MotoGP Silverstone – Bits & Pieces

Motopod, proudly supported by Road Skin, a UK label specializing in protective outerwear for motorcyclists. Modern biker clothing that you can wear all day long, and engineered to save your skin. For the road, for life, visit roadskin.co.uk Welcome to Motopod, the internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 797. This is Rich coming to you again with the last of the Silverstone 2024 content.

Now as I've mentioned in the previous episodes, this is the stuff that I collected across the weekend in the paddock, really just bumping into people that were interesting, doorstepping a few people as I'm apt to do. These aren't particularly in chronological order, but coming up you will hear from the following people. First up is Ryan Vickers. Now in 2024 Ryan was riding for the OMG Yamaha team in British Superbikes, and when I spoke to him he'd just come off the back of a really fantastic weekend at Brands Hatch where he won all three races in an unbelievably convincing style. In the chat with him we talk about the round that would be coming up next for him which took place at Thruxton.

That again was a very successful round for Ryan with a second place and two firsts, and ultimately he would finish fifth in the BSB Championship. Interestingly just as a footnote, Ryan has moved up to World Superbike for this year so he'll be on a Ducati for the Moto Corsa team, and I'm going to be watching with a great deal of interest how he gets on because Ryan is super, super fast. Perhaps guilty of being a little bit inconsistent and crashing a wee bit too much, but undoubtedly a very, very talented rider and definitely somebody to keep an eye on in World Superbikes this coming year. After Ryan we have Derek Warwick. Now for people with long memories, Derek was a Formula One and sports car driver back in the 80s and 90s.

Most famously perhaps he won the 1992 World Sports Car Championship for Peugeot-Tolbert. They had various stints in Formula One as well. Derek's obviously now retired but heavily involved with the British Racing Drivers' Club and as you'll hear from the quick chat that I had with him, really, really friendly and approachable which is not something that you would necessarily associate with ex-Formula One drivers. After Derek we have Steve Parrish, known locally as Stavros. Again people with long memories might recall that Steve was a pretty successful rider in GP500 back in the 1970s I guess that would have been.

Very prevalent in motorcycle commentary over the years and always to be found lurking around in paddocks. As I allude to, definitely somebody that we need to get on for a long chat because the story that guy has to tell, some of which are untellable probably, but anyway, definitely somebody that we need to get onto the show properly. Then after Steve Parrish, somebody that people in the UK certainly might know of and that's Joe Achilles. Now Joe is a YouTuber. He currently has 264,000 followers on YouTube and I've seen Joe at Silverstone Moto GP before as he tells us he's a long time Moto GP fan despite the fact that he's most associated with road car testing on YouTube although he has got his bike license now as you'll hear and he's starting to create a bit of content with regards to motorcycles and again Joe is somebody that would be good to talk to for a little bit longer at some stage.

It's also just worth noting, although I didn't actually record anything with him, I did bump into another YouTuber who's well worth looking up. His channel is called Lamb Chop Rides, well Chop Seat. He currently has 127,000 followers so again pretty preeminent on YouTube and definitely worth looking up because he puts out a lot of motorcycle review content. So just to recap, that's Joe Achilles and Lamb Chop Rides, that's the YouTube handles for both of those gentlemen so look them up and yeah maybe we can do something with those guys in the future. After Joe is another person that will be probably quite well known in terms of the British listeners but possibly a bit further afield too and that's a chap called Danny John Jules.

Danny is most famously known for playing the cat in a BBC space comedy sitcom I suppose you would call it, Red Dwarf, well worth looking up for those that aren't familiar. I had to edit this chap quite heavily because he was getting a lot of attention from other people in the paddock and being a comedian and a bit of a tear away, the conversation did meander around a little bit but hopefully it's come out alright in the edit and I do apologise that the end isn't a proper ending, I wasn't really able to do a proper sign off with him but Danny is somebody that we see at a lot of motorcycle events, he's quite close to a few of the teams, rides himself so again pretty entertaining chap to talk to. And then in the last of the official chats I'm back with Stuart Pringle who's the managing director of Silverstone. Now the chat with Stuart obviously centred on the hopes and aspirations for the 2024 event in terms of race attendance which was a little bit down as he alluded to in the end despite the rather good weather that we had at Silverstone last year. Now the Silverstone round has been moved for this year towards the back end of May, that's something that Stuart refers to in terms of perhaps the problems of having had the race in August which was done more for good weather but did clash with the UK school holidays so let's see if the hope for increase in publicity plus a revised scheduling date might see a few more people through the gate.

It's also interesting to hear his comments about Liberty Media and what they might bring to the table, particularly in view of the fact that Jim and I were talking about it on 796 which was slightly coincidental because I've only just edited this year at Pringle chat so some of what he says Jim and I talked about yesterday when we recorded the 796 show. Anyway that's the last of the interviews and informal chats that I collected last year, we'll be looking to do the same again at various rounds this year as we've said many times. Although I haven't worked through them yet I am going to drop in the Media Centre Press Scrum recordings that I managed to get across Friday and Saturday. Now again they're a bit noisy, there's a fair bit of pushing and jostling that goes on with the various journalists at these things so I hope the audio quality is reasonably good. I think it's interesting to put these in in fairly rough unedited form because I personally find the thoughts of the riders across the Friday and Saturday practice and qualifying sessions quite interesting to look back on.

A couple of the riders appear twice in terms of the Friday debrief and the Saturday debrief but again hopefully that adds some context to their progression through the weekend. You might even hear me asking Remy Gardner a question in the Saturday debrief. I think I'll probably just pop another little intro recording in before the debriefs get going so that I can just list out who appears in what sequence and what day that recording was taken on. But for now let's head over to the impromptu paddock interviews starting off with Ryan Vickers. So I've just bumped into Ryan Vickers, BSP rider, Ryan how are you doing?

It's a busman's holiday I guess this weekend for you, coming to watch them race and do you get excited when you come to a MotoGP race like I do? Yeah good thanks. Yeah it's always nice to come here at Silverstone, I look forward to it. Well the MotoGP moves on so quickly you can hardly keep up so it's amazing to be able to get the opportunity to be able to go in some garages and look at the MotoGP bikes and you know I watch it on TV avidly but you know actually seeing the bikes up close and looking at the technology and how it's developed so quickly is just unbelievable. I get to meet some of the riders and stuff like that and you know hear their thoughts so I really enjoy it.

I don't actually do any watching to be honest but just more time you know just spending time around the garages and looking at you know this side of it because this is the part that I don't get to see on the TV. So what's going on? I'll watch the practice sessions back this evening just to see what's going on and see who's finished where but yeah it's great to be here and especially when the sun's shining. I've got to just say a huge congratulations on Grant Hatch last time out, what a weekend. Yeah amazing Tuffe and nice to get the triple win and especially do it in that style you know it's not been done for a very long time if not ever by that sort of distance.

Pretty well unloaded actually yeah. Yeah so it's good we led 49 out of 51 laps in a weekend which is pretty good and fastest lap in every race pole there was nothing more to be had on the weekend so the perfect weekend and really got our championship back on track. Was it a brand Hatch specific thing or just found something with the bike or I mean what do you put that performance on to? Our brand last year was a great track for us. We struggled with the Ducati last year with the speed.

This year we've made an improvement with the bike and they've also been, their regulations have been tightened so their bike is not quite as quick so I'd say the gap is halved. Their bike is still quicker but it's half the distance what it was last year. And yeah we started with the exact same bike that we had last year and we progressed it a lot throughout this weekend more than what I thought and we went down a different route to what we ever had so that was really nice to improve that much when we already had a great bike there and that was the difference I was able to push from the first corner all the way through the race and you'll see in my races I gained most of my time at the start of the race you know I just pulled away so that was down to the team giving me a better bike and I think that style is going to be more, it's going to be seen more throughout the season because we'll be able to carry that through to other tracks. I mustn't keep bothering you because you're here for a day off. Let's talk to people like me but is that something you feel that you can follow through at Thruxton next weekend?

Well at Thruxton it is. It's been a unique track isn't it? Thruxton's a weird circuit, you know Thruxton is all about saving the rear tyre so we've got some really good ideas for Thruxton for that. The bike is definitely better in all aspects really than last year so I think one of them is tyre life so I think we can do a better job there than we did last year when we got on the podium in a couple of fourths so look forward to that. Yeah we only needed a couple of laps more than what we did last year and we would have won the races so let's see, we're working hard and hopefully we can follow up with some more victories.

Best of luck for that and enjoy your day at Silverstone in the glory of sunshine. Cheers Ryan thanks. Hello, nice to meet you. I'm doing my usual Saturday and Sunday wandering around in the Silverstone paddock and bumped into Derek Warwick. Now Derek obviously star of Formula One and touring cars and many other things, sports cars, heavily involved with the BRDC historically which is obviously integral to this place that we're in, Silverstone, MotoGP weekend.

How much of a two wheeled MotoGP fan are you? Massive massive fan, I absolutely love it. I watch every race, if there's a Formula One and a MotoGP race on the same weekend and I haven't got much time, I watch MotoGP. There's better racing isn't there? Yeah, much better racing.

