2025 Gran Premio YPF Energía de Argentina

Barbedwirebikerr said:

Yep, was common knowledge that Pecco improved in Sunday with his engineering team going through data and obtaining the best set up for Sunday. Good luck now Pecco, set up like Marc and you can't ride it.

Click to expand...

Might do better going back to the GP24 and copying Alex, who seems to be dialled into that bike and perhaps has a riding style which is a little more conventional.

Mrpurple said:

View attachment 15601

MM was playing that whole race...pass, instant .5 seconds

Trying to be a showman isnt really him imo.

Click to expand...

I don't think it was show. He did look like he was close to the limit during the laps right before he made the pass. Just seemed to have more tire left at the end.

gui22a said:

He's the highest IQ among riders

Click to expand...

That's quite a bold thing to say.

I wouldn't be able to say Pecco has the highest IQ of all riders as I have never met any of them.
Seems relatively smart despite making some mistakes though. (yes the drink driving was dumb)

Sennas_Caress said:

Interesting to hear on a pod that the last two seasons were ones where Pecco more or less copied Martin's set up for the Saturday, fine tuned it for the Sunday, while Marc is more or less not worth looking too much at since he is.... different gravy

Click to expand...

Yes I heard that too. Now it's the case that he has MM data, but he can't replicate it.

Barbedwirebikerr said:

Yep, was common knowledge that Pecco improved in Sunday with his engineering team going through data and obtaining the best set up for Sunday. Good luck now Pecco, set up like Marc and you can't ride it.

Click to expand...

Are Ducati able to access data from the Gresini team the same as they could with Pramac?
Maybe that’s the reason Pecco is contemplating going back to the base 24 setting so he can use Alex’s data?

Faz said:

Are Ducati able to access data from the Gresini team the same as they could with Pramac?
Maybe that’s the reason Pecco is contemplating going back to the base 24 setting so he can use Alex’s data?

Click to expand...

All Ducati teams share data, which is one of the reasons they've been so dominant.

I'm happy for my man BB33. Had a good start again, made up a lot of places and was able to fight a bit. I just wish KTM wasn't in the situation they're in. He really deserves better machinery.

Saffa said:

All Ducati teams share data, which is one of the reasons they've been so dominant.

Click to expand...

A strategy that appears to have been adopted by all of the other manufacturers

mikesbytes said:

A strategy that appears to have been adopted by all of the other manufacturers

Click to expand...

It's always been the case (I think), but usually the manufacturers have 4 bikes. Ducati had 8!

Saffa said:

I'm happy for my man BB33. Had a good start again, made up a lot of places and was able to fight a bit. I just wish KTM wasn't in the situation they're in. He really deserves better machinery.

Click to expand...

Amen!

mikesbytes said:

A strategy that appears to have been adopted by all of the other manufacturers

Click to expand...

Same with aero
Same with European based testing team
Same with incremental development that makes it to the track not just testing
Same with a satellite team that have the latest spec bike

I remember in the 90s Mick Doohan being unhappy that Alex Criville had access to his settings.
A fair bit less "data" back then but set up would have been important.

gui22a said:

He isn't the most talented guy in the paddock but he's the highest IQ among riders

Click to expand...

What are you basing this on? Can you show me his IQ test? Fact is motorcycle racing isn't Rocket science. Engineering is but he has nothing to do with that. Can you send me a link to Einstein's pb at the Sachsenring?

MdubSTYLIE said:

What are you basing this on? Can you show me his IQ test? Fact is motorcycle racing isn't Rocket science. Engineering is but he has nothing to do with that. Can you send me a link to Einstein's pb at the Sachsenring?

Click to expand...

Based on the fact that despite not being a natural talented rider as Stoner, Marquez or even Martin, not being a super fast rider, still he was able to win a lot of races, recover from very difficult moments and won 2 championships, almost 3 if not by silly mistakes, but won 13 races against Martin 6 in last year on the same machinery. That's the ....... double of the world champion, a really fast guy. You can't do that sort of thing without a high inteligent quotient. You just cannot. He use his adaptative inteligence to compensate his lack of talent and natural skills. I'm not saying he's the smartest ever, no, but among current line up, yes.

Before Bagnaia, we've seen the same with Lorenzo. I'm sure Lorenzo has even more IQ than Bagnaia. Jorge wasn't the kind of guy who had constantly been on a MX track developing riding skills. He didn't do that. Despite that he managed to dominate so much races by a big margin.

You feel when a guy has IQ just listening to him on some ocasions. Take some time to watch interviews and lifestyle videos of Pecco and you'll have the same feeling: hey, this guy really has some brain power.

warthog1 said:

That is possible, but Alex wouldn't have it on the '24.
I am seeing an underlining of just how good MM is rather than how weak Pecco is.

Click to expand...

If we assume the GP25 is all new, and the final satellite version of the GP24 is lacking several key developments, then true.

Prior seasons the assumption above was the rule. With 2027 on the horizon, and the loss of Pramac, it's difficult to say how much development is occurring at Ducati. Also, now that Ducati only has one factory team, I wonder how they are gaming the satellite system to keep their edge.

Guess I should read up.

The problem is we’re only told what we’re allowed to know and half of that is smoke and mirrors.

gui22a said:

Based on the fact that despite not being a natural talented rider as Stoner, Marquez or even Martin, not being a super fast rider, still he was able to win a lot of races, recover from very difficult moments and won 2 championships, almost 3 if not by silly mistakes, but won 13 races against Martin 6 in last year on the same machinery. That's the ....... double of the world champion, a really fast guy. You can't do that sort of thing without a high inteligent quotient. You just cannot. He use his adaptative inteligence to compensate his lack of talent and natural skills. I'm not saying he's the smartest ever, no, but among current line up, yes.

