Pecco Moto GP

[KINDOY2]

Moto GP

[Tom in Virginia]

Don't have a MotoGP pass for watching this year, so did Marquez earn a track limits warning for the last left hand turn at 2:47?  Looks like Pecco was dominating in smoothness and drive.  Thanks for sharing! 

[Tom in Virginia]

3 minutes ago, KINDOY2 said:

I love to watch MGP but was always too cheap to spend the money for yearly subscriptions ..now the last 2 years since covid my WIFE has become addicted to MGP and buys a subscription every year..and she doesn't even ride, but likes to Pillion...Some nights I turn in at 10pm and she sits up till 1am watching the Moto GP channel and up early Sundays to catch the races....knows more about it than me in some ways ha ha   

My kinda woman, esp. if she pillions too.    I am a lone wolf on all rides, wife gave me up on riding years ago now.  You are doing something right KINDOY2 for sure!!  

[p6x]

@KINDOY2

Nice examples of late braking not yielding when you can't make the turn with the best speed, and can't accelerate. Francesco Bagnaia had gotten it under control.

Marc Marquez could only attempt these last resort braking maneuvers and being overtaken right away since Bagnaia could re-accelerate earlier.

Apparently, he is the only Ducati rider that achieve this. Miller and Zarco are old school. We still have to see what the other two new bees are going to do. It seems that Jorge Martin is another one who understood how to be fast in corners too.

I used to be a MotoGP subscriber for more than 10 years, then they pissed me off with their stupid antics. Initially, they would ask you if you wanted to subscribe for one more year. Suddenly they started to roll it out automatically. Then they also hid where you could disallow automatic subscriptions.

I found this borderline fraudulent.

In any case, I was only in it for Valentino Rossi. Now that he is no longer competing, I am retiring from MotoGP entirely.

 

[p6x]

40 minutes ago, KINDOY2 said:

Pecco is a smart and very smooth rider..the best I have seen in quite awhile ..patient and  confident...even in interviews he is calm, pleasant  and even keeled...I real product good example of Vale's VR46 academy crew...And it doesn't hurt that he can be confident  that right now the Ducati's are performing so well.

I am a Rossi fan as well.., and follow his auto racing now, but all things change, rider's age out, skills wane.....and Bagnai seems like the right replacement for what I like in a rider..Humble ,Smart, and consistent.

I also like Fabio Quartararo's style. He is the ultimate example of how you can compensate sheer power with skillful riding. He is literally the only one capable of going head to head with the Ducati powerhouses. That speaks volume.

He is playing the field and I would not be surprised to see Gigi Dall' Igna swapping Jack Miller with him next year. I was thinking Honda as well, but it seems like Pol has finally gotten it together; of course Marc Marquez is untouchable, even more now.

I don't see Fabio venturing into the KTM world, and Suzuki seems to be happy with Mir and Rins.

Fabio Quartararo on a Ducati would be interesting; now if Francesco Bagnaia makes do on its abilities and gets on the good 2022 foot, then Fabio will have to settle for the M1 then.

To me Valentino Rossi was the icon of Motorcycling racing. It does not have the same spice on four wheels. Good for him that his name will carry him further; I don't know. Maybe if he does the Dakar, I would pay attention.

[Lucky Phil]

2 hours ago, KINDOY2 said:

 

Fast in, slow out. Nothing ever changes.

Ciao

[LowRyter]

I love Moto GP been to maybe 8 or 10 GPs.  Anyone interested in COTA in April, I'll likely be there.  Gonna miss #46.  Saw him get his last 2nd. Lots of photos too.  

I haven't heard about TV coverage this year.  

[cash1000]

 I've followed GPs for years. Been to Philip Island twice. Now subscribe via Spark Sport here in NZ. $25 a months gets you most of weekends coverage plus lots of other sports

[p6x]

@KINDOY2

Not sure if you knew, but Francesco Bagnaia renewed his contract with Ducati for two more years already. It was in the works, and had been announced as imminent.

This is good in a way, and proves that Ducati learned from its terrible pilot management past, I am referring to Jorge Lorenzo.

Speaking about Jorge Lorenzo, I have that theory that Ducati improved its handling notoriously under Lorenzo's guidance. Jorge Lorenzo has been my model pilot in terms of smooth racing. I don't think I have seen any other pilot with the same ability, while alone and devoid of any hindrance, laying down impeccable trajectories lap after lap, without faltering.

I am somewhat frustrated that after he finally found his marks on the Ducati, he switched rides because he knew he was going to be phased out. I always thought he had another world championship in him with this bike. Instead, he ended up with a bike built around Marc Marquez that only Marc Marquez could wrestle to reason. What a complete loss, and terrible handling by Ducati; in the end, Jorge Lorenzo almost crippled himself to paralysis.

Anyway, I think Francesco Bagnaia's riding style has similarities with that of JL99, and possibly today's better turning Ducati has something to do with JL99's passage.