And this year's been fantastic. You know Mark has brought another element to MotoGP and looking forward to seeing him sit on the works bike next year really. I was just chatting to Steve Parrish, he was always good for a sound bite or two and I was asking him about the new regs that are coming in 2027 and the fact that obviously we're going to see the bikes pegged back a little bit, primarily for safety reasons but I guess some cost as well. Generally supportive of what they're doing? Yeah, I mean I think when Ducati first went with Aero's they should have been nabbed then because from what I read with all the riders these bikes are massively physical now, almost too physical, the riders are really struggling with them.

So it needs pegging back, I think they're a little bit ugly, I'd like to see some of it trimmed back to be honest and get back to where we were maybe a couple of years ago. Have you ever ridden a kind of competitive era GP bike? I did run a Hansel and Schole with Martin Rundle a little while back and crashed. So no, I'm a very Sunday afternoon rider on a Harley Davidson. No do not put me on any kind of special bike because I will definitely run out of talent.

Is that just the competitive spirit that still burns away? I'm too fast up here and not enough experience. I think most of us are because I'm a little bit like that. I think matter GP is just different, it's two wheels, it's difficult and looking at some of these road bikes I almost think you need a competitionizer to actually get over them. Well again Steve and I were just talking about the Ducatidates on display up on the, I mean that is effectively Casey Snowmer's bike from what eight years ago, nine years ago.

I know I could ride it but I would get carried away. Well it's been a great pleasure to talk to you, thank you for giving me a couple of minutes of your time. My pleasure, cheers. Lovely to meet you. Cheers.

Bye bye. I'm very delighted to be in the pit lane or the paddock I should say with Steve Parrish. I started a two stroke era. Steve I guess you come to this race pretty much every year but I've got a specific question I want to ask you about the new regulations. Right.

Because I was chatting to Herve Ponterell on Thursday and this came up. With 2027 coming up and the changes, do you think it's a shame that we're sort of going less prototype although I'm sure the engineers will find Wizardways reclaim some of the lost ground but what's your feeling on these new regs? Are you sad to see these bikes, this generation of bikes getting slowed down and tamed a little bit? I think what I'd say about that, we all forget that we come to the British Grand Prix or we go to any Grand Prix and you love seeing these massively prototype motorcycles going around doing incredible things but we have to remember that the money mainly comes from the manufacturers that are selling motorcycles so without selling motorcycles they wouldn't be doing this. Yeah.

The restrictions we've got coming in 2027 like no ride height adjustments and bits and pieces, that's unlikely to ever be seen on road bikes possibly so the manufacturers are probably not interested in it. It wins races of course but if everyone's level playing field then it doesn't matter. I mean wings we'd thought what use are they? You go and buy a new Ducati or a BMW and you've got wings on it and you can arguably say that it's a benefit to a road bike if you're some kind of nutcase that wants to go that fast. So I don't see that as a problem.

I think by the time 2027 comes around, what are they, 850cc I think they're going to go to, they'll be just as fast as they are now so we won't lose any performance. You'll easily get throughout a horsepower at 850cc as you can at 1000 now. Yeah and what do you think is going to happen, this will be the last one, what do you think is going to happen with the superbike class as a reaction to what's happening with MotoGP? Are they going to have to peg that back a bit? Quite possibly but again how can you peg it back when you can go and buy a road bike and I've just seen the new V4 Ducati upstairs there, I don't know what it cost, 30,000 quid.

That is a full on nearly getting close to a Grand Prix bike now. Somebody told me it's effectively Casey Stoner's bike from a few years back. Yeah from probably 7 or 8 years ago it is and it's probably got more power than Casey Stoner had back then so I don't think you can ever stop development but the worry is and it always was even when they went to 800 some years ago that superbikes will get faster, MotoGP has to always stay faster and I think it always will because you'll probably always have the best riders for a start, you'll have the best tyres so there's a number of things that you can keep that segregation between superbikes and MotoGP bikes but superbike racing nowadays is quite ridiculous how good the road bikes are but if you look at the sales of modern day superbikes no one buys R1s and Fireblazers anymore to go on the road with, they go on racetracks with them and that's really now what they're designed to make. I was speaking to Rog Marshall at SNEP a few weeks back and I kind of asked him that same question and rather not what's going on in the supersport class with all these different engine configurations, different types of bikes there, whether that's kind of leading up to what might become the top class in the kind of production series, I can kind of see that day come in. Possibly and I think we're already seeing weight restrictions for lighter riders and they're trying to keep it closer and better and at the moment if I had to say I could only watch one class of motorcycle racing I'd be watching BSP because it is the ultimate at the moment as far as I can see, really close racing, neck and neck between loads of manufacturers and I think it's absolutely brilliant but it is a show, we have to remember this is a show, it's not just motorcycle racing.

And an expensive show as well. A very very expensive show and it proves it sort of works by the viewing audience and the people that come along. Steve, thank you for giving us a few minutes, I door stepped you but I would love to have you on for a longer zoom type chat at some point and we can get into your career in a bit of depth and some of your massive bag of stories. No problem at all. Some of which might not be put to the book.

Have you read his book? I have. Alright, there you go. Well we can't talk about everything that's in my book but by all means keep in touch with me. Yeah, brilliant, thanks mate, appreciate it, cheers.

So yeah I've just bumped into Joe Achilles in the Silverstone Paddock. Joe, I know you're big into your bikes now, I mean obviously world famous YouTube star nowadays. I don't know about that but thank you. With your car reviews, I mean brilliant content, I've been following you for quite some years but I don't know, have you recently passed your test? I see you've been doing some stuff on a BMW now.

I have yeah, so two years ago I passed my test using the BMW rider training. So it was like a fast sort of track course for seven days. And yeah, loving it, loving my bits and pieces of riding. I haven't got a bike yet, mostly down to insurance costs. Yeah, tell me about it.

Yeah, it's crazy isn't it. I've always been a massive MotoGP fan, been coming to races for about 15 years now and yeah, I just can't get enough of it. You're probably a similar vintage to me, do you go back as far as the two stroke days or you've been a four stroker? I do watching yes, but not being at races. So I think the first race I went to was 2009 Valencia.

Okay. But yeah, been watching it since I was a kid, always preferred it to F1 and stuff so. Now I know you review a lot of different brands of cars and stuff but obviously you're very synonymous with BMW. Yes. BMW, maybe they're going to come to MotoGP.

What's your thoughts on what Top Rack's doing and World Supers at the minute? I mean he's just showing everyone what is possible on that bike. He's a class ahead of everyone, which isn't great for the series and it is great for the series but I really hope to see him in MotoGP. I mean I think that everyone will hear whispers of them coming back with a rule change and stuff and that would make sense. It would also make sense, BMW M have been headline sponsors of MotoGP forever now, 25 years or something.

So them hanging around, I think it would make sense. So yeah, I really hope to see BMW bring a MotoGP team to the paddock. You and me both. You mean about a million other people I should imagine. Yes, a lot of Germans probably.

And just finally, because you haven't come here just because you're a day speed. That's alright. Your allegiances within MotoGP at the minute, obviously we haven't got a BMW rider to cheer after but where does your heart go? I'm here with Michelin, so basically any of them, any 22 riders. But I really like Peco.

I think Peco's great, he just comes across as such a nice guy. He's a class act as well. Class act on the bike and off the bike. But I really, I think I love the sport so much that I'm happy to see pretty much everyone up there. Even Mark these days, which if you asked me about five years ago, I wasn't the biggest Market fan.

But yeah, it's just great. I mean, who's going to win today? Who knows? Bassianini maybe. Looking strong.

Looking strong and the Aprilia's I think in the race tomorrow. But yeah, what a place. And the weather's reasonably nice. It does look grey and threatening. Yeah, this is probably pretty good conditions for a MotoGP bike I would think.

Because it's pretty hot the last couple of days. Yes. Hopefully they won't run on Thursday. But yeah, it was a bit uncomfortable yesterday. So listen, I mustn't detain you any longer, but it's been great to talk to you, Joe.

Absolutely. Just tell everybody your YouTube channel. I'm sure they know it. Yeah, it's just Joe Achilles and that's spelled like the Achilles tendon. Instagram Joe Achilles or YouTube just Joe Achilles.

And I've started doing a few bike things on there. I did quite a bit with GS last year. So yeah, check that out if you have time. Also bumped into, I don't know if you know him, but Chopsy Lanchop. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was here on, was it yesterday or Thursday? Was it yesterday? Okay, yeah. I'll try and do something with him as well. So maybe we can collaborate a little bit.

I don't know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let me know. We need a co-system, isn't it? So it's room for all of us to cross pollinate a little bit.

Absolutely. Great. And I love bikes. Nice talking to you, Joe. Have a great weekend.

You too, man. Cheers, buddy. Danny Donjaws. All right, mate. How are you doing?

Very well, sir. I'm very, very pleased to see you. Richard from MotoPod. Nice one. You are a man who loves his motorbike racing, Danny.

Oh, I do indeed. Where does it come from? I was doing this musical in Derby. And then, you know, we're all out there, you know, all the girls and the boys hanging out, just having lunch. And then all of a sudden this, this thundercat came along with this guy, you know, black leavers and rucksack.

