Silverstone MotoGP Weekend Review – Monster In So Many Ways

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 road skin dot co dot UK Internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 775 the Silverstone race preview I'm your host Jim McDowell joining me has always across the pond a man who has had The best British summer you could possibly have because he's spinning at racetracks the entire time is Richard Joe Richard You are fresh back from Silverstone fresh back off of your Donington trip. You are like the luckiest Brit in the whole island Well, there's a few of us I guess because there's a few other podcasters I could mention but yes, it's been a good few weeks There's lots of content to put out and again like always bit crazy with work and other stuff going on But yeah We've got the Donington world supers stuff to put out which will come out first and then I managed to nab quite a lot Of stuff at Silverstone this weekend just gone, which was a great weekend in many respects But there's it's a double-edged sword because there were other aspects about it Which weren't so good which will come to in due course, but yes, thank you Jim Yeah, it's been a very productive enjoyable quite tiring. I must say in rather expensive few weeks But yeah, I mean just love to be at the track I still get that kind of adrenaline the heads on the back of the neck thing going on when I arrive at a track In the morning, you can hear the engines revving in the garage. So yeah heaven really it is quite nice I myself actually I'm on vacation from my daily job.

So I'm actually on some dodgy Wi-Fi at our VBRO in North Carolina on the Outer Bank Anyway, we'll just get right to it then folks because we don't know how long the Wi-Fi is gonna hang on So let's start off with some news and notes to try to catch up from what happened in the three weeks summer break So maybe not necessarily in the right order But the things that we know that happened to one fullest partner of a wild card at the Austrian ring for Red Bull Which I don't think is a surprise He is their test rider and they do hand out wild cards all the time So I think that's kind of what was a known deal The Kazakhstan GP was canceled and it's been replaced by the Amelia Romano GP on the 20th to 22nd of September now help me out rich the Amelia Romano Isn't that like right near Rome or close to Rome? Well, it's Mizano Back to back races at Mizano. Okay, I'm a test as well So I very much plays into the favor of Pekko Banyai I have to say because he's been mighty there for the last few seasons So he gets two stabs at it there and the test as well. So personally no offense to anybody that loves that track I'm not a big fan of Mizano never really have been and we did a double header there if you recall as part of the Covid kind of concession in terms of the reduced calendar and the ability to move around So I was a little bit frustrated when I saw that that had happened I mean did it come as a big surprise to anybody that Kazakhstan was gone from the calendar? You could see that one come in months ago So why they weren't able to line up somewhere a little bit better than a back-to-back at Mizano I find that a little bit hard to understand but you know, I'm not the person that's trying to organize the calendar and everything You know, it's a massive logistical challenge So I'm not underestimating what's involved there But I'm a bit kind of not the happiest person about the fact that we've got two back-to-back races there of all places I don't know what you think.

I mean, that's just my opinion Well first I screwed up I got confused thinking that it was at Vilonga which I think is the circuit near Rome where they had seen like World Superflex race I didn't realize that it was gonna be at Mizano I don't have a problem with Mizano track per se but I mean from a logistical standpoint It was probably the easiest place to do it, right? Because you take up that weekend that Kazakhstan was you can put it there there's not really any additional travel cost or travel preparation that anybody's got to really deal with because everybody's gonna go there and Stay there because they're also gonna test there So I can see the logic of doing it But it's not going to promote a good race because People are gonna spend so much time doing laps there that by the time the second You know race that takes place the second race we can takes place there Everybody's gonna be so dialed in that it'll be business as usual and I suspect that will be G Kat is Dominating the front of the field. Do you really think that rich or do you think it's gonna be more like when Fort de Mayo held the opening? Race of the year everybody was there testing before that was a crazy race for everybody knew what they were doing So it was super tight super competitive. We had everybody banging into each other at that point You know, I think what that's where bashing you get his shoulder destroyed was at that race Marquez took out a bunch of people At the beginning what it turned to or something.

So I don't know. I mean it could go either way I'm not gonna argue it the likelihood is that the weather will be hot and sunny there because it's that time of year I don't know. It's very unrealistic of me to say, you know, why couldn't they have gone to say Imola? I mean, it's probably not homologated to Grand Prix standard or that although world super bikes have raced there in Semi recent times, you know perhaps go back to Mugello because we've had a bit of separation time wise from that But again, it's all moving stuff around and it's easier to stay put in one place I do get that but on the other hand they were due to all go off to Kazakhstan So, you know moving somewhere else into Europe you would have thought wouldn't have been quite so big of a challenge financially and so on But what the hell do I know? I you know, it's a piece of news It's what's gonna happen.

It's followed or there's a test in the middle as well and Honda are testing there again Joanne Meir was telling the assembled journalists at Silverstone at the weekend So yeah, I'm just think it'll be a bit boring to be honest But I hope I'm wrong and we'll find out in a few weeks time. Yeah, we won't know till we get there Well, let's continue down the list of news items It was announced that before this over some weekend that Raul Fernandez has a two-year contract to race at track house Is that surprise you rich? Yes, and no I think it was probably from a continuity point of view and he's very very highly regarded certainly by Massimo Rivola who's the team manager head honcho within the works of previous squad? So I don't think it was a big surprise on that front But you'd have to say it's slightly surprising to give him a full two-year deal on the basis of still somewhat patchy form He's had a few sort of sparks, you know Barcelona He did pretty well throughout the weekend already crashed out of the lead if you remember I think that was in the sprint I might be wrong and he certainly is getting better But that explosive talent that we saw back end of his moto 3 career in that single season He did in moto 2 when he challenged Remy Gardner for the title in that Raul Fernandez has not really shown up yet Has he so Aprilia are putting an awful lot of faith in the fact that he's going to continue to develop and become the real deal The interesting thing is what happens with the other seat, which we don't know about It's not a news item. The only news is that there is no news, but it's a bit of a big talking point There is a little bit of news there.

Well since we're on track house, we'll go with it There's a very persistent rumor that I Agurra is going to be there next year and that one everyone is talking about it It's not just one or two people It seems like every journalist is talking about it Which usually puts credit to the fact that it's going to happen and it sort of leaves Roberts out in cold which surprises me I look at Fernandez and I look at Roberts and I kind of see the same thing I see potential talent, but it's not turned on all the time So it's like I understand not having them both but I would try harder to keep Olivera on my bike at track house and then bring in you Roberts or I Agurra and do it that way as opposed to Essentially giving Raul sort of that de facto number one in the team, you know, I'm not Justin I don't know what he wants to do I don't know if he's sort of hands off of this and it's all Brivio and he's running the show Or is it a consultation? Yeah, we're not gonna know unless somebody wants to talk about it. So it's just odd well hold that thought Jim because one of the I think probably dare I say the interview that I was most pleased with over the weekend at Silverstone was with Davide Brivio and I asked him that Question I mean not who's riding on the second seat because obviously you can't ask that they won't answer that because they're all Highly experienced or politician Answer is when it comes to that sort of thing, you know, I asked him what's track house's position Do they want continuity and experience on that second seat or do they want young guns given how many let's say four or five? Potential candidates that you could stick on there from moto to now We know that the I Agurra room has been swirling for a while and as you say Jim that's kind of swirling so much So that sounds as if it's a done deal just not kind of officially announced yet But he did imply that they want to go down the youth route not necessarily because there are a feeder to the Aprilia Works team because track houses are an independent team in its own right But I think Davide Brivio just has a great track record of working with young riders and bring talent through as does You have a Pontarals and a few others that you could mention so I'm surprised that I Agurra gets the nod simply because Somebody was pointing out that he still has some contractual money coming in from HRC and is perceived to be the guy that would go and replace Nakagami at some point and has clearly resisted that offer if it's quite as explicit as that so going to Aprilia I don't know how that works from a Honda point of view whether he severs ties with them But you know, he's very strongly supported from the Japanese point of view because I'm pointed out He still wears an R.I. helmet and he rides currently in the MT Squad in Mototune, which is a helmet manufacturer So there's some weird contractual stuff going on behind that but he's quite I would say I didn't speak to him at the weekend Although he was walking around sort of kind of fairly anonymously in the paddock quite a fair bit But he's quite sort of un-Japanese in a way, if you know what I mean, I mean speaks in peckingly good English So he's quite sort of naturalized into the European scene So it kind of makes sense to me and it doesn't at the same time I know that's a ridiculous thing to say but you know, he's having a great year Well, they didn't have a great race on Sunday, which we'll come to but he's having a great year on the motor to bike again And he very worthy of a spot in MotoGP in my opinion.

Yeah, I think he is worthy of that You know, they were talking on the broadcast that you know, Roberts is much older as a couple years older than Iagura And if they gave him a two-year deal Roberts would be touching 30 where Iagura would still be in sort of in the middle of his 20s I get that but you know, I'm not gonna stand here and say Roberts deserves that seat You get what you earn in my book But I'm wondering if Joe isn't going to be coming back to Moto America soon My opinion on this Jim and I'll sort of do this as likely as I can because actually I think Precisely the same thing applies to Jake Dixon both Jake and Joe You know, you could argue on a good day They are worthy of a spot in Moto or another chance in Jake's case because he did get a couple of Guest rides a few seasons ago, but on the day they're very good And obviously we saw this from Jake on Sunday Joe was a bit anonymous in the race at this time, but he's been really really good at other rounds this year But do either of them really definitely work given their age and how long they've been in moto 2 Do either of them sort of stand out as the definite go-tos? I would say no irrespective of passports and dawners obvious And ultimately probably liberty's desire to have an american and a brit in the premier class We do obviously need that but at the end of the day track house is in the business of doing what's best for track house And if that's iagira and raul fernandez then it's within their gift to make that decision, isn't it? And that would appear to be the direction of travel. So it's a tough business The right people don't always get the gig and sometimes they do so it's tough on Joe But like you I think possibly he might be looking down the barrel of you know Either staying in moto 2 for a few more seasons and doing pretty well or going and earning some better money elsewhere But it won't be my gp. I don't think yeah, i'll say this about the agura choice to go into track house He would have a contract for 25 and 26 Maybe at that point after 26 Perhaps maybe I then goes to a honda machine because that gives honda that time to work the new machine out Figure the new machine out and then put him in lcr or in the mitsu for a year and then move him to the factory After that it's possible that they could be looking at a far-reaching strategy such as that But I don't know if that's the right move or if that's even in their game plan What was pointed out and this is something obviously we'll be able to look at next season if he does indeed end up at track house Aprilea is that iagira has an hrc badge on his leathers currently and always has done so he's Obviously hrc don't have any involvement in moto 2 So it's not really that big of a stretch that that badging would be there But given how supported by hrc and the expectation that he would be the next fast japanese in the top class If he still has hrc patches on his leathers somewhere Next year, then I think that would tell us a great deal But if that is suddenly invisible and there might be contractual reasons why that wouldn't be acceptable to aprilea, of course But that might reveal something.

