Latest / Pit Talk / Five Winners in Five Races – Who's Next in Aragon? MotoGP Pit Talk

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Five Winners in Five Races – Who's Next in Aragon? MotoGP Pit Talk · Pit Talk

0:01
Speaker 1: Moto GP heads to Aragon and in the Spanish desert
0:06
Speaker 1: for Round eight of the World Championship, and the question
0:09
Speaker 1: on everyone's mind right now is to Caddi's once untouchable
0:14
Speaker 1: dominance under fire because Moto GP's had five different winners
0:18
Speaker 1: in a row now in twenty twenty five, so could
0:21
Speaker 1: this weekend be number six? And while you Caddy haven't
0:24
Speaker 1: won on a Sunday for the last two Grand PRIs,
0:27
Speaker 1: if last year's results are anything to go by, it's
0:30
Speaker 1: hard to not count on Mark Marquez though, stealing the
0:33
Speaker 1: show in Spain. Pittalk is brought to you by Shannon's Insurance.
0:37
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ernita vermuelin here in Barcelona getting ready
0:41
Speaker 1: to head to Aragon and joining me is let's see
0:44
Speaker 1: if I can do this in my Spanish accent.
0:46
Speaker 2: Matt el mador del migrafona.
0:49
Speaker 3: Matt Clayton, Google Google Translate is a wonderful thing, Renada.
0:54
Speaker 4: It's lovely to join you as always.
0:55
Speaker 3: And yes, thirty two degrees in Spain about three point
0:58
Speaker 3: two degrees in Melbourne to somewhere in the middle had
1:01
Speaker 3: been nice. But I don't envy you this weekend because
1:04
Speaker 3: that's a hot racetrack at any time of the year,
1:06
Speaker 3: but we've not been here at this time of year.
1:09
Speaker 3: So that's going to be one of the big talking
1:11
Speaker 3: points about this weekend because we know how hot that
1:13
Speaker 3: place can get, but we're about to find out how
1:15
Speaker 3: hot it gets.
1:17
Speaker 1: We're about to find out and also we're about to
1:20
Speaker 1: find out if Mark Marquez is going to be dominant
1:23
Speaker 1: again this weekend or if we're going to see a
1:25
Speaker 1: replay of Coda where he walks in the King of
1:29
Speaker 1: the Circuit and ends up walking away with zero points, right.
1:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
1:34
Speaker 3: It's funny, like there's a few tracks, Like once we
1:36
Speaker 3: knew that he was going to be on that GP
1:37
Speaker 3: twenty five this year, my mind immediately went to four tracks.
1:41
Speaker 3: It was Cota, Saxon, Ring, Philip Ireland and Aragon.
1:45
Speaker 4: We know how.
1:46
Speaker 3: Good he is at Aragon, and look, I mean, you
1:48
Speaker 3: remember what happened last year. I think I wrote one
1:50
Speaker 3: thousand and forty three days about one thousand and forty
1:53
Speaker 3: three times, because that's how many times we talked about
1:55
Speaker 3: it last year after he'd snapped that losing draft of
1:58
Speaker 3: his But this time last year, it was like the
2:01
Speaker 3: absolute perfect storm for him. There because we know it's
2:04
Speaker 3: a left handed track, which we love. He loves the
2:07
Speaker 3: anti clockwise tracks. But remember being resurfaced this time last
2:11
Speaker 3: year and it hadn't really sort of bedded in properly.
2:13
Speaker 3: It's literally the blackest racetrack I've ever seen. Gaze, the
2:17
Speaker 3: oil right on the surface had all the grip of
2:20
Speaker 3: a skating rink. Can you think of a left hand circuit?
2:23
Speaker 3: Slippery as hell? It's just got Mark Marquez's name all
2:27
Speaker 3: over it, and he made everyone look absolutely ridiculous there
2:30
Speaker 3: last year on that twenty twenty three Ducati. So you
2:33
Speaker 3: have to wonder if it's going to be as hot
2:35
Speaker 3: as you're predicting it's going to be, and that track
2:37
Speaker 3: surface is super, super slick. It feels like the only
2:40
Speaker 3: person that might beat Mark this weekend is Mark, because
2:43
Speaker 3: he's likely to be pretty awesome this weekend.
2:46
Speaker 1: Look, I know you're the statsman, but I wanted you
2:49
Speaker 1: to clarify this to me because when I was researching
2:51
Speaker 1: Mark Marquez going into this weekend, we know he's won
2:54
Speaker 1: a lot here.
2:56
Speaker 2: Has he won here? Really? Six times? In Moto GP?
3:00
Speaker 3: It's yeah, amazing, isn't it? And you think like this
3:03
Speaker 3: still to me I mean, I know it's been around
3:05
Speaker 3: since twenty ten. It kind of surprised me that it's
3:07
Speaker 3: been around that long. It still feels like a relatively
3:10
Speaker 3: new race track for me. But there's only two guys
3:12
Speaker 3: that have won this race more than once, and the
3:14
Speaker 3: other one's Casey Stoner. Right at the very very beginning
3:16
Speaker 3: of when Aragon came in, case he won it for
3:18
Speaker 3: honor to Catti and a Honda, so that shows you.
3:20
Speaker 4: How well he was going.
3:21
Speaker 3: But since Mark got here, he's basically won it or
3:26
Speaker 3: he's not, and I think, you know, he's been beaten
3:28
Speaker 3: by guys who've had really pivotal performances in their career.
3:31
Speaker 3: You rewind a couple of years. This was Peco Banyai's
3:34
Speaker 3: first Grand Prix win in twenty one, and it was
3:37
Speaker 3: one of those ones where we looked at it at
3:38
Speaker 3: the time and thought, huh, he's just beaten Mark Marquez
3:41
Speaker 3: in a straight fight on one of Mark's best circuits.
3:44
Speaker 3: So that probably gives you an indicator of Peco's quality,
3:46
Speaker 3: not realizing at the time what Peco was going to become.
