MotoGP Winter Testing

Motopod, proudly supported by Road Skin, a UK label specializing in protective outerwear for motorcyclists. Modern biker clothing that you can wear all day long and engineered to save your skin. For the road, for life, visit roadskin.co.uk Welcome to Motopod, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 758 for February 12th, 2024. I'm Jim McDowell hosting and as always, Richard Jallett from the UK is along with me for this.

Rich, how are you this evening in the UK? Very good, thank you, Jim. Yeah, getting very excited now because we're getting close to actual race action starting again, although it's only February. It doesn't seem quite right, does it, in a way, because we always used to have to wait till April for MotoGP. Yeah, long old season again.

Yes, that's going to be a long old season, that's for sure. Superbikes will open up shortly in February. They will be racing for real. Yep. We have got the Sepang test that we will be talking about and there's still a Qatar test that we will be talking about.

But one thing we do want to ask everybody is that, hey, we know things are a little difficult out there, but we have a lot of people who are downloading the show, listening to the show, but you guys aren't subscribed to the show. So if you could, if you could put something through something they had and become a subscriber, that would greatly help us out to increase our content, increase our reach and get more for you to listen to. So if you can do that, we'd greatly appreciate it. And with that said, we want to thank Alan Fleming, Nick Saban, Ollie, Jeremy Burnage, Jacob Brower, Darren Andrews, Hudson Kai Cooper, Paul Lang, Gary Schaave, and Steve for your continued support of the show. And remember, if you cannot donate to the show, please go to where you get your podcast, leave us a rating and review.

That'll push us back to the top of the algorithm because we're trying to be the best fan-based MotoGP podcast on the internet. And with all that said, Rich, lots and lots and lots of things. I hate doing this in a podcast. It always pains me, but it's with sad and a heavy heart that I will have to tell you that the great Gary Taylor has passed away. Now, those of you who've been around MotoGP, also 500s back in the day, recognize the name Gary Taylor.

He was with Suzuki. He was in charge of getting a title for Kevin Schwantz in 93. He also was running the team in 2000 when Kenny Roberts Jr. won it. I did not find a reason for Gary's passing other than he had been battling health issues for quite some time because that's why he retired in like, I think 2010.

I think I read something around that time frame. So it's with heavy hearts that he Gary has gone on. Godspeed, Gary. More sad news, depending where you are. The Argentine GP, which was scheduled to be the third round of the season, has been canceled.

They're not going there. So they will start in Qatar. They will move to Porto Mayo. Then they will go to Austin. Austin now becomes its usual third round position of the calendar.

Apparently, there was a lot of government funding that was used to prop up the event. And now with the change of government in Argentina, I know they've got a new president there. My world politics sucks, folks. I'm sorry. But apparently, that funding has now not arrived.

So Dorna is not going. Hopefully it'll work it out. I don't know about you, Rich. I think it's a great track. I think the racing there is pretty fabulous because that last corner is just inviting of the past.

So I'm a little disappointed that it isn't on the schedule this year. I'm very disappointed by that. Yeah, because clearly it's a track. We know it's a difficult track for the teams to get to. It's a long, long way away from Buenos Aires, I think.

So that's obviously always been against it. And we know that it's notoriously dirty because it doesn't really get used for anything else most of the time, I believe. But it is a really good track. And I suspect, I don't know if this is official yet, but I'm guessing that the Argentine round in World Superbikes has gone as well because I think this is a, as you say, this is a big political upheaval. We're not going to get into politics, that's for sure.

But clearly everything's off there this year and hopefully we'll get some stuff back. But hard to say really at this point in time. But having said all of that, certainly when MotoGP is concerned, less so World Superbikes, it's not as if we're going to lament losing one round or the teams certainly won't, particularly that one in terms of the travel and the time that it takes. So a shame, but I suspect some team personnel might be breathing a little bit of a sigh of relief that it's not on the calendar anymore. Right.

So that takes us to 20 races again this year, correct? Either 20 or 21. I'd need to count them up. Yeah. It's a lot of racing.

We're back to the same number this year as we had last year, I think. Well, I'm going to count them up. What's your talking? You count them up. I'll have a look.

You count it up. I'll go on to start with the CPANG test. Now let's just talk the test here. So these are all just points that I've found that I'd like to expand upon. And Rich, you chime in as you see fit here.

But the first thing is how low can you go? That is the new thing because everybody's got a whole shot devices that lower the bikes to the point where the fairings are essentially millimeters above the ground when they start. It is absolutely wild to watch these guys pull up and have the bikes lower down to where they are. I'm not so sure what's going to happen next, but it is pretty wild. They just look horrible, don't they?

I mean, they really do look like drag bikes now, which is not an aesthetic that I particularly like. I mean, you can't stop the ever-marching progress of the gurus and the geniuses in the technical departments, can you? No, you cannot because KTM now is using a double airbox opening on their KTMs and their gas gas equipment. It's very interesting. There's one opening that actually is for the airbox.

So there's one for the bike to breathe and get its air for the engine to actually work. And the other one is for filling in the low pressure area that's developed behind the motorcycle. Everybody now is filling in the air that's coming from behind the bike. So we really are pushing the envelope of aerodynamics because now we're looking at the wash that the bike makes from behind it, which if we add more air in there, it's going to become far more turbulent. And if it's far more turbulent, then everybody who's behind you are going to have a much, much harder time at trying to get by you.

So we're edging closer to Formula One-esque racing, maybe. I could be wrong. Presumably, Jim, it also means that the tow will be less effective if they're filling in that hole. Correct. You're filling in the vacuum that you would want to suck up on to draft somebody.

And here we are. Yeah, we'll come back to this, I think, in a minute because there's changes coming in a few years time, isn't there? Yes, we're going to spin around kind of full circle here, I think. So KTM Bofens are also experimenting with new ground effect fairings, first kind of pioneered by Aprilia. If you look at it, they're very flat sided and have a very distinctive shape.

So they are definitely working to manage the airflow as the bike is going through the corner. They're trying to either clean it up or truly try to create a low pressure vorticity like a Formula One car would and use that air to help the bike become stable. So again, the aerodynamics this year are just crazy off the hook, wouldn't you say, Rich? Yeah, if you look at some of the, what would you call them, protubances or, I can't think of the right word now, but all these things kind of sprouting. Did you see that funny little spoiler on the front fender, let's call it, of the KTM?

We're getting there. I think, yeah. So all these horrible protrusions just sprouting out all over the place. And we've even got, I spotted these kind of mesh sensors being deployed, again, very Formula One-esque, because I suppose it is somewhat transferable, some of this stuff. And no doubt there are F1 people getting involved in this now, but it is a bit of a concern really.

But again, we'll come back to that. If we follow down the idea of KTM, they have a new front fender that is an anti-wheelie fender. It's a very weird looking T-shaped tongue is about the only way I can describe it. It's hideous. Yes.

It's terrible. Two schools of thought are in my mind. One, given that it's a wing, if you will, it's obviously there to help push the front end down because what we're kind of finding out here in testing, and we'll kind of get onto this a little bit later, but I'll mention it here quickly because it fits with this. There is a lot more attention being paid to the rider using his own wrist to generate traction. We're turning the traction control down and giving the rider more control with his wrist.

If you do that, then you have a problem where if you do have a front end and you're wheeling as you come out of the corner, how are you going to put that back on the ground? Well, KTM says we're going to build a little aero device that pushes it down. Is it really that much? I don't know. I don't have a wind tunnel.

I don't see their data. I don't know how many extra points of downforce that they may or may not be getting. But what I'm also wondering is if it's not there to help cool the front tire. If we're going to be trying to pass each other with the new rule for that tire pressure you're mandated if you're below it, even by a tenth of a bar, I mean, things seem smaller than that, quite honestly, but there is a zero tolerance policy. If you are below the minimum, you are going to be disqualified.

There's no appeal process. You are found to be illegal when you're done. So I'm wondering if KTM isn't trying to come up with a solution to that to keep the tire in balance so that they do not get disqualified. It's entirely possible. Yeah, I mean, it's a real what's the right word for it?

I suppose blackout, darkout, whatever you want to call it, aero. I mean, I don't, professor, understand it. So how they channel air and what they're doing with it, what effect it has. Could this thing somehow deflect hot air coming from a bike in front that might do something with the front tire? You know, there's all sorts of possibilities here, aren't there?

Hard to say. All I can say is that it looks absolutely hideous, but as do most of the rear wings now. Well, I'm conflicted on this because one half of me kind of likes the fact that we're going all out in a crazy war again. And it's, you know, it's the sort of purity of sport that we're seeing here. On the other hand, you know, we know, well, as we're going to come to talking about in a minute, we know what this is doing to lap times, which is a concern that's been raised many times before.

And it would only get worse this year. And yeah, the bikes just look hideous as far as I'm concerned, as things stand at the minute. And I really like to get worse. Back in when would it have been now? Probably late 90s, early noughties in Formula One, we had a period where they sort of had great big sort of wings that grew up on stalks off the side pods.

Yes. All sorts of hideous protuberances again. And we're kind of in that phase now with MotoGP, unless the governing bodies decide to sort of ban certain things and start to get quite draconian about it. Because as we're going to say in a minute, 2027 is when the big changes come. But that is quite some time away yet.

And there's a lot of development that can happen between now and then. Oh, big time. So you wonder where this is going to go. But anyway, this is where we are. So KTM, Aprilia Ducati all have front wheel ground effect generators.

These are small pie shaped piece of carbon fiber that covers over the front discs, but it's behind the front fork. So you can imagine a pie segment that's from the fork going backwards, rotating up towards the triple tree, that area there they're covering. It's maybe a 30 degree section of a piece of pie that they're doing. All that is to clean the air up as it runs around the front wheel and around the brakes. And they're doing that because they're all experimenting with these side arrow ground effect fairings, if you will.