Yeah. All right, let's try to move on here with the news Mir has a two-year deal with hrc that's confirmed now Um, I think we knew he was going to stay rins has a further two years commitment to yamaha, which we learned as well We also know that the indian gp, you know, the one on the subcontinent is a go for the next three seasons So apparently they've worked out the money and they worked out the trial They worked out the finance and you're going to be at the buddha circuit for the next three years So that's a 25 26 and 27 deal. I'm skeptical jim I'm really skeptical because we were meant to be at kazakhstan in the last two years and that hasn't happened Yeah, we were supposed to be in india this year as well Indeed they couldn't come up with what they were doing. So, um, I don't know what they've got going on there That's just ridiculous, but we'll follow that storyline because there's a lot of time for things to change uh the vr 46 team valentino rossi's team gets factory 2025 yukates they become the de facto Premac squad next year. I think that's great for vr 46.

It's good for digia. He gets a factory bike He could do some damage on that again. I was playing close attention to this at the weekend. So jucati What they're actually doing because this is actually from my perspective and i'm interested in your take This is a big surprise to me. So bearing in mind they've lost premac So there's six bikes for them to put out next year They're only going to be putting three works bikes out there digia according to An interview which tardozzi gave on sunday morning Which was I don't think it was in the plan that he was going to spill the beans on this because nobody else Has confirmed this officially but what he said was digia gets the 2025 works spec bike in vr 46 morbidelli who isn't even confirmed to be in vr 46 yet by the way Morbidelli gets the 24 bike or stays on a 24 bike, which is obviously on this year and Grissini will run 24 spec bikes, you know on both sides of the garage for alex marquez and presumably fermin aldeguer Because that's the only other place for him to reside now So only three bikes works bikes as in 2025 spec bikes next year coming from jucati not four Which i'm slightly surprised about given that we know there are four works hondas four works yamahas Four works aprilias and four works ktms.

So jucati are now out of step with everybody else. What do you make of that? Uh, it's typical italian You know, they have favorites, right? I mean, I just think that they all have backdoor deals and I think That they want italians on the best bikes, right? Digia is italian So that puts him and uh, you know Benyaya on factory bikes the wildcard is that is the factory bike goes to the other factory bike is occupied by another spaniard And it just so happens to be a really really good spaniard Like the other spaniard who used to have it.

Maybe he's a step behind but I think Having marquez on the factory bike is like throwing the cat amongst the pigeons, right? His mental game is going to be so good because he played such a great game to get to that bike, right? I don't know if benyaya can handle marquez in his team now I could be completely wrong I have seen benyaya be very mentally sharp and whatnot But then again, he's never tried it against marquez martine's too hot too tempered to blow up And it makes it easy for benyaya to look more cool Complicated dedicated than it would be against marquez because marquez is I in my mind is a cool spaniard, right? He very long game very plotting very thinking that kind of a guy I mean, he might ride like a main cat and throw it away. Yeah, I agree with you on that But well, I mean obviously we'll come to the merg gp races and it's only one round.

It's true But my abiding takeaway from the silverstone weekend I'm jumping the gun now was walking away thinking are there some people in ducati wondering if they've made the right choice here Really? I accept that marquez is on a 23 spec bike and it's as we understand it Unless he's received some upgrades over the course of the summer break, probably not So he's on an old spec bike and so he's pushing it quite hard and he has started to crash a lot We're getting back to vintage hrc mark marquez at the moment where he crashes Heavily and often in the last few rounds not just at silverstone But he went down what three times over the course of the weekend and you know bastionini won both the races So, I mean, I just wonder whether or not they've really kind of jumped the gun a little bit on this one time will tell You know marquez is a you know, one of the all-time greats There's no doubt about that and he will i'm sure do a lot of damage in the positive sense of the term On the bike next year my kind of amazement with what we've just kind of set up is the fact that Ducati is supplying four works bikes this year. Obviously martin is on one the two works bikes and I think morbidelle is on one isn't he? No, or who else is on? He's on the other frame I'm sure somebody else is on a works spec bike.

It's either bez or or did you in the vr 46? I think i'm not maybe i'm wrong, but i'm just surprised that they're pulling back on that when everybody else is going down that road I don't remember a time that ducati has ever put four factory bikes on Par the only other factory bike was the was one frame act bike as far as I know they weren't now I could be wrong about that too. Somebody out there knows riders. Tell us Reach out to us on the search polls or whatever. Pretty sure there's four works bikes out there this year But okay, I may well be wrong about that and i'm now sort of doing that kind of panic thing in my mind Where i'm trying to work out if i've made a mistake But I just think it's it's just odd that they wouldn't compete on level grounds with all the other factories Yeah, I agree with you.

So let me while you think about whether there's four factory ducati or not Let me throw this theory at you too. Yeah. Yeah, I get marquez has crashed the bike a lot and so did martin Okay martin got a new front wing Assembly that he didn't have in germany and he says it makes the bike have that little bit more feel in front Well, if that's the piece that marquez is missing and marquez that can't get that new arrow front that would explain why he's crashing Now that's just me trying to draw a line between things but martin definitely got a new Upgrade to his front arrow that he likes and he says he feels better with it And that it doesn't feel like it's it's more predictable Maybe not better but predictable which that's what you want. You want predictability. I can see how that equates To marquez not having any feel and he does have a 2023 bike and it's a very early version of that But as you said there are a lot of other people that are riding really really well that aren't crashing and he is crashing So I will always believe that marquez is there because delinia wanted him to be there.

I think tardazzi and Uh, who's the head of ducati palo? Uh, no, it's uh, domena carly, isn't it? I think they wanted someone else take your pick. It could have been bez. It could have been dj It could be any of those people, right?

I think delinia won delinia is the guy because he's brought them championships and he's brought Successive championships to them with his genius of how he made that bike work So you kind of don't tell that guy no when he says I want him on my bike It'd be really hard to and i'll leave it there. No, I agree jim I think we've discussed this before that gg delinia is clearly a huge mark marquez fan and again You know mark marquez is one of the all-time great riders and may well still hold that kind of lofty position I just think him on the works bike next year and a year after Let's say next year goes kind of one or two ways either He just runs rampant and we go back to the mark marquez of the early hrc moto gp era or Yeah, he just kind of crashes a lot, you know, which is what he has had a habit of doing for quite a long time Now, you know banyan. Yeah banyan makes mistakes as we saw again this weekend Although when he crashed at the weekend, he had just set the fastest lap So he was pushing on because he was in fourth and he wanted to get a bit further up But there is a sort of a kind of icy coolness about banyan and bastionini for that matter now that he's back at kind of full fitness And on a bike he understands because we know that he a he was obviously very badly injured in portimao Right at the beginning of last year He broke his shoulder and that's a very difficult injury to come back from and there were aspects of the 23 bike that he Specifically for whatever reason couldn't get along with this year. It is different and You know, he was pretty well untouchable this weekend critically he qualified really well I mean and that's always the issue with him because we know he always has great late race pace So that's how it kind of panned out So as I said, I just thought he looked the real deal bastionini this weekend for sure It's one weekend, although he's been good really most of this season just not historically qualifying that well Which has always been his kind of big weakness, which wasn't the case this weekend He liked silverstone he's a bit of a specialist there a bit like, you know, elatius bargo loves silverstone He's always done really well there big crashes aside So, I mean, let's see what happens this weekend in spillberg, you know, it might be completely different But yeah, I just got this nagging doubt that you know might have backed the wrong horse It's possible. Oh, let's talk about the british gp slightly.

It will not be in august next year They are moving it to may. How was they say like 28 29 30th of may? Which is probably going to coincide with the memorial day holiday here in the us which would put it in the same weekend as monaco I didn't even know that actually I didn't know that that had been announced. So Uh, yep. Wow, that's a surprising decision because that will almost certainly be wet.

Yes Yep, that's what I thought. I'm like, huh? So we're gonna have a rain race next year britain. That's a good idea. Anyway When you're struggling to get a crowd through the gate sticking it into the end of the may is probably Years ago, they moved f1 till I think easter weekend or something.

Yeah, and look what happened And the car parks were just turned into a swamp and everybody hated it and they moved it back to british summer the Late july early august time frame and it's been there ever since and you know, it's like I mean I get That you don't want to have a motor gp right there It's not fair to the british people to have a world superbike 21 race and a motor gp race like in roughly a month like that's just tough. It'd be like me trying to go to Uh laguna seca then to to texas and then to you know flat rock if potentially they were racing there It would just be insanely difficult to do that kind of travel and spend that kind of money But that's what they changed is what they announced and that's what they're going with. Wow. Okay I don't know what to think about that to be honest I'm a little bit that kind of makes sense with some tweets I saw about the monaco grand prix weekend in terms of the clash because I didn't know that's what it was all about I've missed that piece of news completely which is a bit embarrassing. But yeah I'm skeptical about that one.