3:49
Speaker 3: But this track is just absolutely tailor made for Mark
3:53
Speaker 3: because it's kind of it's a weird layout, isn't It's
3:56
Speaker 3: like it's two tracks in one. You've got that ridiculously
3:59
Speaker 3: long back straight goes forever, and because there's no buildings
4:02
Speaker 3: around this circuit to give you any sort of perspective,
4:04
Speaker 3: it literally feels like you're just riding into the horizon.
4:08
Speaker 3: And then that first sector with the elevation changes in
4:11
Speaker 3: those long left hand corners that he's just so good in.
4:15
Speaker 3: I reckon, if you gave Mark a blank sheet of
4:16
Speaker 3: paper and a crayon, he probably draw a circuit that
4:18
Speaker 3: looked a bit like this, you'd think is his favorite track.
4:22
Speaker 1: I was hearing he was here in Busselona yesterday for
4:26
Speaker 1: a ju Caddy event, and what I mentioned earlier, he
4:29
Speaker 1: was saying that he's going into this weekend quite cautious
4:33
Speaker 1: because of the whole code incident. We seeing this whole
4:38
Speaker 1: new Marquez mentality shift, because he's openly said, yeah, he
4:42
Speaker 1: can see Peco struggling, like he knows what is going on.
4:46
Speaker 1: He knows everything with Alex, what's going on behind the scenes.
4:48
Speaker 1: Would you Caddy is a whole new mentality coming through
4:52
Speaker 1: for Mark?
4:52
Speaker 2: Do you think matter?
4:53
Speaker 4: Yeah?
4:53
Speaker 3: I reckon, So this is like sort of you know,
4:55
Speaker 3: thirty two year old slightly sensible Mark relative to his youth,
4:58
Speaker 3: where he wasn't content to win back in the day
5:01
Speaker 3: like he wants to win and absolutely crush everybody. At
5:04
Speaker 3: the same time, I think he's a lot better now
5:06
Speaker 3: at playing the percentages. And the race that made me
5:09
Speaker 3: think of that was Lemon to Grand Prix Goo. He
5:13
Speaker 3: came out of the pits in that wet weather stuff
5:15
Speaker 3: that we know he's incredibly good and Jean Zaco was a.
5:18
Speaker 4: Long way up the road.
5:20
Speaker 3: I reckon twenty eighteen nineteen, Mark would have said, I'm
5:23
Speaker 3: going to catch him. Watch this, and Mark actually thought,
5:26
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm going to have to take too
5:29
Speaker 3: many risks to try and get on terms here, and
5:31
Speaker 3: even if I get up to him, am I going
5:32
Speaker 3: to pass him? And he has played with that championship
5:36
Speaker 3: mentality I reckon a lot more earlier in the season
5:38
Speaker 3: than he used to. So you're talking about the fact
5:41
Speaker 3: we've had these five different winners over the past five rounds.
5:43
Speaker 3: He's one of the five, but only one of them.
5:45
Speaker 3: But he just keeps building his championship leagues bit by
5:49
Speaker 3: bit by bit by bit, and you know, even you
5:52
Speaker 3: look at Silverston last time out. It's not a circuit
5:54
Speaker 3: he does particularly well at. It's not a circuit that
5:56
Speaker 3: he particularly likes. He was still the best ducaddi there
5:59
Speaker 3: where all the rest of them were really struggling, and
6:03
Speaker 3: he's almost decided, if I'm going to win this title,
6:05
Speaker 3: this is Yeah. There's going to be headline weekends where
6:08
Speaker 3: I'm absolutely awesome. Like you remember what he did at
6:10
Speaker 3: Thailand where he sat behind his brother so he didn't
6:13
Speaker 3: get a high pressure penalty and they just decided to
6:15
Speaker 3: pull the pid and disappear in that one. He's going
6:17
Speaker 3: to have races where he's amazing. But I think this
6:19
Speaker 3: is a championship that's going to be built by just
6:21
Speaker 3: stacking results one after the other after the other. And
6:25
Speaker 3: you forget he's chucked a couple of redecent results away,
6:27
Speaker 3: had the crash at Harath and came back and finished
6:29
Speaker 3: twelfth in that. But this is a championship. He feels
6:32
Speaker 3: like he's trying to win on his bad days, not
6:34
Speaker 3: necessarily his good ones. That's the difference between twenty and
6:37
Speaker 3: twenty five Spec Mark and maybe twenty eighteen Spec Mark,
6:40
Speaker 3: and that just comes with maybe a bit of age
6:42
Speaker 3: and a bit of wisdom and you know you forget that. Yeah,
6:45
Speaker 3: he's six times MOORGP world champion. He hasn't been major
6:49
Speaker 3: GP world champion for six years. It's a long time
6:51
Speaker 3: in a writer's career. He knows how special this championship
6:55
Speaker 3: will be if he gets it, and I think he's
6:57
Speaker 3: just going to tick every box on the way through
6:59
Speaker 3: to get to it and not leave anything to chance.
7:02
Speaker 1: I was reading another article online about Meto GP and
7:06
Speaker 1: everything so far this season, comparing it to last year.
7:09
Speaker 1: I think it might have been GP one an Italian publication.
7:13
Speaker 1: They were saying, how I think it was this time
7:16
Speaker 1: last year, Peco Banyaya had probably about the same amount
7:19
Speaker 1: of crashes out of Grandfrix races as Mark has now.
7:22
Speaker 2: But the criticism that.
7:23
Speaker 1: Peco was receiving for those crashes, why is it different?
7:28
Speaker 2: Why is it that Mark can get away with it?
7:30
Speaker 2: Is it because it is Mark Marquez?
7:32
Speaker 4: Yeah? Possibly?
7:33
Speaker 3: And because you know, seeing Mark back up the front
7:35
Speaker 3: fighting for something really meaningful. We've not seen it for
7:37
Speaker 3: a while, like we've kind of forgotten what it's like
7:39
Speaker 3: because you know, before he got off the Honda, it
7:43
Speaker 3: was race a couple of races get injured, have a surgery, disappear,
7:46
Speaker 3: come back. It was so stop start, and I think
7:50
Speaker 3: once he got on the Decati, like that Grassini thing
7:52
Speaker 3: last year was just a great story. Like it was like, oh,
7:55
Speaker 3: Mark's winning again, Marks up the front again. How great
7:57
Speaker 3: is it to see Mark towards the front in some races?
