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2024 Round 21 Valencian GP of Catalunya
- Thread starter MdubSTYLIE
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Yes, as has been said , he thrives under pressure, and has dominated the end of the last 3 seasons, although he left it too late this season against a worthy adversary on the same bike as him who rode intelligently. Both he and Martin have crashed out leading on their own on a number of occasions in the last 2 seasons and that may be at least partly down to how the bike operates, or the bike in combination with the Michelin tyres at least.
As is my wont I place some blame on Rossi, the two dnfs due to crashes with the Marquez brothers were crucial at least arithmetically, and he needs to treat them as riders he is racing and take his own best advantage if contesting either of them rather than as the abominable Marquez brothers who require different handling/being put in their place as seemed to be Valentino's advice. MM in fact spent the whole season being very careful not to crash into him. He does seem to have moved away from a hardline Valeban stance of his own volition anyway.
I want MM to win the 2025 title obviously, but if he doesn't may the best rider win, and I have no problem if that rider is Pecco, although Martin would probably be my next preference as a fan. I did say before the last race that it would be to MM's advantage for 2025 if Pecco didn't win the title, and that was because I also thought the advantages would be with Pecco in 2025 for the reasons you say, which would have been more pronounced imo had he been the homegrown Ducati guy who had won 3 titles on the bounce rather than the guy who was just beaten by a guy riding for a satellite team. I doubt Gigi cared as much as some in the Ducati Corse management did about the latter however, his bike still won both titles and could hardly have been more dominant. If he was able to give Martin the same bike I anticipate MM and Pecco will have also equal bikes next season, if anything it might go the other way given that in the pits next to MM he looks like a Taylor Swift fan who got to hang out with her backstage at a concert. I am told Domenicali looks like he wants to ask for an autograph in MM's company as well.
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Yeah I expect them to have equal bikes but the bike they will have, has had significant input from Pecco, so you'd expect it to cater to his style.
With respect to the team being in awe of Marc, perhaps, makes sense to a degree, given the work it took to overcome him. Yes if Pecco won 3 on the trot, as an Italian on an Italian team, that would add to his sway.
I don't see that any respect Marquez has places him ahead of Pecco and his established understanding of, and relationship with, the team and bike though.
He will be a big challenge for Marc to overcome.
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Marc has proven over the course of the season, that he is adaptable. Adaptable to the point that he could challenge other riders with much more Ducati experience, on a lesser, dated model. As has been said over and over again here on this forum, the Ducati really flatters a good rider. Assuming Marc stays healthy, I think his superior ability will largely negate any experience/advantage with the Ducati that Pecco may enjoy.
I've read..or maybe it was Matt Birt talking...about Marc having a good relationship with Frankie Carchedi so I'm wondering how he'll get on with his new crew chief.
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I hope that is the case but as I said it is my opinion some of that advantage has been negated by aero and ride height. We will see next year. Tbh I expected more from him this year even though he was ahead of the other GP23 riders with more experience on the Ducati. The gap to Pecco and Martin was still insurmountable at plenty of circuits but yes the GP24 appears to have been a big step.
He is still the best I've watched but the riding style has changed with the current bikes.
I preferred Stoner in his two dominant title winning years but MM sustained a similar peak much longer, and may even still be at or close to that peak, and dealt with (in fact thrived upon) what Stoner couldn’t. I liked what Shuhei Nakamoto said when MM had “only” won his first 2 premier class titles, Marc has faster reflexes but Casey is a genius on a bike . He didn’t repeat that statement to my knowledge while MM was racking up 4 more titles, and rightly so even imo.
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I know zero about the new crew chief as a personality. That said, loyalties to the Italian side of the garage aside, it seems likely that he will want Gigi wants - and that's results. It's not like he just heard Marquez was coming to the team yesterday. He's had plenty of time to adjust to the idea of multiple times world champion coming into the garage. Marquez is a pretty charismatic guy and a total pro - which his new crew chief is bound to appreciate. Moreover . . . he'll no doubt appreciate a rider who doesn't sulk and make constant excuses about how some aspect of the bike failed him. Marquez will be a friggin' ray of sunshine in the Ducati garage.
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True enough, but the way I think on it, 2024 was Marquez's learning year. Again (not to beat a dead horse) his capacity to ride around the idiosyncrasies of the crappy Honda is not something he left behind at HRC. He's had a year to work out a different style of riding. He'll be fine in 2025. Barring injuries or DNFs not of his making, next year promises to be another close competition between him and Pecco.
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