Yes and he can probably keep Alex in a job at Gresini as well.
His reputation from his two title years. He was no longer extraordinary as a rider when I started watching GP bike racing, and doesn’t seem to be great as a steward. I am inclined to believe contentions that his extraordinary feat of winning 2 world titles simultaneously broke something in him. I guess it looked like good PR to Dorna to have such a legendary rider as chief steward.
Audi gave Marquez a RS6 Avant, about a $100,000 car so you would think they like him a little. I'm thinking they might would have a say in what bike he rides next year.
Fabio D. has had some solid outings this year as he gets used to the GP23, a 5th today is nothing to scoff at, he is in the top 10 in points and just a few points from moving up, not to mention doing much better than his vaunted team mate !!!
The notion that top speed on the straightaway is the key to wins, historically, has been disproved over and over again. Look back at all the years when the Yamaha was the bike to be on, when in fact it was - relatively - underpowered, but was still the preferred bike on which so many championships were won, because of handling, NOT top speed. How many time in the earlier days of Ducati development from back as far as Stoner's first year, did we hear the constant refrain about it's massive power on the straight, only to see it passed in the technical parts of the track because it wouldn't turn? The putative advantages of the '24 bike over it's predecessor, are the updates to its aero package, electronics updates, chassis and doubtless, other things that Ducati and the factory riders aren't readily sharing with the press. Which BTW - would go a long way towards explaining why the riders on the '24 bikes are doing a better job of qualifying and getting off the line at the start.
I probably shouldn't speak for gui22a but that's not now I interpreted his post. He merely stated at this race with a fairly long straight, the GP23 was faster in a straight line when we've been hearing how the GP24 has made yet another step in top-end speed. Your points are well taken though. Ducati always seemed to have the outright speed but they couldn't get the bike to turn. The solved that and voila, championships. I was quite impressed with Pedro's bike flying down the straight. Damn shame he crashed though I was getting the same feeling I had about Raul in the sprint. It just felt inevitable due to how hard he was pushing.
I recall Crutchlow on the GP14.1 ease up on the last lap while in a safe 2nd place. The front tyre cooled and he crashed because of it
Yeh, not many European bikes behind him in the championship
Sure, I don’t doubt how great Freddie was as a racer, winning the 250 and 500 titles in the semi modern era was incredible and even if you were allowed to run in both ‘moto 2 and MotoGP now I doubt his feat could be repeated, and he obviously beat no less a rider than Eddie Lawson to win the 500 title as well. He seemed to be first in the line of extraordinary riders who have won most of Honda’s titles, and Casey Stoner my all time favourite even ahead of Mick Doohan also “only” won 2 titles, although like Freddie both were won imo in particularly brilliant fashion.
Sure, but I think I will be waiting a long time to see a GP23 pass a GP24 on the straight, and Gigi is a fairly good designer/engineer and would have designed the overall bike package of the GP 24 to be better than the GP23, which is where the dispute arose, not that I have a problem with gui22a’s posts in general.
I'm not saying that GP24 is faster in straight lines than GP23 but your argument is not really relevant. Marquez had soft rear tyre that provides better corner speed so he was able to leave T14 faster than those who choose medium, especially in first laps and Marquez got some aspirations (widely seen on TV) while Martin and Banania didn't get lot of ones.