8:01
Speaker 3: The race that I loved last year wasn't even one
8:03
Speaker 3: of the ones that he won. You remember at Lamon
8:04
Speaker 3: when he qualified about the fourth row and he just
8:07
Speaker 3: produced these two absolutely incredible starts and got himself in
8:11
Speaker 3: the podium fight Like that's the Mark stuff that you love.
8:13
Speaker 3: But yeah, he is maybe escaping a little bit of
8:17
Speaker 3: the criticism that maybe Peco got last year. But I
8:20
Speaker 3: think the way Peco raced last year was I think
8:24
Speaker 3: we're all a bit shocked with how wasteful Peko was
8:27
Speaker 3: last year, because I mean, the term you love to
8:29
Speaker 3: use for Peco, he's like the professor, right, He's got
8:30
Speaker 3: every single thing box, if every box ticked and every
8:33
Speaker 3: eye dotted. I still feel that we'll look back at
8:36
Speaker 3: the twenty twenty four world title as a title that
8:39
Speaker 3: Bangnyai lost, not one that Martine won necessarily, And that's
8:43
Speaker 3: not discrediting what Martin did because he stayed on the
8:45
Speaker 3: bike where the other guy didn't. But Bangnyai was the
8:48
Speaker 3: best he's ever been last year in terms of speed
8:50
Speaker 3: and number of Grand Prix wins, and he still didn't
8:51
Speaker 3: win a championship. And so there was this narrative last
8:54
Speaker 3: year that Pecko was throwing it away, which you know,
8:57
Speaker 3: the record books will show that he did throw it away.
8:59
Speaker 3: So Mark's getting a little bit more grace at the
9:01
Speaker 3: moment because it's been a while since we've seen him
9:03
Speaker 3: up the front. But you look at what's coming up
9:06
Speaker 3: on this calendar now, like if Pecko's going to sort
9:10
Speaker 3: of dig his heels in and really fight against Mark,
9:13
Speaker 3: I feel this next part of the season is the
9:15
Speaker 3: period that he has to do it, because you know,
9:18
Speaker 3: he's not as good as as Mark is an Aragon,
9:21
Speaker 3: but nobody is. Pecko's still really good here and you
9:24
Speaker 3: look at what's coming up after that. Peko's won the
9:26
Speaker 3: last three races at Magello, He's won the last three
9:29
Speaker 3: races at Assen, like this is his time of year.
9:33
Speaker 3: And you know you mentioned the way Mark's approaching this
9:35
Speaker 3: championship fight. I think it'll be super interesting in that
9:38
Speaker 3: you'll go to Migello and Assen and Mark won't be
9:41
Speaker 3: the favorite based on what Peko's done the last few years.
9:44
Speaker 3: And whatever the championship margin ends up being after this weekend,
9:48
Speaker 3: it's going to be so interesting to see how those
9:49
Speaker 3: two react to that, because it's a golden opportunity for
9:53
Speaker 3: van Yaya to stake his claim a little bit. Mark
9:56
Speaker 3: just has to be just chipping away, chipping away, and
9:58
Speaker 3: then we'll get to some tracks where we know he's
10:00
Speaker 3: really really good and he can shine from there. But
10:03
Speaker 3: I still am not completely counting Peko out. I know
10:06
Speaker 3: a lot of people have been pretty disappointed with the
10:08
Speaker 3: way he's been this year, and it's not been great,
10:10
Speaker 3: let's be honest, But I still think there's too much
10:13
Speaker 3: class in there to just rule a line beneath him
10:15
Speaker 3: this early in the season. I think he will get better.
10:17
Speaker 3: The only question now, I think is how far is
10:19
Speaker 3: he behind once he gets better.
10:20
Speaker 4: That's probably the keeper.
10:23
Speaker 1: Talking about Aragon, the three things that I think are
10:26
Speaker 1: when I think of Aaron, obviously that iconic brick wall,
10:29
Speaker 1: the wall, yes, oh, you can't go past it, right,
10:33
Speaker 1: The fact that Mark Marquez is so dominant there that
10:35
Speaker 1: he has that corner named after him, see those iconic shots.
10:39
Speaker 1: And I also think of that infamous collision last year
10:43
Speaker 1: between Peco Banyaya and Alex Marquez. Yeah yeah, how do
10:47
Speaker 1: you think that's going to replay this year? Because when
10:49
Speaker 1: I was looking at SATs, I'm taking over your job
10:52
Speaker 1: as a satman.
10:52
Speaker 4: I know what's going on.
10:54
Speaker 1: Alex has never finished on the podium in Aragon.
10:57
Speaker 2: Correct me if I'm wrong with that?
10:58
Speaker 3: Ye think I'm going to go back in the memory
11:02
Speaker 3: books here. I reckon one of his very early podiums
11:05
Speaker 3: was in the COVID year when he was on the
11:07
Speaker 3: REP on the Repsole bike. Because I had two races
11:10
Speaker 3: at Aragon one year, they called one of them the
11:12
Speaker 3: terror Well Grand Prix or something. I reckon that's where
11:14
Speaker 3: he might have been on the podium. So I'm not
11:16
Speaker 3: sure he's had a podium in an Aragon Grand Prix.
11:18
Speaker 4: So you're technically correct.
11:20
Speaker 1: It is, isn't it weekend that.
