Latest / Pit Talk / Marc Márquez Chases History In Motegi 🇯🇵

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Marc Márquez Chases History In Motegi 🇯🇵 · Pit Talk

0:01
Speaker 1: Moto GP heads to the Land of the Rising Sun
0:04
Speaker 1: for round seventeen and it's match point Mark Marquez who
0:08
Speaker 1: can take home his seventh Moto GP class World championship.
0:13
Speaker 1: This weekend Pittook as always as sponsored by Shannon's Insurance.
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Speaker 1: Joining me Ronita Muelin is the Samurai of stat slicing
0:20
Speaker 1: through MotoGP News with Razor sharp precision, Mister Matt Clayton,
0:25
Speaker 1: Matt Short, sharp and simple this weekend because Mortegi is calling.
0:31
Speaker 2: I love Motigi Bradi, Hello to you, Hello, everybody listening.
0:34
Speaker 2: I love this race because well for a few reasons,
0:37
Speaker 2: as in an Australian time zone, hooray for us, we
0:39
Speaker 2: get to watch motor GP before it's dark. What an
0:42
Speaker 2: absolute privilege that is. I like this track because this
0:46
Speaker 2: nowhere like it. It's a really really unusual place. You know,
0:49
Speaker 2: You've got the two times that it goes underneath the
0:52
Speaker 2: oval at Motigi where they disappear into a tunnel for
0:54
Speaker 2: a short part of the lap, and it's such a
0:57
Speaker 2: bizarre layout because it's long straight into to absolutely tortuous
1:02
Speaker 2: breaking zone. So there's a real different style to how
1:05
Speaker 2: you lap this circuit. Because it's Japan. At this time
1:08
Speaker 2: of year, you know you're going to get some weather
1:09
Speaker 2: at some point. It always happens when you're in Japan
1:12
Speaker 2: in late September early October, as I know from being
1:14
Speaker 2: up there a million times for F one and Motor GP,
1:17
Speaker 2: so it's always a fun weekend. But yeah, watching Murder
1:20
Speaker 2: GP in daylight hours like absolute nevada for us, isn't it.
1:24
Speaker 1: I am so looking forward to it. And let's just
1:26
Speaker 1: touch that other listeners, if you haven't seen, this schedule
1:28
Speaker 1: is going to be up on the Fox Motorsports Social soon.
1:31
Speaker 1: But Sunday's Grand Prix is on at three pm a
1:36
Speaker 1: e s t. Australian Niece's standard time, So three pm
1:39
Speaker 1: race is going to be done by four potentially Mark
1:42
Speaker 1: Marquez's championship and all that celebration will be done by
1:45
Speaker 1: four point thirty and we can have dinner and go
1:47
Speaker 1: to bed and be ready for a Monday morning and
1:50
Speaker 1: not like having to stay up till two three am
1:52
Speaker 1: like you are writing or your analysis pieces.
1:54
Speaker 2: I'll be written by midnight, which is an absolutely extraordinary
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Speaker 2: development because normally, to let you know how a European
2:01
Speaker 2: race goes, it's normally about two thirty once I've listened
2:04
Speaker 2: to all the rider debriefs and everything else when I'm
2:06
Speaker 2: not actually out the circuit. So the chance to have
2:09
Speaker 2: a semi sense of all Sundayta in September is yeah,
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Speaker 2: something to something to save. I'm not going to get
2:14
Speaker 2: used to it, but I'm going to enjoy it while
2:15
Speaker 2: it lasts well.
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Speaker 1: Like we mentioned, it's Japan, so it's the head of
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Speaker 1: the flyways and the four as cool as Southeast Asia, Australasia,
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Speaker 1: that area that they're head into. Obviously we come into
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Speaker 1: Phillip Island, which we'll get to in a few weeks time.
2:28
Speaker 1: But Mategi, like you said, twin Ring, we got that oval.
2:31
Speaker 1: It's more designed as a testing circuit, so it is
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Speaker 1: kind of more of a stop go style, would you say,
2:39
Speaker 1: because there's only really one fast corner before the SA's
2:42
Speaker 1: But then Brembo it's their hardest breaking circuit, one of
2:45
Speaker 1: the hardest breaking I saw a sat here for you,
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Speaker 1: mister Statman. Motor GP riders use their breaks for thirty
2:50
Speaker 1: four seconds per lap, which equates to a third of
2:53
Speaker 1: the whole Japanese Grand Prix race they're breaking for.
2:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, and their big stops into parts opportunities. Is what
3:01
Speaker 2: I like about this track is that there's a real
3:03
Speaker 2: ebb and flow. You can have these really quite cool
3:05
Speaker 2: cat and mouse battles at this track because you can
3:08
Speaker 2: pass someone under brakes and then someone will come back
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Speaker 2: under you at the next breaking zone. It invites races
3:14
Speaker 2: where you can stick the bike down the inside and
3:16
Speaker 2: there's enough runof room at most of the corners. I
3:18
Speaker 2: say most, not the end of the back straight down
3:20
Speaker 2: the hill, because we see people run off there all
3:22
Speaker 2: the time. But it's an unusual track in its layout
3:25
Speaker 2: and the types of breaking zones, But it actually invites
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Speaker 2: pretty good racing for the most part. And you think
3:31
Speaker 2: back to the history of this race track, we've often
3:34
Speaker 2: had quite good one on one battles here for the lead.
3:36
Speaker 2: We had some pretty fraught Rossy Lorenzo battles back in
3:39
Speaker 2: the day Da Vicioso Marquez and the Rain like there's
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Speaker 2: always quite fun battles at this particular track just because
3:45
Speaker 2: of the layout. But yeah, the three fifty five Milbrembo
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Speaker 2: discs will be out on the weekend and it'll be
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Speaker 2: super interesting to see if the people who had problems
3:55
Speaker 2: stopping their bikes over the course of the season and
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Speaker 2: of lacked front feeling. That means you pecovannoy whether this
4:00
Speaker 2: is a track where because it is such an outlier,
4:03
Speaker 2: whether he actually gets on top of it here, or
4:05
Speaker 2: whether we see a continuation of what's happened in the past.
4:08
Speaker 2: Because there's no real sort of secret to being good
4:10
Speaker 2: around Motichi. Everyone knows how to do it, but it's
4:13
Speaker 2: translating knowing how to actually doing it. That's the really
4:17
Speaker 2: hard part. And you've got to hit these breaking marks
4:20
Speaker 2: lap after lap for twenty four laps. It's a track
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Speaker 2: that invites mistakes, right, So that's what makes racing here
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Speaker 2: pretty interesting.
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Speaker 1: I remember a quote from Marquez, and I don't know
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Speaker 1: the year, but it's one of the years he won
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Speaker 1: one of his world championships here and he was like,
4:35
Speaker 1: I don't know how I managed to do that race,
4:38
Speaker 1: because even if it's him being Mark Marquez, he's like,
4:41
Speaker 1: how did I manage to stay up right? It's probably
4:43
Speaker 1: one of those crazy wet weather ones. But like you said,
4:45
Speaker 1: the track demand's precision, and even the most precise writer,
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Speaker 1: the alien of our generation, Mark Marquez, he was like,
4:53
Speaker 1: how did I manage that? For twenty four laps or whatever?
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Speaker 1: It was.
4:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels it's like it's a mentally difficult race,
5:00
Speaker 2: not because you're having to be brave and keep the
5:02
Speaker 2: thing wide open in the high speed quarters. All these
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Speaker 2: big breaking zones they just are they're asking you to
5:08
Speaker 2: make a mistake, right, and you can completely ruin your
5:11
Speaker 2: weekend with one misjudgment at one breaking zone. So mentally
5:15
Speaker 2: it's quite a fatiguing race. Not so much physically as such,
5:18
Speaker 2: but mentally you've got to hit your marks every single
5:21
Speaker 2: time on this circuit. And you saw last year, for example,
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Speaker 2: like someone like Pedro cost it crazy FASTI like really
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Speaker 2: really impressive, and he probably only made two mistakes all
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Speaker 2: weekend and they completely cost him and he threw his
5:31
Speaker 2: weekend away with just two lapses of judgment. It's a
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Speaker 2: track that's just trying to almost provoke you into making
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Speaker 2: a mistake, and that's what. Yeah, it's why this track
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Speaker 2: you wouldn't want twenty two of these, but as an
5:43
Speaker 2: outlier in the full course of a season, I actually
5:46
Speaker 2: quite like it.