I have to say yes, although can I just proceed that no, sure Let's assume the liberty thing goes through now Next year is way too early for liberty to have any big effect on what happens at silverstone But do I talk about the the crowd is that just worth mentioning now as part of that news item because so thursday Again, I was extraordinarily fortunate and i'm very thankful motor pod is very thankful to dawner again As with you at cota this year and myself at catta last year, obviously I got given the the media pass So on the thursday, I was very busy doing interviews, which obviously will come out in due course So thursday and friday I was busy in the paddock or in the media center doing stuff with riders and team bosses and stuff And you kind of get sucked into that bubble where the paddock is really really busy And at silverstone the paddock is quite big because you're behind the wing building which is a big big structure And you kind of get lulled into that sense that you know This is really well attended because most of the people that you're seeing are either team personnel Although the sort of the vip crowd When you head out into the track itself, which I always do by the time saturday and sunday comes around I'm sort of going back into i'm basically a bike racing fan at that point So I want to go out and watch what's going on on the track and certainly on sunday You know the main day when you got the three main races going on I went I headed over For the moto 2 race to copse corner Which is kind of about as far away from the wing paddock as you can get because silverstone is a big facility bit Like cota gym as we've discussed before and there was basically nobody there There was nothing there. There wasn't even like a coffee vending store there whereas in previous years That's been rammed with merchandising stalls food and drink vendors You know, there was literally there was nothing there at all And I think the crowd over the course of the weekend was just a whisk over 100 000 and on race day It was 42 000 which in silverstone terms that is Effectively empty. Yeah, I mean it's bad really bad. I feel I was kind of skimming through x Last night because there's obviously there's the inevitable weekend figures come out and everybody's bitching about silverstone as a venue Personally, and it's not because i've done a couple of interviews and I did one on friday with stuart pringle He's a really nice guy I think he's done a superb job at silverstone if you look at it as a facility compared to how it was some years ago It's you know They've made a lot of progress there and you can't argue the facts of what they managed to achieve On the formula one side of things had 400 000 in over the weekend a few weeks ago when formula one was at silverstone So it's not really the venue. I mean people sort of say oh, it's terrible for spectators and it's rubbish viewing I personally totally disagree with that people always go on about brand's hatch while you couldn't hold a motor gp race at brand's hatch There's no way it's just not safe enough.

It would never get homologated then they go on about donnington park Donnington's a great track. It really is and it probably could just about scrape through safety wise I suppose homologation wise to run a motor gp race But as a spectator experience, I don't think it's better Certainly from the point of view of facilities than silverstone So I don't really understand the ire that people have but you've got to be careful when you're on x because you You know, you're a hardcore of a small number of people that are just bitching about it I think probably most people are fairly reasonably okay with silverstone as a venue It's just people don't know about it. I think that's the problem because the racing is great You know motor gp is a championship all three categories, you know, hell Let's throw moto in there as well. Not that they raced at silverstone, but as a product I think it's really really strong and you get you know If you can get 400 000 into lamal, which as a venue I don't think is markedly better or worse than silverstone then there's no reason why it can't happen at silverstone as well So maybe this is why they've moved the date to may because it won't clash with things like the world cup or the european cup In terms of football obviously we've got the olympics going on at the minute as you pointed out jim We've had world supers at donnington recently We had f1 at silverstone recently and stuff is expensive I mean people can't afford to do all of it and whilst I think the general admission Not with a grandstand seat on sunday. It's true But I think the general admission for the three days was 170 pounds, which you know I don't think that's so bad really because that's three full days.

There's all the action going on three days You've got live music in the evenings. Okay, you might not like the music, but that's not really the point, you know So it's not a lack of trying but something's not working You know, I don't have the answer. I don't know. I'm not a marketeer but I do wonder what liberty will be able to bring to the party in terms of General awareness of the sport and boiling up people's appetite to actually go and watch these bikes which are phenomenal to see I mean I went on sunday with my daughter emily and her boyfriend trist He's never been to a motorsport event before any sort of motorsport So to go to moto gp is the first thing the first thing he saw was sunday morning We got there just about in time the 10 minute warm-up. Well, it's only 10 minutes Don't get me started.

But anyway 10 minute warm-up with the moto gp bikes. We stood on the wellington straight They're going past you at what 170 and then hitting the brakes His face was just like what the hell is this? You know, it's such a spectacle the noise the smell That you know the the feeling that goes through your chest, you know with these bikes. They're so loud and it's brilliant It should sell like, you know hot cakes, but it just doesn't and I don't understand really what the problem is Yeah, you can say you silverstone is not your favorite place and it is a big sort of vacuous place That's true, but but it always produces good races and it did this weekend So yeah, it's just really kind of dispirited and I feel very sorry again because we said this or I said this last year I feel sorry for the team at silverstone because they put a hell of a lot of effort into this thing and They're poorly rewarded when it comes to moto gp unlike formula one So I suppose you've said similar things about cota in last few years, haven't you? Yeah, the best part of the track at cota is seven eight nine ten and if you want to be there that's fine They'll let you go back there, but there's no vending.

There's no restrooms. There's nothing. It's like why this is the best part of the track I don't Why do you want everybody to sit in a grandstand where they're just going straight past the pits? But that's what you want. I I think the goal of cota is to put everybody in this fan So it looks like there's a lot of people there.

That's just not the place to see the race from you know, yeah Um, yeah, i've often thought this and I don't know if i've ever said this on the show But I think it's easier for somebody to relate to formula one and the reason I say this is that everybody generally knows How to drive a car so you can relate in some way to what they're doing a formula one and go wow They're really going fast That must be hard to do because if I try to do that in my car I would be in the ditch or you know, I did try that or I got a speeding ticket or whatever it is I don't think motorcycles are as relatable because most people vast majority of people do not ride a motorcycle and they have No idea of the immense amount of skill that it takes to do that and make it look that easy is, you know incredible I worry too about what liberty is going to do with this sport But I think I worry about it from a slightly different perspective I worry the fact that they bought formula one and they just so happened to catch by magic a great show On netflix and everybody was quarantined and everybody watched it and now suddenly it became the most amazing thing ever and they really actually Didn't really do anything and they're reaping massive rewards and everybody is just heaping all this praise and liberty Look what they did you let some podcasters into the pits for the first time You allowed the sport to be put onto youtube by just the average joe fan without having bernie running around Destroying everybody who posted even a 10 second clip of a car going by you know that was taken down and Motorcycles have always been no app you I we've posted a lot of stuff from the races that we've been to and hey This is really cool. You know, it's it's there but I just don't know what they're gonna do Promotional wise to help it maybe they're gonna throw money at maybe you know, they're gonna signage it up They're gonna you know have tv advertisements and stuff all the time I mean, I think motorcycles may be on the cusp of breaking out But if it does it's going to be a five to eight year run and then people are just going to be like no What's the new thing again? And for who knows it could be olympic pickleball. I don't know man It's gonna be something else that's just gonna take all their attention. It's better with americans.

Our attention span is very very short It's a little bit here and that's it. So but that's a really interesting point that you make there jim I know we need to talk about the race at some point Indence that bit down a little bit because this is important, you know Because I you know We don't want to see our support dying on its arse that the format of moto gp Even the main race But certainly the sprint is absolutely tailor made for the modern age in terms of social media content and the consumption of quick punchy As opposed to say an almost two-hour formula one event So moto gp and motor two and motor three of course in a way should appeal more than formula one And what my view on this is that i'm gonna pick football, but let's say ice hockey That's one of your things as well I would probably hazard a guess that the average soccer football here or ice hockey fan is not spending a huge amount of time Themselves personally on the ice or on a football field kicking a ball around they are just tapped into that sport That spectacle that event that you know, the people that are involved the personalities and styles, etc That was the magic formula that and I think you're right. I think they were extraordinarily fortunate with f1 covid fortunate inverted commas because i'm not saying covid was a fortunate thing for anybody if it wasn't but The timing and the placement of that was just perfect for that to take off. I think that's the point Dawna have done a great deal with the sport, but as you alluded to a minute ago It's kind of like the bernie eccleston situation I think they've taken it as far as they can they can get what they need is a mammoth like liberty which has much bigger Reach in terms of content creation the social media presence You know thinking out of the box in terms of how to promote the sport because you don't need to ride a bike to be Interested in the sport any more than you need to be proficient on the ice to like ice hockey You just need to know that it's really good to watch and then become a long-term fan That's the sort of the elixir that we need to kind of find a thing and i'm hoping that liberty will do it Yes, it will come with downsides, you know, you'll get all these idiots on the grid, you know Shouldn't really be there and are only there for their own selfish self-interest But whatever we'll just put up with that and certainly the riders themselves I mean this is where akosta for example and I suspect people like david alonso and veya and these younger guys They will quickly see the opportunities and the potential of what's in front of them here in terms of themselves as put marketable personalities Because it's in their interest to do it because again, you know I could have been at silverstone at 8 30 in the morning on thursday to start doing interviews Well, my first one was at 11 30. That was the earliest slot i got You know These guys are not under a lot of pressure to be kind of putting themselves out there and they will have to work harder and be In terms of that side of what they do.

I know it's the bit that they hate the most But if they want to be part of a much bigger spectacle and earn a lot more money for themselves Which I suppose they would want to do then they're going to have to behave like formula one drivers have to behave and you know That will come with downsides for us as kind of content creators if I don't sound too kind of sanctimonious saying that In terms of access because that will get harder again But if it's for the overall betterment of the sport I think that's probably a good thing because I take your point about everyone drives a car but Not everybody rides a bike But a motor gp bike looks a hell of a lot more like a road bike than a formula one car looks like the car you drive To work in every day, so it should be more relatable So again, there's a lot of nuance around all of this and we'll see what happens but silverstone was great races and Unbelievably poorly attended and I feel very sort of downbeat about that if i'm honest Yeah, I agree with you rich. I mean, there's no magic bullet to figuring this out You or I aren't going to know it but I will tell you one thing of my own personal ill like again I happened to latch on to ice hockey at a young age It was just something that was fast paced it was quick and I liked it But what happened after that was I spent my time my free time learning as much as I could About the sport and that's the disconnect I see today like they want to Take the broadcast and they want to pander to the slowest common denominator of people And I don't think the dornan broadcast does it as much but the formula one broadcast does they're always explaining Qualifying you can google that you can go look it up. There's a there's a million podcasters Who've created content that explain how all that works go figure it out for yourself If you're really invested in the sport, you want to know something figure it out yourself And for some reason that doesn't happen that I again, I don't know how to fix it. I just know myself personally That's how I fell in love with these things, right? Was by learning as much as I could about the sport and we're just not that's not there Visibility is the problem.

