2025 Silly Season

MotoGP Forum

Help Support MotoGP Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I've been of the belief that part of HRC's problems lie with Puig. He's not been a good team principal at all and they have slowly gone backwards under his watch. Though not all of this can be blamed entirely on him as HRC themselves also are part of the problem. I just don't see how hiring a guy who chased off Dani Pedrosa to KTM could be considered a good hire. If Dani were still at HRC, I feel the RC213V would never have gotten to this point.
Puig isn't a good manager in my eyes but I don't think he's the one engineering the bikes right now. Honda has a development problem, Yamaha used to have it too, but they recognized the problem and took steps to get out of the hole. Honda is still doing things "the Honda way", not hiring from outside, not revamping their structure. Time will tell if they can get out of their slump by themselves but they could end up like mirroring their WSBK efforts.
 
Puig isn't a good manager in my eyes but I don't think he's the one engineering the bikes right now. Honda has a development problem, Yamaha used to have it too, but they recognized the problem and took steps to get out of the hole. Honda is still doing things "the Honda way", not hiring from outside, not revamping their structure. Time will tell if they can get out of their slump by themselves but they could end up like mirroring their WSBK efforts.

Well I agree he's not engineering the bikes but chasing Pedrosa off was just monumental stupidity and short-sightedness. I still will maintain they'd be in better shape if he was their primary test rider and not Stefan Bradl. If they don't figure out how to get a Yamaha-like setup with testing, it's going to be a long two years till 2027.
 
Well I agree he's not engineering the bikes but chasing Pedrosa off was just monumental stupidity and short-sightedness. I still will maintain they'd be in better shape if he was their primary test rider and not Stefan Bradl. If they don't figure out how to get a Yamaha-like setup with testing, it's going to be a long two years till 2027.
As I remember it, that was a personal decision arising from the bad blood from how Pedrosa and Puig ended their previous relationship (As talent and manager ). Which of course was not very professional.

I do agree that he should push harder for the factory to respond with new parts and a development plan, but hopefully, getting A. Espargaro on board is a step in that direction.
 
As I remember it, that was a personal decision arising from the bad blood from how Pedrosa and Puig ended their previous relationship (As talent and manager ). Which of course was not very professional.

I do agree that he should push harder for the factory to respond with new parts and a development plan, but hopefully, getting A. Espargaro on board is a step in that direction.

Yes it was entirely due to bad blood that Pedrosa got the boot, which tells me volumes about Puig as a manager. He helped hamstring the race team just to settle a personal vendetta against a rider as I recall he nearly killed at the Sachsenring in 2008. When he had the false information put out on the pit board to cause Dani to push harder than he should have been and had that massive crash

.
 
In an era of significantly diminishing returns on a 1000cc engine, to be able to get an additional power advantage out of the Desmo is nothing short of huge. Every tenth of a second counts, and if you can get a bike to do 5 tenths or a little more better per lap time, that is an enormous advantage to have in the modern grand prix motorcycle era. Pecco finished just under 4 tenths better than Marc. Bezzecchi nor Alex Marquez could come close to maintaining the pace needed to be in striking distance for a win today. Bezzecchi was almost 4 seconds down at the end of the race. He was never a factor after MM passed him.

Again, you continue to ignore that MM is on the season opener GP23. That's over a year ago. Improvements have been made engine-wise and aerodynamics wise. Gigi knows what these motorcycles are capable of.

Your probably correct grammar wise, however it is a slang statement and hence it is what it is. English is a horrible language, I have to keep training my wife in how to phrase things, such the challenge for those like her who speak it as a second language.
I think every language has its crazy pointless specifities, Portuguese has many as well.

Simple in my case, I am an aging Luddite with poor typing skills and repeatedly type “on” instead of “in” when I type on my iPhone, happens when I type emails as well.

In the olden days when I only posted on a computer I had some renown for not making spelling errors on here.
I can't figure out when to correctly use IN, ON or AT in many cases lol it's just too much for me hahahha, maybe with 10 more years I'll get there!
 


His frustration is understandable. He probably views himself (rightly, imo) as an integral part of Ducati's talent development, and an integral part of Ducati's current streak of constructor's championships. Ducati personnel are being promoted internally, but Pramac et al are basically receiving a demotion. That's a bitter pill. Ducati cash out, but Campinotti might not be receiving enough slop in his trough.