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Speaker 1: I love that you said that because it's something like
5:48
Speaker 1: you said similar this year when we went to Battlezon
5:51
Speaker 1: Park for the first time last year for the first time,
5:53
Speaker 1: and I think that's what's so cool about motor GPS.
5:55
Speaker 1: We do go to a lot of these tracks that
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Speaker 1: are so unique in their own way, and you know,
6:01
Speaker 1: you think, this is this used to be the second
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Speaker 1: Japanese Grand Prix that there wasn't the calendar because back
6:06
Speaker 1: in the day they had Suzuka, right, the iconic Suzuka,
6:11
Speaker 1: and we no reasons why that that's not there. I
6:13
Speaker 1: think the fact for me though, is it it's one
6:17
Speaker 1: of those tracks that is iconic for multiple reasons. But
6:22
Speaker 1: for this weekend, we're talking about Mark Marquez and the
6:27
Speaker 1: icon that's coming. The history, the drama, the talk, they
6:31
Speaker 1: just the build up of the fact that Mark Marquez
6:34
Speaker 1: is coming back to win a Moto GP World Championship
6:39
Speaker 1: again after that injury that potentially ruined his career, could
6:44
Speaker 1: have ruined his career. He was thinking of retirement, like
6:46
Speaker 1: you wrote in your article for Fox sports dot com,
6:48
Speaker 1: to a for Slush Motorsport. Got to get that plug
6:51
Speaker 1: in there, and you know, we're talking about it this weekend.
6:55
Speaker 1: We're talking about the comeback and the hashtag come back loading.
6:59
Speaker 1: But Matt, we were talking off air before and I said,
7:01
Speaker 1: hold this thought, we need to pause and we need
7:02
Speaker 1: to talk about this now now. I posted one of
7:05
Speaker 1: your articles on the Fox Sports and Fox Motorsports Socials
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Speaker 1: the other day and in the caption I put, like
7:12
Speaker 1: I said in the intro here his seventh Moto GP
7:15
Speaker 1: class World Championship. There is a bit of an uproar
7:18
Speaker 1: happening on socials at the moment, which all stemmed all
7:21
Speaker 1: the way back to Moto GP when they posted the
7:24
Speaker 1: same thing about Mark Markus winning his seventh Moto GP
7:28
Speaker 1: class World Championship. The uproar is coming from the fact
7:32
Speaker 1: that no, Mark Markes is going to be winning his
7:36
Speaker 1: ninth World Championship this weekend. Matt, will you come from
7:40
Speaker 1: an F one background before we even talk about the
7:44
Speaker 1: drama that's unfolding of Mark creating history here, let's not
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Speaker 1: dive on this, this little wording, this little thing that's
7:51
Speaker 1: sipping everyone off on socials at the moment.
7:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a little nuance with this. I mean, Duna's
7:55
Speaker 2: clearly trying to prioritize the Motor GP World championshi it wins,
8:00
Speaker 2: which I understand. I get it. It's the highest level
8:03
Speaker 2: of the sport. Both things can be true here in
8:05
Speaker 2: that you look at the Marquez championship celebrations in the past.
8:08
Speaker 2: When he won his seventh at Motegi, we had the
8:10
Speaker 2: video game. When he won his eighth at Burram in
8:12
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, we had the eight ball celebration. So yeah,
8:15
Speaker 2: it is going to be when he eventually wins it
8:18
Speaker 2: his ninth World Championship, it's going to be his seventh
8:21
Speaker 2: Motor GP World Championship. Both things can be true here,
8:25
Speaker 2: and I'm looking at this from perhaps a car racing
8:28
Speaker 2: point of view in that I look at Oscar Piastri
8:30
Speaker 2: right this season and the whole time we're talking about
8:33
Speaker 2: the fact that, well, Oscar Piastre's in the box seat,
8:37
Speaker 2: has a very very good chance to win his first
8:39
Speaker 2: World Championship. People are talking about his first World Championship
8:41
Speaker 2: as his first Formula one World Championship. He's a Formula
8:45
Speaker 2: two Championship winner, he's a Formula three Championship winner. Never
8:48
Speaker 2: in the four wheel space do we ever say, well,
8:50
Speaker 2: Oscar Piastre is going through his third World Championship this year.