He was the guy that was coming to take all the photographs. You need to be able to certain vintage to remember what a thundercat was. Well, there you go. Classic. Yeah.

And so what I noticed is that most of the girls kind of swooned when he took his crash helmet off, you know. So I thought, man, I need some of that shine. So I did. I went down the high street and booked my direct access that next day. And that was the beginning of it.

You like me, do you get really excited? You get up in the morning and you drive to a racetrack, particularly to watch a MotoGP bike. I mean, do you still get that sort of visceral thing going on? Absolutely. As soon as you hear from a distance that sound you're hearing now.

Yeah. You see? It's magic. Magical. Listen.

You don't get excited by that. If you can't, if you don't. Don't bother coming out. Mate, wherever you are, right, just say that was the main race and you're still a mile away from getting in and you heard that and you know they're just sort of like starting them up. Heart sinks.

Does your pace pick up or not? Well, my heart sinks if I'm not track side. What about your speed? How fast you walk? Heard on the back of the net.

Cracking to the run, get there sweating. Yeah. As long as you see that. We've all done it. You see?

We've all done it. We've all done it. Got to the track sweaty. Yeah. And it's because of that noise.

Well, it's great to see you here. I see you at lots of these events. Obviously you're at BSB a lot. When we're around, you know, me, Steve Keys, don't forget Fab Brace, all of that. That's his dad Fab Brace.

Give us a follow on the Instagram channel if you can, MotoBike. Tag us in. Right. Pleased to be sat with Stuart Pringle, manager director of Silvestone Circuit. I think I've got that right Stuart.

We spoke here at the pre-event, Meta Day last year. So I want to ask for reflections on 2023 event, but just before I do, the sun's shining here today. It's the Thursday. Yeah, it's a pretty hot weekend. There's a pretty healthy crowd out there already.

So how are you feeling about the weekend ahead? Yeah, very, very much looking forward to it. It's nice when the sun's out. Yeah. It's almost too hot.

Well, it is almost too hot. But when you've got a decent forecast for the weekend ahead, I think it helps everybody make a decision that they're going to come and they're going to go for it and commit to the weekend. So no, it's exciting. We've got some great content this weekend. The championship is really exciting.

So what's not to like? Yeah. Back to 2023, I mean, what was the, we spoke at the pre-event thing. I was actually on holiday in Spain for the race last year. So it was one of the very few sort of stone rounds that I've not been to since it first came here back in, what was it, 2008?

Something like that. Yeah. What was your sort of feeling at the end of last year's event? I was pleased with many aspects, most aspects of how it went. To be honest, I'm a bit frustrated that MotoGP isn't more widely appreciated.

It is a spectacular racing championship. Yeah. And in the UK, it's quite hard to find. I understand why commercial rights holders put sport behind paywalls. It's still culturally a little bit alien to us in the UK.

Yeah. But then there are different grades of paywalls and MotoGP is on one that's not massively accessible to people. And that is a source of frustration. So we got quite a big database at Sotherston, but of course, quite a lot of that comes from Formula One. Formula One is not necessarily the same level of interest as… Formula One fans don't have the same interest in MotoGP, although frankly they should because if they like their racing, it doesn't get any better than MotoGP.

And obviously we talk about it, we promote it, we try and get as many people here, but there isn't that recognition. It's not cutting through in the social media as effectively as Formula One, where Liberty Media have done an exceptional job with Drive to Survive. So potentially we may say Liberty Media are involved in the ownership of MotoGP and that could be very interesting. Obviously the way that we talk about the weather, because we're British and we're obsessed with the weather, is so difficult to plan anything in this country around the weather, isn't it? Because you just never know what it's going to do.

But the forecast this weekend does look pretty good. So do you have realistic expectations that that will put the gate up on the day? Well, it's the only thing that will drive a walk-up gate on the day. If you have a terrible forecast, you can guarantee people won't turn up. The challenge with MotoGP is that we motorcyclists, and I put myself in the camp of the fair weather biker, who is apt to check the five-day forecast, start to make my plans and then decide a day or two beforehand when you're really sure.

We are known to make last minute decisions and I know and understand that. Of course we try and incentivise an earlier purchase from a price point of view, but there's less headroom to move on that compared with save. I'm sorry to keep referring to that as a reference point on a MotoGP podcast. But it is from a... It bears comparison.

It does. I'm afraid it bears comparison for us because we're running a business here that has to sell tickets. So there's less we can do on that ticket price in advance. There are certain costs associated with not least the fee that we pay to the championship to come. And then it's rather big-siked with a certain amount of cost to put the whole thing on.

So it's balancing out and we do hope that the sun brings the walk up. And it's without it. We assume it won't. I'm asking this question and I genuinely don't know the answer, but I was having a chat on the podcast with Greg Haynes, who's one of the commentators for the Eurosport onboard super bikes. And we've kind of talked for hours about all sorts of different things.

And we were saying that for MotoGP, and it may well be the case that this does happen, but I was saying why don't they go to the four or five biggest shopping malls around and put a MotoGP bike in the middle there with a board where you can have your photo taken and you can send in a tag or something on social media and the best one gets a VIP weekend out of it. I mean, are there things that Dorna allow you to do? Because I know Dorna have historically been quite precious about content. I mean, I'm not trying to ask you a tricky question you don't want to answer, but do you get a bit frustrated that you might be limited in certain ways to promote this event? Not in that way, Rich.

They have been very supportive on certain times in the past. Perhaps we've been guilty of being a little bit disjointed. So they did a couple of stunts in London a few years ago. I remember Marcos going over the Millennium Bridge a few years back. Exactly.

And we weren't as sort of looped into that as we could or should have been. The championship's job is to promote general awareness of the championship. And there's a really good example of what best in class looks like and it's Drive to Survive on Netflix. That has been exceptional. It hasn't just changed F1, it's changed sport because there's been one on tennis, Tour de France, one has brought Tour de France into people's living rooms, golf.

You know, the MotoGP effort didn't hit the mark. It was not as well produced and it went out on the wrong platform and it didn't help. And we need to raise that awareness. So I think actually, you know, the days of putting bikes in shopping malls, that's not the way to reach people these days. The way to reach people is to have really compelling online presence.

And there are aspects of the MotoGP website which are very good, but there are large parts of the general reach and awareness which are falling short. I'm not blaming them, well I'm blaming them a bit, but I recognise that I've got to work with them as a promoter. So they are supportive of us as a national promoter, as a local promoter. We've got to get behind this and work with them, but I do need the base product to generally be more visible and have greater awareness. You've got to find me a newspaper which will have any coverage on this.

A board sheet of newspapers. Challenging and more next to impossible. You've got to go and find it on specialist sites. I mean last year we spoke about Dan Rosmando who was kind of fairly recent into his role of Dawn of Chief Commercial Officer as I read off my list here. I guess you were discussing some new strategies aimed specifically at the British market perhaps with him, but has there been some progress on that front?

In truth, not as much as I had hoped, but I think I understand why, which was when the Liberty Media acquisition news broke. I think that's been an entirely understandable focus. Yeah, I mean obviously Liberty was one of the things to talk to you about. You must have quite good experience now dealing with Liberty through the Formula One side of things. I mean assuming the deal does go through, because obviously it's not a done deal yet.

It's correct. Still walking through a massive amount of bureaucracy I'm sure, but what kind of things could we expect, do you think, based on your experience of how Liberty have managed Formula One as the motorbike goes up the track? I mean presumably that is going to massively help what you've just identified as the single biggest issue which is online awareness. Well I hope so, and I would be pretty surprised if they didn't copy and paste that playbook. It's been very effective.

Liberty Media is extremely well capitalised and they're prepared to back themselves and commit the sort of money that's necessary to build presence and build awareness. And know that they'll get it back in the long term and raise the value of the asset that they purchased. So I am crossing my fingers that the competitions and mergers people, whatever they're called in Europe, approve it. As you say it's not a foregone conclusion because the last time there was a change, there was a need to split the ownership of Formula One and MotoGP. So I hope it is successful.

If it is Liberty then I'm sure that they will throw the money that's required at this problem to improve the situation. If it's not then there's a pretty large sign that says this, forces for sale, and there'll be other people that will come along and essentially copy what Liberty have done anyway because it works. And they've actually unfortunately had a Formula One the way they've approached it. So optimistic that there are better years ahead. Let's hope so.

I mean as you said right at the beginning of this discussion, although to give Formula One its fair credit, that series has improved this year now that McLaren have shown up to challenge Red Bull a bit more. But pound for pound, MotoGP's every weekend is just awesome I think. All three classes as well. So the product is not the problem which is the good bit for you isn't it? Correct, yeah exactly.

That's absolutely right. You do not need to edit up MotoGP to make it look exciting. You just need to press play and the tape does the talking. You know the races we've had here at Silverstone, we've had two in the last few years where people have been separated by thousands of a second, you know crossing the line. Rinsen, who was that?

