It might not have been one of the better MotoGP weekends, in terms of the quality of the racing, but you can’t deny the clinical efficiency of Pecco Bagnaia’s weekend: pole position, first in the sprint race and first in the main race, barely headed in both, maximum points on the board, leaving Italy with a 21-point lead over Marco Bezzecchi.
What was equally in line with the pre-season predictions was the utter domination of Ducati, KTM and Aprilia, with an emphasis on Ducati. Or, to put it another way, the abject failure of either Honda or Yamaha to prevent it from happening. Marc Marquez scored a seventh place in the sprint race and crashed out of the main race. Morbidelli and Quartararo managed a tenth place apiece, while Rins crashed out in the sprint race, breaking a leg and Mir crashed in Friday’s afternoon free practice session, damaging his hand. Both missed the main race and will miss at least one more race. Have we had a race this year with all protagonists taking part?
Honda fans will point to the lack of Marc Marquez’s input into the design of the 2023 RCV213V for Honda’s dire results so far this season. But that’s to do a disservice to his teammates over the past three seasons. None of them are muppets and you have to wonder if Honda has ever really listened to anyone other than Marquez regarding the development path of its bike. It’s biting them badly and it’s difficult to see a way out of the situation. Of course, the rumour mill is going ballistic connecting Marquez with either Ducati or KTM and despite their protestations that they have enough riders currently or waiting in the wings to not have space for him, if he became available, what would their response be? Honda will fix its problems, but only if Marquez stays fit enough for long enough to mould the bike to his liking for next year.
Of course, racing is full of stories of riders or drivers heading to a team that is on the crest of a wave, but we’ve seen it all too often that any team, no matter how successful, will always inevitably fall off the top and it is the luck of the draw as to whether a move will take a rider/driver to a team that is static, on the way up or about to start the long drop to uncompetitiveness. It’s happened to George Russell with Mercedes in Formula One and it’s happened to who-knows how many riders heading to Honda. The last teammate to a Honda world champion that has consistently done anything is Dani Pedrosa and even he couldn’t win a championship.
Joan Mir might have been world champion in 2020 but it was an inconclusive victory, a product of consistency as opposed to outright race victories. It’s one of those quirks of fate that neither Morbidelli nor Quartararo, riding satellite Yamahas and with three wins apiece, could mount a sufficiently consistent challenge to Mir’s seven podiums, including a single victory. Mir always looked less convincing than Alex Rins in their time at Suzuki and yet you have to feel sorry for Mir, rescuing himself from the fire of Suzuki’s withdrawal, only to find himself in the frying pan of a coveted factory Honda that has chewed up and spat out Marquez’ teammates with impunity.
Whatever Honda’s, Mir’s and Marquez’s woes, it’s nothing compared to Yamaha. The 2021 champions are completely at sea and it is clear that both Quartararo and Morbidelli are fed up to the back teeth. When it was pointed out to him that his good performance there would be beneficial to him, Morbidelli could only reply, “To do what?” The interviewer elaborated and replied, “To stay at Yamaha.” Morbidelli’s reply? “Do I want to secure another year with Yamaha?”
Bloody hell! That’s not mincing your words and, if Yamaha is capable of being honest with itself, the team has to admit that that was the only reply Morbidelli could give, even if it sours relationships between him and the team. Yamaha’s progress in the last two years has been woeful and, as much as people like to say that Ducati has the advantage with eight bikes on the grid and the resulting mountains of rider feedback, well, that’s just poppycock. Ducati are where they are because, for the past several seasons, they’ve been improving race-by-race to the point where the bike is the best on the grid. Ducati would be winning even with only the two factory riders on the grid.
No, this is a problem all of Yamaha’s own making. The team has dragged more power from the engine but at the expense of being able to control the power: “So we wanted more top speed. We have more top speed, but unfortunately we lost some ride-ability along the way, and that’s killing us,” said Quartararo. In short, the way the engine produces its power is overwhelming the chassis. It’s such a precipitous fall: Quartararo’s 2021 championship-winning season saw him take five victories and five further podiums. Even 2022 wasn’t terrible: three victories and five podiums, although his challenge faltered just as Bagnaia’s hit its stride.
This year, however, has seen Yamaha plummet, which is such a shame as the prospect of four (or five with Honda) teams fighting at the front, every race, is one to relish, especially when three of the teams comprise more than half the grid, all with riders capable of winning a race. If Yamaha and Honda could join in, what a season we would have.
Of course, that all depends on the race stewards. Despite assurances that things would be more consistent, they seem to be just as bad as ever. Of course, the South African fans have been howling ‘unfair’ after Brad Binder was penalised with a long lap penalty for allegedly – and completely inadvertently – causing Alex Marquez to crash but he was by no means the only one to fall foul, while others seemingly could ride as they wanted and get away with it. It’s not just the inconsistency, although that is bad enough: it’s the fact that it getting out of hand. It wasn’t all that long ago that penalties weren’t handed out like sweets at a kids’ party, so who has decided that things needed to be brought into line?
Actually, the riders have only themselves to blame. In their opinion, too many riding infractions were going unpunished so they asked for more vigilance and action from the stewards, a viewpoint that Dorna completely agreed with, and so it was done.
However, it’s hard not to think that it has gone a bit too far the other way. It’s impossible to criticise the stewards: they have been given a mandate and they are fulfilling it but still, the inconsistency rankles. The riders can’t be left with no consequences for their actions, otherwise, it would be carnage out there, but there has to be a happy middle ground. And this, let’s not forget, is before the tyre pressure rules are fully enforced! Oh joy.
Brad Binder’s top speed record of 366 km/h (227 mph) was one highlight of the weekend, made all the more remarkable when Binder admitted he hadn’t even reached the rev limiter! That Yamaha has made strides in straight-line speed was evidenced by Quartararo’s own top speed, which was only 6 km/h slower on the straight. Now, they just need to find ways of preventing the chassis from tying itself in knots as soon as it sniffs a corner. Power is nothing without control.
After the enforced break between Le Mans and Mugello, we’ll be back in action again this weekend, at the Sachsenring: Marquez’ favourite hunting ground. Love him or hate him, it would be excellent to see Marquez take the fight to Ducati, KTM and Aprilia without crashing out, if only for a bit of variety!