I mean stewart pringle made the point and I think he's absolutely 100 right about this I think I said to him, you know if you could change one thing, you know Anything to do with the sport and you know the promotion and the organization of the sport What would you change and he pointed out that years ago in just about every country went out on free-to-air tv So people would happen upon it and over the course of years Yeah, the little kid running around the living room sees it on the tv and you know And so that's how you build up that kind of initial interest from an early age perhaps Or it's one way that that might happen. Whereas everything's behind paywalls now So unless you're a dedicated fan and that tends to be people that were invested from the olden days like us You won't get new people coming in particularly when or if you're not maximizing the social media aspects of it Now don't ever doing their best and maybe they've just hit the glass ceiling of what they're able to do And they need somebody with fresh ideas and more reach which is where again where liberty possibly comes into the mix But I don't think liberty is going to suddenly transform the sport And as I say, even if they do that will come with some downsides But yeah, I mean all you can do is report what you see and you've said over previous seasons that cota has been Thin on the ground big event big venue. So 100 000 people can look pretty lost in an event You know the size of cota and certainly the size of silverstone, but my opinion is whilst formula one is getting better Has to be said that is true in terms of the racing for the Mogi p cred to be less than a quarter of what they'll be impacting for f1 and some it's badly wrong there Yeah, all right. Let's finish up the news real quick and we'll have to get to the racing. That's what we're here for Yeah, the intact husker varna moto 2 team will not be a husker varna intact moto 2 team next year husky From where I take it is withdrawing all of their support for that moto 2 team And the intact team will still be there next year, but it will not be branded as a husker varna Just a marketing exercise, isn't it?

I mean, it's not a husker varna. Is it no it's not I didn't nor is there really a gas gas moto gp bike Yeah, um, which won't be it won't exist next year. Anyway, so that would go as well. Yeah. Yeah.

So yeah again It's a marketing exercise. Uh, this was your little tidbit rich Which I did not pick up on is that simon crafar will replace freddy spencer as the chief steward next year I think that's a great idea. I think he's a perfect guy for it I think there's gonna be a lot more openness a lot more visibility there and a lot more accountability I think as well. So hopefully that's gonna work out well interesting to see what freddy does I'd love to see him do some color work because I always thought that when he was talking on The motorcycle races in the u.s when he was commentating I should say I always thought they did a really good job Of explaining to you what the rider was feeling at that particular time So I think that could be really good if they if simon and him sort of just swap places And you go to a three-man broadcast crew and freddy is just the color guy who? Explains to you what happened in a crash explains to you what that rider is feeling let him have some Some nuance to talk about what's happening with each rider as we go through the practice sessions and through qualifying But then have him, you know sort of take a step back to the actual race thing So that's what I like to see happen.

I don't know about you rich if you've got any comments on that Well, i've talked to far too much already, but I mean, I think it's a good appointment The reasons for freddy stepping down are not official He comes under a lot of scrutiny and a lot of flack from riders teams fans just about everybody I mean, it's not all down to him, but there is this consistent Uh, if this doesn't sound like an oxymoron a consistent inconsistency With the way that the rules are adjudicated. Yeah, I think the bigger issue though The the persistent kind of thing is that there is just no interaction between the race stewards and Decisions that they make and the people that want to understand Often it's journalists that want to understand this So I don't know. I mean whether that was an advertised position you had to apply I don't know whether it was just like oh simon. Do you fancy taking over from freddy? I don't know but I think Simon crayfar, you know, he's a bit younger.

He's a bit closer to what's been going on in recent times I mean freddy hasn't been racing a bike competitively for a long long long long time So I don't know how old freddy spent his now jim. You probably have a better idea than I do He was 21 years old in 83 when he won his world title real close to it. So 83 to what 93? to 2000 pushing late 60s and he's late 60s. He's got to be 62 or more so maybe he just wants to go do a casey stone and go fishing get out of the limelight get out of the Flak I think he may spend a lot more time with the Ladies of moto america who run in the btr the build train race He's always got a lot of posts on his social media feed about talking to those girls and explaining Things and how things should feel and what changes change that feeling that you had and all those kind of things So more of like a rider coach kind of a thing and he may do that go back to the grassroots a little bit Yeah And so, you know, I think him stepping down is probably a bit overdue given the amount of criticism there has been of Oh, yeah, how that bit of the organization has worked and Whilst people will have an opinion about Simon crayfar.

I think he's a really good guy Obviously had him on the show a couple years ago. He's closer to the action. He's closer to the teams, you know He's a racer. He knows what he's talking about He's quite he's pretty firm in his opinions and I think he'll be resolute in what he does and he'll explain the reasons Of what he's done or him and his team anyway So overall my opinion people can disagree and they can send in the comments if they want But for me, that's a very positive appointment. Okay last thing in news and notes rich.

Give me your podium of Retro liveries from sunday a honda aprilia yamaha. I had honda yamaha track house Because I love the idea of all the pictures of the americans who had actually won a race in moto gp And I gave aprilia the honorable mention because I did love the retro truster field Logo that yagi used for all a lot of his 250, uh championships. So yeah, great paint skin by grissini as well Fair fair enough. Yeah, okay, but jim again, I know we've got to get to the races, but This is a classic example you see of what's not right in moto gp You could have blinked and missed the 75th anniversary color schemes really great idea But again, it just they didn't really make as much of it as they should have done I mean, why the hell did they only do it on the sunday for one thing? Why not just do it for the whole weekend because even even I was struggling a bit to sort of See who was where because I was stood out at Well, I tend to move around a little bit when i'm watching a race But I was largely down at woodcote corner and it took me a little while to figure out who was who Because you don't you're only seeing these people on the sunday, you know And so for me it was just a bit of a missed opportunity They could have made a bit more of it and so it kind of fell a little bit flat now Perhaps i'm being overly negative and nitpicky and you know I am inclined to do that because i'm a sort of grumpy old 52 year old nowadays And so that's part of my privilege of life is to be like that that irritating soft that just moans all the time But I just think they could have made more of it again Let us know what you think out there in motopod land But it was such a great idea and some of the bike schemes were great.

I mean ducati I mean, I just don't know what they were thinking. That was a poor effort from them, but that works ducati i'm talking about But maybe like you say sponsors ruled the roost on that because it did have an impact But yeah good idea poor execution and which is a criticism you can sort of level on multiple fronts, isn't it? Yep, for sure, but I agree with your choices the honda definitely for me number one. Oh, yeah by a country mile Oh, yeah, it was the best I said I think I think I what what's that you and said I had freddy spencer vibes, which I did That's what it's supposed to bring that up I mean the yamahas were really a close second for me because you know, there was the red and white scheme I don't really remember the bumblebee yellow. I don't really remember the red white as much but still it looks great It's still you know, you knew that was a yamaha, right?

You knew that was a honda and you knew the aprilia was the aprilia, right? Yeah, those things all fit and that's okay, but I think you had a hard time Well, that's just ducati's scheme, isn't it? Or that's just vr46's scheme or you know, whoever But anyway, cynically you kind of felt that with the words ducati It was kind of begrudgingly what lenovo were prepared to accept contractually as a paint job Whereas when you looked at the honda you might argue that honda don't have that much sponsorship on the bike this year So it was less of an issue for them again, but slightly cynically But everybody else kind of embraced it. You kind of felt that ducati maybe were Yeah shackled a little bit in terms of what they were able to do agree And i'm pretty sure it was joe amir had a a sick randy mamala helmet design as well to go with the hrc Classic livery so that that just looked awesome I know they were right at the back and nobody saw them, which is rather unfortunate, but it was a great looking package Yeah, a shout out to zarko's castrol like which was made to mimic the 250 cc championship of some year that I can't remember off the top of my head That did look good as well, but a shout out to zarko for winning the zizugua eight hour Indeed. Yeah, and apparently peco banyan wants to do it next year.

Yes. So what y'all see let's get to the racing Oh It's been a long while you guys been waiting for this. I appreciate you hanging. Let's get through this as quickly as possible jim Yes, let's go do as fast as possible. Uh moto three qualifying Uh the first round munoz and ajane fernandez were in that first session I don't think that was really expected from those two but yet there they were um, but at the end of ajane fernandez fairly Zero to this one name.

I still haven't figured out zero to zuza Uh got through and so did vertele munoz had a crash at turn seven where he tucked the front and it was Chattering now that is the worst feeling in the world that you could possibly have on a motorcycle His front end chattered especially as much as what he had there was no way I I cannot give you a great explanation of how it feels when front end has chatter in it other than the fact that either Your gump your teeth feel like they're going to be rattled out of your gum Or you literally have zero feel for what the front end is doing like it could literally have turned sideways and you'd be like I don't know if it's really sideways or not. It's just a Really odd feeling and it's it's dreaded among most guys with motorcycles and motorcycles and something that was just Wickedly obvious on his his machine. Anyway, those are the guys that got out of there So munoz would start like 21st then we got into the second qualifying session You know everybody was sitting in the pits nobody wanted to go out I think halfway through only five guys had actually set a time It was basically empty It's empty so much to the point that I think the fast guys only got two fine laps to put in a qualifying time We knew at one point that we had or tola vire and alonzo were your top three and they all had one more lap to go Wasn't sure how this is going to work out but or tola did take pole vire was second then joel calso had a really strong weekend He was third. He was on that front row followed by alonzo yamanaka and jacob brulstein That's how the race was going to start with those guys now. I'll tell you straight rich right off the bat This is a barn burner race there.