Mark Osborne, that was the famous year wasn't it? And you know it's unbelievably exciting just in its raw form. We just need people to be aware of it. Just going back, I think we touched on this last year as well, but I think it bears asking the question again, when you look at an event like say the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, which year on year does tremendously well in terms of its attendance, I mean you must sort of celebrate a little bit some of the figures that they generate, but are you in touch with anybody there in terms of understanding some of the strategies that they employ, or is it sufficiently different that it can't quite work the same here? I am in touch, I have met with Claude Michy, the promoter there, private promoter, rents the Le Mans circuit from the club there, the automobile club of West, and he has built that event very successfully over a number of years, he's put his money where his mouth is and it's been a slow burn.

What he's able to do because of the amount of land that the ACO own in Le Mans, is he's able to bundle in a camping within a ticket price, so you can park, pick your tent up and attend to the event all within one price. He's invested in the entertainment, we've now done that as well, we've upped that entertainment bit. We don't have the land available to be able to offer camping in the same ticket price. Most of the camping that takes place, all of the camping that takes place around the city is on privately owned land, and the reason that we charge for parking is because we are renting in land also, so our acreage isn't bad but it's all trapped inside the circuit and quite a lot of it is unusable. To be honest it's a bit like Mad Max, part of his campsite down there.

I was going to say, if anyone did this camp there, I don't know why you do it more than one year, I haven't experienced it myself. Well look, it's nice. So I slightly question whether we want our product to go in that direction, that for some reason might be numbers at any price, I think that's a bit questionable. We've got a lovely atmosphere here. The one thing that you always get with MotoGP is you get such a friendly, accessible crowd.

Motorcyclists are the most social of human beings, they will always talk to each other, instantly naturally to people in the stands, stands which incidentally are polluted in general admission price now, so the viewing is brilliant wherever you want to see it from the circuit. I guess the big take out from the French model is they've packed value into their ticket price, and that's the challenge to us, make it as valueful as possible, bearing in mind also that there's a certain cost to be putting this show on at this place. It's a big venue. I don't know what the Formula One crowd was this year, obviously it's a huge, huge event. What kind of weekend attendance number would make you happy?

I'm not necessarily asking you what the break even number is, but in terms of seeing year on year growth or movement forward in the way that you'd like to see it, what kind of number are you hoping for this year? Well I fear, unless there's a significant walk up on the day, I think we're going to be slightly down on the head count compared to last year. Last year we did 116,000, we think it'll be more like four or five, something like that, so we have lost a few people over the course of the weekend, and we need to examine that. We are talking about that with Dorna, we are looking at whether we got the right date, we are in summer holidays. People are away.

People are away, that's perhaps not quite right. Of course, the window that you'd want to run this event in the UK is pretty small, and really for us, it is dominated by where is Formula One going to sit, and there are lockout periods for build and breakdown for Formula One, and then build and breakdown for most of the UK. I was going to say July is probably the sweet spot, isn't it? But then that's clashing with Formula One. Correct.

So it's not totally straightforward. So what sort of number would make me happy? Well if we did 116,000 last year and we're down to 100,000, we've got to get this up to 150,000 plus. I think that's the best number we can get at the end of attendance. The third Formula One this year was 480,000, and we're not even a quarter, more like 20% of that number.

I suppose if you're looking for a silver lining, the good news there is that there's an enormous amount of growth potential in this. If the formula can be got right, and if the liberties or whoever it's going to be can come up with that magic bullet like they've done elsewhere. Well, exactly Rich. That's it really, isn't it? It's about general awareness.

If you asked somebody on the high street, name me a British motorcycle racer, they'd probably say Barry Sheen. That's how far back you're going. We've lost touch with motorcycles, and I know that the manufacturers say they're selling a lot, actually they're selling quite a lot of scooters I think. It's my read of that. And that's not the same as a bike.

Motorcycle and fraternity is getting older. But you don't need to be a biker to be into MotoGP. You just need to like compelling sport because this is the most compelling of sports. It's the most intriguing, engaging, exciting, seat of the pants, 45 minutes of action that you'll see. Just on the social media thing, I'm trying to remember who it was.

It was probably Simon Patterson pointed out on their podcast a few weeks ago that I think Lewis Hamilton's dog has a bigger Instagram presence than the majority of the MotoGP riders. So again, there's the frustration and the challenge and the golden ticket at the end if somebody can get it right. Yeah, look, I don't want this to sound as I'm moaning. Goodness me, I'm not. This is a great show.

It just deserves to do better for everybody's sake. Yeah, no, I totally agree. I mean, I think we've kind of answered this question as I kind of wind up now. But if there was one thing you could change immediately that would help, what would it be? Put it back on BBC free to wear.

I mean, the awareness there was massive. And it's just dropped right off. I mean, it went from I can't quite remember the figures, but it was, you know, I think we were talking about, you know, between 1.5 and 3 million viewers dropping down to 150 to 200,000, something like that. You know, it was millions down to low hundreds of thousands. Well, that has a material effect.

It has a material effect. So that's, you know, start with that. Look, I'm really. And let me say, I love the production of the coverage that we get. I don't have an issue with that.

It's good. Just not enough people watching it. Well, sorry, this is almost been a little bit of a damn big kind of chat. And it's like I could have said to you, this is absolutely brilliant to be sold. You know, I'm really pleased you got 100,000 people coming.

Well, I am pleased. And we'll put on a great show for everybody. But the show is so good. It deserves better. And you're trying to run a business.

I mean, let's be honest, Silverstone does not get huge, you know, multi-million pound per year pay action from the government. Unlike some of the circuits I've mentioned. So, you know, it's a challenging world that we exist in. Yeah, you know, it's a big picture for Silverstone. Very positive at the moment.

It set itself a goal a few years ago to try and turn this thing around. And broadly, it's heading in the right direction, not without its challenges. Not everything's going right. Don't get it all right all of the time. But don't have to pull up too high into the hover to see that actually it's in better shape than it was.

And we know where we're going and if we execute correctly. But we do have to work well with our partners. And that starts with Dorna and the championship and the teams and the riders. To end on a slightly more positive note. Yes, let's do that.

I feel it's been a bit too downbeat. It's been a great event and it's a great series. Well, I think it's pretty telling that Dorna have chosen Silverstone to celebrate their 75th anniversary. We have got coming up in... There's some bike reveals going on on the screen actually.

Right now. Yeah, I was going to say. Right now. Here are the liveries. The historic liveries that are going to be unveiled and seen this weekend.

And they could have done that anywhere. Yet they've chosen to do it here. Silverstone is important in the history of motor racing, the history of motorsport. It's hugely important. So that's really exciting.

We've got something that everybody wants. Let's see if we can catapult off the back of this and really get the attention and let's head for a big walk up. It's going to be mega racing. The bikes look spectacular. Look at that.

The old Castrol. Well, and the sun is going to be shining. There's no rain, I don't think, in the forecast. Nothing significant. So there's every reason to be here to watch the racing this weekend.

Yeah. 100%. Sorry, we're completely compelled now by what's on the TV screen. I say reveal all of these bike liveries. So, yeah, nerdish behaviour from Mr Pringle and myself here.

But I'll show you. It's been great to catch up with you again. And I hope for a bumper crowd or bumper enough crowd to see us through this year as we march on to next year. And no doubt the racing will be excellent because it always is. It always is.

I hope you have a satisfying weekend. Thank you for talking to us again. Not at all. Thanks very much. Cheers.

OK, so as mentioned, I'm just jumping in again here before we get into the Friday and Saturday Press Scrum media debrief sessions. These are going to run in the following chronological order. So first off, we've got the Friday sessions that I was able to capture, starting with Alex Marquez. Then we have Jack Miller and Brad Binder together, followed by Joanne Meir, Maverick Vinales, Miguel Oliveira, Pedro Acosta and Remy Gardner. We then jump into the Saturday sessions.

So obviously the riders will then be talking about their qualifying performances and the sprint race. And we kick the Saturday sessions off with Augusto Fernandez. He's followed by Fabio Quattraro. Then we have Jack Miller, Joanne Meir, Raul Fernandez, Remy Gardner again. And finally, Luca Marini.

Now, I'm not editing these particularly because I think it's better just to hear them in the rough, unedited form. You will hear various journalists asking questions of the riders. Nothing terribly controversial, although some of the journalists do ask a few searching questions. And although the riders have obviously got their press offices with them, the nice thing about the MotoGP boys is that they generally tend to speak their mind, particularly people like Jack Miller, of course. So it's all fairly honest and unfiltered.

And I happen to think it's really interesting to listen to the riders explaining how they've got on, how the bikes are performing, where they are on setup, tyres, etc, etc. I'm just going to let the sessions run one into the other. So I won't be putting the Zoom sounds in between because it's just a little bit too much messing around with the edit. I'll just leave a short gap between each one, which I hope is OK. I just need to jump in here again very briefly because I've just realised, having imported the audio tracks, that the Luca Marini debrief was actually taken on the Thursday press day.

So there he's talking about what he's been doing in his summer holidays and how much he's looking forward to the Silverstone weekend. So apologies, that is not a post-Saturday Luca Marini debrief. So Luca will be up first. OK, off we go. How do you spend your holidays?

Well, some Ibiza, some days in Ibiza, like every year. But you're in conspiracy. Yeah, too many people already. Too many people, too busy. So maybe next year we change because we want to be more relaxed.