So if you clean the air up as it gets there, then it does, you can control what it does when it gets to that second point on the bike. It's crazy what they're thinking about. To continue down the crazy theme, if anybody's seen Aprilia's new rear seat, it is simultaneously a work of art and also outrageous at the same time. They have very styled swoops that are in there, very gently curving things, things tuck in. It's too directional, closing off and becoming much narrower at the rear.

But it also has where they go sort of vertically up and then swoop back down again. It's obviously that they're trying to either close off the hole behind the bike and put the air back together again. This much I know about aerodynamics, friends. Air molecules are friends. They like to hold on to each other and they do not like to be separated from each other.

And when they do, bad things happen. So you try very hard to put those two friends back together again when it goes over your wing or over the wing of an aircraft or if it goes around the rear seat. You try very hard to put that back together again. The idea is you do not want turbulent air. If you've ever watched aircraft, and this is the best explanation of this that I can give you, if you were on a day where there was a high level of humidity or some cloud, you may see swirls of air circulating off the tips of the wings if there's no little aerofoil sticking up on the end of them.

Those planes you don't see very often. But it's a little circle. That little circle is turbulent air and that turbulent air creates drag, which means the plane essentially takes more fuel to fly the same distance as a plane that has a little vertical end on the end of the wings. Those do not create that circular motion of air in high humidity. So they're eliminating the drag.

They're creating laminar flow, which is what we're trying to get to. It's all crazy right now. I mean, again, KTM, or sorry, not KTM, misspoke. Aprilia was running a pitot tube system on the back of the bike to check how the airflow was coming over each of the riders. It's like sort of a hexagonal shaped thing that has all these little tubes in there.

They're all pressure sensors and they're all looking to figure out what happens to that. I mean, it's almost crazy where we are. Several journalists have commented that, wow, we've gone to the dark side with aerodynamics. And that's my case. That's my take.

I think we're probably too far. The development cost here is getting to be high. And with a lack of a major sponsor on most of the bikes, I don't know how the satellite teams would ever be able to continue to have that development. I mean, I know they're going to be passed down, say secondhand, aero fairings, aero seats from the main team. But the cost here is getting crazy.

I mean, even Formula One has now created a cost cap. And you've got to think MotoGP has to be headed there at some point. Wouldn't you think, Rich? Well, yes. What occurs to me, Jim, is that if we go back to the heady glory days of when 4Stroke first came in with the 990 era, we ran into difficult economic times there.

Plus, there had been a war of spending between the factories. And so part of the reason, I know it's partly to slow the bikes down as well, but things were getting out of hand in terms of the economics of all of this. And it does strike me that with aero, it is a genie again that you can't put back in the bottle once it's out, unless you have a very draconian rule. I don't really know how they put a stop to this effectively. When aero first started creeping in, they tried to sort of mandate it out, but people kept pushing and finding new ways.

And I mean, we know that these firms will just spend, spend, spend until they can't spend any more. So you do wonder how long that can go on before it starts to put some of the teams and manufacturers. You know, at the end of the day, there's boards that look at the spend of this stuff and what they're getting in return. Because aero has very limited use in the real world on normal road riding, let's say, like you and I will do nowadays, you kind of wonder what is it all for? You know?

So I do wonder how long the governing body can allow this to go on before it starts to have negative impacts in terms of teams not being able to keep on going with it. So there's that thing. The other little thought, I mean, I know Aprilia, like all the teams, were running various different development fairing parts and stuff, but the rear seat unit that you're talking about or the rear end of the bike, Jim, was very reminiscent of a late era GP 500 two stroke bike to me. You know, that quite boxy squared off shape at the back. It kind of was very reminiscent of the Wayne Rainey Yamaha or something of that era.

Did you think that? Yeah, yeah. There was I forget who I think it was Matt Oxley who tweeted it. There was a picture of Schwantz's 500 that had this bulgy box section with the exhaust with two of the exhaust coming out of it. But yes.

So it was like he's like, I'm paraphrasing what Matt said in here. You can find his tweet or his ex or whatever it is now. Something the effect of we came full circle or where have I seen this before kind of a thing. And it is very, very close to that. So I mean, I get it.

Aerodynamics has been around the whole time, but we're on a whole different playing field now. And I think that they know that they're in a different playing field because Dorna made it very clear when all these wings started to spout on Moto GP bikes that they exnade that immediately for Moto3 and Moto2. They're like, nope, not happening, boys. We've argued this whether KTM and the clones in Moto3 are skirting this with some of the disc guard covers that are on there and whatnot. So yeah, I get it.

But cheating is part of racing and that's kind of why you tune in, right? OK, so for all the negative that we've said here so far, let's talk about something positive that we know that came out of testing. And that is that Michelin are now talking to the teams about setting the minimum tire pressure lower to provide a wider window for teams to work with. I applaud this. Thank you, Michelin.

Thank you, Dorna. Thank you, Erda for this, because I think we really need to start with probably lower pressures than the Magic 1.8 bar number. I would like to see somewhere around like 1.5 bar. I think that's probably a more realistic place to start. What do you think here, Rich?

Well, does anything avoid us getting into the melee of disqualifications disrupting the championship? I think I mean, I haven't followed this very, very closely, this particular thing, but we know it's going to be potentially a big talking point as we go through the season. But from what I have gleaned, most people I think felt that that pressure was a bit too high. If they are bringing it back a little bit, that's probably going to be welcomed by most people, I would think. And we just need Michelin to get more testing time, don't we?

So there was some of that going on, I think, in Sepang, which is good. I don't know if you heard the chat that I did in Promptuwise in the car with Simon Patterson, which I put out on one of the guitar sessions. He was saying, you know, it's really the governing body ought to be saying that there's an extra day of testing tagged on to the end of each of the tests this year. And on that extra day, you must only go out on a development Michelin tire, otherwise you can't go out. You know, so we do need something like this to happen so they can really get on top of what is going to be more and more pressure on these front tires with all of this aero and the increased speed, you know, the lowered lap times.

It's only going to make the problem harder to solve, isn't it? So at least there's some movement in the right direction there. Yeah, I am wholeheartedly with you. I think you should have one day. You have to do nothing but run developmental Michelins.

Absolutely positively, yes. Or you could do it a different way. You could say, look, each of you have to run three sets of Michelins that are developmental, do what you want, you know, and give the data back to Michelin. So I mean, I think something will be worked out. I think Michelin are willing to work with us, if you will, to create better racing and do it safely.

And I think that shows Michelin has obviously looked at this and said, look, the 1.8 might be a little bit, hey, guys, where do you think we got to be? I think they're going to look at everybody. I think they're going to find what everybody's basically been running and look at that data and say, look, OK, we're going to we're going to give you 1.5, 1.6 bar. I don't know where that number is going to lie, but they're going to give them something. And that's thank goodness, right?

Yeah. Here's a scary thought for everybody. AI, artificial intelligence, is now being used to help the teams sort through all of the rings of data they have and all the combinations of things that they're trying because they are limited to the number of tires you're allowed to use on the test. Oh, well, you got to wonder when is the sanctioning body going to start limiting your AI power? I mean, this smacks of like the wind tunnel supercomputer stuff that went on in the form of the one, I think, late 90s, early 2000s, where they said, hey, you're allowed X number of hours of wind tunnel time.

So what did the teams do? They started building these supercomputers to run 24-7 to do CFD, to decide, you know, sort through 10 or 15 different iterations of wings and combinations of floors and decide that these are the ones that we're going to build and put in the wind tunnel and see if we really are going to make it better. So that's like the fan gym that's talking there. Now, like technical guru engineer gym is like, this is cool because to me, that's one of the hardest things that we faced when I was riding club is that we tried to limit ourselves to like one or two changes on the bike each time we went out because I couldn't wouldn't be able to tell you there was a difference or what were I mean, if the bike was suddenly faster, was it just me? Was it just these changes?

Well, which one was it? Was it what we did to the rear shock or was it what we did to the front end? I don't know. So if you imagine like a GP guy, GP guys, I mean, yeah, they're way their senses are way attuned, way much higher level of tuning than mine. But again, if you're running, if you're let's just KTM as an example, you're running the front wing fender.

You've got some ground effects fairings on, you've got a brand new exhaust and we've turned traction control at a different level and suddenly you go out and you are two tenths faster than you were. What did you change that gave you the two tenths? Was it the exhaust coupled with the front fairing front wing fender or was it the or was it the traction control combination with the new rear suspension settings you put on the bike? And apparently that was a big thing. looking at AI and trying to parse this data out in some way that they could determine that the most bang for the buck happens here, here, here or here, which is cool.

I mean, that's the rules are that these are the most technologically advanced motorcycles on the planet and they're designed for one thing to become the fastest thing around that particular circuit that they're at. And if they can use AI to do it, well, got to kind of say, yeah, go ahead. But trouble is it's just another great big hole to shovel dollars and euros and whatever interest is that yet another spending war that will erupt. I mean, probably a lot of AI type stuff's been running for quite some time. I would imagine you can certainly imagine the likes of Ducati deploying a lot of computational power, not just CFD gaming out how races might go.

I mean, thankfully we don't have rider to pit communication. So there's only so much that can be done during a race. But clearly with the amount of races, the amount of action over a weekend, because we've got sprints now, there's a lot of strategizing to do in terms of where you're going to get your best bang for your buck. And you can see that AI would creep into that equation. But again, my concern is that we've reduced testing to virtually nothing compared to the old days on cost grounds.

But again, they'll just find other ways to spend the money. And wouldn't it just be better to say ban that and just have them out on track? I don't know. I've always got a different view on that one, I suppose. But again, it just never stops, does it?

The warfare of sport just is fascinating how it all goes on. But it does feel as if it's getting a bit crazy, a bit too crazy, perhaps in certain areas at the minute. Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with you. It's obviously something that the teams, Dorna, that they're looking at, because the 2027 rules are being written. And it appears now that engine size, aero, ride height devices are all going to be drastically reduced in some form.

So I think you're going to have free reign from now until 2027, which seems monumentally far away, but it's three years. It's going to be quicker than what we think, I would say. But is it going to be an 850 cc engine? I don't know. We heard that in your interview with Hervé Ponterell.