[p6x]

1 hour ago, KINDOY2 said:

"of course Marc Marquez is untouchable, even more now"

I don't agree with that..

One thing is for sure..we will find out in a few weeks...

Oh but if you are "retiring from Moto GP entirely".....then  ? 

What I meant, is that Marc Marquez will remain at Honda as long as he wants to. They will never lay him off; That is why they signed him a four years contract when the typical max duration of a MotoGP pilot contract is two years or one year with an option for one more.

I don't know if Marc Marquez will be the same Marc Marquez we saw before. But he his a Honda and Repsol ambassador. Honda will not repeat the error they did when Valentino split with them.

If Marc Marquez leaves Honda, it will be on his own account.

Yep, I am freshly retired from MotoGP, since 2021. I am still on top of what has been happening. But I will not follow 2022 unless Johann Zarco does a back flip.

[Lucky Phil]

8 hours ago, p6x said:

@KINDOY2

Not sure if you knew, but Francesco Bagnaia renewed his contract with Ducati for two more years already. It was in the works, and had been announced as imminent.

This is good in a way, and proves that Ducati learned from its terrible pilot management past, I am referring to Jorge Lorenzo.

Speaking about Jorge Lorenzo, I have that theory that Ducati improved its handling notoriously under Lorenzo's guidance. Jorge Lorenzo has been my model pilot in terms of smooth racing. I don't think I have seen any other pilot with the same ability, while alone and devoid of any hindrance, laying down impeccable trajectories lap after lap, without faltering.

I am somewhat frustrated that after he finally found his marks on the Ducati, he switched rides because he knew he was going to be phased out. I always thought he had another world championship in him with this bike. Instead, he ended up with a bike built around Marc Marquez that only Marc Marquez could wrestle to reason. What a complete loss, and terrible handling by Ducati; in the end, Jorge Lorenzo almost crippled himself to paralysis.

Anyway, I think Francesco Bagnaia's riding style has similarities with that of JL99, and possibly today's better turning Ducati has something to do with JL99's passage.

Lorenzo is your typical "soggy cornflakes" GP rider. If the starts are aligned, the moons in the right phase, the bike is spot on, the track has the grip he likes etc etc, he's untouchable. BUT if he gets up in the morning and the "cornflakes are soggy" it's all over for the weekend may as well leave before the race. Stoner was the exact opposite as a rider. He would just adapt to the situation he was in, bike set up, conditions, tyres, grip, adaption is the key. Guys like Lorenzo need everything to be perfect then they're fast, not perfect, forget it. Troy Corser was another one and Troy Bayliss was the exact opposite, like Stoner.

Ciao 

[p6x]

3 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

Lorenzo is your typical "soggy cornflakes" GP rider. If the starts are aligned, the moons in the right phase, the bike is spot on, the track has the grip he likes etc etc, he's untouchable. BUT if he gets up in the morning and the "cornflakes are soggy" it's all over for the weekend may as well leave before the race. Stoner was the exact opposite as a rider. He would just adapt to the situation he was in, bike set up, conditions, tyres, grip, adaption is the key. Guys like Lorenzo need everything to be perfect then they're fast, not perfect, forget it. Troy Corser was another one and Troy Bayliss was the exact opposite, like Stoner.

Ciao 

Yeah, I don't disagree about Lorenzo being a prima donna, but he could still make it happen on the race track. Stoner had the in house "Bridgestone"; not that it removed any of his qualities, but that was a major trump card to have a tire manufactured for the bike, and only that bike.

What about Mick Doohan? and since we are at it, give me your thoughts about Jack Miller maybe? now that Bagnaia's contract has been renewed, this is going to have an effect on him.

[Lucky Phil]

1 hour ago, p6x said:

Yeah, I don't disagree about Lorenzo being a prima donna, but he could still make it happen on the race track. Stoner had the in house "Bridgestone"; not that it removed any of his qualities, but that was a major trump card to have a tire manufactured for the bike, and only that bike.

What about Mick Doohan? and since we are at it, give me your thoughts about Jack Miller maybe? now that Bagnaia's contract has been renewed, this is going to have an effect on him.

Mick Doohan was just an animal on a race track. I'd love to see Jack do well but I don't see him riding a works Ducati next season. Too many young fast guys in the Ducati stable and Jack like the majority seems to lack that last 1/2% needed to be a superstar and that's all that separates all of them these days. I always use this as an explanation. The average race track lap is around 100 seconds give or take and with .4 of a second covering the first 5 rows these days that means the guy in 15th position on the grid with basically no chance of getting on the podium is less than 1/2% slower than the pole man and the other guys further up the grid are obviously even less than that. There's not much margin between podium placer and also ran these days. Millers biggest issue is tyre preservation. All these guys can lay down a lap time and Miller better than most at dragging out a quick one off lap but the the real skill is in maintaining your speed and managing tyres come race day. No good having a bike setting that gets you onto the front row which you can't use during the race because it's too aggressive a set up for the tyres and then losing your speed advantage from qualifying because you can't produce the race speed with a race setup. In other word you need to be fast with the qualifying setting and also with the race/tyre preservation setting.

