Any Moto GP Fans?

Can't deny dude's talent, but I'm so sick of him. lol Sick shot!

 

I don't get it. Dude has amassed a whole 6 podium finishes over the course of 7 seasons in Moto3, so let's throw him straight onto a MotoGP bike? I think Toprak deserved a shot on that bike while Binder cut his teeth in Moto2 for a season or two.

In other news, Ducati to supply bikes for MotoE from 2023-2026. THAT will be interesting!

 

Meh, it's only the Petronas team. I'm a lot more emotional over the factory boys. But new blood is new blood and some of the rookies in the last two years have made for some fantastic racing.

 

The Yamaha satellite teams have always been tasked with developing younger talent to groom into factory riders. The last season has seen them move away from that. First, they take in Rossi, then they sign Dovi--both veterans of the game with valuable input, but neither anywhere near the competitive level that they used to be at. They honestly just seem like place holders. Maybe Yamaha just waited too long to fill the seats, but I'm sure they had their hands full with the whole Maverick situation. It really makes me wonder who's going to get the VR46 rides...who's left? I wonder if we'll ever see Iannone come back.

I hope Binder does well! I'm not hating on the guy, I just don't understand the logic behind the decision. It seems like his size wouldn't hinder his results in Moto2 anywhere close to the way it does in Moto3. It will be interesting to see 3 sets of brothers in the premier class!

 

A Ducati trifecta on the front row in Italy.

 

I think KTM will become major competition next season. But whew, "Divebomb" Darryn? Not a good nickname.

 

It was pretty obvious from the beginning that it was more than just a "concussion". Clinica mobile is always more than willing to send the riders out with almost non-existent concussion protocol. For MM93 to have missed last weekend must have taken something pretty substantial. My guess was more damage to the shoulder, but this sounds even worse. Hope he's in proper form for next season.

 

Your 2022 MotoGP entry list. A couple of new faces.

 

Race 1 can't come soon enough. It'll be interesting to see how Bagnaia does in the early races seeing how he finished '21 so strong. Changes to the '22 bikes may change that.

Unpopular opinion: MM93 may win or podium in the future, but I do not see him winning another championship. He crashes too much and a body can only take so much. I hate seeing a rider crash and get hurt, but you gotta learn from your mistakes.

Although Quartararo won the championship, Yamaha needs to get their shit together. They had way too much talent on their bikes to be placing as poorly as they did. FB20 eluded to issues after the season had ended, sounding like he'd have no issues switching manufacturers when his contract is up. Vinales may be a bit dramatic but I get his frustration with Yamaha.

Miller is a bit of a hot head. He tends to overreact when someone bumps or impedes him. Especially when Mir made contact early last season with him. Mir raised a leg to say sorry, but Miller saw revenge later the same race when Mir went wide and Miller went wide on exit and threw his body at Mir in an effort to knock him off track. I can't believe he didn't catch a penalty for that.

Anyways, I'd like to see what Miller does if Marquez does something stupid and hits Miller. Haha

 

It was exciting to see Pecco come alive in the latter part of last season for sure. Really looking forward to more from him this season. You're not alone with your opinion of MM93. His days of pushing fearlessly are numbered. Jerez 2020 was amazing to watch him come through the field, but at the same time should've been his wake up call.

 

Dive Bomb Binder all the way! (with a nickname like that you have to cringe lol)

 

I may have to start watching MotoGP again. I haven't watched the past few years as so many veterans retired, I didn't know any of the riders, and the action was hit or miss. One or two bikes were gone and everyone else raced for third on. Hoping they can/ have tightened things up and we can have battles for the lead between the top three or four at least.

 

The last two seasons have been phenomenal, IMO. With MM93 out with injuries in 2020 and then part of 2021, it was cool to see a lot of other on track battles. At the end of 2021 he still wasn't 100% (although he dominated at COTA again) so hopefully 2022 will still bring a lot of multi-rider action.

 

Unpopular opinion: Yamaha doesn't need to do shit. They just won the championship. Their bike is perfectly capable--it's their riders that are making them look bad. Rossi wasn't competitive anymore. Vinales is a headcase and it's affecting his riding. Morbideli wasn't on the same equipment as the other Yamaha's and isn't getting the development attention that Fabio got. Yamaha put their resources behind their most competitive rider, like every other team, and won the championship.

That being said, I'm all for Fabio switching manufacturers, but where does he go and when? I think his smooth riding style would suit him well on the Suzuki. The bike is competitive, but their current riders aren't consistent. Imagine a FQ20 and MV25 Suzuki squad! Maverick brought Suzuki their first win after returning to MotoGP. I'm sure the bike has made significant strides since he left, but I wonder if he burned that bridge.

 

I think Vinales' days are numbered. Like I said when he first made the jump in teams, Aprilia is where riders go to die. Given he stays away from injury, Bagnaia will be the 2022 champ.

 

So because Yamaha won the rider's championship, you think they are golden. Gotcha. That is certainly one way of looking at it.

Here's why I disagree. When Stoner was winning on the Ducati, was it considered a good bike? (Not the best, just good) Power wise, yes. Handling wise, hellz no. It was pretty bad in fact. Other than Stoner, other Ducati riders struggled for a top 8, let alone a podium. Ducati had a lot of work to do. This is where I see Yamaha going.

Now let's look at Yamaha. It was the best bike on the grid when Rossi developed it in 2005 all the way to 2016 minus a few hiccups. Hell, Rossi managed 3rd overall in 2018 on it.

Now consider Yamaha's 2021 season. Yes, Fabio won the Rider Championship. But Yamaha lost the Constructor's Championship to Ducati. Don't think for a hot second that doesn't matter, because Yamaha and the crews definitely care.