Okay. Well, how are they going to restrict aero? Is it like, hey, you're allowed two little wings on the front and they can be no more, no bigger than a certain square centimeters, something. I don't know how they would police it. I'm all for ridding the ride height devices.

I'm okay with a whole shot device, drop the front end. I'm okay there. Motocross has it, they use it. Everybody has one, so it's the same playing field, right? But the ride height devices come out of corner, back end squatting, stuff like that.

I'd be happy with that going away. So we'll see how the rules, we're going to hear more about this as it goes along. It's going to come up for discussion. I'm sure we will be ranting along with everybody else about what is or isn't going to happen. Yeah.

Looking forward to knowing, like everybody will be, precisely what those rules are going to look like. And as you say, Jim, how are they going to police some of this stuff? Because again, it's hard to un-invent stuff that's been invented unless you are kind of massively draconian. And so you just can't have anything. You must have smooth sides.

I suppose you believe in that and you still can't. You stop people from having sort of slab sided fairings that produce some arrow in terms of ground effect. Very, very, very difficult challenge. I don't envy the people that are trying to sort this one out. And of course, I don't know, but you would have to imagine that with the likes of Aprilia and Ducati in particular, but all of the factories now, I mean, invest in vast sums of money in all of this stuff, they're probably going to fight back a bit and letting all of it go.

So there's going to be a compromise and a negotiation that takes place, which is perhaps I mean, I don't know how far in advance rules, big rule changes like this would come out. I mean, 27 is still quite some way away. But I mean, as we've alluded to many, many times, when we look at the lap time that Van Yard put in in Sepang, if that kind of a reduction is going to be repeated everywhere, then we're back into this terrible worry about does something happen in the sport that means that a change has to come much quicker? And those sorts of changes are usually definitely for the worst. So that's kind of the slight concern, really.

But we'll come to that again in a minute. Yeah, I completely agree with you there. I don't know how they're going to police it. I mean, I say you could say you obviously could say, hey, we're going to ban any rear right height device. You can have a hole shot device, but is only for the first part of the race.

It cannot actively move after the start. You could do that. You could say you're not allowed to have any winglet or wing shaped objects on the sides of your fairings. Now, that's not going to stop somebody from putting a bulge or a flat side or something to try to control the air. But at least that's less than what you have right now.

Yeah, the biggest thing is going to be the money. I'm thinking that we are headed towards some form of cost cap by 2027. I don't think we can do this anymore with a theoretically open budget. Most sport, whether here in America, whether it's NBA basketball, NHL hockey, Major League Baseball or football, there is a salary cap. And you have so much money that you can spend on your team as far as the players that you are going to have.

And again, these are astronomical sums. I mean, I only know hockey's number because I'm a hockey fan, but there's $80 million that you can have in salary. And that's essentially 23 people on a team. That's a lot of money for 23 people as you figure it out. Right.

Not feeling the need to get my violin out just yet. No, no. I mean, so I mean, look, Formula One is at 140 million. I don't know if it's euros or pounds for a year, but it's like 140 million is their cost cap. I think it's kind of 200 million dollars, I think.

And is it 200 million? Something like that. So that would equate possibly to the sums you're talking about. There might be euros and then that's pounds. Maybe it's 140 million pounds.

200 and some, I don't know. But I know there's a limit, right? Because everybody's been a foul of it or whatever. But again, I think what's going to happen is you'll find that when we get to the 2027 rules, I'm going to imagine that there's going to be some people being kind of a little snippy about what's there. And again, Formula One analogy, but it's the best one I can give you.

I give you 2009, double diffuser and Braun winning a world title. Someone's going to find some little hole in the rule book about what you can do with your aero or what you can do with your ride height device or whatever. And everybody's going to come protesting it and it's going to go back and forth. And some people think that's great for the sport. I personally don't think it is.

And that's because why do I want to look at a bunch of multimillionaires running around arguing about whether you have a round hole is not a hole because it's suddenly a slot. I think it makes you look stupid. But we'll see. Who knows what's going to happen. But this is what we know.

They're looking into it. 2027 rules are going to be completely different than where we are right now. And we'll just have to wait and see how this goes. Well, just final thought on that, Jim, is also we must remember that the 2027 rules are designed to encourage another manufacturer or maybe even two to join. So at the moment, nobody would want to because just look at the Japanese factories and look at the heritage and history they've got engineering wise.

And yet we've seen how they've struggled. Now, there are numerous reasons for that. And they are looking as if they're going to be catching up some of that ground now. But for a BMW or somebody to come in effectively having to start with a clean sheet of paper, you know, the 2027 rules have to be devised in such a way that it doesn't make that a completely impossible task to the extent that nobody's even going to want to try because of the humiliation and the years of endless spending. BMW had a torrid time getting to where they're at now from a world super bike perspective.

And that will be multiplied many times in terms of MotoGP technology. So there's also that to consider as well, isn't there, for the governors of the sport? So, yeah, tricky one. Yeah. All right.

Let's break it down with the teams. Yeah. Ducati first up. They were the fastest. The 24 appears to be an absolute rocket ship.

I mean, Benyaya, I think, was down in the 156s. And a lot of people, I think, were down in the 156s. Benyaya, Martin, Alex Marquez and one of the other Ducati riders. Bastionini. He was in a 156.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's moving on. And as you rightly put out, Rich, I mean, if we continue that pace of development, there will not be one track that is going to be essentially safe for a MotoGP bike because it's just simply going to be going way too fast. Do you know, Jim, I haven't kind of, although I watched the video kind of after the flag type stuff that goes out on the dawn of feed, that sort of second and a half, two seconds is it they've kind of captured.

I'm trying to think what the fastest lap was at the Sepang race or qualifying. I would need to look that up. Let's speculate that they're going a second or so. Low 58. So let's say they found a second and a half, which is a lot in this short period of time.

Oh, yeah. Is that being made up on in the corners because they're getting more aero effect in the corners now picking up a bit of speed there? Is it breaking? Is it top speed? Because those are important questions to understand in terms of whether this is getting beyond the point where, you know, it becomes a danger issue because if they go in, I know they're not, but let's just say a stupid thing.

If they were going 20 mile an hour faster down the straights, obviously that would raise massive concerns. But are they making up the time now on improved braking because they got downforce? Not quite sure on that. I don't know if you've read anything. So that would be interesting to find out.

So from what I've read where people are talking, they're making up a good amount of time breaking into the turns because they've now learned how to use the rear Michelin to aid them in braking going into the corner. So that's the one part of it. But the flip side with the new aero and the less traction control, more aero, they're able to come out of the corners faster, carry more speed, be faster. You're carrying the speed because you've got these flat slaps fairings and, you know, you're hugging the corner. I want to use the term virtually.

So you're hugging the corner virtually to get out. Now you're back on the gas center and you have aero to keep it planted as you go out with a ride height device to drop it and help you accelerate. So you're reaching terminal velocity quicker and you're spending a longer time at, I'll call it maximum velocity before you have to brake to then get to the next corner. So when you add those three areas in, because they're all relying upon each other in some way, they're really going on fast. A second and a half is a monumental gap that they have conquered.

That's just insane, especially considering the track was very dirty in Sepang when they started and they had like a massive monsoon at one point that washed any rubber that was on the track off. But then again, it could have washed all the dirt off too. I mean, I don't know, obviously, because we're not in the pit lane, but I have to believe that the majority of that gain is coming from aero. Because I mean, okay, the tires will incrementally improve year on year, I guess. But the one area of massive development at the moment is aero.

And so you have to figure that that cumulative effect, as you say, combination of braking, getting to top speed quicker, being quicker for longer when you're going down long straights, and that extra stability and speed in corners, all of that has to be kind of very, very focused around the aero side of things. I would have thought, I'm interested if anybody else has any ideas on that, let us know. But it's a monumental decrease in lap time, because we were only there in what, last October? Yeah, October. October, November time.

So I mean, it's crazy. Oh, yes, very much so. Mark Marquez was only sixth quick and he admits to needing to reset his brain to ride faster. I guess the Ducati is not a Honda by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, this is kind of what we expected a little bit.

There is a different riding style, and it's going to be interesting to see if Mark can adapt himself to it. He's got a shit ton of data that he's going to be able to look at to try to figure it out. I don't think the guy is not who he is for not understanding what goes on on a motorcycle. And, you know, it's testing. So there's nothing to be gained by putting in a fast lap and then throwing yourself up the road and breaking your arm again.

So is he keeping his power to drive? Probably a little bit. But I think it's more, as you said, Jim, it's getting to know the bike because he hasn't done that many laps. We did a hell of a lot of laps on the second or third day of the test. I think he did 70 odd laps in a day.

So, you know, he's really putting in the miles because he lost a lot of the first day with some technical gremlins on the bike, as I recall. So I think we won't really know how Mark Marquez is going to do until we're a few races into the season. I think we're going to know a lot more at the Qatar test. And I think we really need to focus on Qatar as far as qualifying and where is he in the mix and then where he finishes in that mix. I think that's going to tell us a lot.

I can't wait. Peco is effortlessly quick. He is not stressing to do that 156. We might have a three-peat champion here, which we haven't seen that since the Marquez earlier, though, but 13. No, he only did a 12.

What was it? He was 13, 14, Lorenzo and 15. So Marquez ripped off 16, 17, 18, 19, I think, because that would give him six. Yeah, because he hasn't had one since then. Yeah.

Okay. So I'll tell you what, Jim, I must admit, I was one of the people that was kind of almost writing Bagnar out of this championship with everything else that's been going on. Really? I was kind of thinking, I just don't think he's really going to be in the fight for a third title on the bounce, but that lap time got my attention. And as you say, he said something that must have struck fear into everybody else's heart, sort of thing.

