2016 MotoGP/ WSBK/ Road Racing ThreadMotorbikes 

  • Thread starter Mike Rotch
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How is it a setback? The Spanish and Italian sporting federations have clearly invested in their national series to promote young talent.
I think it's a level of national interest that plays a big part as well. The Spanish hadn't won a gp race I think before Criville came along, certainly not a championship before his in 1999. Then by the mid 2000s there was Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Elias in the lower classes coming through, it gets more coverage and more youngsters get into it and the national series gets more interest and sponsorship. The British have had a more consistent thing in the superbikes since Foggy in the 90s and Hodgson and Toseland in 03/04 so the British superbikes has always had good support from fans and teams alike to get the riders onto the world stage and it's paying dividends now.

To address the original point with a few facts:
Race wins by rider nationality since the start of 2015:
Moto GP (26 races):
Spanish: 19 (3 riders)
Italian: 6 (1 rider)
Australian: 1

Moto 2:
French: 11 (1 rider)
Spanish: 7 (2)
German/British/Swiss: 2 each (1)
Japanese/Belgian: 1 each

Moto 3:
Italian: 7 (4)
British/Portuguese: 6 each (1)
South African: 3 (1)
French/Belgian/Spanish/Malaysian: 1 each

WSBK (42 races):
British: 40 (4)
American/Spanish: 1 each

WSS (20 races):
Turkish: 9 (1)
French: 4 (1)
British/American: 2 each (1)
Thai/Italian/Swiss: 1 each

Anyhow the very fact you have Spainards and Italians dominating the grid's of both WSBK and MotoGP at the top,middle and lower levels is a huge setback for the sport.
I think I've shown that's exaggerating quite a bit and there's certainly no setback from forcing other countries to try and catch up. While there's no denying the CEV in the best way into the gp paddock it's up to the individual sports federations to get their riders in that championship (there are 4 team Asia riders doing well this season). However when the current top riders in Moto gp retire it probably won't be an abundance of Spanish riders taking over.
 
Was contemplating going to Red Bull Ring for the MotoGP race 12 - 14 August
but it seems they haven't released any tickets yet.
The information at motogp.com just says "tickets available soon".

It's only 4-5 weeks to go, is the Grand Prix in jeopardy of being cancelled
or is this normal procedure? The two times I've been to MotoGP (Catalunya)
I bought the tickets almost half a year in advance. I wonder why Red Bull Ring
is holding on to their tickets this long.
 
How is it a setback? The Spanish and Italian sporting federations have clearly invested in their national series to promote young talent.


I have nothing against Spanish or Italian riders however the vast amount all but vindicate a point that Spies made on Twitter after the rookie rule was dropped..MotoGP is now about the passport one hold. To things worst it does help that Spain has four races added the fact two of MotoGP's biggest sponsors(Repsol and Movistar) carry a lot of clout.
 
It goes in cycles mate. Always has done. Someone who can do something about it watches a race, sees a lack of riders from his own country and says "Something Must Be Done." Investments are made to produce young riders, it starts to pay off and suddenly you've got loads of riders in Motogp.
 
It goes in cycles mate. Always has done. Someone who can do something about it watches a race, sees a lack of riders from his own country and says "Something Must Be Done." Investments are made to produce young riders, it starts to pay off and suddenly you've got loads of riders in Motogp.

I have nothing against Spanish riders however I get the feeling that MotoGP has been essentially rigged in a way to favor them; I point to the removal of the rookie rule which Spies have came out against.

What really make it bad is that from a business pov you're not going sell what is essentially a niche sport a to an international crowd.
 
In news that surprises no-one, Johann Zarco has been confirmed at Tech 3.
French rider to a French team announced on Bastille day. He'll be a great addition to the field nonetheless.

Dorna and the independent teams are going to sign/announce a deal this weekend where the costs are subsidised by €4m. Currently I believe their travel is covered but this is a black and white figure. A brilliant way of keeping the grid full.
 
Dorna have announced that the twenty-fourth MotoGP entry will be held for Team LCR. They have already confirmed that the 2017 grid will be limited to twenty-three bikes, so LCR won't be expanding until 2018.

With Zarco, Rins, Folger and Lowes graduating to MotoGP in 2017, I wonder if Honda see Takaaki Nakagami as a potential contender for the 2017 Moto2 title as a prologue to promoting him to the second LCR bike in 2018.
 
Something is obviously in Lorenzo's head. He's crashed three times so far in turn 1, 8 and 11. Very unusual to see because he's normally so precise in his preparations.

Rider of the day has got to be Barbera though, Q2 wasn't very exciting to watch other than that.
 
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Don't wanna spoil anyone the race.
Awful calls from Dovi, Rossi, Crutchlow, Barbera and Miller. All robbing themselves a chance for a victory/podium finish :ouch::banghead:
Also can't understand why Lorenzo was the last one to change the bike.
 
Fear for the unknown makes them late in changing bikes, MM took the gamble and went with slick :D It paid off well. I wish F1 wet race could be like this, so much fun to watch.

Looking at JL face in the pit after race ...
 
Are spoiler tabs really necessary in this thread?
I very much agree with not spoiling results in status updates but
the F1 threads discuss events in real time every race and there are
never any spoiler tabs there. Why not here too.

Marc Marquez is a genius when it comes to switching bikes and getting the timing just right.
He shows this time and again and his opponents never seem to catch on.
Nice for Crutchlow to finally get a good result after some average performances
over a good period of time. Last time he finished in the Top 4 was fourteen months ago.

Very exciting race with the mixing conditions and battles everywhere on the track.
Rossi and Lorenzo has some work to do in order to take the points lead off of
Marquez, if it's at all possible anymore.
 
As has been said before if you're in this thread during or after a race and you don't want to know what has happened then you're basically asking for trouble.

I think Lorenzo and Rossi still have a good chance of catching Marquez, they've had a few DNFs and perhaps a bit of bad luck but I still think they have the fastest bikes.
 
As has been said before if you're in this thread during or after a race and you don't want to know what has happened then you're basically asking for trouble.
Yeah, this.

Honda remind me of RBR and Yamaha, Ferrari, when it comes to thinking on their feet strategy wise during a race. That said, the Yamaha's didnt seem to have an option to go to slicks based on track temp - Pol did when MM did and ended up in the gravel. VR went out in inters in the bike switch, so much have known his number was up as soon as the track started drying. JL - lol.

MM will be hard to stop from here, he seems to have a new found maturity in his riding this year.

How long is this summer break?
 
It's common knowledge that Lorenzo is terrible in the wet conditions so his team should have been much smarter telling him to come in. When Marquez came in Lorenzo should have been straight in, it couldn't get any worse for him from where he was and if they change at the wrong time neither of them get points but what they did was stupid as Marquez was clearly showing slicks were the best option.

On a side note, I was looking at the forecast on Thursday and was so, so close to putting an each way bet on Redding. £1 would have returned £250 if he finished second but the WiFi packed up and I didn't put it on. I'd never normally want Redding to lose a place but in that race I was.
 
It seems like it was news to everyone
sketch-1470158710047.png
 
Anyone looking at the timing sheets could tell that even before the crash.

FP time sheets are just indications and meaning "nothing" compared with race pace,how many times VR46 had bad FP's and QF's but still competed for victory on raceday?
 
That qualifying session was the best I've seen in a while. Lorenzo was so good on the second half of his lap I thought it was unbeatable and he ends up on the second row!
 
Fenati stood down by VR46 for disciplinary reasons and Navarro in 18th....Come on Binder! :D
 
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