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Speaker 2: It's never really discussed. That's not to downplay what he's
8:57
Speaker 2: done in F three and F two, because that's part
8:59
Speaker 2: of the story that's got him to Formula one, just
9:02
Speaker 2: like I don't think we should be downplaying what Mark
9:04
Speaker 2: did in MOTIV one, two fives and Moto two and
9:07
Speaker 2: then what Valencino did. Any of these guys that win
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Speaker 2: multiple world championships in the lower classes, yes they are
9:13
Speaker 2: world championships, but the delineation between nine World championships seven
9:18
Speaker 2: Motor GP championships, both things can be true here. I
9:22
Speaker 2: just find it. And maybe this is me being in
9:26
Speaker 2: both spaces for a really, really long time because I'm old,
9:29
Speaker 2: but not sort of emphasizing the past quite so much.
9:32
Speaker 2: I think that the seven time world championship thing, I
9:36
Speaker 2: don't think it lessens what he's done over the course
9:39
Speaker 2: of his career, because you know, you look at other
9:41
Speaker 2: guys who won Moto two on the way through or
9:43
Speaker 2: Moto three, like you know Pecabanyais one. You look at
9:46
Speaker 2: all these guys that have won these world championships. I
9:48
Speaker 2: don't think it lessens what they do in the top
9:50
Speaker 2: flight if they haven't won world championships. I don't think
9:52
Speaker 2: we're not acknowledging what they've done in the lower classes
9:55
Speaker 2: before they've won Moto GP World championships. I can see
9:58
Speaker 2: it from a Dawner point of view, in you're trying
10:00
Speaker 2: to prioritize the people who've been the most successful in
10:04
Speaker 2: the absolute highest level of the sport. So in four
10:07
Speaker 2: wheels we talk about Lewis Hamilton being a seven time
10:09
Speaker 2: world champion. No one talks about the fact that he
10:11
Speaker 2: won Formula two or GP two as it was back
10:13
Speaker 2: in the day. That's just part of the story. So
10:16
Speaker 2: both things can be true here. I can understand why
10:20
Speaker 2: there might be some resistance to Dawner perhaps trying to
10:24
Speaker 2: not even de emphasize the lower classes, but more outwardly
10:28
Speaker 2: emphasize the higher classes. Regardless if you're talking seven night,
10:32
Speaker 2: it's a hell of a lot of world jabberships that
10:34
Speaker 2: shows you how good the guy is. But I'm a
10:36
Speaker 2: little bit surprised at why people are maybe getting a
10:39
Speaker 2: little bit up in arms about this. I don't think
10:42
Speaker 2: it's a massive deal because we're not trying to bury
10:44
Speaker 2: the past here. We're just trying to emphasize the present
10:47
Speaker 2: and perhaps the higher class. But you've got much more
10:49
Speaker 2: of a two wheel background than me, given surname and
10:52
Speaker 2: family involvement and so on and so forth. Am I
10:55
Speaker 2: wrong here? Am I looking at this through a car
10:57
Speaker 2: lens or do you understand where the sort of social
11:00
Speaker 2: media angst about this has come from? For me?
11:05
Speaker 1: Before I answer your question, I'm gonna I'm gonna explain
11:07
Speaker 1: my thought of it. For me, the fact is, you know,
11:10
Speaker 1: Moto two, Moto three, Back in the day one, two, five,
11:13
Speaker 1: two fifties, they always traveled with Moto GP bar I
11:16
Speaker 1: think it was Laguna Sega for a while, maybe a
11:19
Speaker 1: couple other Grand Prix, right, So a majority of the
11:22
Speaker 1: whole championship, those lower categories were there. So if they're
11:27
Speaker 1: riding on the same tracks, they're doing the same amount
11:29
Speaker 1: of track time essentially those before the sprint races. To me,
11:33
Speaker 1: it equate this, yeah, you just on a different CC bike,
11:36
Speaker 1: But yeah, it is still the world championship. So I
11:39
Speaker 1: see where they're coming from with that, because, like I said,
11:41
Speaker 1: I don't know cars that much, but I'm remember it
11:44
Speaker 1: used to be the lower car categories they didn't always
11:48
Speaker 1: do the same amount of rounds in a championship as.