It's also difficult to understand what he means regarding the factory celebrating Bastianini's overtake of Martin. We presume he's upset because the factory is celebrating Pecco scoring additional points on Martin, but it could have another meaning. At that moment he could have realized that the factory no longer sees Pramac as their rear guard. They no longer celebrate Pramac for demoting factory Aprilias and KTMs, instead the factory team views Pramac as an adversary. Perhaps this was a radical departure from previous seasons, and it was the moment he knew that his standing and relationship as a satellite team boss had changed in Bologna.

Regarding Marquez to the factory Ducati team, while I do not consider it to be the logical choice, and while Pernat insists Dorna were behind the move, we can't completely rule out the possibility that Ducati were already moving to hire Marquez. Ducati have been firing on all cylinders for the last 4-5 years, and they could have pulled a Br'er Rabbit. Dorna approached them to move Marquez to the factory team, but Ducati were like "No, please don't throw me in the briar patch!!". Things have been going so well for Ducati, I can imagine them billing Dorna for something they were already planning to do!
 
can't figure out when to correctly use IN, ON or AT in many cases lol it's just too much for me hahahha, maybe with 10 more years I'll get there!
Don’t worry about it, we can usually understand the post regardless

Think there is too much reading into Bastianini overtaking Martin;
- a manufacturer wants to see their bikes at the top
- a sponsor wants to see their brands at the top
- a team wants to see their team at the top
- a staff member wants to see their rider at the top
 
Think there is too much reading into Bastianini overtaking Martin
I think his point of contention was that while he understands someone like Tardozzi (Ducati Lenovo team boss ) celebrating, he couldn’t digest the Ducati CEO and some other corporate personnel doing the same.
 
His frustration is understandable. He probably views himself (rightly, imo) as an integral part of Ducati's talent development, and an integral part of Ducati's current streak of constructor's championships. Ducati personnel are being promoted internally, but Pramac et al are basically receiving a demotion. That's a bitter pill. Ducati cash out, but Campinotti might not be receiving enough slop in his trough.

It's also difficult to understand what he means regarding the factory celebrating Bastianini's overtake of Martin. We presume he's upset because the factory is celebrating Pecco scoring additional points on Martin, but it could have another meaning. At that moment he could have realized that the factory no longer sees Pramac as their rear guard. They no longer celebrate Pramac for demoting factory Aprilias and KTMs, instead the factory team views Pramac as an adversary. Perhaps this was a radical departure from previous seasons, and it was the moment he knew that his standing and relationship as a satellite team boss had changed in Bologna.

Regarding Marquez to the factory Ducati team, while I do not consider it to be the logical choice, and while Pernat insists Dorna were behind the move, we can't completely rule out the possibility that Ducati were already moving to hire Marquez. Ducati have been firing on all cylinders for the last 4-5 years, and they could have pulled a Br'er Rabbit. Dorna approached them to move Marquez to the factory team, but Ducati were like "No, please don't throw me in the briar patch!!". Things have been going so well for Ducati, I can imagine them billing Dorna for something they were already planning to do!
I don’t think the possibility that the Ducati CEO and Campinoti are both idiots should be dismissed.
 
I think his point of contention was that while he understands someone like Tardozzi (Ducati Lenovo team boss ) celebrating, he couldn’t digest the Ducati CEO and some other corporate personnel doing the same.
Yamaha might not be the place for Pramac either then. Yamaha cheered for one of their actual factory team riders against the other, that other rider eventually winning a third title for them that year, in 2015. I believe said rider was younger than his team mate by more than a few years to boot (EDIT 28 vs 36 as opposed to 26 vs 31 for JM and MM).
 
Last edited:
Well I agree he's not engineering the bikes but chasing Pedrosa off was just monumental stupidity and short-sightedness. I still will maintain they'd be in better shape if he was their primary test rider and not Stefan Bradl. If they don't figure out how to get a Yamaha-like setup with testing, it's going to be a long two years till 2027.
I allocate Puig some blame for Pedrosa taking out Hayden which nearly cost Honda the 2006 title. I consider it highly likely he sent Dani out with no holds barred against Hayden instructions for that race, In addition to the near homicide at the Sachsenring.