11:24
Speaker 3: It's funny like you I remember Peco last year. You know,
11:28
Speaker 3: we all remember that incident with Alex Marquez last year
11:31
Speaker 3: was actually very scary, like with the bike on top
11:33
Speaker 3: of him, it was pretty nasty, and that was kind
11:36
Speaker 3: of the period where you felt that Peco lost control
11:40
Speaker 3: of last year's World Championship and that for the rest
11:42
Speaker 3: of the season he was having to rely on Martine
11:45
Speaker 3: defeating himself because he just put himself too far behind
11:48
Speaker 3: and he scored one point that entire weekend. It was
11:51
Speaker 3: a scary accident for sure, and he never really let
11:55
Speaker 3: that go last year, and that was I remember him
11:57
Speaker 3: talking about it in Philip, Ireland, which was, you know,
11:59
Speaker 3: a good month and half after it had happened. He
12:02
Speaker 3: was still annoyed about the points that he had lost
12:04
Speaker 3: that day compared to the points that he'd lost at
12:06
Speaker 3: subsequent races by not going so well or not being
12:09
Speaker 3: happy with the tire, or not having the feeling or
12:11
Speaker 3: whatever it was. He kept referring back to Aragon and
12:14
Speaker 3: this sort of great injustice. And you remember it got
12:17
Speaker 3: pretty agro between the two of them last year until
12:19
Speaker 3: they they both calmed down a little bit.
12:21
Speaker 4: It was just unfortunate.
12:24
Speaker 3: You know, you could sixty forty blame perhaps on Alex Marquez,
12:27
Speaker 3: but it wasn't great for either. They're both in such
12:30
Speaker 3: different places this year, aren't they now compared to where
12:33
Speaker 3: they were last year? Because you know, if we saw
12:35
Speaker 3: Alex Marquez towards the front last year in that race,
12:38
Speaker 3: and we're like, huh, that's a novelty. Look at Alex
12:40
Speaker 3: Marquez go like he's having a really really good weekend.
12:43
Speaker 3: That's just every weekend for him. Now, he's just there
12:46
Speaker 3: all the time, with the exception of perhaps Silveston where
12:49
Speaker 3: all that acaddies are a bit lost and Peco. We've
12:52
Speaker 3: not seen Peko like this, just being so downcast about
12:56
Speaker 3: everything since before he became a world championship contender. And
13:00
Speaker 3: it's been a long time now, because you think he
13:01
Speaker 3: won in twenty two and twenty three almost he pushed
13:05
Speaker 3: Coatra all the way in twenty one, and he pushed
13:08
Speaker 3: Martin to the last round in twenty four. So it's
13:10
Speaker 3: been the last four years that Banyay has either been
13:12
Speaker 3: the best or the second best rider in Motor GP,
13:15
Speaker 3: and he churns these results out metronomically, one after the
13:18
Speaker 3: other after the other. He's looking shakier at the moment
13:21
Speaker 3: than he's looked since before he became a world championship contender.
13:25
Speaker 3: So that's why I reckon that this race, if he
13:26
Speaker 3: can kind of at least minimize the damage to Mark
13:30
Speaker 3: this weekend and then really try and kick on through
13:32
Speaker 3: those next two.
13:33
Speaker 4: This is the pivotal point of the season. I think
13:35
Speaker 4: for him, Well, we know.
13:37
Speaker 1: That Jucaties are going to be strong here, We know
13:39
Speaker 1: Mark's going to be strong here, and I would think Alex,
13:41
Speaker 1: with how the season has been playing out, but what
13:43
Speaker 1: about the other manufacturers and in particular Joan Zako on
13:47
Speaker 1: the Honda, how do you think.
13:49
Speaker 2: That's going to go here?
13:50
Speaker 1: Because we know they have that really long backstraight Like
13:52
Speaker 1: you mentioned that, we're going to see that big difference
13:55
Speaker 1: between the manufacturers who have the more horse power.
13:59
Speaker 2: Than the Hohod.
14:04
Speaker 3: I think if you're looking for someone to sort of
14:05
Speaker 3: crash the party and be a bit of an interloper
14:07
Speaker 3: this weekend, he's in such good form at the moment.
14:09
Speaker 3: He's riding in such a great way. You can just
14:12
Speaker 3: see how confident he is. We know how good he
14:16
Speaker 3: is in the early lap battle stuff as well, like
14:18
Speaker 3: he's a fierce guy to pass in the early parts
14:20
Speaker 3: of races, like the elbows are well and truly out.
14:22
Speaker 3: He's got a definitely got a reputation for that. So
14:25
Speaker 3: I think if you're going to look at the other
14:26
Speaker 3: manufacturers this weekend.
14:29
Speaker 4: A Prillier.
14:30
Speaker 3: It's hard to read what they're going to do. I mean,
14:32
Speaker 3: Silverston was fantastic, but that's always a.
14:34
Speaker 4: Great track for them. So is it an outlier. We'll
14:37
Speaker 4: soon find out.
14:38
Speaker 3: But I think Yamaha might struggle a little bit more
14:41
Speaker 3: here relative to Honda. Yamaha has never gone great at Aragon.
14:45
Speaker 3: Quatro really doesn't like the place. You remember that accident
14:48
Speaker 3: he had the other year when he had that big,
14:50
Speaker 3: big accident with Mark and on the first lap, and
14:53
Speaker 3: then you remember him getting dumped off the scooter on
14:55
Speaker 3: the way back to the pits as well. That was
14:56
Speaker 3: pretty bad. I think he hurt himself more doing that
14:58
Speaker 3: when he got tipped off the back of the scooter
14:59
Speaker 3: coming back in that he had two crashes at about
15:04
Speaker 3: twenty seconds. So that was an ideal. But I think
15:06
Speaker 3: if you're looking at another manufacturer to perhaps, you know,
15:10
Speaker 3: get in the mix now, whether that's for a podium
15:11
Speaker 3: place or a top five or what have you this weekend,
15:14
Speaker 3: it probably is Honder And it's probably Zarko, to be honest,
15:18
Speaker 3: because he's in incredibly good form and there's all this
15:23
Speaker 3: Honda news you know, going around at the moment in
15:26
Speaker 3: that what are they going to do? You know, luc
15:27
Speaker 3: And Marine's not here this weekend because he's still recovering
15:30
Speaker 3: from the injuries from the Suzuka eight hour testing crash
15:33
Speaker 3: that he had.