He said that they've made big improvements on the brakes and he is well renowned to be one of the best light breakers and hardest breakers out there. And it was one of the remaining kind of weak points, I think, of the Ducati. And so he did say in one of the post-test interviews that they've made significant gains there. And that certainly suits his riding style. So yes, in my mind, because of all the foray around Mark Márquez, you've got Pedro Costa coming in, Martín, who you would expect to be really out to get his revenge in vertiglommas this year, I kind of almost thought that Peco might find life a lot harder.

And I'm sure he will, but turning out that lap time, yeah, that would have got everybody's attention, I should think. I think a lot of people are paying attention, Martín chief among them. Well, we'll move to Aprylia. Raul Fernández crashed and hurt his pelvis. So it was only three bikes instead of the four that Aprylia had brought to the test.

Alessio is only four tenths behind and he says that they need more horsepower. Apparently the aero, he says the bike is very stable. So I guess the seat and bubble fairings and everything that's on there is doing its job. So take that for what it's worth. And again, we talked about this earlier, but they had the Pioto rake that was there to evaluate aero.

So they're obviously focused on getting the bike to work in an aero sense. That's for sure. We'll look at KTM. Anything for Aprylia, Rich? I'm sorry, I didn't ask.

I only need to say that, as you said, Jim, they lost Raul Fernández early on. Olivero was out on the 24 bike. So he's going to be on the 24 bike right from the get-go. Whereas I think Fernández will have to wait till a bit later into the season. And yeah, Mavrid Vinales was a little bit off color, finding things a bit of a struggle, I think, at the test, which is unusual for him because normally, I mean, it might well be the case that he might take not being quickest in testing in the hope that he does a bit better in races instead, because that's obviously been an aero that we've often mentioned about Vinales, he's the king of testing.

So he didn't have quite such a good time. The other big piece of news that we just must mention, because it's just come into my mind, is that Aprylia, or Trackhouse, but let's say, you know, Aprylia, have signed David A. Brivio as a team manager. I mean, I don't know how significant that is, but obviously he's a guy that really knows his way around building up a team, getting the right kind of morale and that feeling in a team certainly achieved at Yamaha and definitely achieved at Suzuki. So Trackhouse will be hoping that he sprinkles a bit of that magic there, I would imagine.

You know, Trackhouse is a NASCAR name, it's in top racing here in the US for you guys, outside of it. They know what they got to have. They know, they understand chemistry, right? Because that's really one of the things that you need in that series is chemistry between your driver, the crew chief, the crew, that they all work harmoniously. I think they've stole the march on a lot of people picking up Brivio, because, I mean, look what he did at Suzuki.

He was there for Mir's 2020 championship. So I want to see that unfold. I want to see where this goes, to be honest with you. We were at KTM, right? Yep.

Okay. KTM slash Gas Gas. Bender was seventh quick, which is way better than last year's 14th. Well, that's usually, KTM is usually sort of at the back. Miller says that they need to analyze the huge amount of data they have and make smart choices to keep the momentum going.

Okay. Well, there's some AI added guys and figure out what bits and bobs you got to put together to make the best lap time. I think there was the wide perception over the last two seasons that they, KTM, were guilty of throwing too many different things all in one go and not really understanding what was working and what wasn't. As you were talking about earlier on, Jim, that kind of intangible thing of change this little thing, change that little thing together, and you don't know which one's doing what. So they appear to become a lot more methodical.

And I think that's reflected in the fact that they're a lot quicker out of the gates this year because they're probably stuck with what they knew worked by the time they'd worked through the problems of the last couple of seasons. If you remember, we must cast our minds back, but they weren't quick in testing last year. And then miraculously, they made some changes overnight going into qualifying and putting them around in round one in the 2023 season. And did Miller put it on pole or were you sitting on the front row? At least front row, if not pole.

I swear he put it on pole. Yeah, I swear he put it on pole, but I keep. So they turned it around, but they sort of were up and down throughout last season a lot of the time. But obviously, they would have gathered a lot of data, learned a lot of stuff, got the same riders, the team is gelled and all the rest of it. So starting off on a much more positive note this year.

So again, because we want KTM up the front because Ducati are going to take some beating again. Yeah, yeah, very much so. And of course, we can't leave KTM gas without mentioning Acosta. He was ninth quickest. He was improving all the time.

If you listen to the comments he makes, he very much understands where he is and what he needs to go faster. He is so much wiser than the 19 years that he actually is. And if you think about all of the greats, all of them were, I'll use the phrase, mentally mature than their age when they showed up. He was quick in the dirty track. He was like under two minutes on a dirty track with it.

He was out there when it was raining and Cal Crutchlow was like, the kid's got balls. If Crutchlow is telling you that, the kid's got to be something special. That's a high compliment. Yeah. Right.

I mean, that's like the highest compliment that I think Crutchlow could possibly tell you. So he's special. The question is, is the bike going to be there for him to be able to be there? My personal thought is that by mid season, he is probably qualifying very close to wherever Bender qualifies at. Always maybe right with him or one to three spots lower.

So if, let's just say, make an example, Bender qualifies third, Acosta will probably wind up being sixth. That's my guess. He's just got that. There's just that difference that separates him from everybody else. Yeah.

I was going to say that when you looked at some of the video footage of him, I mean, he's backing it in kind of a style that you haven't seen for a little while in MotoGP almost. Sometimes the camera angles can trick you a little bit. So hard to say. His challenge, I think, this year is going to be just containing himself enough that he doesn't crash too much and injure himself at some point of the season. He's under no pressure to win the championship or even win a race, really.

But high things are expected of him, though. And you hope that he can just take his time a little bit as he did in Moto2. But he does look, I mean, his style on the bike is amazing for somebody that's, what, his seventh or eighth day on the bike, something like that. Because obviously he got to take part in the shakedown test as a rookie. But even so, to be that quick and at stages in the first couple of days, he was in the top three.

Obviously things lit up a bit on the final day. In terms of people going for fast times. But ninth, yeah, I expect it won't be long before the talk is starting up about will he get drafted into the works team? Will that deal be done by mid-season? I could imagine that probably that'll be a hot talking point fairly quickly if he has a good strong start to the season, which I expect he will because he looks great in testing and there's no reason to think that won't be the case when he gets to Qatar.

Yeah, I completely agree with you. It's one of the main storylines. I think we need to watch all year is going to be a cost of what he does on that bike. Let's move to the Japanese giants, Honda first. Perhaps maybe the beast has been given, been awoken somewhat.

There was a massive amount of HRC people present at the test. That implies that Honda are going to fix the problem and find a solution to what was going on. Mirror says that they have more feeling at the front after lengthening the wheelbase of the bike, a la Ducati and KTM slash gas gas. The trend is to make the bike longer and slow it down somewhat than be twitchy on the front kind of a thing. Again, longer bike will help with rear end stability, which is where the Michelin tire is better at because the Michelin is very good on the brakes and is very sticky.

So by lengthening the bike following those other two manufacturers, you wind up with a better bike. Turn that well, but that's why you get all these other ride height devices and other things that you have to help it turn better. Marini says that the power delivery now is much smoother and he can feel it in his hand. So Honda taking a lesson saying he's taking a step back because usually they just simply go pray at the altar of speed and we're just going to build a bike with an engine that's absolutely a rocket ship. That doesn't go not going to handle, but gosh darn it.

It's going to be the fastest thing in a straight line. So apparently they've sort of rolled back and said, hey, we don't have the electronic prowess to do what we want to do and it's not working. So we are going to go back and give it that power back to the riders. So we're going to build a more generous torque curve into our motor. So it should be a little easier to ride and hook up so that the guys can have some feel.

Again, this is, I think, one of the magical things that Honda did by signing Marini. You know, it was like Zarco said, it was a backhanded compliment. Yeah, he's only fast because he sets a bike up well enough to be that fast. That's kind of what you need, right? So there's a lot more work to be done just to get to the podium hunt.

They are 0.69 of a second slower than the Ducati Ford, the amata of Ducati's that they will be facing. Anything else for Honda, Rich? Well, from what I've gathered from the things that I've sort of read, the single lap pace of the bike has improved a hell of a lot. I think the glum faces were kind of around race simulation, which is perhaps your point about the podium hunt being a bit more of a challenge. I'm sure I read somewhere or heard on another show that Marini was perhaps a little bit downcast by the end of the test.

I think because of the long run pace wasn't quite where it needs to be, but Zarco was much more upbeat. So differing opinions, different riding styles, different people, all the rest of it. And Marini, we know is so sensitive to bike setup. So it might just take him longer to get the bike to where he wants it to be. But I think Mir was quite upbeat as well.

I mean, obviously he knows what the last couple of years has been like. So I think overall positive for Honda, but there's still a hell of a lot of work to do, mind you. And they ain't going to be out winning races anytime soon, I don't think. Right. Again, the divorce that had to happen is going to make them better.

Yeah. Marquez is a supreme talent, but I sometimes wonder, he just didn't understand why he was fast. I mean that in the best possible sense here, because literally if the bike had a problem, he simply just rode around whatever the problem was. It was Freddie Spencer-esque, if you will. There's so much feel that those guys had and have when racing a motorcycle for the grip, where the grip is, how the bike is moving around underneath of them, that they simply gloss over a defect of the motorcycle because they simply instantly and intuitively ride around the problem.

And how do you build a bike that way? It's really difficult. Really, if you think about it, it's almost true because essentially after Marquez's first year, the Honda never really did change all that much, but no other teammate could ever do on that bike what he could do. And it was just that way. So we'll see what they will accomplish as it is.

To Yamaha, Rich, they are still down on power. They are eight tenths of a second behind. Does the new Yamaha have a variable valve timing or expensive materials inside of it to make it have more horsepower? Don't know. But we do know that they have a Formula One engine builder who is working on the bike.

You got to believe that with the experience that Renz has with the Suzuki, it had a variable valve timing. So it makes sense that they may try that to give them, because Quattro RR says they have a little bit better mid-range punch and they still have a lot of top end. Well, they have more top end, I should say. The only way you can kind of do that is with variable valve timing, really. Or you've got some really expensive materials in there that allows you to rev the thing higher than what you were previously.