This is a fantastic race I mean, I literally have the words wow Wow, wow written at the very last line of my notes because this thing just kicked off and just went Nuclear like right off the bat. Yeah Um, it's a 15 lap race around silverstone and those 15 laps feel like they go by really pretty quickly Especially when the action is just as great as this is but you give these guys three great places to pass and it's gonna work Right. So to start the race or tola had the whole shot Kelso was right there with him and then kelso jumped out to the lead. I was great to see that I you know, i've interviewed joel I thought that he sort of fell off the wagon at a little bit there after coda with the the first turn Not the first turn but the first lap incident that he had but it was good to see him like finding fine form again Because he really had seemed to have gone off into the wilderness uh followed by or tola yamanaka lanzi hodada and nepa munos went from 21st to 9th vire was from the front row went back to 7th then uh We look and suddenly munos and rolstein were in the gravel trap at veil which what we found out was that uh, rolstein would actually get a long lap penalty because he basically took Munos out into the gravel with him, which was quite crazy to be honest Uh, we found out that ogden perez and piqueiras were all down at the last corner of the lap We didn't know what had happened. It took a little bit to kind of piece this one back together again But apparently piqueiras actually high sided and the bike came back onto the track and it left ogden with literally no place to go He simply had a motorcycle just literally appeared in front of him and that took him out And then his teammate perez had his own separate incident that I never did see exactly what happened to him I don't think they caught it on camera.

No. Yeah. Yeah, it may not have been caught on camera I you know, that's the one thing is like, you know If you don't watch the tnt version of it You don't sure if somebody actually caught it somewhere and you just didn't see it or what the heck happened But that's where we were with uh, 10 laps to go because all this happens in these first five laps It was just chaos basically everywhere But kelsow with 10 laps to go kelsow's out front followed by horogato followed by alonzo netha or toro and zizuki Now those guys all sort of stay roughly in that order But they're passing each other back and forth all the time and there's a lot There's not I don't want to call it a law But for the five laps between 10 to go and five to go It's just sort of basic going back and forth kind of something It's just you it was like for a second They finally decided to calm down put in some laps and then at the end really just come back at this really super hard With five to go you had ortole leading horogato and alonzo vire had now caught the front pack and had put himself into fourth place NEPA was there then adrian fernandez and then kelsow who had one bad move He got shuffled back I think at the start of the lap in abby and he went backwards Seven places to which he basically could not recover and come back forward now Maybe he did use a little bit of the tire up at the beginning because he was running pretty hard And the first part of the race who knows but it goes to show that if you're not almost millimeter perfect for the entire Race sequence in moto 3 you are going to wind up going backwards and you can't recover and come back forward again It's really that close with kelsow having had this bad moment that gave ortole sort of a little bit of a set time To actually jump away and he had about a half a second lead over vire and holgardo Um, you know, like I said kelsow dropped seven places But it didn't really matter because the guys caught them all back again vire would take the lead with about three to go followed by Alonzo and ortole and horogato now then it just it just it's on at this point. These guys are just going after each other It's a crazy crazy thing But you I had this opinion I don't know if you you could tell as you're being there rich because I mean we I got the advantage here on this one Because I could see everything going on from the tv perspective I really felt like I was alonzo had this because this was like classic alonzo He had got himself to the lead with like two to go He ortole was right there with him in the vire then horogato and nepa and kelsow and i'm like, okay This is it alonzo is just gonna ride in and he's gonna win this race But boy there was a lot that happens in the last lap Like I said, there's three great overtaking places that happened to be at the silverstone layout that we're using And my gosh these guys decided they want to go through everything Vire would go back to the front followed by horogato and ortole so they push alonzo back to fourth and he had a little bit of a moment Um on in the turn and that's why alonzo had trouble and I think that was at the beginning of the lap I think it might have been like right after the turn right before they go down the wellington straight But then alonzo pulls it all back together again. And here he comes to the front We're halfway through the last lap vire's there ortole and alonzo then ortole goes by vire and of course that upset Vire so here comes alonzo He's gonna take advantage of that to move into second that puts vire back there And that'll and that was an absolutely epic move by alonzo because that was at maggots Which is right after cops was incredibly high speed corner You're going to you know that the famous cops maggots beckett's chapel.

I think stow ends you there I think you know stows at the end of the hangar straight up That section of that track was incredible and they rode through it too wide which shows this kid's got some balls Because that is a very fast part of the circuit But ortole would run the last lap of his life to beat alonzo and vire with holgardo neta Yamasaka and kielso in that order it was Wicked crazy. It was an incredible race. It was that wow. Wow. Wow that happened.

It was probably one of the I think for me it was the best moto3 race of this year. Yeah, i'd go along with that I mean I was obviously in the stand so you don't get to follow the race quite as close as you would on the tv Although there were some screens but they're a bit far away to really follow it closely and I haven't had a chance to watch it Back fully yet But what is amazing me about moto3 this year jim as a general overall for this season is how? Well, the racing is always hard But how incredibly few crashes there are as part of all of this because they you know They're dying they're going four or five wide at times into turns I mean down to the bottom of the stow or going into stow at the bottom of the hanger straight They're four or five wide a lot of the time and certainly some of those moves that you saw throughout the race going into the maggots Bit but there's not a lot of room there They're going in very very fast and that is a tight turn on a bike and going two or three wide there is a recipe For disaster and there was a bit of rubbing a bit of bumping and boring going on but everybody pretty much stayed on board So just remarkable really like you I thought alonzo was doing what alonzo does and just lurking in fifth place for most of the race and then was gonna Do one at the penultimate lap and then going through the last lap But no great great ride by or tola and he did what he needed to do Which was to not pull that many points back on alonzo, but you got a few back and alonzo is just the real deal I mean again just to sort of prep what will come hopefully in the next week or two I spoke to or tola I spoke to alonzo. I spoke to jake and ralston. So And joel calso as a follow-up chat, although joel is typically australian I mean what was scheduled as a 20 minute discussion lasted seven minutes because you get very short concise answers fine So, you know, they're all super kids, you know, and alonzo in particular.

I mean, he's the real real deal I mean he really really is and So that's a really good chat i'm hoping that comes out well in the edit so great race gym just brilliant Absolutely brilliant to watch. Yes, it was so just quickly the point standings alonzo still leads at 199 points Or tola is second on 146. He's 53 behind polgardo is on 133 which puts him 66 behind alonzo 13 behind or tola then viar is in at 131 leaving him 68 behind alonzo and To just behind polgardo munioth has got 80 points really these guys down below there There's no shot at them for the championship. I don't think they're already, you know 111 points behind although anything can happen But think about it. Um, literally alonzo could not race two races and or tola could win both of them and alonzo Still be leading by three points, which in moto three world, that's bizarro That's really not I can't I was trying to think I can't really remember a moto three championship That was that that was this big of a lead.

I mean, there's got to be one somewhere Uh in there somewhere i'm thinking maybe martin had a pretty good size lead at one point But he did have some crashes through one part of the season. But anyway, that's your that's how that race ended That's how the championship looks with moto three. Yeah, nothing more to say just a brilliant race Well ridden by all concerned given how fast and tight they were Oh, yeah, incredible race absolutely incredible race. Let's quickly go to the moto two Oh, we find out in the first qualifying session of moto two alder is sitting there. Well, that's a big name in the wrong spot You know alder has shown flashes of brilliance.

I mean katar he wins he wins and he won in germany Three weeks ago and now he was there now I will say that we were on board with alder in that session And it was so cool to hear the trump on the rev limiter as he would go through copse maggots beckett Because the bike would be perfectly fun and he'd lean over he'd shorten the diameter of the circumference of the tire And he would go bang on the rev limiter for a little bit until he whipped it back the other way And then it would come off the rev limiter. It was super fun to ride that whole lap with him And you know, you're just looking out the front incredible So that was really really really awesome to see but alderger arenas Bovenchneider and alcova all got out of the first session and going to the second session in the second session We were halfway through that whole deal with i agura out front can it second which is a bit of a surprise But can it had dominated practice he had dominated the weekend to this point in time And that k looks like that his klex looked to be perfectly suited to the track and to the conditions But i agura held true and kept the vasco cora pull run intact And he would i agree that his would be first can that would be would be second then Morbidelli would more sorry morera my mistake was third then vietti Dixon the the home favorite would qualify on the middle of the second row and then aranis who would come through the first Falling session would be there in sixth of note the people that are also important to us in here roberts qualified ninth Which was not a great qualifying session for him despite him liking this track Outaguer would come through in 11th arbolino would be 12th and the point leader the guy I haven't talked about at all Garcia had a terrible qualifying session and qualified 16th So there was a lot of work for Garcia to do but it looked like I agura was in the hot seat to take a whole lot of points potentially off of Garcia as they got into the motor two race now in the race I agura just got an absolute blinder of a start. It was like I almost thought he jumped rich I did you probably weren't anywhere near the start. Were you at the no it wasn't later. No, okay So I thought he'd almost he either cut the light perfect or I thought I'll be waiting for this to come up as you know under under an investigation for jump start And I thought for sure by about the fourth lap they didn't like take tell niagara.

He had to take like a long lap He did not have to uh, but he did now Garcia got got caught up in an incident in the first turn Uh, I forget who crashed in front of him But it took him way out wide and dropped him all the way back to 24 Because he would had to go off the track to get there Dixon would get to third and then can it would get by agura and then I agura would be be second by the end of that lap now roberts did get himself by vietti Dixon got by agura for a second mossia had a major crash at the uh end of the at the hanger straight entrance like he high sided coming out of Cop's maggots, I guess it's beckett's there. I think her chapel Sorry, because there used to be an old the air force when air force was there it used to they used to have a church there At the last at that corner like so it was chapel and he just hypes on himself destroyed a motorcycle that thing just went Into pieces like it had been hand grenade by itself Now dixon did sneak by agura and roberts was on a charge He was also able to go by iagura because roberts suddenly showed up in third and you know He got by to get there and I thought oh, okay. This is really kind of tasty roberts is, you know, didn't qualify Well, that's okay. He's he's made a start. He's got this going and i'm okay with that I'm like, okay cool Can he bridge the gap because kennett and dixon are getting away and I thought wow Roberts is carrying enough speed.