15:34
Speaker 4: There's a lot of balls near a Honda at the moment.
15:37
Speaker 3: And you know, he has said before that he'd like
15:39
Speaker 3: to be in that factory team, but he's in such
15:41
Speaker 3: a great spot at the moment. He's with a team.
15:44
Speaker 3: The whole team revolves around him. He's coming up with
15:47
Speaker 3: fantastic results for them, and it wouldn't surprise me in
15:50
Speaker 3: the slightest if we see another good weekend from him
15:52
Speaker 3: this weekend. And it's telling, isn't it like the championship
15:56
Speaker 3: standings right now, five of the top six Cycaddy riders,
16:00
Speaker 3: he's the one non Decati rider in the top six.
16:02
Speaker 4: It shows you how well he's going.
16:04
Speaker 1: But isn't it such a stark difference when you think
16:06
Speaker 1: of somkiat who's his technique, who's always dead last? Or okay,
16:11
Speaker 1: sorry I shouldn't be saying so bad, but you know,
16:14
Speaker 1: he's struggling, he's not there, he's not performing. And then
16:17
Speaker 1: you see Joan Mia, who's been with the company for
16:20
Speaker 1: multi four years now, he's still struggling.
16:23
Speaker 2: Luke Marini.
16:24
Speaker 1: Okay, unfortunate events with him with that crash, but somehow
16:27
Speaker 1: something's just clicked.
16:28
Speaker 2: With Zako, right.
16:29
Speaker 1: But it's ELSR and we know that those satellite teams
16:34
Speaker 1: are privateer teams. You have more of a family feel.
16:36
Speaker 1: It's like you can gel and like you said, the
16:38
Speaker 1: whole team based around him. So what he wants he's
16:42
Speaker 1: essentially getting. But how much is he getting or working
16:45
Speaker 1: with factory Honda? Do you know, Matt, how much?
16:48
Speaker 4: I think?
16:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I think there's a pretty good transfer of
16:51
Speaker 3: technology and information going backwards and forwards and right now,
16:54
Speaker 3: if you're Honda, you'll want to listen to what Zarko
16:56
Speaker 3: is saying because he's the fastest guy you've got and
16:59
Speaker 3: you know, you me the chance of a thing. I don't
17:01
Speaker 3: think that's necessarily unfair, Like he has just not really
17:04
Speaker 3: been on the pace at all, Like it's this significant
17:06
Speaker 3: drop off. He's just been at the back all the time.
17:08
Speaker 3: We know he's been injured. But I was reading something
17:11
Speaker 3: earlier in the week where I think he finished like
17:13
Speaker 3: thirty seconds off first in the sprint services, like three
17:16
Speaker 3: seconds of lapse lower than the winner that's not really
17:18
Speaker 3: motor GP standard. Juan Mir, bless him. We love the
17:22
Speaker 3: way he goes about it. He's not prepared to accept
17:24
Speaker 3: the limitations of his machinery and he will push it
17:26
Speaker 3: until it crashes, and he does. I don't think Juanmir
17:29
Speaker 3: is slow. I think he just needs to know when
17:32
Speaker 3: to deploy the speed a little bit more. And we
17:34
Speaker 3: know that Luca Marini is kind of Banyai light in
17:37
Speaker 3: that he's like this professor oriole type who wants to,
17:40
Speaker 3: you know, get the glasses on and squint at the
17:41
Speaker 3: telemetry and work out how it all works before he goes.
17:44
Speaker 4: That little bit harder.
17:45
Speaker 3: So it's actually a pretty interesting writer core there. But
17:49
Speaker 3: I guess the question that's bubbling around is that with
17:52
Speaker 3: all this Fuja Martine stuff going around with a Prillier,
17:56
Speaker 3: he would not be agitating to get out of a
17:59
Speaker 3: priller unless he you where he wanted to go. Let's
18:01
Speaker 3: be honest, because you're not going to make that much
18:03
Speaker 3: noise unless you've got somewhere in mind. And it's pretty
18:06
Speaker 3: clear that the somewhere in mind is going to be Honda.
18:09
Speaker 3: And if you added him into that mix with the
18:12
Speaker 3: other writers A, you're going to have to lose one
18:15
Speaker 3: of them. So do you lose Marini for personnel reasons
18:19
Speaker 3: or do you lose chance for sponsorship reasons?
18:21
Speaker 4: That's interesting, But isn't that.
18:23
Speaker 3: A really interesting mix of guys where you've got a
18:25
Speaker 3: former world champion in Mihr, you've got an injured current
18:29
Speaker 3: world champion in Martin Zako. He's thirty four, but he's
18:32
Speaker 3: probably in the form of his life. Like it's a
18:34
Speaker 3: super intriguing rider lineup. And then when you think about
18:38
Speaker 3: what's coming for twenty twenty seven, when we change all
18:40
Speaker 3: the rules to the eight fifties and get rid of
18:42
Speaker 3: all the right height devices and everything else. If Honda
18:45
Speaker 3: don't make it work in twenty seven, it won't be
18:47
Speaker 3: because they haven't spent enough money on it, Because we
18:49
Speaker 3: know that's a huge operation, and I think if the
18:53
Speaker 3: current rule set was going to go on for a
18:55
Speaker 3: number of years, Honda had kind of been in the
18:57
Speaker 3: wilderness a little bit. They know that twenty seven's like
18:59
Speaker 3: this hard reset that they get a chance to perhaps
19:02
Speaker 3: get themselves back up the front again.
19:03
Speaker 4: You know they're going.
19:04
Speaker 3: To be pulling everything out of the bag to try
19:06
Speaker 3: and get there. And you know, the Marting thing. I
19:10
Speaker 3: still can't get in my head that he would be
19:13
Speaker 3: agitating to get out unlessing you where he wanted to
19:16
Speaker 3: go or where he was going. And I think that's
19:18
Speaker 3: a part of this story that maybe we're not talking
19:20
Speaker 3: about yet, And maybe the keyword in that sentence is yet.