So take your pick. Again, not sure. Yamaha is definitely trying because there were lots of sea crates sitting behind the team. So that must mean there was a lot of bits, bobs, parts, and pieces that are there. So they're trying.

Renz has stated that there's way too much TC, which is echoing the comments that he made when he was at LCR Honda. He was like, let me ride the bike the way I want to ride. Turn half this crap off. I'll figure it out on my own. So again, that's sort of what Ducati has done too.

It's, you know, Miller kind of told KTM that like, look, hey guys, whoa, you got to turn TC down here and we're just going to have to just do it on our own. That's how they want it. And they're able to ride that way. So great, right? Let it be there for when things are beyond saving so that we kind of don't high side ourselves off to the moon.

But let us have some control as well. Yamaha have also post Masi Bartolini, who is an, I believe is an electronics guru. And they've also taken Marco Nicolotta, Nicolotto, I think. Not sure how I got that one right. It's another Italian who was the top arrow man at Ducati.

So they have dug into the war chest and figured out how to pry a couple of very prominent people away from where they are and put them into a position where they can really help them develop the bike. And I think as much as what Yamaha is trying hard, I can't imagine Quattroiro staying again. I just don't see it. He's not going to tool around the back. I think it's going to be disappointed as well, Rich.

I hate to say that to you, but I think he's going to be. I mean, Quattroiro has not really been around all that long, has he? When you look at it. But again, the problem is Acosta points the way to the fact that there's so many fast youngsters coming up through. And time will run out for some of the other people.

I'm not suggesting that Quattroiro finds himself without a ride, but he might find himself with a lack of options, which might mean that he has to stay where he is. That's a scenario that I could see happen. I think Trackhouse is going to throw money at him. Well, yeah, Prelia might make some sense. I mean, there'll be no sense in him going to Honda unless it was purely a money move.

Ducati, while the word on the street is that Aldegaard's already got electric intent in place to go probably to Pramac, so that that will kind of tighten up that pack a little bit more. Who makes way? We'll debate that one another time. KTM, well, they've got an embarrassment of Rich's as well, haven't they? Really, they've got the two main men that they want, Acosta and Binda.

So, yeah, I think the likes of Quattroiro might just find that there aren't that many other places to go, but you can certainly envisage Alessio Spargaro retiring, maybe, depending on what happens this year, of course, but maybe Patience runs out with Maverick Vinales. So spots will open up and Prelia would be the most likely place that he would go if he did leave Yamaha Gym, I think. Yeah. And Trackhouse, as you say, clearly they are 100% serious. Oh, yes.

This is not some kind of sorry satellite team. I mean, they will hold Prelia to account as well. I expect there'll be some tough discussions going on there if they start to feel that the machinery is not coming through quick enough. You know, as fast as all this came together, I'm wondering if the guy who, the American who did NBA basketball or what, I never think of his name. You always know it.

I never do. I can't remember it. I wonder if he was talking to Trackhouse long ago. Like, you know, hey, look, we might have this opportunity. Would you guys be willing?

Are you guys going to be, you know, you guys are obviously financially solvent. I think that's the right word. You've got money is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. I don't know.

The idea of having an American team in MotoGP, I find exciting on a different level, right? Commercially, the sport needs it. I mean, let's be honest. You need an American team. You need some American riders in there ultimately as well.

Because let's not forget Trackhouse was scheduled to come in in 2025. It was only because the R&F crypto team ran into the problems that it ran into. And Trackhouse being an established motorsports team, were able to bring that program forward by a year. So, I mean, laud its two of them for doing it because they put themselves under a lot of pressure. And it might well be the case that sponsors that were due to come on next year, they'll have to fund it themselves this year.

Probably with a lot of backup from Aprilia, because it will be good for Aprilia to have a strong third rider, even if they don't have two, because we know Fernandez is going to be on the 23 bike for a while. So, yeah, they look like a very, very serious outfit. And as we've said, although some people might be a bit sniffy about them, employing David A. Brivio, who's very much an established figure in the power deck and stuff. And so it's maybe not quite the kind of radical way of approaching the championship that the main guy at Trackhouse has gone.

So we were going to rough this up. We're going to sort of really kind of go for this and we're going to do things differently. And they've appointed David A. Brivio, but he is absolutely a good set of hands to have in the helm. So they are deadly serious.

Roughen it up to them, maybe just the way they market themselves. Well, it could be. The way that their social media presence is. Yeah. I mean, when Red Bull broke into Formula One, again, another Formula One reference, they were that weird quirky team that had the really wild press releases and yada, yada, yada that they had.

Maybe Trackhouse is going to be that fun, crazy team. Yeah. That everyone's just going to love. I wouldn't be surprised. And I definitely do agree that it's hard not to draw a correlation between Dan Rosamundo turning up in the role that he's got and this happening and then jumping forward by year, although that was kind of born out of necessity because of what happened to the previous iteration of the team.

But yeah, big year for Miguel Oliveira as well. I mean, he's. I agree. I mean, he was injury ravaged last year. I mean, if there was a crash that wasn't somebody's fault, invariably, he was involved in it on the wrong end of it, but he needs to have a strong season this year.

For sure. All right. One last thing from the Moto GP Paddock, and then we'll do a little World Superbike in Moto America. Chaz Davies is back in the Moto GP Paddock. He is racing the Moto E class for Aruba IT.

And that's a really big name to be on a Moto E bike. So hopefully that will raise that up a little bit. I have to admit with Chaz in there, I'm a little more willing to sit and watch a few races. Yeah. I mean, Chaz Davies back in it.

I mean, he wasn't in the Moto GP Paddock. You have to go back to 250cc days for the last time he was in the Moto GP Paddock. Obviously he became a SuperSport champion and then a serial winner in World Superbike. But no, it is a big deal, though, because I mean, the challenge really is for Dorner and I'm assuming it's Dorner's responsibility to do a better job of publicizing Moto E. I mean, I'm like many people, I'm very much on the fence about it as a spectacle, particularly if you're track side.

Although I haven't watched a few races on TV when you can actually get the coverage to watch it. They are quite entertaining, but there haven't been that many big name riders in there, or certainly not many in the championship at the same time. So Chaz coming in, friend of the show, because obviously we had the interview with him in Donington last year, is a good thing. But Dorner do need to sort of, I think, do a better job of publicizing the championship. I mean, I jumped onto the MotoGP.com website earlier on and whilst they've got the teams, Aruba IT does not show as one of the teams in there and there isn't like a big page with all the riders and stuff.

So they don't do a lot to push it and there are times when you won't get to watch the races live because they're just not shown. So you wonder how much commitment there is to it. Certainly, if you look at something like Formula E, which is not something that I follow, but I mean, you can certainly follow that championship if you want to. It's much harder with Moto E. So you wonder whether it's getting enough of a push.

But then again, I don't really believe in e-bikes is a great big solution to lots of big problems anyway. So for me, it can only be really any good as a sporting spectacle. And that's only any good if you can watch the bloody thing, isn't it? So we'll see. Yep.

World Superbike News, as mentioned earlier, Argentinian round canceled as well for World Superbike for reasons stated previously and previously stated. PI will get underway a little over a week from now. Next weekend. They will be racing on that. Yeah, it's next weekend.

They will be there. That's correct. They always seem to start World Superbikes down on the island around my birthday always. So very odd. And the last thing here, which this is really cool, the FIM Women's Circuit Racing World Championship, which will run at rounds of the World Superbike, both Anna Carasso, who was the 2018 World Super Sport 300 champion as well as new team.

Is that Schmit? I'm going to suggest that's pronounced Sekmet. It sounds Indonesian. So I don't know if that's Bacca. We'll find out about that.

That racing owned and run by friend of the show, Maddie Patterson. So we're out to get Maddie back on and talk about that one. Yeah, we're going to have a chat with Maddie to find out what she's been up to. And yeah, I mean, this is her team and she's just two riders in this championship. So yeah, pretty mega.

I know that again, not going to get into it too deep now, but I like lots of people have slightly mixed feelings about women's only championships. I think, you know, often it's better if they're mixing it in with the men as Anna Carasco has done and won a championship as we've noted there. But you know, any efforts to help people get along, this championship has been created. So we'll follow it and we'll see how it goes. And it's nice to have somebody that we know in Maddie owning and running a team.

So that's a big piece of news in the show notes. I'll try and put the link they're going to be sending out a newsletter for people that are interested. And there's a link where you can subscribe to the newsletter and stuff. So I'll try and stick that in the show notes. Cool.

Lastly, Moto America, two quick things. Loris Bazz is back in the Moto A paddock with the Warhorse Ducati. And he's again, teammate to Josh Heron. And then friend of the show, Asher Durham is going to compete in the Daytona 200, which is March 7th through 9th. So racing is super close, Rich.

Yeah, getting very excited now. And my wife will be in despair before long as I spend hours and hours of the weekends watching the television. All right, Rich. So let's roll through like some three things that we're looking forward to in this season. Moto GP specific.

I will start us off. Number one, I'm looking forward to is looking at what they do with the fact that they are running. Is it's 20% synthetic green fuel now. So that is going to be interesting. Apparently, it's not taking a power hit off of anybody yet, which I thought for sure these synthetic fuels would.

So that's one for me. Got one? Well, the risk of being blind in the obvious, I'm just Pedro Acosta. What is he going to do? How is he going to do?

And how quickly is he going to do it? I think that's going to be a tantalizing prospect because he is the generational rider as far as I'm concerned. He's the first one along since Mark Marquez, I would say. I know people might say Fabio Quattraro, who is blisteringly quick overlap, but I think I'm going to stick to my guns on this one. I think you had kind of Rossi, maybe Lorenzo, Einstein was in there.

But then the big one was Marquez. I think the next big one is cost tonight. Very possible. The risk of being obvious. What's Marquez going to do on a Ducati?

I think that's a talking point that we have to really look at. Does it rekindle the magic? Is he fighting for wins in podiums? Remains to be seen. And the interesting question that will come out of that will be where is he in 2025?