And to mount it to Dolomiti or something? Yeah, also we went to Dolomiti the last weekend and it was amazing. It's a beautiful place. If you want to just switch off your phone and switch off your mind, it's the best place, in my opinion, because also the temperature is amazing and the place is incredible. And there are not too many people.

But apart from this, I train a lot and prepare myself in the best way for this second part of the season that I think will be tough for everybody. But fortunately, we have a very good atmosphere inside of the garage, even if the results are not what we want. But we are working everybody in a good way. So I am quite happy to start again this second part of the season and also to do it here in Silverstone. That is a great track for me.

It's one of the best riding a MotoGP bike because it's very, very wide, very long, a lot of corners. So you can enjoy a lot the power of a MotoGP bike here. Something new on your bike? A little thing, yes. What?

I cannot tell you, but it's interesting. We have to test it here in Silverstone. Which area? Can you tell us this? Is it setup or aerodynamics?

No, no, setup, setup, not aerodynamics. You are missing the rear grip still? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that now is not our biggest problem. Maybe on the list it is at the fourth place.

But still it is a problem for sure. The grip is never enough for everybody I think. But we made the correct change in the bike. With all the updates that we bring this year we improved a little bit the rear grip. For sure it's still not enough comparing Ducati, Aprilia and KTM.

But at the moment I think it is not the rear grip the problem that makes us slow. And the engine maybe? Is it the first problem then? Or is it too aggressive? No, no, no, no, no.

It's nice the engine also. It's not so bad. It misses some speed, some torque, yes. It's always like that. Yeah, always.

But also if you ask a Ducati guy maybe. You always miss a little bit of power. Okay, any more questions? How was it today? Not a really good feeling.

When you are coming back from holiday you hope to have a great feeling and be fast on the bike. But we were struggling not on the morning but in the afternoon when the people go deep and go fast to take a long time. We were there and I didn't have the feeling to push and to bring the perfect lap home. But anyway I think we started here and we wanted to confirm many things from such an entry. But we know that it is a really different track from such an entry to here.

So I struggle and tomorrow I think we need to take something from that. But make a step back to have our base because here I think we will work much better. What were you struggling? Especially on the entry. On the torque that you use a lot of the gas like 35 or the torque with the gas.

I can be really really fast. Maybe too fast. Because in the other ones I am losing too much. So we need to find that compromise to be there and to be on a better pace and have a more predictable bike. Is this one of the difficult tracks for setup?

Is it a compromise or is it like a stay? No, I mean it is a track that you arrive and you are fast and you are struggling. It is not the middle way. So we are in that way that we are not feeling great. But I think with the small changes and being a little bit more smart in some point of the track we can make a great step.

And we will try tomorrow. It is strange I guess because last year was a really good weekend for you. Despite the fact that you didn't finish the race on Sunday. But like you said it either works or it doesn't. Can you explain why it worked last year and why this bike then obviously feels so much different?

I mean it is true that it is a different bike. But especially we are using from Sarsabing a really different setup. So I think it is more than that. We need to rebalance the bike a little bit. In Sarsabing we know that it is a really strange track.

You don't brake a lot and you need to always have the flow. So it is a really particular bike. So here we need to have some more weight on the front, some more pitching and all that. So we can take it more proffesional. Alex, tomorrow the weather is due to be a little cooler and maybe less sunny.

So is that better or worse for you? It doesn't matter. Tomorrow if it is dry, rain, windy, cold or hot we need to be fast and we need to be in the 2-2. So it doesn't matter what will happen. It will be more tricky but I think with the soft front we can be also really fast.

Alex, did you already say what new parts you have since Saksa Road? No, no new parts. New setup. So this is just something that you wanted? Yes, because we are starting from the beginning of the season a lot on the rear pushing and all that.

And fortunately we know that you go always with the gas. You need a really stable bike. Not a lot of pitching, just to be there and to make a lot of meters. And here maybe you... It's a track that you need to have opposite things.

So for that reason it's not really working. But have you had your fairing update for this year? Do you have that yet? No, I think the bike that we have for now will be the one that we will finish. Maybe some improved can come but I don't know when or if we'll have it.

It sounds like Firmino Aldeguer will be your teammate next year for the Tardocci and Aix in BR46's line-up. I think Tardocci will make a great casino today. What would you think of that though if it's you two guys at Grissini next year? It looks like it will be like this. We have a rookie and for sure he will be really fast.

He has a great talent. Hopefully we can make a great job together and we can be also fast. Also we need to look for the team and we need to go hard. So I think for sure we'll be a great teammate so that we can push each other to be faster. I guess you'll be the team leader with the experience-wise and things like that.

Looking forward to it. Yeah, but he will be fast. He will need my advice as I mean he will be there. But I want to... I like to have a rookie that's coming from 1-2-2 and maybe have like a...

In the beginning they are always really fast because they have a lot of speed corners and all that. So hopefully we can take some profit from that. Will you change anything in the team? No. So you'll continue with...

Yes. And congrats Simon for the new job. Not easy, eh? You are brave, eh? Double up.

Time to go to Silverstone? Yeah, positive first day here in Silverstone. It's always a pleasure when you get to ride this track in decent conditions. A little bit gusty but we weren't complaining. Beautiful temps.

You know, never once felt nervous even putting my heart front in today which is really rare here. But no, the bike's working well. I was able to put a decent laugh in at the end. The pace was pretty good. Really weird, the soft tyre, just trying to make it work.

Like it works in a different way. I was yelling really differently, let's say. It took me almost three tyres to wrap my head around it. But I managed to get it sorted there at the end. And yeah, pretty happy with day one.

It makes the weekend a lot less stressful. We can go directly through. And we haven't been able to say that for a little bit so it's good. Yeah, so now it's OK. I'm sweating all the way to the back.

That felt OK. This afternoon, I put in the first soft and I felt really not good. I felt like I wasn't going anywhere and was really struggling to enter and exit corners. So I kept that for two runs. And then yeah, first time attack.

It was going quite OK. I had a little issue with my ride out device. Went off the track, came in and I literally did everything for the last run. So yeah, luckily I managed to put a good laugh in. But yeah, in general not too bad.

Got some homework to do for sure. We need to improve quite a bit. But tomorrow I'm sure we'll be OK. Jack, you feel a bit of confidence coming back today? In front of the lap time, you can get anything started.

Brad, is it third sector? I believe there's 15 quarters of struggling. That's alright. At least you've got a couple sorted then. Yeah, I mean it's always nice.

I think we've got three races now. Just without laying it down. So just trying to build that confidence back up after what was a really difficult period. The bike felt very similar to what I hopped off in Germany and Assen obviously. And just being able to build, go away, think about a few things and come back and try and put them into practice today.

Still very early doors but feeling alright. As he said, I was able to put the lap time in alone. I've got Brad and the boys, I sort of set them as the target. Our last run it was helpful for sure. I feel good.

Is it the track? Because the track is where you've been going for a few sets of top over. Do you know the step up here in Suriname? I feel it's the track a little bit. Don't get me wrong, we haven't reinvented the wheel or anything.

There's a little bit of new stuff but not anything that should really change obviously geometry and so on. But here you know you can't get a perfect bike because there's so many different elements to this track. It's so bloody big. So you're kind of just putting band-aids on everything, you know what I mean. So I don't know if that's helping us or what but I can't complain.

Have they fixed the vibrations or improved vibrations? I feel like I haven't had vibration today which fingers crossed we'll keep that going. Brad, have you had it? Not today. But they see it on the data but I don't feel it.

As long as I'm not feeling it I'm happy. Jack, it's nice to see you smile after what was a really sombre interview yesterday. It's almost like you weren't at rock bottom yesterday but you almost feel like a weight off your shoulder and you're enjoying your time. I'm past rock bottom. Rock bottom was about two weeks ago so I'm past that point now.

I've got 10 races left to enjoy this, you know, what has been my life for the last 10 or so years. I'm just trying to make the most of it. Cheers mate. Cheers guys. So it's almost evenly split between left and right-handers.

But since moving to Honda your falls are much more on right-hand corners. Like two and a half times more than left-hand corners. Falls, you mean? Falls, crashes. Ah, crashes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. It was even at Suzuki but now at Honda it's much more on right-handers and I just wanted to ask you why you think that might be? Well, that's a good question actually. Some part is just the situation.

Just the situation. A big part of it. Also probably the type of corners on the right-handers. Probably in some tracks they are more critical on the right-handers than the left ones. This is one thing.

And then can be also the rear brake. The rear brake, on the left corners you have more control than the other ones. So maybe there is a point that you put a little bit more effort to the front and then you request too much. And you don't have that rear brake. You have it but you have it like it's more difficult to reach it.

So also another percentage can be for this reason. But it's more the character, the crashes are always the front and always very... Because you always go very on the limit with this bike. That to be a lack of something in terms of right or left corners. I think it's not coming from that reason.

The reason is the situation and the small percentage that I speak about. So it's not a difference in feeling then? No. No. Ok.

Thank you. Thank you. Is it hard to feel the limit, Joao? No, it's quite easy to feel the limit. It goes out.

It's quite easy. Yeah, the reality is that it's not that we have a problem with the front. I said many times. We just request so much. And then we request more than the others because we have a lack of other things.