19:24
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking that when you were talking about the
19:26
Speaker 1: potential of Martin going to Honda, then in my head,
19:29
Speaker 1: I go, Okay, then who steps up to replace him in?
19:32
Speaker 2: And prially is it Ayagura? Like how is all the
19:35
Speaker 2: puzzle pieces starting to fit?
19:37
Speaker 1: And then we have all those silly season rumors about
19:40
Speaker 1: top Rack potentially replacing Jacket Pramac and Jack's obviously the
19:44
Speaker 1: star Pramac writer.
19:45
Speaker 2: Compared to mcguel. We've got obviously.
19:48
Speaker 1: Alex Rinz underperforming compared to fabric Dara factory.
19:51
Speaker 2: Yamaha. There's so many moving puzzle pieces here.
19:55
Speaker 4: Yeah.
19:55
Speaker 3: And this thing with these contracts is I always say
19:57
Speaker 3: these contracts are kind of a marriage of convenience till
20:00
Speaker 3: they're not, Like, you know, it's like, well, you're signed
20:02
Speaker 3: for two years. Martin hasn't even completed one Grand Prix
20:05
Speaker 3: for a prelier He's like, no, I don't want to
20:06
Speaker 3: do this anymore, and you can't help but think that.
20:11
Speaker 3: I find it hard to believe that he'll race for
20:13
Speaker 3: them even ever again, to be honest, because he's still
20:15
Speaker 3: out going to be out for a while because he's injured.
20:18
Speaker 3: I don't see how between now and then they can
20:20
Speaker 3: come up with some sort of pribly. I want to
20:22
Speaker 3: hold him to the contract. Martine clearly doesn't want to
20:25
Speaker 3: be there. This feels like one of those things that
20:27
Speaker 3: they'll negotiate a settlement and probably walk their own separate
20:29
Speaker 3: ways at some point. But if you can just blow
20:32
Speaker 3: a rider market up because you don't like what you've signed,
20:35
Speaker 3: you wonder what some of these contracts are actually worth.
20:38
Speaker 3: And so the reason I bring that up is you
20:41
Speaker 3: mentioned the Razgalioglu stuff. There's been a lot of discussions
20:45
Speaker 3: that he signed a Pramax Yamaha deal. You know, nothing official,
20:48
Speaker 3: yet it's been talked about. We've heard this story a
20:51
Speaker 3: million times before and it's never happened. So I'm still
20:53
Speaker 3: reasonably skeptical about it. But then you look at the
20:56
Speaker 3: Yamaha riders this year. Quadro has been the clear standout.
21:00
Speaker 3: Miller has been Yama half second best rider this year,
21:02
Speaker 3: there's no doubt about it. Across their two teams. Oliver
21:05
Speaker 3: has been injured and when he has been there, he
21:07
Speaker 3: hasn't been on Jack's pace at all. And Alex Rinns
21:10
Speaker 3: has shown a couple of flashes here and there, but
21:12
Speaker 3: no more than that. And Alex Rinns hasn't been the
21:14
Speaker 3: same rider since he's broke his leg at Magello two
21:16
Speaker 3: years ago. So Rins and olivera have contracts for twenty six.
21:20
Speaker 3: Jack doesn't. But if in the Martine case, we see
21:23
Speaker 3: what a contract is worth, which it's just what's a contract.
21:27
Speaker 3: It's a starting point for negotiations pretty much. This is
21:30
Speaker 3: this is where we will get together and we work
21:32
Speaker 3: out how to break this thing. Jack right now should
21:35
Speaker 3: be in a stronger position than he was in last
21:37
Speaker 3: year when he was at KTM because he wasn't performing
21:40
Speaker 3: at KTM and he is performing here. He's having a
21:42
Speaker 3: huge impact on what they're doing. Yet he's the one
21:45
Speaker 3: with the least job security out of the four of them,
21:48
Speaker 3: so something doesn't make sense there. I still think he
21:52
Speaker 3: he should on Merit get another deal next year, so
21:55
Speaker 3: they'll be checking to fine print too. Some of these
21:57
Speaker 3: other contracts I reckon and look as much as we
21:59
Speaker 3: hear about the Rascut, the Auglu stuff, it all comes
22:01
Speaker 3: out of the same camp. It comes out of his management,
22:04
Speaker 3: it comes out of the superbike paddock. We've heard this
22:06
Speaker 3: story many times before. He's coming over, He's coming over.
22:09
Speaker 3: Until I actually see him on the grid on a
22:11
Speaker 3: Moto GP bike, I'm not one hundred percent going to
22:13
Speaker 3: believe it because I feel like I've been laid down
22:15
Speaker 3: this path a few times before.
22:17
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's not the first time we've spoken about
22:19
Speaker 1: soff rack on this podcast, and it's a Moto GP podcast.
22:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly off tracks.
22:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've mentioned the Jogem Martine drama, and if you
22:28
Speaker 1: haven't heard anything about that, you don't know what we're
22:30
Speaker 1: talking about. Read Math's articles on Fox Taughts dot com
22:33
Speaker 1: day for Slash Motors Tart or you can actually see
22:36
Speaker 1: the screenshots that I took of Jorjem Martin's official statement
22:40
Speaker 1: that he put on his Instagram stories, which was hilarious.
22:44
Speaker 1: The day before he went and attended the a Prillier
22:48
Speaker 1: World Writers event where it kind.
22:50
Speaker 2: Of did look like he had a bit of a
22:52
Speaker 2: forced smile on his face the whole time. I don't
22:54
Speaker 2: know if he saw the photos. Look like porgeg.
22:57
Speaker 3: Martin talk about awkward, I mean literally in the you look,
23:01
Speaker 3: I mean, how's the prilli has last two weeks been?
23:03
Speaker 3: They come out with a statement before the British Grand
23:05
Speaker 3: Prix saying we have a contract with Martin and we're
23:08
Speaker 3: going to hold him to it and he shouldn't No
23:10
Speaker 3: one should be talking to him. He's a contracted writer.