He might be able to catch these two guys and put up a fight But little as soon as I got got excited front end goes at uh What is this? It's what uh, is it the first turn there abby? I think rich was Yeah, where he I think was where he wound up crashing. So roberts did crash and go down there, which was not Not that good. Um, well we had iagura suddenly just started to get to a point where he like literally started to collapse I i'm not sure what happened to iagura.

I haven't read anything that told me what he had as a problem But iagura just slowly started to go fading backward. Remember kennett and dixon are kind of gone So the racing is pretty much just in this last little bit is what is the third the fourth the fifth the sixth kind Of an action there and then there was some great racing when there was some runs down wellington Iagura just had these incredible wiggles And so I think he had some rear tire issues that nobody else seemed to have and the bike just didn't have grip And he would it would just wiggle and he'd catch it. He'd bring it back or whatever. It was really interesting Now marrero would go down at brooklyn's at turn six and like I said, um, Roberts tried to close in at this point but falls at farm. So I was like man, there you go It's what you know, they were talking about how the jill had got overlooked to go to track house And i'm like, well, that's kind of the reason you you you had a chance to take points You know, iagura is behind you and you know garcia is still behind you and no offense to kennett Or dixon out front, but joe isn't racing them for the world championship So all he had to do was just kind of cool it a little bit and take a handful of points But he couldn't you know, he did have to toss it away which was a bit disappointing for me again Iagura is just going backwards or whatever.

Um gonzalez would get by arenas for third, you know Agi had a high side and then lo and behold Garcia has now made his way up or take your pick iagura went backwards towards his teammate to where garcia With seven laps to go got past agura So it was like christmas had come early for garcia because everybody in the championship chase Was now suddenly behind him or was standing at the side of the track with three laps to go garcia had brought himself up to fourth but with with the last so we finally get to the last lap where Basically, it's kenett against dixon and could the hometown kid take it to the guy who had been leading the whole race and man That was a great last lap man when they went through cops maggots begetts together That was just wicked but dixon pulled off the move and because he had got him Dixon got him Dixon had got past at the beginning of the lap I should say right before the wellington straight and so dixon is leading and then as we get around The cops maggots begetts area is where can it was always pulling the lead on on jake But jake somehow got through that with can it just now anchored to his retire But he held on to it all to win in front of the home crowd It had to be great for you. I'm sure it was great for the crowd that was there rich But kenett would finish second then it would be um, it would then be vietti garcia We finished fourth then gonzalez bender alcoba arenas lopez aegis vandergerberg outagura bovenstiener agura And then romero's what did you think? Tell us how it was there rich because when dixon wins in front of the home crowd well again, I was down at cop's corner for that part because moto 2 was the final race of the Moto gp part of the day the stock 1000 from the bsb category were out racing later in the day as well But well again jim, I understand why they do it from a tv scheduling point of view But most people kind of left or lots of people left after the moto gp race So a lot of people didn't get to see dixon win his home race and certainly where we were down at cop's corner I'd be generous if I said there was 100 people there probably more like 50 So in terms of the great atmosphere when the home hero wins the race Well, there wasn't much of an atmosphere and it was a real shame because dixon rode a very clever race in actual fact He allowed connect to do all the work. Maybe he was saving his tire a little bit as part of that Obviously there's i'm never quite sure to what extent home advantage is a thing Because dixon's probably not race any more laps around the silverstone gp circuit than most of the rest of the field out there To be honest with you. So he just nailed it didn't he he's had a pretty up and down season for various reasons Mostly injury related but also because he was put onto the wp suspension at the beginning of this season It's taken them a long time to figure out the settings for that.

He's had a good few races recently Uh, particularly good at asin wasn't he and that was just a stellar performance, you know And it makes you wonder why he hasn't had more of a shot in moto gp really But for me the standout of the day as much as jake was awesome But he got into second early just sort of hounded and tracked behind connect and then just killed him on the penultimate lap And as you say rode a stellar final lap to pull away enough to make it a not a comfortable victory But anyway for me garcia was the standout rider of the day because as you say He didn't have a good qualifying for whatever reason I don't know 16th had that problem that he got caught up with dropped him to 24th and then just Relentlessly went forward and he at one point he was in third He just missed out on the podium at the end to vietti as you pointed out Whereas by contrast iagura you could just see it happening again. I was at copps That's a fast entry turn and then it's very hard on the gas as you go for what? I don't know not quite a quarter of a mile but an eighth of a mile say up to the maggots turn And after about eight laps he was just being out dragged out of that turn by everybody And so you could just progressively see the gearer conceding place after place after place And it was entirely as you pointed out jim just he just completely ran out of rear grip now Whether he went a bit too hard early on out front. I didn't seem to be going that crazy to me So whether it was a tire issue or I know if he threw a wheel weight or something Basically, who knows but he just went backwards and backwards and backwards and Garcia by contrast just went forward and forwards and forwards So it was a great ride by Garcia That's the sort of ride that you look back at the end of the year and think yeah That was the one that might we might say won in the championship because he didn't agree when a lot of people would have done Yeah, I mean he kept his cool against some really good customers, right? You know, yeah, absolutely The fact is that this race was super easy to figure out tires everybody was on the same set there was there was no difference Everybody started on the same tires.

So whatever wasn't working for iagura was working for Garcia Yeah, and of course nobody's ridden motor two on perelles at silverstone before so it was a truly level playing field in that sense So a really interesting race in that way to me just a shame that weren't people there to see it Yeah, that stinks that there wasn't anybody there I mean, I would have thought that if they reorganized coda and they ran the motor two race last I would say because I know I got an american in there and there's that potential he could win on home soil Which I think everybody would want to see right? It's kind of like miracle and ice 1980 Maybe she wanted to be in like placid because there's that potential so I mean I get it there It's a sunday afternoon and i'm sure people want it to be the traffic and they they came to see the moto gp stars But I think that's something else that liberty needs to look at is Retaining the people that are in the crowd or at least getting the crowd to show up for the first races of the weekend Yeah, because i've i've seen you know, i've sat at coda and it's like well Hey, the motor three guys are racing. Oh cool, and you look around and there's nobody there now That doesn't mean that they aren't in the paddock. It doesn't mean they aren't buying stuff It doesn't mean they're not walking around doing other things, but i'm like, why did you know? Why did you not come for the race?

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's weird. It's really bizarre really bizarre I mean, obviously there were lots of people were still there to watch jake win his home race and that was great But all i'm saying is that as I walked up to copse corner before the motor two race started There were lots of people leaving the circuit through the exit that was next to copse corner And i'm thinking really the one brit well scott ogden was in the motor three race, of course But you know jake is a genuine race potential winner certainly in terms of his recent form So you would have thought that that would have been enough to keep people in place But yeah, people have got to drive several hours to get home and you know, you understand all of that but years ago And I know this is already going on far far too long But years ago I used to go to a one day rock festival concert called the castle donnington monsters of rock At the donnington racetrack held in the infield park. It was a one day festival, you know, you had acdc maiden Whitesnake, you know, the big bands would always play headline there I was always amazed you'd sort of turn up at 11 o'clock on the bus and by five o'clock Around the time that the special guest act was coming on stage before the headliner a couple of hours later There's literally people that are just paralettically drunk and you think why come you know You could do that at home and it's kind of the same deal with people that go to races And then don't watch two-thirds of the races.

I don't understand it really but each to their own I mean if you paid the money to go through the gate, it's up to you what you do with it I suppose but yeah, it's kind of a curious way to behave for me I'm just a nerdy want to be trackside as much as I can So maybe I just have a kind of an odd skewed view of the way things should be done Well, I think we've both had an odd skewed view if you ask me rich because i'm same way Yeah, I want to see every bit of whatever it is. It's racing. Yeah, anyway, it was a great race by dixon But it doesn't really do a whole but because garcia had a great race as well And you are correct garcia did probably have the ride of the afternoon Garcia now has 160 points to iager's 142, which is an 18 point difference roberts is on stays on 123 But he's only 37 away from garcia. So Mathematically robert still has a shot at it outaguer. He's on 112 And uh, that's 48 off of garcia, which you know, it's not two races, but it's darn close to two races So he's probably the last person who's got a shot at that because lopez is only on 100 points Which leaves him a full 60, um behind garcia this championship is still going to have some twists and turns in it For whatever reason this year with the pirellis the the bosco Bosco coras coming good and the k-lex is not being as great on pirellis as they were on thalma Is causing a bit of a bit of a shuffle here and there So I look forward to this one continuing on and I I really think of all the championships This one's probably going to go down to the wire and I think it's going to be a lot closer than what we think Agreed anyway, let's look at moto gp.

That's why we're here with all the good stuff that comes with moto gp Uh, and we looked at the first, uh qualifying session. Uh, there's morvadella. There's alex marquez There's a costa I think a costa might be sort of the odd man out in this because both bender and miller were directly into the q2 Uh, so whatever ktm had had lost they still lost and didn't find it Well, they were on walkabout basically for uh, the three weeks in between because the kids still lingering in the bottom part of qualifying which sucks, um but alex marquez would be first then a costa then Um morvadella and then raul fernandez. So those those those were the guys that were the fastest But again mark mark alex marquez Sorry and a costa are going to get into that second qualifying session second qualifying session banyan Bang on into the 157th, which was a wicked last time then basheen blasted a pole with a 157.9 and you're like, okay, you know, it wasn't like, you know, he beat the 157.97 with a 159.9 157.93. So, okay, that's all good, you know, but then then yeah I came back and lowered it to a 157.5 which was just incredible But basheen did come back with a 157.6 and then martin was there followed by like aspargo and mark marquez And vinales so then vinales goes out for the second half of the session on his second tire he gets out On a and what was a really great move?