Had Fabio got injured and been unable to ride '21, would Yamaha still have been top dog? How about good? Maybe okay? Not in the slightest bit. Why? If you exclude Fabio's results after race 7, that leaves 11 more races to go. Of those 11 races, how many top 10 finishes did the other 3 riders manage? (3 riders with 11 races gives you 33 opportunities to top ten, right?) Well, they only had 4 top 10 finishes in the last 11 races. And let's be honest, they were barely top 10's. Rossi had 2 of the 4. So no, not good or okay. Those results are pure trash.

Debatable. Rossi Finished 3rd overall in '18 and 7th overall in '19. <switch teams to SRT> Now Rossi finishes 15 and 18th overall. Do you really think his skill set just fell off after 18 very consistent years and the bike had nothing to do with it? Seems unlikely.

I'm going with the other way around on this one. Inconsistent bike makes Vinales crazy. Yes, it was really unprofessional to rev the piss out of the bike, but I understand. The clutch was being inconsistent and wrecked his race. I wouldn't give the guy credit if he hasn't earned it. Prior to 2021, his overall finishes were 3rd two times, 4th two times and a 7th. You don't get those results being a head case.

Not to mention the parts for his out of date bike were out of production. The man finished 2nd overall in 2020 and they gave him the shittiest bike on the grid to ride in '21. Again, I'm calling it bike, not the rider.

Fabio never said he liked the bike or he was happy with it at the end of the year. He did elude to Yamaha needing to fix some things or he'd leave. Personally, I hope he does.

I agree Fabio and Maverick on Suzuki would be sick. I'd love to see Marc jump on any other bike but we know that won't happen. Haha

Anyway, that's my perspective and I try to base it off of past performance. I just find it too coincidental all these high caliber riders struggled more than the second half of last year to be in the back half of the field all at the same exact time.

I just hope Dovi's bike is a huge improvement and he adapts from the Ducati style riding to whatever Yamaha is doing. lol... I can't imagine being Marquez's top rival for 4-5 years and coming back to be a back marker. Fingers crossed for him. He's a solid guy.

 

I didn't say that Yamaha was golden, but they won the championship with their bike. So, I disagree that their shit isn't together. Each manufacturer's bike has it's core competency and it's the team's job to develop that synergy between rider and machine. The problem is that resources are limited. Sure, Vinales started out the season strong, he always does, but he's never been their #1 rider so he doesn't get the development that Fabio gets. If I were him, I'd be frustrated too. He's been with Yamaha for a hot second and has always been overshadowed by his teammate. I'm glad he left Yamaha and went to Aprilia. As an Aprilia owner, I want to see him do well until he goes somewhere else! lol But I think there's a huge mental aspect to it that he needs to reel in if he's going to stay competitive at the top level.

As far as Stoner, he was good specifically on the 880cc Ducati. It was a perfect match of rider, machine and tire. He rode the absolute piss out of that bike. I recently watched an interview where Rossi talks about how Stoner and Pedrosa were perfect for the 880cc bikes because of their size. The larger riders struggled on those bikes because of the fuel consumption.

I don't necessarily think that Rossi's skill set fell off, but yeah, dude is getting tired. It's gotta be harder and harder to keep up with the younger riders at his age because he isn't exactly a spring chicken anymore. At the same time, the results can be attributed to development transitioning from him to Fabio because Rossi was still on a 2021 bike as part of his deal with Petronas. Yamaha has been grooming Fabio to fill that role since he signed. Who knows how that will change now that he's hinted at being open to changing manufacturers.

I hope Fabio leaves Yamaha as well. I really want to see him as successful on another bike. I don't think Marquez will leave Honda. Honda is going to pay him to stay as long as they can. Do they have much of a choice if no one else can ride the bike? I think his days are numbered anyways. As talented as he is, I see him destined for the same fate a Doohan. Between his sight and his robo-arm it wouldn't take much to sustain a career ending injury. I do want to see Fabio and a healthy Marc battle it out. We saw a glimpse of it a couple years back, but Fabio wasn't on a factory bike. It's like the battle we've all been robbed of because of Marc's injuries.

Always interesting reading others' perspectives!

80% of the grid's contracts are set to expire at the end of 2022, so silly season should be especially juicy this year. Although, with the way some of the recent contracts have been negotiated, some of these riders might be forced to make a decision on their futures before even racing the new machines.

 

I don't like Qatar. A night race is very different from a day race and being in the desert the slime line is twice as slick. Oddly enough, Vinales does very well at Qatar. I might even choose him for the win. But of course he starts his backwards progression. Quite a few rookies this season and you can never count them out. I think KTM will be the surprise manufacturer this season. They certainly have enough riders. Anyone know why Kawasaki hasn't jumped back into the fray? Are they keeping all their chips in WSBK? I'm going to go out on a limb and throw Jorge Martin into my top 3. And I feel this will be Dovi's last season in Motogp. But we will have to wait till March 3rd to find out. (little girl squeals)

 

I'm not a big Vinales fan, but he's killing it in testing right now. He was never the priority rider in his 4 full years with Yamaha, but he was the top finisher against all other Yamaha riders 2 of those 4 years.

As far as Kawi staying in WSBK and not returning to MotoGP... WSBK has a limited budget and can only do so much to their bikes. Whereas MotoGP is like "how fat is your wallet?!?!" I guess Kawi wants to focus on one world stage where they may have more of an equal chance. Hard to say.

It's not exactly answering your question, but gives a decent understanding between WSBK and MotoGP budgets.

https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/superbike-vs-motogp-differences

Predictions?
I don't see Quartararo winning '22. I ain't Quasimodo but I got a hunch.
Ducati will be strong like ox. Probably taking the rider and constructors Championship.
Maybe none of that happens, I need sleep. Haha