23:13
Speaker 3: They then come out three days later and win the
23:15
Speaker 3: Grand Prix with Marco Bedzechi. A few days after that,
23:18
Speaker 3: Martin comes out and says, well, I'm not staying so
23:20
Speaker 3: bad luck. And then they have to go to this
23:23
Speaker 3: meet and greet thing at Massado on the weekend that
23:25
Speaker 3: everyone smiles and shakes hands and kisses babies and smiles
23:27
Speaker 3: with the cameras. What a bizarre couple of weeks, even
23:31
Speaker 3: by Motor GP standards. To that manufacturer, they should be
23:35
Speaker 3: so happy right now because they won a Grand Prix
23:38
Speaker 3: for the first time in a year. But it's almost like,
23:40
Speaker 3: you know, we're, what ten days since they won at Silverstone,
23:42
Speaker 3: We're just going back to other stories off track that
23:45
Speaker 3: they don't really have a whole lot of control over
23:47
Speaker 3: and then you have to look back and go, oh, yeah,
23:49
Speaker 3: they won the last Grand Prix with Marco Beedzeki. It's
23:51
Speaker 3: been a strange time.
23:53
Speaker 2: It's so strange.
23:54
Speaker 1: But then the other side of a Prillio as we
23:56
Speaker 1: have Ayagura, who is still in.
23:59
Speaker 2: G he broke the top of his tibier his correct.
24:05
Speaker 1: I heard that he has to get a physical test
24:08
Speaker 1: on Thursday as well to assess whether he's going to
24:10
Speaker 1: race this weekend, so it might be down two or
24:13
Speaker 1: Prillier riders instead of just the regular.
24:15
Speaker 3: Joe Martine, Yeah, I mean I always the Motor GP
24:18
Speaker 3: fitness tests always kind of make me laugh. They kind
24:20
Speaker 3: of make me WinCE as well, like what are they
24:22
Speaker 3: just going to like sort of flick like pellets at
24:24
Speaker 3: his leg or something to see if he flinches, like
24:26
Speaker 3: they what are they actually going to do? I still
24:28
Speaker 3: remember hearing a story when Cal Crutchlow broke his ankle
24:32
Speaker 3: at Silverstone one year and to be past fit for
24:35
Speaker 3: the race, they made him hop up and down the
24:37
Speaker 3: stairs of the medical center with his full racing kit on,
24:40
Speaker 3: and if he could actually do that, they were going
24:41
Speaker 3: to let him ride the bike and crutch, those whole
24:43
Speaker 3: thing was like, it's the most pain I've ever felt
24:45
Speaker 3: in my life. But it's my home Grand Prix, and
24:47
Speaker 3: I'm not going to leave these people disappointed that I'm
24:49
Speaker 3: not riding, So I'm going to go out there and
24:51
Speaker 3: give it a go. So, yeah, God only knows what
24:53
Speaker 3: the fitness test is going to be for Agura. But
24:56
Speaker 3: you mentioned this about five minutes ago about what would
24:59
Speaker 3: a Prillier do if Martin left. I'd personally i'd love
25:02
Speaker 3: to see them give a Gura shot in the factory team,
25:06
Speaker 3: Like just as you know the thing with you've got
25:08
Speaker 3: to capture these good young guys when they're still grateful
25:12
Speaker 3: for the opportunity with a full factory team, but you
25:15
Speaker 3: don't quite know what they are yet, And I don't
25:17
Speaker 3: know about you, Like a Guru has been better. He's
25:20
Speaker 3: been better than I expect him to be and it
25:22
Speaker 3: was not expected him to be bad. But I thought,
25:25
Speaker 3: you know standard Moto too, Yes, you won the championship
25:27
Speaker 3: finally after a few near misses. I thought he would
25:30
Speaker 3: be respectable, but no more than that. He's actually been
25:34
Speaker 3: really good, and I'd be super curious to see what
25:37
Speaker 3: would he be like in a bigger team with more
25:40
Speaker 3: responsibility and a bigger voice. And also just as a
25:44
Speaker 3: point of difference in a paddock. We know that it
25:46
Speaker 3: can turn into the Spanish and Italian Championship from.
25:48
Speaker 4: Time to time.
25:49
Speaker 3: It's nice to see a different approach to go about it.
25:52
Speaker 3: And you would have seen this being in the paddock
25:54
Speaker 3: for the last few rounds. He's a super quirky interview
25:57
Speaker 3: like he's actually really really funny but incredibly dry at
26:02
Speaker 3: the same time, so you can't quite work out whether
26:04
Speaker 3: he's taking the piss or not. He's actually very very
26:06
Speaker 3: funny to talk to. So just another point of difference
26:09
Speaker 3: than another personality in the paddock.
26:10
Speaker 1: I think it's good, Oh definitely, I think you know,
26:13
Speaker 1: we need it. I was reading an article on crashdot
26:15
Speaker 1: net this morning where they were saying that they're talking
26:18
Speaker 1: with Ferman Audiget, who's been the most difficult person to
26:22
Speaker 1: race against, and you're thinking he's going to say Mark
26:25
Speaker 1: or a Peco and he goes, oh, Jack Miller, trying
26:27
Speaker 1: to pass Jack has been so hard, and think, ah,
26:31
Speaker 1: you don't expect to hear this from them because we
26:33
Speaker 1: don't get to see it, or we don't hear these stories.
26:36
Speaker 2: But to hear that.
26:37
Speaker 1: About I, to hear that about Jack is what we need.
26:39
Speaker 2: So it's not just the Italian and the Spanish championship.
26:42
Speaker 4: Well yeah, it's a world championship. That's what we want.
26:44
Speaker 3: And the more faces and accents and voices and surnames
26:48
Speaker 3: and things, which is part of the appeal with top Brek.
26:50
Speaker 3: Let's be honest, it's a completely new audience and we
26:53
Speaker 3: know how popular the guy is and the commercial backing
26:56
Speaker 3: he brings that would be another great reason to have
26:58
Speaker 3: him on the grid.
27:00
Speaker 4: Now again, has he signed something?