Does he stick with Ducati? Do they decide they want to keep him in the family inverted commas? Because I don't think there was a huge amount of appetite to have him in there really when all said and done. Does the KTM thing ever happen? Maybe he goes back to Honda.

I mean, that is still a possibility. So yeah, my second one that I'm going to say I'm looking forward to is the continued upward trajectory of Fermin Aldeguer. Obviously still in Moto T with Bosco Scura, but we understand, as I said earlier on, that there's something that's been signed with Ducati already, even though they're denying it. But I think, you know, if you listen to some of the chatter elsewhere, I think that's probably already done. And can he continue that?

Because what did he win the last four rounds on the bench? Four on the trot. Yeah. So he goes back to Qatar where he won the end of last season. So yeah, that's going to be fascinating to see how he starts his season having finished so strongly last year.

I bet he just picks up right where he left off to be quite honest with you. I suspect that will be the case. Yeah. I think everybody's going to be chasing him to the back side. Yeah.

The third one for me, Pirelli in the Moto 3 and Moto 2 class. That's going to be a shakeup. Let's see how that rolls out. I'm not sure what's really going to happen. I don't think there's been a test yet for Moto 2 or Moto 3.

I know they did do a tire test and a lot of people didn't seem to think that it was really any different between them and the Dunlap. But we'll see. It's just something different, something to look at. Yeah, I agree. I'm going to break rank slightly because my third and final can't wait to see how this one's going to go.

I'm going to have to break out of Moto GP because his top-ranked Razz Gattioglu at BMW in World Superbike. That is a big story waiting to happen this year. This goes back to what we've been teasing a little bit, or not teasing, that's the wrong word, but hinting about where we want to go with the show in terms of more subscribers paying a bit of money into the coffers to allow us to do more, bringing perhaps a few more people involved in the show in various ways, which we'll talk about in the coming weeks because it would be good to spend a bit more time on World Superbike. I really love World Superbike and you've got Ray, who's moved to Yamaha. You've got Basani, who's taken his seat at Kawasaki.

We've got Andrea Iannoni back from his band, on the G Catti. Top-Rack obviously on the BMW. We've got Ballast, this minimum weight thing's come in. How's that going to affect people like Bautista? Nico Booliger, his teammate, who's been smashing it in testing.

But I think Top-Rack is a genuine title contender on that BMW. I think he is that missing piece of magic that they've just needed to get themselves that last little bit. So that for me has to be something that I'm really super excited about this season. All right. Honorable mentions for me, one Moto3.

I just cannot wait to watch those kids because it's always just seems like they have the best races. And it's just the crazy crap shoot there. So honorable mention for me is just Moto3, just to get out of the MotoGP paddock. I think that's it, Rich. I think we've covered everything that we wanted to cover.

Yeah, I think so. And hopefully a fairly reasonable amount of time. So everyone, we're going to get out of here. Email us, motopod at motopodcast.com, questions, comments, anything there that you want to communicate to us, we will look at and try to reply back to you. If you want to catch Rich or myself, we're available on X Instagram threads, all at MotoRGV for me.

And it's at Richard Jowett on those platforms to get a hold of Rich. And with that, I will remind you all to ride safe. My final parting word is it's 21 races this year, same as last year now that we've lost Argentina. There we go. Hey guys, it's Jim and Rich back with Qatari testing.

We decided to throw together a winter testing show because Rich and I, we blabbered on all over what happened in Spain. But we decided we'd just get together here real quick, give you a Qatar update. And with that, Rich, why don't you take us through what the big headlines of what's happened at testing in Qatar? Yeah, thanks, Jim. So it was a relatively, it was a bit of a shorter test in a cell because of course, they're going to be there in what is actually now just about a couple of weeks for the race proper.

So I think from that, we can probably take that this test is a bit more representative in terms of the competitive order. Because whilst everybody isn't necessarily cutting their very, very fastest laps or taking the ultimate risk that you would say in Q2, this is useful homework and it's close enough to the event to be relevant. So I think we can draw quite a lot of conclusions from this. So shall I just quickly run through what I believe was the combined times best to last? Yeah, we'll just see who's where and let's just make a little comment about what's going on.

Yeah. Okay. So much as was the case in Sepang, the Ducati is looking ominous again, not that that should come as any great surprise. So if I just run it through one to 24, because there were some test riders out there as well, we had Bagnara, perhaps unsurprisingly, Bastianini, which might be a little bit more of a surprise given the year he had last year. Then we had Alessio Spargro, in third place on the Aprilia, followed by Mark Marquez on the Ducati.

So looking as if he's getting his single lap pace together. Raul Fernandez on the track house Aprilia satellite, very impressive in fifth. Maverick Vinales for once not being the king of testing. So whether he's going to switch that to actual race weekend performance. Jorge Martin was seventh, followed by Fabio Di Giantonio.

Brad Binder, first KTM in ninth gym. Then Marco Bazzacchi, still having a bit of a struggle adapting by the sounds of it to the 2023 Ducati that he'll be on this year. Then in eleventh place we've got Jack Miller, Miguel Oliveira. It looked to be struggling through the test. I think they perhaps went the wrong way on some settings.

It sounded as if but managed to get a few fast laps in towards the end and he raised himself from low down to twelfth place. Then Alex Marquez in thirteenth. Fabio Quattraro was first Yamaha in fourteenth, followed by Pedro Acosta. Then Alex Rins acclimatizing to the other Yamaha. Then we've got the quartet of Hondas headed by Zarco in seventeenth.

No surprise there that Zarco would be heading the Honda tribe. Well, he's well renowned to be a good test rider and he's getting to grips with that bike. Although perhaps as we'll comment in a minute, it's not overly good news for Honda given where they are. So Zarco, Nakagami, Mir and then Marini occupying seventeenth through to twentieth positions. Augusto Fernandes in twenty first on the other Gas Gas KTM.

Sounds as if he's really struggling to adapt to the carbon fibre chassis, which the Gas Gas team will have at their disposal this year now. And then twenty second Crutchlow, twenty third Piro and twenty fourth Salvadori. Obviously test riders on test duties are not really expecting super quick times from them. Although certainly Crutchlow in particular was putting in some pretty strong times throughout the couple of days that they were there. So I guess we can draw some conclusions from who's where on that list and perhaps more broadly some idea about where the five teams that we're talking about, all the five manufacturers I should say, where they sit competitively as we go into the season.

Shall I just mention though Jim before you start talking the times because Bagnalea ripped it in La Salle. So I went back and just had a quick look in the round that I was at in November. The Q2 time, which I think was by Luca Marini, was 151.762 and bearing in mind this is testing, so maybe they're not laying it all out there at the moment. Bagnalea is stacking a 150.952. That's the first time anybody's ever been into the 150s.

Only just, it's true, but he's in the 150s. So what do you make of all of that, Jim? First of all, to have eight tenths, you find like roughly, I think it was eight tenths between basically December, January, February and three months, not even three full months, call it two months. Well, it was somewhere in November. Let's be generous.

Let's just say three months. It's insane to have that kind of pace. It shows that obviously Bagnalea is going to be a huge threat to 3Pete here. They have it together. Now, the more worrying part to me is that we now are going very, very quick at some of these tracks.

Almost, dare I say it, because I don't want to be in the nanny state crowd, are we running out of tracks that are actually technically going to be safe. Qatar is always, I remember Denis Noyes saying this back, gosh, 10 years ago, that Qatar was the only track that was legitimately a safe track to race a MotoGP bike at because it's got like four acres of gravel off of turn one. And when you look now, a good third of that gravel has been paved because what we brought Formula One here, well, Formula One cars don't want to run through gravel. So now you have that problem. Think about the problems we saw at Porto Maio at the beginning of the season last year.

That's going to be crazy. I think you're going to look at, think about Austin. There's a couple of places there that are incredibly quick, that 8, 9, 10, over the hill down to 11. There's not a whole lot back there to run off on. In a car, okay, you're going to touch the barriers, bounce on some rubber, but motorcycles don't have that.

It's getting to be like, we still have all of this year, all of 24 for development. We have all of 25 for development. We have all of 26 for development. And then that's it because there's new rules come in at 27. I don't know about you, but I almost have to believe that you're going to see some amendment to these rules somehow to keep the bikes slower for next year.

It's too much, I think. Yeah, I would tend to agree. I think I'm happy to be corrected on it. Well, not happy to be corrected on it because I hope this is actually what maybe will come to pass. But I believe the governing body, let's say from a technical standpoint, have carte blanche to bring in amendments to rules or technical regulations on the grounds of safety.

So I think there is some leeway there that if they need to take that view at some point in the next three seasons, as you say, Jim, because I don't know if we're kind of getting to the high point of some of this aerodynamic stuff. If Formula One is anything to go by, it just continually goes on and on and on and on. So that does spark worries. I mean, my view is that if we take an incident that happened a couple of seasons ago, and am I right in thinking that the end of the main straight in Qatar, I think Bagnar and Miller went down or maybe it was Bagnar and Martín, they collided at the end of the main straight anyway. And I think that's the kind of accident that we want to start getting really worried about because as we've said in previous shows, they're getting up to top speed quicker, they're going faster, they're at top speed for longer.

You know, the brakes don't get worse year after year either, do they? And one of the marked improvements in this year's Ducati is the braking, which won't please everybody else because that's one area where Bagnar is known to have struggled a little bit. So all of that means that that kind of scenario of a crash means that the fences get awfully closed very much quicker. So that's the worry that we've got, I think, going into this. So like you said, Jim, this is not scaremongering.

We don't want to raise, you know, this is not clickbait stuff. It's just a genuine concern that some of our favourite tracks are starting to get marginal or already were over the course of the last couple of seasons. It's super quick. And this is testing. So it's entirely possible that they're going to put in a second or more of a gap compared to last year's Q2 records.

So that is a lot faster. So conceivably pole position will be one second quicker than it was. Yeah, in the space of what, four months or whatever. Four months. Yeah, that's insane.

