Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain

Barcelona MotoGP Thursday Round Up: The Cost Of Success, Progress For Honda, And Ducati's MotoGP Strategy

By David Emmett | Thu, 31/08/2023 - 23:50

Watching Pecco Bagnaia as he sat in the press conference, you could see he was just exuding confidence. The reigning MotoGP champion and current leader in the standings knows he is the man to beat, and his body language shows it. He is happy, comfortable, and fast because of that. At every track we go to now, Bagnaia is the man to beat. Even at a track where his best result is only a sixth. His best result so far, that is.

How has Pecco Bagnaia transformed himself from being a good rider capable of winning to being the best rider in the first half of the season? "It’s not just one reason in my opinion," Luca Marini said. The Mooney VR46 rider should know, as he can study Bagnaia's data to try to improve his own speed.

"I think he’s improved a lot as a rider, when he went to the factory team," Marini explained. "You can see on the data, he’s upgraded his riding style. He worked on his weakness and the factory team helped him a lot to do this. He works with Gabarrini, who in my opinion is one of the best crew chiefs in the history of this motorsport with a lot of experience… they have a very good synergy."

Barcelona MotoGP Preview: Can Aprilia Or KTM Take The Fight To Bagnaia?

By David Emmett | Thu, 31/08/2023 - 11:55

The conundrum of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is that it is a proper motorcycle racing track. It has long corners, flowing sections, and hard braking places where you can overtake. It is one of the few tracks where the MotoGP bikes can properly stretch their legs as well. The current record through the speed traps at the end of the front straight is 355.2 km/h, set by Jack Miller back in 2021. That is behind only Mugello and Qatar in terms of outright top speed.

The track places a lot of demands on the tires. Michelin bring their hardest front compound to the Montmeló track, to cope with the demands of fast corners, hard braking, and high temperatures. The rear takes a lot of abuse too, spending a lot of time accelerating on the edge of the tire.

Despite that, or perhaps because of it, the circuit is also notorious for having absolutely no grip. It was always bad, and despite being resurfaced in 2018, the grip has barely improved. Finding traction at Barcelona is something of a quest, and one which teams usually fail, leaving riders to manage as best they can.

Brains, not brawn

Marco Bezzecchi Stays With Mooney VR46 For 2024 - Why It Happened And What It Means

By David Emmett | Wed, 30/08/2023 - 10:36

As we have been predicting for weeks, Marco Bezzecchi is to remain with the Mooney VR46 squad for the 2024 MotoGP season. Today, the Mooney VR46 team announced the Italian rider, currently third in the championship, has turned down the option of a guaranteed factory bike in the Pramac squad to stay with the team which he credits with saving his career and taking him up to MotoGP.

Bezzecchi had hinted at the decision in the podium press conference after the race in Austria. "I made already my decision. I cannot tell you what I will do. Soon I will communicate it," the Italian said at the Red Bull Ring.

He had also given a hint that he would be staying with VR46. "Vale is pushing a lot, to be honest, and I really appreciate this. To be pushed by the GOAT is something that not everyone in the world can say."

Alex Rins Still Out: Iker Lecuona To Fill LCR Honda Seat At Barcelona

By David Emmett | Tue, 29/08/2023 - 14:48

Alex Rins' long road to recovery continues. In a posting on Social Media, the LCR Honda squad have announced that the Spaniard will miss his home grand prix in Barcelona this weekend. Rins' place is once again to be taken by Iker Lecuona, who replaced the Spaniard at the Red Bull Ring as well.

Rins is still working on a return to fitness after a horrendous crash at Mugello, where he smashed the tibia and fibula in his right leg. When he spoke to the media two weeks ago in Austria, Rins explained he was only able to put around 30kg of weight on the leg, less than half his bodyweight. He was also suffering nerve pain in the leg.

Two weeks on from that, Rins' condition will be better than in Austria, but clearly still not enough to ride in Barcelona. With Misano the week after Barcelona, it seems unlikely that the Spaniard will be ready to return to action by then either.

How To Build A MotoGP Calendar, Part 2: Carlos Ezpeleta On Which Races Go Where, The Problems Of Transport, And Publishing The Calendar

By David Emmett | Tue, 25/07/2023 - 09:20

In the first part of this interview with Carlos Ezpeleta, Dorna's Chief Sporting Officer explained the political challenges of putting together a calendar for MotoGP. In the second half of our conversation, Ezpeleta discusses the contractual and logistical constraints on the MotoGP calendar. He gives us a peek into the 2024 calendar, and talks about balancing the input from the teams against the requests from the circuits.

Q: Coming to logistics, which is one of the most interesting factors. Races in Europe can only be held at a certain time. So for example, even though Finland was canceled, you could only race at the KymiRing in the summer. How do you slot all of that together? You’ve also got not just weather but also travel.

Carlos Ezpeleta: Yes. Let’s say that we know what events are going to be in the calendar for the year that we’re designing the calendar for. You start to sort of make a rough draft of that. Number one is your contractual obligations, which for example could be Qatar starting the calendar as the first race, and Valencia currently ending it. So, that’s pretty clear.

How To Build A MotoGP Calendar, Part 1: Carlos Ezpeleta On Balancing Politics, Logistics, And The Weather

By David Emmett | Mon, 24/07/2023 - 13:45

There is nothing quite as frustrating as the MotoGP calendar, to those inside the sport as well as those outside. Each time MotoGP's schedule is published, it is met with a mixture of excitement about the coming year, and irritation about the inevitable back-to-back races, gaps, clashes, and choices of venue. Fans are thrilled to see MotoGP at their favorite track, or disappointed that the series is going back to their least favorite track. And different fans will have diametrically opposite views of which tracks are best, and which should be ditched.

That is hardly surprising. You can't keep everybody happy, not least because putting together a calendar of 20+ events is an incredibly complex task. There are so many different factors to balance, many of which people outside the process are not even aware of. There's the logistics of getting from one circuit to another, weather, track availability, medical facilities.

You want to avoid clashes with F1 – something which gets harder as the F1 calendar expands – and try not to schedule races in the same country too close together. And there are only a limited number of circuits which are safe enough to hold a MotoGP race. Adding new circuits can be a process of years, and slotting them in means making space elsewhere.

Juggling act

In short, it is a complicated process fraught with a million headaches. The devil is indeed in the detail, and the details run deeper than most people realize.

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