Then we crash because we try. That's a bit of a different thing. How is it today? Well, today was pretty similar to the last GP's, the last two, three GP's that we are using. Like I said, the engine configuration is different from the beginning of the year.

The one that I was able to feel a bit better. But we decided together with the team to go with this one even if we make a step back. Then in the future the direction is that one. So we are a bit just waiting for the new upgrades that will come in the next races. And that's it.

We cannot ask for so much. The bike in the street is not very fast. You can see that I'm always there in the back. And in longer tracks, tracks that you partialise a lot with the throttle and everything, I struggle more. That's a bit the reality.

Simply, are you happy to be back? Rating again after summer? Yes, yes. Why not? I'm happy.

I'm happy to be able to ride these bikes again. But of course I would be more happy in a different situation. I would not lie. But yes, back in business. Looking at your bike, it doesn't seem like you've got anything particularly new this weekend.

No, no. There will be things coming in the next few races? Yes, yes. I said yesterday that here we don't have any upgrades. Nothing.

We will get something in the... Some big steps are coming in the next races. Maybe in Austria we are able to have different engine configurations. Swing nans, chassis stuff, aero. All these big things will come in the next GP circuit.

What's the effect that you will be having Misano, Misano tests and then Misano 2? Does that help with the development process? We have also Misano after first racing Misano, another test in Misano. So Misano test, Misano race, Misano test, Misano race. That will be interesting.

Does that make the process and development easier or more difficult because you need more... Is it better to have more data from different tracks? Well, Misano is a particular track. The grip level is always very high. We don't spin so much.

Stop and go corners. Probably to try proper things you need a track like this one, step on, long corners, a lot of spin. This is another characteristic in another characteristic track. In Misano we can try the things properly, I believe. But probably it's not the best track I would say.

Five days in Argentina? Argentina, yes. It's the worst scenario that we are. Thank you very much everyone. Cheers.

How was your first day here? It was really good, to be honest. I was very curious to see the feelings after the summer. But quickly I wrote on the good lap times. The feeling was very good.

Today I concentrate a lot to understand how I can really make good lap times without asking too much to the tyres. Because in the last two races what I felt is that in the first part of the race I've been very competitive. But in the second one I needed something else. So probably I asked too much to the tyres in the beginning of the races. I was trying to understand how I can do to arrive very strong in the last five laps.

And today I'm trying to write in a little bit different way. Trying to not ask too much to the tyres. And still the lap times were very competitive, especially in the long run with the 59 low. And for a time attack, I mean, the first tyre was really good. And the last tyre maybe I wasn't able to take out the maximum.

The important thing on Friday is to be inside the Q2. And then for sure on Saturday I will do a good lap time. What do you think of the new era? I think I'm the only one in Aprilea making a... Back to back?

Trying and back to back testing. It's tough. I mean, it's tough to decide. It's just four laps, four laps. It's very complicated.

I will keep trying it because still we have some good data. You know, you have always positive and negative. I don't know how much the balance is right now. But when I go to the garage, we want to decide what we do for tomorrow. But it's tough to compare.

Because in the first practice, track improved. You never know. And in the second practice, you have the time attacks. It's difficult. Is this a good track to be testing aero?

First of all, it's long. So you're out of the garage for a long time. And secondly, it can be quite windy as well. Today was very windy. Very windy.

Like I turned five. Yeah. Every time you open the gas, you are nearly out of the track. I didn't see that the wind affects a lot. To be honest.

I expect less difference between the both aero package. There is a big difference on cornering. But then I had some issues. So we need to really see what is the best compromise for us for tomorrow. You said the grid position is not so important because there's lots of overtaking here.

But for the Aprilia being so strong in the fast corners, is that still difficult? I mean, overtaking opportunity. I think we have corner three. You have before last corner, turn 16. You have many points where you can overtake.

But of course, if you start first, it makes it easier. So of course it's important the quality. Maybe here in Silverstone it's not the most important track for a qualified. But I think today was a certain kind of circumstance that on the last time attack, I was not able to do the difference as I do normally in other tracks. But yeah, important is tomorrow.

Today just trying to win Q2 is the first key of the weekend. And we did it. So even if I wasn't able to do a good time attack. You say first row is less important here. But normally riders say first two rows you have to be in the top six.

But if you qualify eighth like you are today, this is a track where it's less difficult? I think yes. These are track where you have many points to gain a position. Of course it makes it difficult. But the mentality is trying to be inside the top six on the quality.

And then I think on race we have rhythm to go. Yeah, today we show good rhythm. Maybe only Peco and Martín are closer. But we show a really good rhythm. I was surprised how much I was asking to the bike to do 59 low.

It was quite unexpected. Thanks, memory. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck tomorrow.

So what does the factory team have this time that you still have to find? Well, I haven't looked at the data yet. But today was a strange day. Had a few technical issues in the morning. And couldn't really get much of feedback.

Then in the afternoon we basically started with the same base bike. But soon we found out that was not the way. So we tried to make a change during the practice. But still there is a big bridge to close to be able to ride faster. Lacking a lot of stability and some especially on the rear on throttle.

So we're just looking to try to solve that for tomorrow. I didn't feel really good on the bike today. It was just slow. Every lap time I did was really attacking too much the bike. And just reacting to what she was doing.

And not really, let's say, comfortable. So hoping to get a little bit more speed tomorrow. Is it frustrating or is it just strange that we are not approaching it? Especially in the age of so much faster. Yeah, it was really, really fast.

But we know Alish here always rides quite good. So we just need to close the gap. But yeah, it's a lot. This is really fast. And closing the gap, you do that by looking at his data as usual?

Well, it's not that simple to just look at the data and try to do the same. He has a way of riding. But for sure, we want to get my feeling back first. And then we'll see what we can do for qualifying. Did you try something with the arrow?

Yeah, we started with it because of the homologation. We cannot paint another fairing and go back to back. So we need to keep it. It's difficult to do. And it seems to work.

I didn't want to have an opportunity to do a back to back. Because during the weekend that might be confusing. And maybe it throws you into a direction which is maybe creating more doubts. And I just wanted to start with it. The testing already gave the approval.

So I want to keep it more simple, start and get used to it. Raoul mentioned he had a pulse shock device or something, ride height device to test. Did you also have that? Yeah, already a few races ago. But because Raoul got the bike now, he's already testing it also.

Do you use it? Yeah, I do. Are you happy with it? No, not really. It has positives and negatives.

But right now the negatives are a big no for me. So I can't compromise on the positives. So I just prefer to ride with the normal system. You know the potential of the bike. How frustrated is it not to get to that sealant of the bike?

Because you know there's a lot of extra. It's only Friday, you know. If I was frustrated already, the weekend would be super long. I prefer to be optimistic and keep working and see what we can do tomorrow morning. Good to be back.

Nice to be back. Nice to be back with some new things in the bike. It's true that it takes me a bit of time to understand what is the direction for tomorrow. But anyway it was quite fine. Was it difficult to do what?

This is the longest track of the year. Well for sure it was quite tough because also it was a track that I was not normally coming to. Because I came in Moto3, I lost the racing moto to the first session and then I came back. For this, again it's not the easiest track for me. A track for a super flowing track like this.

But anyway we were saving the day, let's say. The only thing that we were losing a lot of time was understanding how was the way with these new things. But anyway, happy because at the end, more than anything, I lost the past to Coutu more than feeling a slope. That could be a set. Because, to be honest, I was making everything I know to do in a bike and I was not fast enough.

Today I was just trying to put everything together tomorrow to come past Coutu for this. Minimum happy because I feel comfortable and I feel fast again. Pedro, I know KTM have suffered quite a lot with vibration from the new rear tyre. And I know Brad and Jack suffered a lot with it. You less, why do you think that is?

Are you using the front brake to get rid of the chaser? Well, I was the first one to start to try with these things. And then they started to try it also. At the end we were trying to work a lot of time to compete with them or we were in advantage with them. We need to understand also that they are much taller than me.

For example, Jack is much heavier than me. Maybe at the moment that we start with this vibration, they feel it even more when they feel it. For me it's more small vibrations, always, and nothing sometimes. At the end, when you have a problem every week or you have this vibration every week and you cannot do anything, it becomes quite normal. So do you ride around it somehow?

Yes, you try to avoid it. At the end we are trying to play a bit more with the balance of the bike compared to the beginning of the season. It's true also that maybe the geometry that I can use are quite tough for them. For the reason that I say, because they are even heavier and even taller than me. For this, sometimes the weights that I am able to put in the front or in the rear are much less than what they can do.

It's quite strange, because some days I have the vibration, other days I don't have it, other days Jack is suffering like hell and no one is talking about that. For this it's quite even still a bit difficult to talk about. Which things you try that you like and which you don't like? We use one exhaust, we are using other ways to understand the inside of the engine. And it was a little bit better, for sure the exhaust we will continue with this one.

I take a bit of time, more than what I expect to understand about the engines, but I think it's clear for tomorrow. Also I was the only one that was having these two things in the engine and for this maybe I was taking a bit more time to understand and the calibration of the engine. Anyway, from the first exit of the day we make a big step in the things that we were suffering. We can see that I think it's the first time in the season that Jack and Brad were quite fast today. But anyway, with his info now we can make a big step also.