11:50
Speaker 2: One, and it's still the case. They don't do every
11:53
Speaker 2: single round now. In the past, Formula two and Formula
11:55
Speaker 2: three would have standalone race weekends away from the Formula
11:58
Speaker 2: one paddic it's now just become part of the undercard.
12:01
Speaker 2: But you look at F three and F two these days,
12:03
Speaker 2: they still don't do all of the all of the
12:06
Speaker 2: tracks that F one does. F three finishes super early.
12:08
Speaker 2: F three is already done. F two sort of struggles
12:11
Speaker 2: on and goes to Katar and Abi Dhabi. But before
12:13
Speaker 2: you get back to your point, don't you reckon this
12:16
Speaker 2: is kind of where the future of Motor GP is going,
12:18
Speaker 2: and that you mentioned Lagooner before. Can't you imagine a
12:22
Speaker 2: world in that perhaps there are several rounds in Motor
12:25
Speaker 2: GP's future because there's all these countries that want motor
12:27
Speaker 2: GP races. Maybe we have twenty five Motor GP rounds,
12:30
Speaker 2: but maybe there's eighteen of them that are Motor two
12:33
Speaker 2: and Motor three rounds, So they might be on the
12:35
Speaker 2: undercard at the European tracks or maybe some of the
12:38
Speaker 2: big you know, like Qatar or somewhere. You can see
12:40
Speaker 2: that perhaps going there coachap perhaps, but maybe Motor three
12:44
Speaker 2: and Motor two in the future don't go to every
12:46
Speaker 2: single round. Maybe that's a separate discussion for another day,
12:48
Speaker 2: But I just wonder whether there's going to be that
12:51
Speaker 2: separation if that's if they want Motor G more Motor
12:54
Speaker 2: GP rounds, it's possible. I mean, God knows there's enough
12:57
Speaker 2: of them already. But is it possible to expand the
13:00
Speaker 2: and drag moto towour Motor three along with you? Given
13:03
Speaker 2: that we know there's not the money in those categories,
13:05
Speaker 2: that there is a Moto GP to make it sustainable,
13:08
Speaker 2: maybe there becomes more of a separation of the categories
13:11
Speaker 2: in the future. I don't know.
13:12
Speaker 1: And then yeah, I do believe this is a whole
13:14
Speaker 1: nother podcast because you can go down the line of well,
13:16
Speaker 1: then how do the lower categories then get sponsorship? Does
13:19
Speaker 1: it kind of turn into like a World Superbike situation
13:22
Speaker 1: where their only flyaway round is Philip Isolin. Now and
13:25
Speaker 1: back when Chris, my brother was racing, you know, they
13:28
Speaker 1: did go to Laguna, they did go to Australia. The
13:30
Speaker 1: thing they might have eaten done an Asian round back
13:32
Speaker 1: then too. I look at Chris and you know, if
13:35
Speaker 1: someone asks me, oh, or what has he done? I say,
13:37
Speaker 1: he's a world champion and a Moto GP race winner.
13:40
Speaker 1: Because I go superspoyl. He's his own world championship and
13:45
Speaker 1: he is world champion in that category. But I do
13:49
Speaker 1: see where Downer is coming and I see the fact
13:51
Speaker 1: of Okay, yeah, it is seven Moto GP world titled
13:54
Speaker 1: in the premiere class. You can't get any high in
13:58
Speaker 1: the form of two wheeled racing in the world is
14:01
Speaker 1: seven times in that. But as a whole, yeah, he's
14:05
Speaker 1: going to win. He would have won nine world titles
14:08
Speaker 1: after Moteggi fingers crossed that he is done in his career.
14:12
Speaker 1: That's a feat that, like, you take your hat off
14:16
Speaker 1: to him, He's done it.
14:17
Speaker 2: Absolutely are we looking at the.
14:19
Speaker 1: Small details here? Potentially? Is this something that I think
14:22
Speaker 1: we're all panicking about. Liberty media is going to change
14:26
Speaker 1: and what are they going to do? Potentially, But I
14:28
Speaker 1: think they could be also looking at Moto GP as
14:32
Speaker 1: the fact of Like I said, the lower categories tend
14:34
Speaker 1: to go with Moto GP. It's so different to F
14:37
Speaker 1: two and F three. Now, maybe we're getting our nickers
14:40
Speaker 1: in a not over something that doesn't necessarily have to
14:42
Speaker 1: be right now. We should just be celebrating the fact
14:45
Speaker 1: that A Mark Markus has come back from a near
14:49
Speaker 1: retirement injury to win the championship. B two brothers are
14:52
Speaker 1: going to finish one and two potentially in the World Championship.