I mean, I don't think we're going to see anything happen this year, but I would think that on the grounds of safety, I think a lot of the appendages and things are going to be fixed. Like, hey, the KTM front fender wing thing, guys, no, not allowed. Hey, these bulgy brake covers that are being used to control the airflow around the bike, gone. Like you can have a flat slabbed one or something for heat that's required to keep carbon discs at the temperature they need to operate on. Not to go down a rant hole here, but that's the one thing I would want to change.

Go back to still brakes. I really think that because that lengthens the braking zone, that gives the guys that have the talent to go late brake, can late brake and get passing. But I think the whole aerodynamic schema we got here now is going to be, we're going to be talking all year and I hope this isn't true. Oh, well, I can't get close to another rider in the draft. I have no front end grip or my tire is too hot or the knock on effect of the aerodynamic wash that is going to be behind these bikes is going to be one of those things where everyone's going to be like, oh, well, you know, once somebody gets out front, it becomes processional.

I don't want to see processional racing, but again, on the other flip side of the coin, you've said this is the brand daddy of all motorcycle racing and the goal is to build the fastest motorcycle to run around that track. Where do you draw the line as to how many technical wizardry gizmo things you want and how pure do you want your sport to be? Oddly enough, I was reading articles from like Matt Oxley and stuff like they've gone away from really using traction control. They're turning it off and letting it be in the rider's hands. Great.

Well, how about some of the arrow too, but shape shifting steel brakes, I think would make the show better. And I don't think it's, you are not going to visually be able to sit there and go, whoa, they're three seconds a lap slower because the racing will be closer. Yeah, no, I don't think anybody would notice it to be honest. I mean, the other problem with this arrow in particular is it's going to be already is I'm sure, but could be for some ruinously expensive as well, because it's a never ending warfare of development and that's basically dollars spent, isn't it? When all things are counted up.

So there's numerous reasons why I think they might feel compelled from a cost point of view, obviously, but not in the best of economic conditions at the minute. And that might well continue for several years. So there would be other grounds upon which for them to look at this. But anyway, all of that kind of wrapped up. I know Jim, you didn't really get a chance to sort of watch too much of it or catch up on the times because you've been traveling and working stuff.

So I mean, my take on this, just if we look at who's where on the timing sheets is that Ducati are clearly still by some margin the best and there are more of them. So that's in their favor. So I would say heading into the first, what, third of this season, at least you would say really Ducati look to be pretty well unbeatable unless things like weather start to play into certain other people's hands, which can always happen. Yeah, I think the first what we do, we do, we do Qatar, we go to Porto Mayo, then we go to Texas because Argentina has been there. I look for Ducati to win the first races without question.

In fact, they'll probably dominate the podium for the first three. Although Texas throws up weird things, it's the bumpy track nature thing. There's always some goofiness that happens there in Texas. I give you last year as the prime example. Well, not to forget Jim, Mark Mark is on the Ducati at Cota this year.

Okay, fine. I'm looking forward to that. I'm not saying that I'm not. That will be a genuine point of interest even if it is a Ducati that wins. Yes, I think that's one of the other stories.

I think that's the other big story is just where does Marquez fit into this? He's left Honda for a different bike by all measures from what we could determine from testing the 23 bike as good as it was the 24 bike is at least at least in the hands of Benyai and Bastianini. Probably another, what would you say, two, three tenths. I don't have the time sheet in front of me. Two, three tenths faster than the 23 bike.

Yeah, at least. So, yeah, I'm not going to put anything past Marquez to run somebody up the inside, which will then cause controversy and everything else because he's riding like an idiot and a fool and blah, blah, blah. But I mean, that's kind of part of sport is some controversy or what you'd say controversy, right? Controversy. Yeah.

Yes, controversy. So there's that part of it. I do look at the times and I do think, wow, Aprilia have made a fundamental jump. In Sepang, Alais was talking about how the bike was very stable. Like they've sort of sorted the aero effect out to where he comes back to feeling comfortable on the bike.

There could be spoilers in Aprilia. I mean, you put Alais on the front row, good whole shot, maybe the aero wash, nobody can get by and Aprilia might steal a race here or there at the beginning. I'm not sure. I mean, anything can be said. I mean, I think you're a fool if you bet against Miller and Bender on the KTMs, right?

Yeah. I mean, they're close. They're way better. Let's put it this way. They're way better than they were last year in testing by their own margin, like year over year, where they tested last year, where they test now.

They're amazingly better. Again, KTM really didn't throw a flash time up last year until right at the end of all the qualifying and practice at Portamayo. And they're like, well, we figured something out. Nah. Maybe they'll figure that out again and we'll have a surprise and have Miller on a pole or something wild like that.

But it looks, I mean, from the times, it looks like the balance of power is still Ducati. I would say giving last year over this year, Aprilia has sort of become the number two best bike, at least in testing. KTM is obviously third best bike, but it's interesting that Raul Fernandez can't seem to handle. Is it Raul? Well, which one's which?

Augusto Fernandez is on the KTM. Yeah. That he can't handle the carbon frame, but it seems like Acosta can. I mean, he's turning some great times for a rookie. I mean, he has basically been thrown into the deep end.

And unfortunately, there's going to be a horde of Ducatis that are going to be faster than him. But I still think halfway through the season, Acosta may sneak a podium. It might be something weird, rain race, a flag to flag thing that changes and he just gets the right amount of luck and sneaks to a podium. But the kid looks good, I think. There's a number of preeminent journalists tipping him to win a race at some point this year.

Well, that'd be amazing if he does. I think a podium is certainly a possibility. Like you say, a few things might have to align. And unfortunately, I don't know when he had his run out, his first run out on the MotoGP bike in Valencia at the end of last season. I don't know which frame he would have been riding there.

But obviously one thing that he doesn't have is the season's experience on the old frame as opposed to being on the carbon fiber frame now. So that's one area where it might be a benefit to him over Augusto Fernandez. But Fernandez certainly is having a proper struggle by the sounds of it. But hopefully he'll figure it out and he'll adapt his way. But he won't have too long for this all to come to pass because silly season will get going pretty early.

I mean, arguably it's already started. But I agree with you, Jim. I think just on the basis that the track house squad looked so strong and with Raul Fernandez, who was riding injured because he had a big crash on the first day, I think, of the Sepang test. He basically missed the Sepang test. I think he only did about eight laps in total before he had his crash.

Cracked, I think, his pelvis, which is a nasty injury to be carrying. And I'm sure he's not over that by any stretch of the imagination. And he was quick both days in Qatar and finishing fifth under those circumstances was highly creditable. So I think Aprilia with the work squad trackhouse very strong, obviously with Oliver and Fernandez. Just puts them a little bit ahead of KTM, I think, in terms of the four bikes that they have.

Yeah. I find it very interesting too, with Aprilia, that track house shows up and looks great. Money must be an issue. That's the only thing I can think of. There's something different, but I mean, most of the crew is the same crew, I think.

Yeah, I think it's pretty much. I mean, obviously some new people have come in. David Brivio is coming in. I'm sure there's some different crew chiefs and stuff like that that probably will be part of the mix. But I think largely that team has just been rebranded.

But trackhouse, from a couple of NGOs I've heard with their top guy, and his name escapes me at the moment, but that's somebody we'll obviously have to try to talk to at some point if we possibly can. They sound very, very focused and they know what they're up to. And I think they've really put the screws on Aprilia to say, look, we need top machinery here. And they were running 24 bikes. So, well, I think certainly Olivera has a 2024 bike right at the gates.

I think perhaps Fernandez doesn't have one yet, but I don't think it'll be long before he gets one. No, definitely not. My only statement there was just, hey, I understand it's a new team, but it's not a new team. But for them to just sort of rock up and like, hey, go to the front in testing is somewhat impressive. Is it Brivio?

Is that what he brings? There's always that bit of magic that you need to find to make it all work. And maybe he is that little bit of magic that makes it happen. I'm not sure. Who knows?

They could show up and it could be race day and everything's going to fall to pieces. I mean, who knows? But as of right now, it's fun for me as an American. Like, hey, that's an American team. Yeah, I know there's not an American rider.

I don't really care. But there's an American team for me to cheer for. Yeah. You know, I'm a big Honda guy. I like KTM.

I like the guys that are on those bikes, but I'm a Marquez fan. So he's at a Ducati, but I'm still going to root for Mark. I mean, I'm a fan of the racing period. I think tantrums aside, and we know we'll get several of those through the year. Oh yeah.

Will be reliably quick on the Prilia. Interestingly, Jim, what you were saying that they clearly developed in all these areas. The one area that he has come out after the test and said they're deficient in is actually the engine. Yeah. The engine power.

I think he's lacking a bit of top speed, but I guess the more downforce you put on, the more power you have to generate to overcome that. Yeah. I hate to be all engineering on you guys, but drag is exponential because it's the square of the speed. So it winds up becoming a logarithmic curve. The faster you go, you got to have like four times more horsepower to go that fast.

Yeah. Which is the fundamental idea of what's happening here. Ducati's always had the most horsepower. We could go back almost a decade and watch the Ducati's on a long straight run down almost everybody. And the motor they have now this year seems to be just an absolute cracker because it's just Corker, right?

Yeah. Corker. It's a Corker. It's a cracker. It's all of those things in fact.

Oh yeah. A belter. Yeah. There you go. It's a belter.

I'll use that one. It seems like that motor is awesome. It just does what you want. I mean, if you can, Formula One talks about that. The more motor you have, the more wing you can put on, the faster you're going to go because you can pull it down the straightaways, which then the corners become faster because it's planted.

And that's where you are. But yeah, just to pour another bucket load of misery on everybody else. I think Gigi Delinio said something to the effect of we've made a big gain with the engine. So I mean, oh blimey. They just, it's relentless Ducati, isn't it?

Yep. Honestly, I think the actual secret weapon of Ducati's motors is Desmodromics. And we all know how it works, right? It's all, hey, it's mechanically opened and mechanically closed valve. And I just think that there's that precision that you get with a gear driven system.