The first half of the season there was a lot of pressure put on you to get results fast, because Marcus was fast. Now that has subsided, that's gone down, or do you still feel this pressure? No, at the end we need to understand that we are in a moment that all the things that we need to make have to be in this season. And everything that we need to improve and make all the mistakes, we need to make it in this season. For this it's true that for me it was quite painful when I crashed in Barcelona, in Le Mans, in Asien in the last lap also.

But I think it's a process also. At the end Rome was not built in one day. For this, let's keep it this way. Which part of this track is the most fun? Is it the most adrenaline?

I think in Silvestre it's not a fun track. A fun zone of the track. Super flat, feel more like a Formula 1 track, super wide, everything fast. And arrive at a moment that you don't really realise where you are during the track. But anyway, if I have to choose one, sector two, going out from five until arrive to connect ten.

Thank you. I wasn't ready. Yeah, not easy. Not easy, struggling, struggling, I am struggling a little bit. Yeah, it's okay.

It improved a lot from the morning to the afternoon. Improved the bike a little bit, but yeah, it's definitely not easy. Because it's a faster track in Saxony? Yeah, I mean in the morning it was pretty lost to be honest, just with lines, because it's such a wide track. And for sure it's a faster track and I'm not used to the corner speeds of this bike and what's possible on a Michelin.

Yeah, definitely got my work cut out for me this weekend. But alright, we just need to keep calm, just keep chipping away at it like we did from FV1 to FV2. I'm going to go back now and we're going to sit down and go through data and do some electronic setup for me, which is what we miss a lot. Have you got some new items on the bike that you are testing for your market? Yeah, I was testing some new parts, especially now, some back to backs.

I can't say what they are, I'm pretty sure they'll kill me. But yeah, there's definitely some big parts that have been tested today. And you are doing the back to back testing? Pretty much, yeah. In the end it's a test team and I still need to do the tests for them even though it's a race weekend.

The electronics you mentioned, is that throttle connection, generally? Yeah, throttle connection, traction control, the way the traction keeps up with the spin, the way it acts, it's a bit of everything for sure. It's quite savage. It was not enough in the morning, then it was too much in the afternoon and we got to find that kind of happy point. A throttle connection to what's happening on the tyre without overspinning and obviously without keeping everything in control.

Not easy for sure, not easy to set up during two sessions, but now I'll sit down and go through every corner by corner. And then from far in, Namiq, was something different about the Rhinx bike that you tested? I think Aero was the same. I think Alex's bike had maybe the older generation and this is the new generation which Fabio had in the Radeon Saxon ring, if I'm wrong. Difficult to say, different track, I don't know if it's helping or not.

Yeah, it's not easy when you come back to back, it's difficult to say. Can you compare a Superbike to an Asian Biro? For sure it's more basic in Superbikes, not as complex electronics, for sure it's not as good. But there's 60 horsepower less in Superbikes and tyres with a lot more grip, so there's definitely less spin sometimes and it's a bit more easy to ride. I would ride a Superbike with no traction control, I could but it would be pretty sketchy.

It would be actually quite funny to see, it would be nice to just go alright, nobody's allowed traction control anymore. It would be quite fun actually. Thank you buddy. What was it like at the R? Also it looked like the temperature was right in between the medium and the high.

Yeah, it was difficult to make the right choice. The medium normally, I think for everybody but also personally I don't really like it because I don't get the good of the hard tyre and the good of the soft tyre. You don't have edge grip but you don't have the support for the hard braking. But everybody chooses the medium so it's ok. The problem is when some bikes can use the hard and you can't, this is the problem.

Today everybody went for the medium so no excuses and it was not a problem. We've been struggling with rear grip all the weekend, today we did step. I feel better, still it's too far but I could fight for something on the race. We need to work to get some more grip because tomorrow with the medium we'll be on the best position to put the medium down, to lose grip. So we need to find something.

Brad and Peral did a very good job on the race and Jack did the race with the medium so let's see how was he feeling. Towards the end of the sprint he had something extra so let's see if we can have more grip tomorrow. Does it look like KTM have made a step compared to other tracks this season? Does the bike feel better compared to other tracks or is it the same to you? I have the same bike.

Compared to other circuits, do you feel any better here compared to normal? That's normal? I'm struggling. Speaking with Pedro, he has something that is working a little bit better but they are still far. We see the pole uptime is still far, I think in the race they are going to be closer like in the sprint but maybe not for the win.

Are you still having rear vibration as well? There's just nothing you can do to get rid of this. We've been fighting with this vibration all the season. It depends on the track and the setting we are trying. We have more or less or also in different points of the corner.

It depends on the setting of the corner but it's like when you want to have it. Later or a little bit earlier on the corner or when you touch the gas. We set up the bike depending on the rider where you want to have the vibration but still there. OK, thank you. Anything to say?

No. No? No, I mean it has been a tough weekend in general till now. Especially till the sprint, just before the sprint we were trying way too many things. From one bike to another and I was going to the qualifying without any reference.

With one bike we had to ride in one way and with the other one in the other way. So I was completely lost already. We are struggling much more than usual. But I was really lost and in the sprint I said I wanted to have a base that I know more or less. And in the sprint it was much better still.

Not very good but at least we finished not super far from Jack that was 7th at the stage of the race. But yeah, we struggled quite a lot this weekend. But why do you decide to do this, to do that? If you know it's too much. It's too much but sometimes you expect things to be better and not to be worse.

Or say sometimes we have new items and we expect them to be much better. Sometimes the one that you expect the most is the one that doesn't really bring you some positive. So yeah, right now I think I was more like a test rider than a rider during the last races. So at the moment I prefer to focus a little bit more on trying to be as fast as possible. Because it has been a long time that I'm not using the same bike for at least two days in a row.

Do you use the same engine spec as you used at Aston in the Saxon round? Yes, same. And what other new stuff did you have here then? The new stuff that we have? We used also different engine.

Same spec? No, it's a different one. Two different spec. Two different spec, then we tried some difference on the electronic. But the problem is that, not the problem, I mean the thing is that the two engine is completely different on the way of riding.

So I go with one bike, the bike is much more heavy, but has better stopping performance. The other one is more light but doesn't stop. So you go to one braking, then you feel, oh fuck, I could brake later, then I could brake too late. So the other spec that you tried at Valencia, right? Because you tried two of those.

It's one of those, is it? Yes, one of them. Just to understand, you didn't use the new spec that looked a little bit slower in the big trip? Basically we tried three engines in Valencia, so we used two of them. One is going to take a bit more time.

But we are using two engine spec this weekend, so one will arrive later during the year. And that's the one that you really, really like, yes? Sorry? That's the one that you really, really like, yes? Basically the one I'm using now is the one that I also really like.

But in the test, it's one thing, but when you're racing with the others, it's different. But like I said, our bike is related way too much with the track condition. When the track condition is good, I mean Mugello is a track where you have to have a complete bike to be fast. We finished half a second from the pole position. It's a lot, but still acceptable.

But now we were 1.7, I never finished that far in my life to qualify. And the track condition for us was really bad and we could see on the results. You say today there are too many new items, at times there have been too little items. Do you feel like the rate of development is just not right at the moment? It's not too many new items, it's too many different bikes in every single run.

And then 4 laps, change of bike, 4 laps, change of bike, time attack. But we've reached bike. So it's complicated to get into really a bike where basically two years ago we had the same bike, even last year. I mean at the end of the season, we knew the bike was not so great, but we keep our base. And it's me putting the bike to the extreme limit.

And right now we cannot really do it because I have no idea where is the limit of the bike. Thank you. There you go, we can start. Yeah, not a bad day, we'll take that. I wanted a little bit more from Wally this morning.

I must have got a little bit too greedy at 14 and cut the curve on the inside and got the lap taken away. And then obviously the last lap was yellow flags. Not ideal, but that's how it goes. The start wasn't ideal, I just felt like I balked the jump a little bit. But anyway, got away through the first couple of corners pretty clean.

All the boys kind of went deep at four in the second part of that chicane. And I tried to hold the tire, but then Alex obviously squared the corner up and we made contact on the exit, smashed all my wings off. So the whole race with my own version of the aero. But the bike was working pretty well still. I think we were the only ones with the medium tire on the rear.

I was struggling a little bit in the early stages to stick with the boys. They were just accelerating a little bit more off the turn seven, turn eight and a couple other places. But it felt like around lap six, lap seven I sort of came to my own and was able to start fighting back a little bit. Or at least maintain the pace where they were starting to drop. So crucial data for tomorrow's race and yeah, we'll see what we can do.

Obviously nice to get some points on the board and fingers crossed we'll keep this moving forward. It looks like you got some of the feel back for the KTM. So what was it that you were missing and left it back again? I don't know. Going back to zero.

Just enjoying what I'm doing, focusing on enjoying riding the bike, not stressing too much. It's all about over so just need to enjoy these last few. Generally as they always say, a happy rider is a faster rider. I think that could be a little bit the case. I'm not hyper focused on what the future holds, just trying to enjoy the moment.

Is it tougher this time? Just the wind today I think. Obviously there's a lot of corners you sort of filter out that way but then obviously the wind was blowing a bloody galley the other day. So I didn't ask for more of the case than anything. You said yesterday that you thought this track, because it's got so much variety, doesn't require anything specific from a motorcycle like that, was helping KTM.