He got the vr 46 boys between him and mark marquez marquez wanted to use banyan as a toe He always needs he said he needed a toe He had to have a toe and sure enough somehow banyan managed to get him between him So then he's leaving the vr 46 boys marquez is like well you guys are in front of me. This is not cool It's like dude you were looking for a toe It is your fault for being in a position that you were in You know you well don't complain about the vr 46 boys not being fast enough when you were looking for a toe yourself So that was kind of a bit painful to watch him be all upset with those two guys when really he only had himself to actually Blame for it, but then I would run wide at abby and I was like what the heck happened there He was in fobbling with his with his helmet and a pole to tear off off and you know He was one of these like what the heck happened and they had said that one of the sponsor stickers that was on his visor Had fallen between the tearoffs and blocked his vision Imagine trying to ride without being able to see So he ran off straight grabbed a tear off got that off there got the sticker off and was able to be there But with that problem happening that meant banyan wasn't going to get a second run at all Marquez wasn't getting a second run because he was behind the vr 46 boys, which was kind of crazy But that left elisa spargro on a track that he says he'll miss in retirement will miss only Second is second only to what he would miss as in catalonia turns in a cracking 157.3 some two tenths almost two tenths faster than what banyan put down and so elise would take pole followed by banyan Martin marx marquez and then brad bender akasta would wind up being nine So that was a kind of a crazy wild goofy kind of fall falling session a little bit outside the normal What we're used to seeing Now we go to the sprint that afternoon now We have to say that the earlier part of the week and that friday was a very was a very hot day The temperature cooled down some on saturday Was it was it really a big difference for rich or was it just a little bit or what was tempers like there? It was a pretty big difference. Actually, I mean I don't know if you can see my this doesn't work for the Motorboard listeners, but jim's looking at me. I've got i'm still quite burnt because um, as usual I go after these events with no sun cream and it was I don't know precisely what the temperature was on thursday and friday, but they were hot sunny days It's probably i'm obviously talking celsius because that's the currency that we deal in here But probably 28 29 degrees might possibly even a little bit hotter down in the paddock because obviously there's a lot of concrete Ash mountain all the rest of it.

I would say it was at least five to six degrees celsius cooler That's a lot and it was overcast as well. So we didn't have the sun beating down. It was a big difference Yeah So going into the sprint that afternoon there was a lot of talk about what everybody was going to do with the front tire So it was like, okay, who's going to play this game? Well, alesh loves the hard front because he likes how it feels underneath the braking So he went with a hard front stuck to his guns on that one mark marquez went with the hard front But then yeah, I and basheen both went with the medium, which is kind of what michelin wanted everybody to be on You know michelin was like hey, it's a lot cooler go with the medium. That's what you're gonna need go with that So, okay, cool.

The sprint starts martin gets a great hole shot He beats alesh to the first turn fall by by basheene and bender now Basecki gets taken out in the first turn when morbidelli I don't know what he was thinking but he just completely went full send in that corner Lost the bike slid into the back of besecki and knocked him off in a vicious kind of high in a vicious way I mean they were down in the gravel trap for a little bit now We would later come to find out that morbidelli would get a Was a double long lap or just a long lap penalty for his indiscretions double. Yes He got a double chex notes. He had yes had a double long lap penalty The amazing part is is morbidelli is like I didn't do anything Like watch the video again, bro You completely botched that turn like did you forget to break? There's people who were speculating that it was you know, the ride height device didn't wasn't working Some people were speculating that this the the the whole saw device hadn't released and whatnot So it was you know in that like dragster mode so it wouldn't didn't want to turn Oh, you know what? That is the that's the that if it was and I don't think it was because there was that was all speculation that I heard But if the bike isn't right, you as a rider know that you can't go barreling into the corner expecting to somehow magically fix it When you get there, you know, I mean you are you are required to be in control of that motorcycle Regardless and man that was just a boneheaded move.

I mean it was really really stupid I've only seen the replays on tv. I was actually sat in the stand for the sprint race That's on the inside of the abbey turn. So I kind of saw that go on I think we posted it on instagram when I saw it on the replay I mean, we're talking tiny margins aren't we jim in terms of you know, yeah half a second later hitting the brake You know the closing distance is significant, but he just looked to be completely out of control And it is a bit of a just a bit of a pattern of behavior with morbid dead and he does get himself into these Situations, I mean bazaki was down for a long time I mean obviously they don't show this on the tv coverage I was on the other side of the track watching and he took In fact, they stretch it him off because there was a the yellow flag was out for I think the better part of two laps Which is a long time. Yeah, because it's a long lap. So morbid delhi kind of hobbled off with assistance Reasonably quickly and bazaki as I say was stretching off and it took him a long time to recover the bike because bazaki's bike was in a Several kind of detached pieces all just about hanging together.

So hence the long yellow flag So yeah, just a boneheaded move really. Yeah, yeah, he got what he deserved I mean, he got the double long lap. Yeah, so after the first front three guys It was bender and akasa now they touched and bender basically just cleaned the entire left side aerodynamics off of edras bike Which was not good. I mean there was shards of carbon fiber everywhere again I think we know how I feel about that one and how unsafe that is there So that all that all came down and that made marquez mark marquez a fifth Martin was out front. He stays out front and Benya, I got a track limit touring with eight to go.

I'm like Good grief. It's a long lap at silverstone. But come on, let's control yourself at least someone Then benya went down at turn four after setting the fastest lap now he was just trying to make his way up to both, um the beast and martin and I don't know. I don't know why the front folded on him. He had the medium on he definitely had to bet it in And he had just said like you rightly said earlier in the show He said just said fastest lap, but for whatever reason down it went don't know why It's just what I saw He might have been a few inches offline perhaps just as he turned it in hard to say from the angles But really odd crash really hard one to explain But when you're pushing that hard at the very front of the field doesn't take much to go down But again, and this is not a criticism.

What's that the fourth or fifth crash he's had in a sprint this year? Yeah, quite a lot so it's lucky really that martin's been doing the same thing You know all but in the main races So yeah banya i'm not saying he's lucky but he kind of gets away with these little mistakes because his main competitors doing Similar things or worse. Hmm. It's very very true. So it was a three rider battle up front martin the sec or martin bassey Then alesh followed by mark marquez then bender then akasta then alex marquez then the beast at cobbs corner was just a wow He just went up through cop then the bad bassey then led led going through That whole complex of you know cops maggots beckett's and then he led down to stow or whatever martin then got a track limps for him with like three to go and then with two to go Mark marquez was down at turn 16.

He lost the front on the trail breaking. You can see him just trail breaking way Way deep he broke late. He was trailing into the corner. That's a Well, that's a tricky place to be go that laid that deep on that front You've got to have all the feel in the world and he didn't have it and the bike just slid out in So bashti needs one's his first ever sprint race. He keeps martin from taking full advantage And at that point I think martin was one solitary point ahead of vinyaya So vinyaya owed bashti need a drink.

That's for sure alesh got a podium, which was great for him Then bender then akasta and then alex marquez so that wraps up the sprint now We're gonna figure out what was gonna happen on sunday Now on sunday morpadelli did have the double long lap There were spots of rain that showed up and was it gonna be a flag of flag race? Were we gonna be changing bikes now the moto 3 race did have a few spots of rain that was there But you know english summer became english summer and well, we didn't have to worry about rain It just was just there just a little bit just to kind of give us that No, maybe kind of a thing again, we got this whole thing with the front tires again We are a lot cooler, you know than we were on friday And again alesh sticks with his guns and he goes with the hard you then had vinyalas and olivera were on a medium Um, but the ducatis were on a hard as well, which was or which was rule raul was on hard too Then everybody else is on a medium. So that was that was kind of interrupt, you know, you know, give alesh credit He loves that tire he's gonna run with it, but the question was could he generate enough heat now? We know the aprilia front downforce gives them a lot more Energy that they're putting through that tire carcass So it probably was gonna work for him at the start of the race banyan I got a whole shot followed by martin alesh baschini mart marquez and alex marquez Bender went to basically last place and the bike then eventually Stopped. Um, so that was kind of crazy as well So not sure what happened to to bender other than he had, you know Some kind of problem the ktm computer said kaput and that's all that I can say uh for that one there, uh olivera and uh Raul crashed they were down and then baschini was wide at Uh brooklands and martin got by but vinyaya was pulling away But alesh got by baschini.

He's like, okay now alesh is gonna go run down vinyaya Um, excuse me. Sorry, uh vinyaya is sliding it into martin's Sliding backwards into martin's clutches martin was starting to come on. He was starting to get close to him there um, but he wasn't quite there yet vinyaya was still leading but Didia and al and alex marquez were going back and forth for six. They had a good little ding dong fight there They passed re-passed passed re-passed. I mean they did go side by side for about a lap.

Maybe Maybe two which was quite quite the race there as well. So that was kind of nice now 11 laps to go Still benya and martin, but they have a gap to alesh They're starting to drop alesh is it the hard tire on the front? Not sure then there's baschini then mark marquez baschini then would tend to go gets by alesh So benya is still out front and everybody's still in still doing course Then martin gets by with a great move at turn three So that was right before you turn and go back onto the wellington straight, I believe So it was a great move by martin. He took up the track left it to where you know benya I didn't have any choice, but then martin returned to favor. He went wide at turn three, but then Baschini was catching them and it was becoming a three rider battle So we kind of got those guys are all there But martin had put about a half a second on everybody and on the benya and baschini But benya was losing pace was like 70 go He didn't quite have the pace benya was wide at brooklyn and then baschini was by and now baschini is chasing martin and martin's trying his best there But we're not sure because it's looking like the beast with the great tire life that he gets was going to probably make a run at Mark marquez would get by alesh and then martin was still leading with four to go ahead of baschini ahead of benya Now benya had a really long gap to mark marquez then to alesh Dg antonio had slipped in there to the sixth spot with two to go martin was deep into turn three and Baschini just went by like baschini didn't even have to work for this one He got there got close but martin made the mistake went to d and then Baschini would win the race followed by martin benya would come home in third followed by mark marquez digia alesh alex Bezeki akosta was ninth the top ktm rider Not a good weekend for ktm I don't think that silverstone is exactly a great track for akosta He does seem to have a smidge of trouble there.