I worry that Miller doesn't have the "adaptability" in his style to take the final step. He seems to be more an "instinct" rider and that takes you to 99.7% not 100% where you need to be. He should look at some of the images taken of himself and Pecco at the same corners and the vast differences in their body positioning on the bike if he wants to eek out another little bit. Peccos fast and preserves the tyres so Miller might want to study and adapt his riding position to someone on the same equipment that's obviously got an advantage over him.

Having said all of that nothings from this coming season would surprise me and I wouldn't dare make any sort of predictions.

Ciao      

[Lucky Phil]

59 minutes ago, KINDOY2 said:

I think your observations on Miller were spot on...My wife and I are kind of thru getting revved up and then our hopes dashed for Jack race after race...He can be awesome until after 15 20 laps..then he blows thru the tires and its over for him....The 1/2% doesn't seem to be attainable for him...unfortunately

Well there's always Remy to follow as well now. I like this kid, unpretentious, has done a lot of hard yards and in his spare time his hobbie is modifying his old Volvo Amazon in his own nicely set up workshop. His only issue swapping to MotoGP is going to be he's a "slow burner" and I'm not sure he'll get the opportunity of 2 or 3 seasons to get to grips with a MotoGP bike. He is however talented and passionate about what he does in the workshop and engineering so I see a future for him post racing as a factory engineer. Take a look at "at home with Remy Gardner" on youtube. Likeable down to earth kid.

There's broadly speaking 2 types of riders at the top level, those that have an understanding of the technicalities and detail of set up and those that don't get involved and leave it too their crew chief. I dont think you can get away with being the latter anymore. Even years ago it separated riders but if you had a great crew chief you'd scape through. I don't think that applies anymore and now you not only need to be across the technical stuff as a rider but also you need to be looking in detail at every aspect of you competition as well. Thats why factory operations share all their data and a lot have rider coaches wandering the track looking at riding lines etc. I'm not sure Miller is that committed to this kind of stuff, I might be wrong but these days it's not optional anymore.

I remember Carl Fogarty struggling massively in the 1996 WSB series on the RC45 Honda. It wouldn't turn for him and he was struggling with it big time. On the other side of the garage Aaron Slight was getting the job done and getting top results. About 5 races in Foggy said they finally cracked the setup by raising the ride height by around 20mm or some extraordinary amount, so it was the same as Slighty's bike. I thought when I read this, how can you be in that situation with the handling and be parked in the same garage and not see the obvious setup differences between someone who's getting results and yourself. You can see that kind of ride height difference from 50M away. 

You need to be studying your adversaries and learning from the faster ones even as a factory rider. Interestingly another thing is physical strength, I'm sure part and only part of the reason Rossi became so uncompetitive in the last 4 or 5 years was he just didn't have the upper body strength necessary. I saw a recent shot of him and Marquez on holidays posing for a photo together in their swimmers. One looks like a body builder and one looks like a marathon runner. Not sure you can get away with that lack of upper body mass and strength anymore either. Too many riders get to factory level and look for the edge in the bike and setup with a whole team focused on your particular needs and forget most of the gains at that level are still in the hands of the rider and his ability to adapt and learn and stay mentally focused.

Ciao   

  

[Lucky Phil]

9 minutes ago, KINDOY2 said:

 

I agree on the conditioning..always long under estimated in any motorsports.

In my mind it was telling that during the most recent rounds of testing the new bikes. Bagnaia was never one on the fastest guys in time. When interviewed about that and asked on multiple occasion's if it concerned him ? Bagnaia  repeatedly said something to the effect of " I'm not worried about having the highest  speed right now. We have been busy trying all the different tire compounds and using only used tires during these sessions  to learn how far I can push them and how different ones at different wear levels  respond in different situations, other than that I am working with the new electronics and trying to learn how they work and how I can best use them...The speed  will be there."

I thought to myself,There ....is a thinking man.

 

 

Forget about the testing timesheet, it's largely irrelevant. The conditions are such that there is so much rubber laid down on the track that the times are misleading. Sure if you're dog slow then there's an issue but all the riders know track condition in testing aren't even close to the real world. Wonder why after 3 days testing in Qatar come race day the testing top boys are struggling? That's why. During a race week end the Moto3 bikes are out first and scrub the track clean of rubber and then the Motogp bikes go out. Non of this happens in testing so the conclusions are moot. This is why MotoGP riders also struggle when at some rounds they alter the race programme from the practice and qualifying so the Moto2 bikes race before them. They have set up their bikes during practice and qualy for a track surface scrubbed clean by Moto3 bikes then have to go out and race after the Moto2 bikes have laid down a races worth of their rubber. All the MotoGP setting are then not optimal. On top of that they all do a lot of laps and are pretty mentally and physically spent for the last 1/3 of it all.

Ciao