Would you still say that? Yeah I think so. You need to compromise in your setup let's say. And I think having that, not having the perfect bike around here, has definitely helped us I feel. Because it's nice to be going forward at the end.

Yeah definitely nice. When Vinnie came past I was really really trying to sink my teeth into those boys in front, Didger, Marcus, Brad and Pedro. But I just couldn't hang the pace. I was really really trying to get the pace. I just couldn't hang the pace.

I was really really risking it on the front end. Just trying to make up what I was losing in the drive areas. But I knew that could be the case with the medium tyre. But yeah when Vinnie came past he kind of had one lap that was hot. And then he threw the anchor out a little bit.

You could see it was starting not to drive the best. He was having to pick up the gas early in the corner. So I was like oh it's already sort of toast. And then yeah I was just sort of biding my time. Trying to find a decent overtaking opportunity and save the full lap.

And then I felt like the guys in front of me had almost done the same as well. So I felt like I was riding back towards them as well in the last two laps. Jack what was the moment Didger was talking to you about? Where you said you got sideways and... Oh when I passed Matt I think on the last lap.

I messed up. I knew he was braking a little bit earlier than what I was at turn six. So I knew I had a little bit of margin there. But then I got too carried away accelerating through five. Just really trying to be there to attack at six.

So I kind of lit it up a little bit too much and missed a little bit of the drive. So then it was a lunge from a bit of distance. But I knew where my braking point was and where I knew I was going to be able to pull it up by. But yeah I had to throw everything at it. Like obviously Bury in the rear brake and so on.

It was one of those ones. Just to try and hold the line as well. Not to drift wide and obviously get cut back on. So I was able to do so. Was that a good choice?

Was that as you wanted to? Or was it just a bit of both? A bit of both. I felt comfortable all weekend on the medium tyre from the get go. And I didn't feel it was a massive advantage to drift running the soft.

So for me it was more understanding what it's going to be like going forwards. And try to gain information I guess you could say. Obviously we had the KDMs. We've got some decent data there with that. Speaking of the 59s, I really felt like I could kind of hang around that time.

At least for another five or six laps. So I think that data will be crucial for the next race. Ok, we'll leave it there. Thank you. Cheers guys.

So how was the race? Well honestly a very difficult one. Not really having the opportunity to be close to the people. That's a bit the thing. So I decided to stay with Ondas.

I don't think that we must do anything crazy. And bring the bike to the box floor is the most clever thing to do in these conditions. That is a bit our situation at the moment. It's not getting better this weekend. I hope that we'll get better in the future.

So let's try to stay positive. To move, to make the race tomorrow. I think from tomorrow on we'll be in a different story. But different GPs. Because we will try new stuff, new upgrades.

So that will be helpful in terms of the mindset and everything. Not just coming here on Thursday knowing that you don't have the opportunity to be close to any bike. How much do you think you're losing on the straight? You said you were down on top speed yesterday. How much is that costing you?

In every straight we always compare with the people and in the videos. And in every straight we lose a lot of time. In every part of the straight that the riders don't do anything, you are losing time. So if you have a lot of straights like in this track, easy is one second and a half. It's just this.

But anyway, we know the limitations that we have at the moment. We just have to stay on the bike. So you said that from tomorrow on it will be kind of an objective, you will get new parts. Will you also get new parts for tomorrow? No, after tomorrow.

The thing is that two races ago we changed the engine configuration. That will be the line that the Japanese guys will take to improve the bike. So for me it was a step back to make two in the future. So that's why we lost a bit of personal performance. Is the engine first used in Barcelona?

Exactly. Then we remove it because I didn't like it and we put it back. Lucas seems a lot more happy than you. You say you got a bit of personal performance but you still seem to be singing from the same sort of song sheet. A different song sheet?

You and Lucas are saying more or less the same thing. Lucas' results are getting a bit better and yours are maybe... Yeah, but we are both 18 seconds behind. So I'm happy that he's happy. But I'm not.

That's the reality. At least tomorrow you will have one new part. New paint. After tomorrow. New paint.

That is the first step. The bike is by far more beautiful than now. Do you remember how that paint job was painted in 1982? I don't think you thought about it. It was right at the front, straight out of the box.

Fighting with Ken Robertson. The situation in this color will be different. But we are able to get one dance just for the history. We'll be very welcome. What you want to try for tomorrow is it all with you for Spielberg?

Because we have the long straights and everything there. To prepare maybe a little bit for Spielberg? In Spielberg we will have a different configuration in terms of the engine. That will be helpful. Spielberg is always a very good track for me.

So it's painful to go there without having the option. That is a bit of a thing. Let's try to... I think that if tomorrow we make a solid job. We make a small step in terms of performance on the bike for Spielberg.

I think we will make one big step forward. Just being closer to that group is what I want. I want to fight with the group first. But now we don't have the option. Thank you guys.

Good luck tomorrow. Pretty lucky to be on the crisis. To be back on the first floor. I am happy. The more difficult or the better thing for me now is...

Already I don't know the margin of the bike. We have to understand the bike. We have to do more kilometers. We have to see what is the limit. Today in the morning I was really close again to go to Q2.

That was really good for us. First time with this bike again we were really close to being in Q2. On the sprint the pace was quite nice also. I decided to go with the show front to try to be on the group and try to understand. In the moment that I was alone and I was in the last place I tried to do my best.

I was 12th at the end of the race. I think it was really good for us at the end. I did a lot of kilometers on the bike and the rest time. I know very well what is the good choice for tomorrow for the tire for the main race. I am happy.

I am really happy. Also with this bike I can be close. I can overtake better. This is basically what I miss with the old bike. Now I have and I have to understand also where we have the limit on the bike.

Because already we have a lot of margin. Can you say that it is a more aggressive bike? No, no it is not aggressive. With this kind of thing, the aerodynamic or the mind that they use with this bike, it is quite easier to fight with them, to try to overtake, to fight with them. So basically it is not aggressive.

It is just easier to be on a fighter. Where was the improvement for me? Where did you feel better? Basically just myself, learning the bike. This morning I was just working on getting off the brake and getting a bit of corner speed, trusting the tires a bit more.

That was good. We did a decent qualifying which I was quite happy about. I had a good start in the race. I got smashed into the tire by Darko on that lap 2 or 3. He turned 7th.

So I lost probably 2 or 3 seconds there. I probably may have finished the Tako if that didn't happen. Which is ok. I will fight with Tako for most of the race in the end. But yeah, definitely for sure I have got to play on a good through and on pace.

And I still have a bike I need to fine tune. I think we will get some good comments and if we can fight again with the hardest of them all, that will be a good result. Fabio has just said there are too many different parts, too many different combinations. You don't get as many laps on the bike as with him. But do you understand where he is coming from in terms of development?

Yeah, for sure. I have been trying one thing and the other and then a different one again. And bringing lots of parts, that is for sure. It is not easy to completely understand exactly what is going on. Even harder for me I think because I have just been thrown on Friday again.

So yeah, I think it shows that the commitment is there. They are trying. But yeah, for sure there is some work to do. So will you race with something else tomorrow or will you keep the bike? I think so actually.

I am pretty sure we will go back to a different one again for warm up. Are you enjoying the job? Yeah, it is good. Definitely feeling my test rider role at the moment. I came in here for the callous replacement which is a job.

It was basically laid out to be like we are a test rider this weekend. We are testing stuff. Yeah, we are definitely testing stuff. My hair was saying that your feedback was really good. Do you feel that is a calendar of yours like knowing all the mechanical side?

Yeah, I think the nice thing is what is happening is the comments that I am saying, you can actually see it in the data. I say something and they will go and check and say oh yeah actually you are completely right. You can see that clearly in the data. I think that maybe just, I have always kind of had that bit of a gift to kind of feel really what is going on. And also because my hobbies are mechanical and building engines and engineering and designing and everything.

That obviously helps understand the global picture a bit better of what is going on. That is for sure. But sometimes I kind of forget about that and just focus on riding. That is the balance. And I have actually got really good over the years at doing that.

Which I was much more invested before in setup of the bike and we should do this and that. And over the years I have really learned to kind of go when it is not my thing, when it should not be my decision. Leave it up to the team and just focus on the full gas. You see that as your future as that test rider developing. Do you get that fulfilment from so many hobbies?

Maybe in the future but man I am still young aren't I? I am still 26 and I still have a fire in my belly to go and race. And I still do enjoy getting out in super bikes and smashing elbows and racing. I do like it. Not at the moment honestly.

I don't think I will step aside. With Cal's injury looking quite troublesome and the recovery maybe not going to pan. Would you kind of see yourself slotting into his role alongside what he is quite duty? If the opportunity comes. The problem is it would either have to be one or the other I think.

Because I am putting the super bike thing at risk if I am doing a test rider role. If something happens there and I cannot go to the race. It is mudding the waters a little bit unfortunately. So I think it would have to be one or the other. But yeah there is nothing put on the table clearly yet.

So there is no decision to take yet. But it would be a tough decision to take. But I appreciate it and I know what I would do. Ok thanks.