27:03
Speaker 3: Only only about two people will actually know this, and
27:05
Speaker 3: I'll believe it when.
27:05
Speaker 4: I see it.
27:06
Speaker 3: But if we see him on the green, I think
27:08
Speaker 3: it's great for MotoGP. It's not great for world superbikes.
27:10
Speaker 4: Just be honest. He's the biggest thing in world superbikes.
27:12
Speaker 4: But it's great for MotoGP. But I'll just be super curious.
27:15
Speaker 3: If he's coming in, then someone has to make way,
27:18
Speaker 3: and who is that someone and where does that someone go?
27:20
Speaker 3: And the game of Musical Chairs starts again.
27:25
Speaker 1: That it does that, it does well. That pretty much
27:28
Speaker 1: wraps up our Aragon preview. But Matt, as we always do,
27:32
Speaker 1: here at the Pit Talk podcast, which is sponsored by
27:35
Speaker 1: Shannon's Insurance. Who is your prediction for this weekend? Matt?
27:41
Speaker 3: Can I make a prediction for the other two podium
27:44
Speaker 3: positions behind Mark Marquez?
27:45
Speaker 4: Is that allowed?
27:47
Speaker 1: I was almost gonna say, are you gonna just say
27:50
Speaker 1: Mark Marquez? But I like this, Maybe we should start
27:52
Speaker 1: predicting who's gonna be like fifth or something.
27:53
Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, exactly who's going to finish eighth this weekend?
27:57
Speaker 3: I am saying, all right, I'm going to say we're
28:00
Speaker 3: going to have one of the vir forty sixty catties
28:03
Speaker 3: on the podium on Sunday, okay, And I think it's
28:06
Speaker 3: going to be Fabio to gen Antonio. And this goes
28:09
Speaker 3: back to something that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.
28:11
Speaker 3: I think you're going to start seeing the GP twenty
28:14
Speaker 3: five start to climb now as they just bring more
28:16
Speaker 3: and more performance to those bikes, And the twenty four
28:19
Speaker 3: is not going to just not going to go backwards,
28:21
Speaker 3: but it's going to flatten out a little bit. So
28:23
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that Alex Marquez is suddenly going to
28:25
Speaker 3: fall off the pace, but I'm not sure he's going
28:27
Speaker 3: to be on this super upward trajectory that he had
28:29
Speaker 3: at the start of the season. I think the twenty
28:31
Speaker 3: fives will start to come good the longer the season goes.
28:34
Speaker 3: So I'm picking Digia on the box this weekend, but
28:36
Speaker 3: probably not first, second or third perhaps, But now that
28:40
Speaker 3: we're doing crystal ball gazing, are you is there anyone
28:44
Speaker 3: other than a do Caddy that's getting on the podium?
28:45
Speaker 4: Is that what you're thinking?
28:47
Speaker 1: Nah, album is going to call that as is no
28:50
Speaker 1: way not at this style circuit, unless unless it's like
28:55
Speaker 1: you mentioned about the grip and now that it's not
28:59
Speaker 1: just a brand your assphold on there and they've actually
29:01
Speaker 1: had some like of bikes and cars and things on there.
29:05
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe I'm gonna say it was Pedro Acosta was
29:12
Speaker 1: on the podium there last year. It was yes, do
29:15
Speaker 1: you go Pedro or Maverick?
29:16
Speaker 2: Just to throw something else.
29:18
Speaker 3: In there, Oh, Maverick would be interesting, wouldn't it. I
29:20
Speaker 3: mean he's been he's blown so hot and cold this year.
29:22
Speaker 3: On his best days, Maverick looks like one of the
29:25
Speaker 3: best three riders in Moto GP, and then on his
29:27
Speaker 3: worst days you look at the results and forget that
29:28
Speaker 3: he was in the race, So if he gets one
29:31
Speaker 3: of the former weeks, I mean, look, we've seen it
29:33
Speaker 3: this year already a couple of times, and yeah, that
29:36
Speaker 3: was an inherited podium last year for a Costa after
29:38
Speaker 3: the Alex Marquez banoy kerfuffle there. But yeah, look, maybe
29:42
Speaker 3: it is a KTM and Maverick's been riding pretty well,
29:45
Speaker 3: so maybe your crystal ball is working better than mine.
29:48
Speaker 4: We'll soon find out.
29:50
Speaker 2: Look, I don't know.
29:50
Speaker 1: I'm just going off all in there because I didn't
29:52
Speaker 1: want to say Zaka. I didn't want to go what
29:54
Speaker 1: we've been talking about the hype train there. But you
29:57
Speaker 1: just never know with Maverick, and that's what we love
30:00
Speaker 1: about Maverick Vinilla's and what we love about Moto GP.
30:03
Speaker 1: But like we said, that is our prediction and our
30:06
Speaker 1: preview for this weekend's Aragon Moto GP race. So I'm
30:10
Speaker 1: gonna be there on site so you guys can follow
30:12
Speaker 1: along me on all the Fox Sports social channels at
30:15
Speaker 1: Fox Motorsport everywhere, and Matt is going to keep you
30:18
Speaker 1: guys updated on our website, Fox sports dot com dot au.
30:22
Speaker 2: Forward Slash Motorsport.
30:24
Speaker 1: We got some fun things coming this weekend, Matt, We've
30:26
Speaker 1: got some behind the scenes with Joel Kelso he's gonna
30:29
Speaker 1: take us around the track and show us what it's
30:31
Speaker 1: like inside a Moto three garage. And maybe, just maybe,
30:34
Speaker 1: I've convinced Jack Miller to let me hang out with
30:37
Speaker 1: him on the weekend as well, so we'll see what
30:40
Speaker 1: we can get from there. But guys, that is all
30:43
Speaker 1: the time we have for Pit Talk, which is sponsored
30:45
Speaker 1: by Shannon's Insurance, from myself, Needavan Villain, and Matt Clayton.
30:50
Speaker 1: We're gonna be back real soon with more Moto GP
30:52
Speaker 1: Pit Talk.
30:55
Speaker 4: Very nice