14:56
Speaker 1: Like I said, we our last episode, we're only witnessing
14:58
Speaker 1: this for the first time ever in Rodio GP. Let's
15:01
Speaker 1: not look at the details and just just look at
15:03
Speaker 1: the fact that Mark Marquez is dominating in twenty twenty five.
15:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's sort of something I touched on earlier
15:11
Speaker 2: in the week in that it is kind of crazy
15:13
Speaker 2: to think that this will be the longest gap between
15:17
Speaker 2: Motor GP titles that we've ever seen in terms of
15:19
Speaker 2: it's been six years since his most recent until he
15:21
Speaker 2: gets to the one in twenty twenty five. Casey Stone
15:23
Speaker 2: had four years between his two World championships. That's always
15:26
Speaker 2: been the biggest gap, if you like. But that is
15:30
Speaker 2: only just part of the story with Mark, and I
15:32
Speaker 2: think the interesting part about it was his interview that
15:34
Speaker 2: he did just after the last round in where were
15:38
Speaker 2: we in the last round? We're at Massano. Yeah, just
15:40
Speaker 2: when he did that interview at Missano where he was
15:42
Speaker 2: saying that it's not so much that he got himself
15:45
Speaker 2: out of the Honda deal and basically rode for free
15:48
Speaker 2: for Grassini just to get himself out of the Honda deal.
15:50
Speaker 2: I think he was more trying to assess whether his
15:53
Speaker 2: body still enabled him to do what it needed to
15:56
Speaker 2: do to be a world champion, and he outwardly said like,
16:00
Speaker 2: if the Grassini thing hadn't have gone well, then it
16:03
Speaker 2: was probably time to go and to here's someone that
16:06
Speaker 2: is just patholotically competitive as Mark is, to basically be well,
16:12
Speaker 2: maybe this is just it now, maybe this is just
16:14
Speaker 2: the way my story ends. And to go from that
16:18
Speaker 2: realization to I've got one year to work out whether
16:20
Speaker 2: I've still got it, to being on the cusp of
16:22
Speaker 2: doing what we're doing this year, and not so much
16:25
Speaker 2: that he's going to win the World Championship, the fact
16:27
Speaker 2: that it's going to be the most dominant of all
16:29
Speaker 2: of his seasons, and you think of some of the
16:31
Speaker 2: seasons that he's had in the past, it's astonishing that
16:34
Speaker 2: he is doing what he is doing. But you mentioned
16:37
Speaker 2: before about the synergy of being able to wrap this
16:41
Speaker 2: up at Motegi. Right, So he's won three of his
16:43
Speaker 2: World championship twenty fourteen, sixteen eighteen or all one at Motegi.
16:47
Speaker 2: We know that he wrote for Honda, Japanese manufacturer for
16:49
Speaker 2: many many years. There was a really small part of
16:52
Speaker 2: me just for the social media agro. Let's be honest,
16:55
Speaker 2: I would have loved him to have won the championship
16:56
Speaker 2: at Mazado because it would have been a nice little,
16:59
Speaker 2: you know, a nice little response to all the Rossi
17:01
Speaker 2: fans and what have you. We sort of saw that
17:03
Speaker 2: with the Leo Messi inspired leathers celebration after a white
17:07
Speaker 2: up Meisado. But there's something that feels to me like
17:11
Speaker 2: it's just kind of right that he wins in Japan
17:14
Speaker 2: because it was this time, a couple of years ago
17:15
Speaker 2: that he went to Hondre and said, look, I would
17:19
Speaker 2: like to rip this contract up for twenty twenty four
17:21
Speaker 2: and go and do something else. The fact that he
17:24
Speaker 2: can close this circle here almost feels more appropriate to me.
17:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I completely agree. I think he mentioned it races ago.
17:33
Speaker 2: You know.
