MotoGP

[p6x]

The latest gossip of this pilots' musical chairs comes from WSBK and Toprak Razgatlioglu.

After his three in three wins at Misano for BMW, his manager said that Toprak is willing/wants to move to MotoGP from 2025, exclusivelyhttp://gallery.cyclegarden.com/GuzziGirls/picture.php?/2041/category/80 in a factory team.

I find this information plausible, as we know that Honda and Yamaha have openings in the factory teams, probably Honda more than Yamaha since Toprak did a test on the M1 which did not turn as successful as expected.

But the guy is really talented, and it would really be interesting to see him part of the MotoGP.

Toprak seems to be able to make the difference if you compare his performance with that of the other BMW riders in the WSBK championship. Similar to Pedro Acosta on the GasGas Tech 3, outclassing the factory KTM pilots. Not forgetting Marc Marquez who is also doing very well on the Gresini GP23 in regard to his brother and the VR46 boys.

 

[p6x]

For the British GP, all the MotoGP bikes will bear retro-decorations to commemorate the 75 years of motorcycle Grand-Prix.

It is going to look great!

[GuzziMoto]

Rumor has it Aprilia signed Marco Bezzecchi for next year to replace Mav. Should be good.

Looking forward to Assen this coming weekend.

[p6x]

Marco Bezzecchi was indeed signed in by Aprilia.

The last shoe to drop now, is the Pramac team.

Will they remain with Ducati, or will they switch to Yamaha? if they switch, it means that VR46 bike freed by Bezzecchi will become a hot ticket. Morbidelli and Aldeguer are going to fight for it.

Assen is definitively promising; Bagnaia will look at making a third win in a row, Marquez will look at making it his first win, Martin will look at showing the others that he is there to win the championship.

Also, not to forget, but Pedro Acosta has only two more attempts to become the youngest winner of a MotoGP race, and steal that distinction from Marquez.

Assen will be his next.

The Toprak Razgatlioglu move to MotoGP seems to have cooled down a bit, following BMW's announcement that he had a signed contract for 2025. The wording has now changed to a possible migration to MotoGP should BMW agrees with it.

Remains Jack Miller...

[LowRyter]

what about Joe 16 ?

[GuzziMoto]

I don't understand why Pramac would leave Ducati and sign with Yamaha. Who would want the Yamaha on the grid. The Yamaha factory team has to run them, why would any other team run them by choice? If Pramac were truly pissed off at Ducati for how they treated them it would seem signing to run a pair of KTMs would be smarter, and I am sure KTM would make them a good deal. But many media outlets are reporting Pramac's defection to Yamaha as a done deal. Although it is not official yet. If Pramac does bail, whomever gets the factory Ducati's that frees up would likely also end up with Aldeguer. Ducati is supposedly obligated to put him on one of the factory bikes, so their factory bikes would come with him as one of the riders. That would work well if VR46 gets the two factory bikes, as they would be able to take FA as well. I think Ducati messed up signing him so soon, but everyone seems really anxious to sign up anyone who might be the next great talent.  Look at KTM and their huge score with Pedro Acosta. That worked great. But for everyone that is a win like that there are more that are a fail.

I hope Acosta wins Assen. As to Toprak, I think a lot of speculation is being added on top of reality. It sounds to me like Toprak is trying to push BMW into entering MotoGP.

[Tomchri]

Leaving tomorrow morning for Assen, looking forward.

Cheers Tom.

[p6x]

1 hour ago, Tomchri said:

Leaving tomorrow morning for Assen, looking forward.

Cheers Tom.

Are you riding a motorcycle, or are you flying?

[p6x]

7 hours ago, GuzziMoto said:

If Pramac were truly pissed off at Ducati for how they treated them

Latin people can be irrational sometimes. We do not have all the information to really understand what went on.

Let's not forget business is business, and Yamaha is possibly spending a fortune to get Pramac onboard. There is also the Marc Marquez slight at their expense. He had some derogatory thoughts about working with Pramac in the interview that made Ducati do an about-face after telling Martin he was the chosen one.

Personally, I would not mind having some rebalance of the field and Ducati got it together now, so losing one team is not going to change much. They have the dream team, Bagnaia / Marquez next year. They can't have their cake and eat it.

As for BMW, I doubt they would join before the next set of rules apply.

Toprak is 27 years old in 2024. The new rules begin in 2027, when he will be 30 years old. Not canonical, but given that he starts from scratch, time will work against him. At least, all the manufacturers will also start from a blank sheet.

I say, if he is to attempt to win a championship, he needs to come sooner than later.

[p6x]

8 hours ago, LowRyter said:

what about Joe 16 ?

No word so far.

[Lucky Phil]

The problem here is all this speculation is just that, journalists speculation. What amazes me is that with a whole army of jurnos involved in Motogp all the news is just second guessing. It's all just background noise to me these days, like the hum of passing freeway traffic. Even the Commentators know zero details about anything and they live and breath it and work in the circus itself. I often wonder why the hell they have things like pitlane interviews with team principle or riders because you can't hear a thing over the engine noise and the interviewee is trained to talk a lot but say nothing. Totally pointless. I turn the sound down as much as possible. I wish there was an option to hear the bikes and not the clowns that commentate. 

Matt Oxley posted on social media a few days ago that a request for an interview with a particular rider was met with a condition of submit all your questions, they will choose which ones they want to answer and no deviation from that. It's not motorcycle racing anymore it's F1 on two wheels and who the hell wants that. It's the old story, popularity has it's happy zone and when it goes beyond that it's detrimental to the endeavour. We have gone beyond the happy zone in MotoGp and now it's a business first and foremost. 

 

Phil 

[gstallons]

Your last sentence says it all.

[Tomchri]

Are you riding a motorcycle, or are you flying?

Usually with the bike, but the misses have been asking for years to see a race. She won this year, so streching the rods on the 340D.
Cheers Tom.

Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

[p6x]

It's now official: Pramac has signed with Yamaha.

[GuzziMoto]

1 hour ago, p6x said:

It's now official: Pramac has signed with Yamaha.

Sucks to be them.

Word is Yamaha is giving them bikes for free and paying their riders salaries. So all they have to pay for is the day to day expenses of running the team. The big ticket costs are being covered by Yamaha. But who wants to be one of their riders? Mostly they are going to be looking for guys who are well past their sell by date and on their way down or new guys who may not really deserve a seat. And I would think their sponsors will be looking for the door, they were paying their money to sponsor a team that is running at the front and challenging for the title. Starting next year that will come  to an end and they will likely be fighting to not be last. Who wants to pay good money to sponsor that? At a minimum they would likely be willing to pay a lot less, if they even want to continue at all. And sponsorship is generally where teams make their money.