Hate to say it, but all the great Hondas had a gear driven valve operating system. The RCV 51, the 30, they're all gear driven. They had that one, had that gear one that's associated with it. And it's not just that, but you could have a pneumatic system to open and close the valves. But the part that's in question there is just, it's true accuracy.

Like, are you getting every one of the valves to truly open at exactly a precise crank angle and then stay open long enough to get the full charge in then close again? It works for Formula One. I'm pretty sure the Japanese are all running their pneumatic systems. I think Aperolia has a pneumatic system, but Desmodromics just that little bit different. Who knows?

DG may have figured out how to create a variable valve timing Desmodromic system, which would be rather interesting. So that at low throttle or slower RPMs, you have a much taller cam profile so that you can fill the cylinders more efficiently and then switch it to a better performing high performance cam, if you will, for straightaways. Again, there's so much going on inside of those systems that it would be crazy, but I wouldn't put it passing to figure it out. Yeah. So Aperolia, coming back to them, I think they're just about into second best overall.

Where I was going with the Alage thing is that we don't know if he will retire yet. I think he's giving himself a decent chunk of this season to decide based on his own performance. The Conundrum, the Enigma that is Maverick Vignale, that will play out. I think the point of this is that Trackhouse, certainly in the form of Raoul Fernandes, have a rider that appears to be suddenly appearing as the rider we thought we were going to get when he first came into MotoGP. Didn't gel with the KTM, as we know.

And there is likely to be at least one spot in the works of Aperolia squad up for grabs later this season, I think. So there's a big incentive for the Trackhouse riders there. Same from the girl Olivera as well. But KTM, a little bit hard to read with them because as we said when we were talking about Sepang Gym, they were testing lots of parts again and they might be keeping their cards a little bit closer to their chest. Clearly they're not in the perceived woe that they were in this time last year, although as you said they did find something round one in Portimao.

But I would say that perhaps it's a little bit unclear with them. And certainly in the form of Augusto Fernandes and Theliz contributing in terms of data, which everybody can share and read and understand and move forward with. They're a little bit weaker, I think, than the Aperolia squad overall. So that brings us to Yamaha. Probably just about the best of the two Japanese entries.

But again, one thing I noticed, because I was watching the, although I pay extra for it and I never really use it, but I was watching the live timing because there was no actual video or live streaming coverage of the test. And the Yamaha posted the fastest top speed, I'm pretty sure. So they're not lacking power. They might be lacking the ability to get to that terminal velocity a bit quicker than they do, but certainly that engine is delivering good power. I'm not going to say you're wrong, but I'm going to provide the alternate theory.

If their downforce is crap, then the bike is going to be fast in a straight line. True. So not sure which way it is there. We do know that they did hire a Formula One engine guru. And again, there's the whole theory that he designed into the new engine, a variable valve timing system, a la Honda's VTEC.

I'll just call it what it is there. So I mean, everybody has it nowadays. So did they put that back in the system? I mean, BMW races one in world supers. So it's not like it's difficult to do, especially like on an inline four system.

So potentially, right? But the other thing too is we know the Yamaha has the best chassis. I still think regardless, they have the best chassis. So that means their corner speed on a big arc and curve with nobody in front of them, they're going to come whipping out and they go to the speed trap. If you're slower, let's say, and the speed trap is slightly skewed towards the first turn, then Yamaha looks fast because they're not having to break until they're through the speed trap.

And the Ducatis are faster. So they have to start breaking as they enter the speed trap. True. The counter to all of that, though, is the admittedly anecdotally, but what we've heard a few other people say is that the aero that's on the Yamaha now is very Aprilia-esque. So I think they have made, I mean, they certainly needed to make strides for them.

They've made changes. It appears that they have got onto that treadmill now, but you're quite right, Jim. It may well be that they are less draggy down the straights still. Yeah. So there's all sorts of reasons why they might be hitting that top speed, but Quattirairo, I think is saying that their problem is going to be single lap pace.

No, a real race pace is going to be fast. If you're mired back, then you're screwed, basically. So that is going to remain their problem, even though they do appear to have made quite a step forward. The question is, have they made enough steps forward for Quattirairo to stay put or is he going to look to go someplace else? Because if, okay, let's not say if, because I think we both agree.

When one Aprilia seat opens up, does Quattirairo not go for that seat? I think he does. Yeah, I agree. Because, okay, but. I can't think of the guy's name, though.

The team manager, it'll come to me in a minute, Massimo Rivola. He has been making noises about wanting either one of the following two riders, Marco Bazzacchi or Enea Bastianini. Clearly Aprilia would have liked to have a fast Italian on the bike. So Quattirairo will face some opposition there. But if Quattirairo is available in the market, as you say, nobody's going to just sort of turn him down as a no prospect, are they?

So Silly Season is going to be highly entertaining this year. The counter for me is, does Aprilia believe that they are at a point where they can take a high profile Italian and when races consistently with their bike? I'm going with no, not yet. As always, there's too much talent and not enough equipment. Yes.

Top equipment. I mean, because people want to be on the works squad, don't they? So I mean, that's natural. It's wild speculation. The only thing I think we can say that isn't speculative at all is that Honda are firmly still in fifth place overall, making improvements.

And they looked pretty good in Sepang in certain sections or in certain ways they looked to have made real progress. But occupying 17th through to 20th is a bit of a worry because that would tend to imply that they're lacking the single lap pace again. And for the same reason that will affect Yamaha, it's not great for Honda. The Japanese giants are mired in the conundrum of trying to make a bike go faster in a way in which they have, shall I say, no real concept of how. Let's face it, if you look at Honda's history of racing, whether it's cars or whether it's motorcycles, they've always sort of had the best engine and everything else sort of became secondary because most of the time, I'll call it the modern era of Formula One, Honda has only been an engine supplier.

Their whole thing was, here's this really great, really powerful engine. And it's been reliant upon the team to build a chassis that was good enough to handle that motor. Yeah, they've done it before where they are a full factory team, but they were woeful each time that they've tried it because what was the part that was missing? The aerodynamic portion of it. So I mean, I think same thing can be said motorcycles.

I mean, you could take all the years of doing was dominant. That was because the bike was simply that good, but it was a terrible chassis, but it was just fast in a straight line. And Honda is going to be that way. It's definitely counter because they've started to lengthen the bike. They've tried to make it like a Ducati or look like a Ducati or act like a Ducati.

But again, we've said it and we will keep saying it. Everything that makes a Ducati fast is an integrated system. Everything is built around that idea of what they're going to do, which is change the shape of the chassis to make it do what you want. If you're not fundamentally designing the bike that way, I think a lot the rider feel and rider want will be lacking. Now Honda's had bad years before.

I give you 800 years. Honda was never in a chase for a championship in the eight hundreds until the very end of that. And when Prodrosa got close because the chassis and the Honda was sucked in a straight line, that 800 Honda ran for sure, but you got to have a chassis now. I think with Honda and to a lesser degree, this is true of Yamaha as well. I think we've got to take the big picture on this one.

I mean, from the Honda's point of view, again, anecdotally, they appear to have a lot more Europeans in the mix in the garage now, technically, I mean, which is a sign of change in the standard or normal Japanese approach, let's say. And of course, they've only just recently lost Mark Marcus. So they are on a complete reset at this point. They've got mostly new rides. I mean, okay, Nakagami is still there and Rome wasn't built in a day.

It's your favorite football club having to trade away their star player to rebuild the team because there's nobody around them that can do everything. It's exactly what it is. So you, as a fan of your favorite football club, are going to spend three or four years trying to get yourself back even into contention. Well, crucially, Jim, what is going to massively help them is the new concessions system, because of course, Honda get not unlimited testing, but a lot more than everybody else, as much testing as they have. And they have already booked something like, I think I heard somewhere, some like 30 to 40 days of track time is already booked.

And of course they can run their factory riders as well as part of the level of concessions they get. So all of which is going to help them sort of pull their bootstraps up a bit quicker. Hopefully the proof of the pudding obviously is always in the eating, isn't it? So certainly it's second half of the season before you can realistically expect them to start featuring in the top 10 regularly and strongly, I would argue based on what we've seen over the winter test, but they've changed the rules to try and help them out of this position. So hopefully that is going to work, but they will need some time.

Yes. Both the Japanese are going to need some time for sure. But that's, I think, I guess that's it, Reg, I mean, that's pretty much where we are. We're just looking forward to the season starting there. Yeah.

World Superbikes is taking place this weekend. I mean, we're recording for reference. This little section is February 24th. So they've already ran some of the Superbike races in Phillip Island. Race one last night.

Very, very, very, very early in the morning for me, it would be some races. So second races, second day of races at the Island. And then we're 10 days, less than 10 days, 10 days, 12 days away. Yeah. Something close to that for MotoGP to fire off in the desert in Qatar, which is going to be fantastic, which has a special little bonus feature.

After this long testing, winter testing show, there'll be probably two shows of interviews that former host Martin Darlington has gotten with the teams in Qatar. So those will be great fun listening to kind of get you pumped up and ready to go before the season starts. And then after the season, it's just going to be the Rich and Jim show all year long. Yeah, flat out. Yeah, pretty much flat out.

We are going to make attempts to get along to some races this year and make good or further make good, hopefully. Well, perhaps a little bit presumptuous to say make good because I'm assuming that people have enjoyed what we've been up to in terms of some of the content over the last 12 months and so on in terms of race attendance and talking to riders and team personnel and stuff. I hope that's the direction of travel people want us to continue on and we will certainly be aiming to do more of that as this season goes on as time resources, help, money, et cetera allows because all of those things are in short supply. Yes, they are. But oh, with that Rich, I think everyone should ride safe in some cool road skin gear.

Yes, stay safe. We'll see you the other side of the sale in terms of you and I, Jim. My guests are talking about the first race of the season and I cannot wait. Absolutely over the moon for a new season. OK, see you next time.

See you.