Petronas Yamaha launch event.
Franco Morbidelli was the surprise of the 2020 MotoGP season. The Petronas Yamaha SRT rider shocked the MotoGP world by finishing second in the championship, and comfortably the best Yamaha rider, on a year-old M1 machine.
But Morbidelli went into the 2020 with very little pressure on him. After a mediocre 2019, in which he had been overshadowed by his teammate Fabio Quartararo, expectations for him were low.
That was not how Franco Morbidelli saw it himself. Angry and frustrated at his performance in 2019, he massive stepped up his training and focus for 2020. That effort paid off handsomely, with three race wins and a second place in the MotoGP riders championship.
Morbidelli goes into 2021 in a very different position. Universally acknowledged as one of the favorites for the title, a great deal is expected of the Italian, despite once again being the only Yamaha rider on the older, 2019-spec M1.
He has a new teammate, Fabio Quartararo having departed for the factory team, while Morbidelli’s long-time friend and mentor Valentino Rossi steps down from the Monster Energy Yamaha squad to join him in the Petronas Yamaha SRT team.
After yesterday’s launch of the Petronas Yamaha SRT team, today the media got a chance to speak to Franco Morbidelli.
It was a fascinating interview, in which Morbidelli revealed himself to be part athlete, part poet, and part philosopher, and showed a remarkable sense of perspective.
Morbidelli spoke of his ambitions for 2021, his relationship and rivalry with Valentino Rossi, and the importance – or lack thereof – of racing.
It has been a long, long time since Valentino Rossi found himself outside of a factory team in grand prix racing, but the 2021 season sees The Doctor in the Petronas Sepang Racing Team, alongside Franco Morbidelli.
Rossi’s long racing career has bore championship fruit nine times, and while no one expects the Italian to add to that tally in the coming season, the 42-year-old can certainly surprise on race day, and certainly has some race wins still in his future.
Continuing the release of MotoGP liveries for the 2021 season, next up we have the Repsol Honda squad, with their new rider Pol Espargaro. We can spot 11 changes to the Repsol Honda livery for the 2021 season, can you name them all?
MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden is set to be inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, along with eight other legends of American motorsport.
The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America says that it singled-out Hayden for his 2006 MotoGP World Championship title, and other feats while rising in the world of motorcycle road racing:
Fausto Gresini, double world champion and long-standing Grand Prix team manager, died this morning as a result of complications arising from a COVID-19 infection.
The 60-year-old Italian was being treated for COVID-19 in the intensive care unit of the Carlo Alberto Pizzardi hospital in Bologna, Italy.
Gresini had been diagnosed with COVID-19 shortly before Christmas 2020. His condition worsened sufficiently for him to be admitted to hospital shortly after Christmas.
From there, his condition grew worse, occasionally showing only minor improvements, but the disease caused severe damage to his lungs, meaning he required help breathing for long periods of time.
The toll from the disease mounted up, Gresini eventually succumbing to the complications arising from COVID-19.
The MotoGP team unveilings continue, with now KTM showing its factory and satellite colors.
The livery on the Red Bull KTM Racing machines looks fairly unchanged from the previous season, but the new livery for Tech3’s KTM RC16 looks downright stunning in its low-key orange and black paint scheme.
Proof that less is more, the effect on the Tech3 KTM machines is palpable, and we are a big fan of the changes made to the fairing’s colors.
Episode 186 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one get us ready for the MotoGP action, as we dissect what we can learn from the MotoGP team launches from Ducati, KTM, and Yamaha.
To handle that topic, we have Neil Morrison, Steve English, David Emmett, and Adam Wheeler on the mics, as they discuss what the riders and team bosses had to say about the upcoming MotoGP Championship.
As the 2021 MotoGP Championship season rapidly approaches, we are beginning to see our first glimpses of the bikes that will be on the grid this year. First up is Ducati Corse.
Episode 185 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one tackle a bit of a “what if” question for motorcycle racing: what would MotoGP & WorldSBK be like without their dominant riders, Marc Marquez and Jonathan Rea?
To handle that topic, we have Neil Morrison, Steve English, David Emmett, and Adam Wheeler on the mics, as they discuss this idea, and the many others that are related to the concept.
Around this time in a normal year, we would be back from the launch of a couple of the MotoGP manufacturers, and looking forward to a couple more as we prepared to travel to Sepang for the first test of the year. But this is not a normal year, of course. Nor was last year, for that matter.
So instead of packing my bags in preparation of the test at Sepang – originally scheduled for February 19th-21st – I, like the rest of the media, are checking our microphones and internet connections to get ready to do the MotoGP launch season from home.
And not just the launch season: in all probability, the media won’t be allowed to physically attend a MotoGP race for the first half of the 2021 season at the very least. But at least we will have a 2021 MotoGP season.