I presume Liberty bought total ownership and Puig no longer has any shares in the business. Discovering this year that he had shares during the Dorna regime, along with perhaps a Repsol connection are the only things which explain his otherwise inexplicable continuing tenure with HRC to me. He was good at identifying and developing young talent though.
 
Last edited:
His frustration is understandable. He probably views himself (rightly, imo) as an integral part of Ducati's talent development, and an integral part of Ducati's current streak of constructor's championships. Ducati personnel are being promoted internally, but Pramac et al are basically receiving a demotion. That's a bitter pill. Ducati cash out, but Campinotti might not be receiving enough slop in his trough.

It's also difficult to understand what he means regarding the factory celebrating Bastianini's overtake of Martin. We presume he's upset because the factory is celebrating Pecco scoring additional points on Martin, but it could have another meaning. At that moment he could have realized that the factory no longer sees Pramac as their rear guard. They no longer celebrate Pramac for demoting factory Aprilias and KTMs, instead the factory team views Pramac as an adversary. Perhaps this was a radical departure from previous seasons, and it was the moment he knew that his standing and relationship as a satellite team boss had changed in Bologna.

Regarding Marquez to the factory Ducati team, while I do not consider it to be the logical choice, and while Pernat insists Dorna were behind the move, we can't completely rule out the possibility that Ducati were already moving to hire Marquez. Ducati have been firing on all cylinders for the last 4-5 years, and they could have pulled a Br'er Rabbit. Dorna approached them to move Marquez to the factory team, but Ducati were like "No, please don't throw me in the briar patch!!". Things have been going so well for Ducati, I can imagine them billing Dorna for something they were already planning to do!
It could be looked at another way, that Ducati have signed someone who might beat Bagnaia on the same bike, while Bagnaia seems to have Martin covered once they get to the season proper.

Martin also gave them an ultimatum in regard to Bastianini’s seat, not the other way around, and they might like Bastianini. They have also always had a preference for Italian riders.
 
Last edited:
Campinoti is a clown.

I don't begrudge him going to Yamaha at all as I thought it was the right move considering the terms of the deal.

But, what did he expect with the rider's market when MM got involved in it? Someone was always going to be left unhappy with how things turned out. Or in this case multiple people. Ducati still will have the VR46 pipeline which is probably more important than anything Pramac could have provided IMO. Plus they didn't waste any time signing Aldeguer since they obviously think more highly of him than I suppose Campinoti does if he's saying Ducati doesn't care about having a young riders project. I'm not sold on Aldeguer personally yet, but you can't reasonably make the argument they have somehow forgone young riders.
Hadn’t read this post before, but agree Campinoti is a clown, and would award Domenicali that status as well.

This all reeks of post hoc justification to me. Campinoti was already reputedly considering the Yamaha offer when everyone thought Martin had the factory seat, and was (also reputedly) only staying with Ducati if he managed to sign MM. As well as publicly stating that everyone associated with Valentino at Ducati hated him, and that he had plenty of other options, when MM knocked back his offer last year (hardly the best move if he wanted to sign him in future), there were not too many contenders for the second Pramac seat apart from MM either. As someone has posted this strongly suggests to me as well that everyone already knew signing with Pramac for this season did not guarantee a current spec Ducati ride for 2 years.
 
Last edited:
I think every language has its crazy pointless specifities, Portuguese has many as well.


I can't figure out when to correctly use IN, ON or AT in many cases lol it's just too much for me hahahha, maybe with 10 more years I'll get there!
Your English including your grasp of idiom is superb in your second language.
 
@Barbedwirebikerr Ogura to Pramac is a good shout. I’d rather see him on an improving M1 than an RCV that will break his will.

Either him or Sergio Garcia would be great IMO.
Agree, prefer ogura on a bike where he can further develop his own skillset. Garcia is also a good choice to step up. Ogura has already distances himself from Idemitsu this season, for me that looked like taking his future in his own hands, rather than just accepting second tier Japanese rider for HRC
 
I’m also wondering how Aprilia will handle development for the rest of the year.

Maverick most likely won’t be getting any new parts and Oliveira’s future is far from certain. That leaves only Espargaro who can give some feedback, but no continuity into 2025.
I hope they don’t make a retrograde step like Suzuki did a few years ago (But that was partly their own doing, choosing to replace a well performing A. Espargaro with Iannone).
 

Recent Discussions

Recent Discussions

Back
Top