Before Bagnaia, we've seen the same with Lorenzo. I'm sure Lorenzo has even more IQ than Bagnaia. Jorge wasn't the kind of guy who had constantly been on a MX track developing riding skills. He didn't do that. Despite that he managed to dominate so much races by a big margin.

You feel when a guy has IQ just listening to him on some ocasions. Take some time to watch interviews and lifestyle videos of Pecco and you'll have the same feeling: hey, this guy really has some brain power.

Click to expand...

Elon Musk has a high IQ and he sounds like a lunatic when he speaks. Well because he is one. Point being you can't tell how smart someone is just by listening to them talk. You can tell how dumb someone is but sometimes morons can be well spoken.

The fact that Pecco isn't naturally as talented as some of the best does not make him smart or high IQ. And him being smart has nothing to do with him find form on sundays. That high IQ falls on his crew for stealing Martins data come sunday. He isn't adapting his crew is adapting the bike to his needs. If he was truly high IQ he would adapt mid race or be smart enough to know when not to throw the bike down the road. He would be smart enough to not say, I don't even know what happened when he crashes or blame a bad tire for a bad result. He has benefited 100% because of being on the best bike on the grid for years and his teams ability to adapt the bike to him. He has shown no abilty to adapt. Marc on the other hand has adapted an entirely different style of riding on the ducati. Thats not only talent but smart. Dare I say high IQ smart. But nothing Pecco says or does tells me he has a high IQ. I'm not calling him dumb by any means. Although he has made some dumb choices both on and of the track. But as the great MichaelM would say, both of us are playing cod psychologists and have no idea how smart or dumb these riders are.

One thing is for certain, a good low IQ rider example would be Marco Bezzecchi.

“It was my mistake - I braked too late,” Bezzecchi said. “I managed to miss Franco Morbidelli, but unfortunately, I hit Fabio Quartararo's rear tyre.

“So a bad mistake by me. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise to Fabio. I've already apologised to his team.”

Bezzecchi was given an 'Official Warning' by the FIM Stewards, as it was his first offence of the season.

Click to expand...

After nearly murdering Maverick at Phillip Island last season, it seems he is picking up where he left off.

Barbedwirebikerr said:

Yep, was common knowledge that Pecco improved in Sunday with his engineering team going through data and obtaining the best set up for Sunday. Good luck now Pecco, set up like Marc and you can't ride it.

Click to expand...

I wasn't aware of that. I thought they had access to data AFTER the race weekend. Sounds like cheating to me. Ha ha. And glad he can't do that with Marc, since he can't ride like him.
And some folks are smart for cheating, but that doesn't mean they're high IQ. You just can't know from our vantage point. It's like saying Marc is smarter than Pecco because he speaks more languages. You'd have to test both to find out. I think it's safe to say both are pretty smart.

MdubSTYLIE said:

Elon Musk has a high IQ and he sounds like a lunatic when he speaks. Well because he is one. Point being you can't tell how smart someone is just by listening to them talk. You can tell how dumb someone is but sometimes morons can be well spoken.

The fact that Pecco isn't naturally as talented as some of the best does not make him smart or high IQ. And him being smart has nothing to do with him find form on sundays. That high IQ falls on his crew for stealing Martins data come sunday. He isn't adapting his crew is adapting the bike to his needs. If he was truly high IQ he would adapt mid race or be smart enough to know when not to throw the bike down the road. He would be smart enough to not say, I don't even know what happened when he crashes or blame a bad tire for a bad result. He has benefited 100% because of being on the best bike on the grid for years and his teams ability to adapt the bike to him. He has shown no abilty to adapt. Marc on the other hand has adapted an entirely different style of riding on the ducati. Thats not only talent but smart. Dare I say high IQ smart. But nothing Pecco says or does tells me he has a high IQ. I'm not calling him dumb by any means. Although he has made some dumb choices both on and of the track. But as the great MichaelM would say, both of us are playing cod psychologists and have no idea how smart or dumb these riders are.

Click to expand...

Big picture thinkers always sound nuts. I used to mess with people on here for failing to see things, some of which (e.g. performance controls in WSBK) were obvious. Musk is a big picture thinker among big picture thinkers, but his insane intellectual meandering is significant. For people who are not aware, the orthodoxy among the wealthy and intellectually powerful is that the world is overpopulated, and maintaining the population is holding back humanity. The orthodoxy supposes that the nation state is to blame because nations grow more powerful with sustainable population. The nation state has been identified as being the cause of numerous problems from war to pollution to fragmented economic markets. Since the industrial revolution, the purveyors of the latest orthodoxy have made transparent efforts to usurp the modern nation state. Formation of the EU. Forcing one-child policy on China. Etc.

Musk, the richest man in the world, comes along and says "Global government and population controls are nice, but what are you gonna do when the sun explodes?". It's an insane question, but it also reveals the small-minded intellectual inbreeding of Western plutocrats.

Anyway, I agree about Pecco. Plenty of people can succeed in good circumstances. Few people have the intelligence and tenacity to succeed in bad circumstances. However, imo, Pecco is being somewhat unfairly judged for struggling in 2025 and for failing to 3-peat. He raised his point total in 2024 by 21pts, but he lost. How often has that happened for a defending champ? Score more points and lose? With the exception of the C19 champion, I can't think of an instance. I get the sense Pecco's place in the sport will not be known until he hangs up the leathers.