He did his moto 3 rider He's having it now as a moto gp rider, but he did have success in moto 2 there He did have a full position So i'm not sure whatever it is The ktms are not good enough and pit buyer and the boys are gonna have to work extra extra hard to get those running But it was a good race. It was a it was a clever race that was ran by benya So that he or by benya by ben ashtonini for him to be able to get the win rich How was it at the track? Yeah, most of gp bikes are always great to watch at the side of the track wherever you are So a couple of observations really and i'll keep this short because we're way running over but maverick vinales Had a big crash in qualifying and Having shown well on the friday He just didn't really materialize in either the sprint or the main race on the sunday, so that would have gladdened the hearts in some places You know high hopes for maverick going into silverstone because he's done well i'd obviously had his Original first win in moto gp on the suzuki all the way back in what would that have been 2017? Maybe something like that way back. Yeah, so maverick was a bit of a conundrum as usual I speculated from some of my sort of paddock talks that i'd put onto instagram on friday and saturday as to How effective martin would be would the ducati support start to or the perhaps the ebbing away of the ducati support would that start to manifest?

You might say that it did a little bit because he didn't win either of the races But martin was still very very strong The thing that I really caught from trackside for the sunday moto gp race jim. I stood down on the exit of Oh golly, what's the turn called? I'm struggling to think now It's the hairpin basically where the long lap is before they head off into the fast woodcove brooklands. Thank you The hondas we got well woodcoats the fast turn after brookings As they gas out of that hairpin basically where the long lap penalty Loop is the honda just looked awful Really vicious you can see the riders trying to get it up onto the fat part of the tire no surprise there But where the ducati just powered out of there and okay, they've all got seamless gearboxes The ducati just kept going, you know, whereas the honda you could just see the rear tire jump in You know really upsetting the rear suspension as it kind of looked for grip So I don't know if that's a chassis issue if that's a electronics issue in terms of the map of the engine Just the sheer brutality of the engine itself, but you could see them all of the honda riders But me in particular I thought really fighting to keep that thing in a straight line And it just really looks like a handful of still the honda whereas the abaha Wasn't markedly better. It's true in terms of performance and results over the weekend But certainly is a much sweeter looking thing from track side So that was one thing I noticed and the other thing to mention really was jack miller who had quite a good weekend But very very downbeat in terms of his prospects of staying in the series I think you know, it's all but over for miller and you know In the media scrums on the friday and the saturday that I was there really quite emotional about the fact that he's kind of in His last what would have been a 10 races in moto gp and not even with a decent world superbike offer on the table either So whether he goes off and has a sabbatical if there's any way back from there But he really did cut a very dejected figure which was odd because okay You could say as you just did ktms did not perform well overall at silverstone and that's obviously true But miller had a much better weekend overall than he's been enjoying in recent rounds or all year in fact So, yeah, just quite sad really I feel kind of um, I mean it's hard to feel sympathy for people that have millions of dollars Doing what they love but you know He really looks like a guy that's probably upset to be kind of stood up whilst the music stops in a game of musical Chairs at the minute and it's hard to see really but he's not the future of ktm, is he?

I mean he's out so you can argue that wise and aware fools are particularly maverick vignales getting onto the ktm at tech three I mean that still for me is a shock But yeah, poor old jack looks like the game's almost up. Yeah alonzo and akasta are the future of ktm Yes, I think it's obvious right if ktm doesn't have alonzo on a long contract. They are stupid I'd throw via into the mix on that one as well jim as well because he looks like sure red hot as well for moto 2 Obviously moto gp ultimately. Yep. I think ktm has some great talent coming but Ktm needs to fix their bike something they're missing something.

Don't know what I don't think pit buyer and the boys know what they're missing yet I mean they were like gangbusters early in the year But ducati kind of starts slow and then gradually increases and gets better and ktm cannot keep pace with that for some reason and hopefully they can figure that out because you know, I mean at some point everybody's gonna have to start thinking about 26 and You know there people are gonna have to start putting 850 cc motors on dino literally probably by the Early at the latest you'd probably want to would be the beginning of next year, right? So, I mean I think you you know that I would be the latest I'd want anybody to be you know Wanting to start dino testing and droning one around in a mule situation kind of a thing just to put miles on them But yeah, it's it's tough to watch ktm sort of implode. It's for sure Well, I think that might be perhaps a slightly harsh take on it I mean we must remember that you can't have been at this a lot longer than ktm or aprilia have so they do have that Obviously in their favour into that experience and that strength and depth etc, etc But but I entirely agree with what you say jim ducati start the year if anything They tend to start the although less so this year It's true perhaps trying to understand the updates that they bring and then they get much better as the year goes on and they bring Updates and they work whereas ktm and you would I think you could argue aprilia as well Kind of start this year strong and then they sort of fall behind in the development race So comparative to jucati it makes them look kind of even worse But yeah, I mean for sure they're not where they need to be and as evidence by the fact that Acosta himself is starting to slip back and is crashing a bit more as well as part of the overall theme as well Which is perhaps not a big surprise because we did speculate that as he got into his rookie season That that might be one of the results of him pushing to find the limits more and more and more Allied to which now he's trying to push a bike to do things that it probably doesn't want to do So yeah, I mean it's that's the nature of sport in there is warfare So some people win some people lose and that changes over time, but nobody's beating a jucati this year I mean, that's passing the obvious now. Yep, for sure Uh, I think it was a great weekend of racing. I think every race was a good race There wasn't a bad one.

There wasn't a snoozer per se. Yeah, um, we have done the points where we are from that So let's look at the world championship standings for moto gp With martin's second place in both the sprint and in the moto gp race He has 241 points to benya has 238 So it's only a three-point lead that martin has coming into it. Bastigini is now on 192 Which puts him 49 behind martin And you know 46 behind benya his teammate benya Bastigini might be believing that he can win this title The other two are prone to making mistakes And the beast doesn't really make the mistakes that the other two make now If he puts a little more pressure on there If the beast can put a string of a of a couple of race ones together This could become a three horse race And what is the kadek going to do then because the two other people that are chasing their main guy for a championship are going to leave Well, they've been booted out. I think which is perhaps adds a bit more color to the scenario Yes, i'm sorry Okay, the two other guys who are going to potentially win the world championship for ducati got booted by ducati in favor of other people Yeah, one of whom is falling further and further and further behind. Yes, because after bastigini is martes who is only on 179 points who keeps falling and losing points So he's 62 behind martin and only 13 behind bastigini So, I mean, we'll have to see how that all plays out but yeah, it's going to get interesting because well I mean I at some point martin has to quit getting updates You cannot be ducati give him the new stuff because that's the information he's going to take to appropriate, right?

So you definitely don't want to do that bastigini is going to go to ktm probably really don't want to let bastigini Go to ktm with new parts and updates So is benya going to be the only people who's going to get an update or is ducati not going to give them any updates at all? Because they tend to put the updates out there for everybody and they work together for that solution because They're looking at all the data for everybody to find out whether that part is actually better than the part that they replaced it with And and it's like, okay, I understand that but at some point Yeah, the hard decision is going to have to be made and who knows? I mean, I still think that ducati is winning this world title regardless, but oh, yeah interesting is port one Yeah You could actually foresee them pushing some of the updates in digi antonio's direction actually because he will be a good guy to test Them out and we know he's on a works bike next year. So he's one of the favored ones now Yep, yeah They can't conceivably kind of fully support martin because why the hell would they it just doesn't make any sense And a decision not to bring him up and because he's going elsewhere. So yeah, totally agree with you Yeah All right I think that about does it riches is a monster episode from a monster racetrack sin from a monster weekend with monster sponsorship and Nicely done, sir Every now and then I get an alliteration, correct?

Yeah, you know blind squirrel finds a nut anyway I know i've got a time gemma. This has gone a way way too long But i'm the i'm the schmuck that has to edit this one and put it out. So Monster energy as you quite rightly pointed out sponsored the event I mean, I wonder what they think about the attendance But anyway irrespective of that they were just the whole weekend Just giving out free cans of monster energy during all the different varieties just constantly giving away cans I mean let's go through a few hundred thousand cans you think oh I always stand and think how the bloody hell does that company make any money because the money they put into sponsorship riders teams events Extreme sports blah blah blah you name it then the promo stuff and give it a giveaways They must have a hell of a lot of cans of drink to make any of that add up financially Yeah, it's a business model that I do not understand at all Red bull pioneered it man. I mean they they're the same way Yeah But I was very grateful indeed for some cans of energy drink during the weekend because it was quite a tiring weekend because you can Walk a lot of distance at silverstone like most tracks. So great job by monster.

Can I just say before we go Just a quick shout out new subscriber. Uh, michael cowan. I hope I got that right michaels come on as a patreon financial subscriber importantly we need more and One of the guys that I met at the hotel that I was staring at jordan groobie from I think he said is from abidine Come on and linked up with our instagram page, please. Please please listeners. There are thousands of you out there Do us a favor if you can't subscribe financially to the show do just please link up to the instagram page the motopod Official channel that will help us a lot because we did put out a lot of content Over the course of the weekend in terms of photos and videos and stuff, which hopefully people enjoy I mean, that's obviously why we do it.

So if you can it's um at official underscore Motopod that's the instagram channel I think insta is kind of the main one that we want to push i'm a bit dubious about threads and x is so kind of Venal it's probably best avoided most of the time for various reasons So and it's as good because it's predominantly photos and videos. So that's what people want to see in terms of short content So if you can subscribe to the Official underscore motopod instagram channel, that would be a great help because currently we have 137 followers Which isn't too bad because we only started it last year But i'd like to see that well into the hundreds many hundreds actually and we've got enough people downloading the show Every time to warrant it and most people I would have thought be on instagram So if you can please do it will help already folks with all that I think we will sign off from this one because it was a monster show Be sure to follow us on the socials as rich has pointed out and with that I will tell you all right safe Thanks everyone