Aleix Espargaró is in his best moment ever at 34. Bautista is bossing WSBK at 39. Age is not the career ending stat that it was before. Riders take care of their body more than ever, and if we go to F1, we can see a guy like Alonso (42) who is still sharp in his reaction times.
Trust me, I'm rooting for him to win the title next yr! I just don't want to get my hopes up!
This is what I think as well. The documentary on Amazon was a great look inside his life. I gave me a chance to see him for who he is. He is who I thought he was. Someone who wants to win and will do whatever it takes to do it. He is always willing to adapt. I think he still has the edge to allow him to dominate.
Mick Doohan won his last title at age 33 with a bung leg. Valentino won the 7th/9th at age 30, and I think Ago won the 8th title Rossi was so keen to match or exceed In mid 30s as well.(EDIT also at age 33).
The yamaha was terrible when Rossi jumped on it so it required a lot of dev, Marc will do just fine without his crew as bike is already good and so is Marc. He will be fav for title in my humble opinion. Should be exciting to watch
The previous Yamaha was terrible before his advent, but Yamaha had finally built a proper 990 bike which was available to him when he got there. Perhaps apocryphally they reputedly offered him different versions and he chose the one with the best combination of characteristics, particularly rideability, which was the one Yamaha thought was best as well,. I think he would have been fine without Burgess, given he nearly won a title at age 36 in 2015 without him.
This thought as also crossed my mind. Under the rules they can't change the engine and I think there's a limit of 2 faring changes but everything else can be changed as often as they want, in particular the chassis.
I agree. It is said he wants to get back to enjoying riding, which is why this move makes sense.
Mainly depends on the bike imo. If the relativity of the 1 year old bike is similar to this year ie Bezzecchi able to win 3 races on it then he will give it a shake Imo. If the 2024 bike is significantly better then Martin for one will be hard to beat. I see Bagnaia still throwing his bike down the road enough for Ducati not to overly rely on him.