17:34
Speaker 1: No, I don't want to win in Europe. I want
17:35
Speaker 1: to win in either Japan or Indonesia. I think those
17:39
Speaker 1: places hold a special place for him in who he
17:43
Speaker 1: is as a person. He wants to respect where he's
17:46
Speaker 1: come from, where he's been. Obviously he has a massive
17:49
Speaker 1: fan base in those parts of the world we know,
17:52
Speaker 1: so I completely agree. I think it's going to be
17:55
Speaker 1: so special. We know special, but I think for him
18:00
Speaker 1: this one is going to mean probably more than I
18:04
Speaker 1: would think his favorite one being when he won in
18:07
Speaker 1: his rookie year. Right for me, I hold that in
18:09
Speaker 1: quite hard regards. Sorr. I didn't cut you off, but
18:11
Speaker 1: I think this one the comeback, the struggle. He's older,
18:14
Speaker 1: he's wiser, You've written that in your book. I think
18:17
Speaker 1: he's going to look at this one very, very different.
18:20
Speaker 2: It's interesting in that the whole I mean, it's been
18:22
Speaker 2: obvious to everyone from probably the first two rounds how
18:26
Speaker 2: this season was probably going to go. He knows that,
18:28
Speaker 2: we know that, his rivals know that, and the whole
18:31
Speaker 2: season he's refused to sort of look too far ahead
18:34
Speaker 2: or really give too much thought to the past. There
18:37
Speaker 2: was one question that he got asked. I remember it
18:39
Speaker 2: was in the Assen post race press conference when he
18:41
Speaker 2: had won there where he was asked, you know which
18:44
Speaker 2: version of Mark is better? Is that the young version
18:47
Speaker 2: of the old version? And normally Marza goes into I've
18:50
Speaker 2: answered this question a thousand times before mode and just
18:52
Speaker 2: sort of trots out the sound bite and gets it
18:54
Speaker 2: over and dub with and you could see there was
18:56
Speaker 2: a pause there, and he's like, oh, had the best
18:59
Speaker 2: frame this because you're almost looking at two completely different
19:02
Speaker 2: riders because of the time difference between the two championships.
19:05
Speaker 2: You know, six years. You know, twenty nineteen is a
19:07
Speaker 2: long time ago, but it's more how he's evolved because
19:12
Speaker 2: of what he's had to go through. And you know,
19:15
Speaker 2: sometimes you know, the journey is as much a part
19:18
Speaker 2: of it as where you get to eventually in terms
19:20
Speaker 2: of the destination. I wonder if this particular writer that
19:23
Speaker 2: Mark is now would have evolved had he have not
19:25
Speaker 2: gone through what he went through. You do wonder what
19:28
Speaker 2: that taught him in terms of just change of attitude
19:31
Speaker 2: and approach. And he did so much of his winning
19:33
Speaker 2: when he was so young that you almost wondered, you know,
19:36
Speaker 2: world champion at twenty. You do wonder, you know, had
19:40
Speaker 2: his career just sort of meandered on from twenty nineteen
19:43
Speaker 2: without the injuries, how much winning would he have done?
19:45
Speaker 2: Would he even still be in the sport at this point?
19:47
Speaker 2: Like what do you have won two or three more
19:49
Speaker 2: titles and then gone, you know, done the casey Stoner
19:51
Speaker 2: and maybe get out a little bit earlier than perhaps
19:53
Speaker 2: he could have and should have. But you know your
19:55
Speaker 2: body's intact, and you've made as much money as you
19:57
Speaker 2: need to make, and you've got all of these records.
19:59
Speaker 2: It's sort of extended the tale of his career, and
20:02
Speaker 2: so there's a logical. So he wins this year, that'll
20:05
Speaker 2: be seven motor GP world titles, which will be the
20:07
Speaker 2: same as Valentino Rossi. Nice coincidence there. You do wonder
20:11
Speaker 2: if the chance to win eight and perhaps capitalize on
20:15
Speaker 2: this rule set before it changes for twenty seven, that's
20:17
Speaker 2: the next stimulus for him. But for him, it's all
20:21
Speaker 2: going to be about finding new challenges, like what's the
20:24
Speaker 2: thing that's going to motivate him? Doesn't need the money,
20:28
Speaker 2: doesn't need the success. He's done so much winning. Is
20:30
Speaker 2: there a number that he has in his head of
20:31
Speaker 2: a number of wins he would like to have? Is
20:34
Speaker 2: there a particular number of world championships he wants to have?
20:37
Speaker 2: What if we get to twenty twenty seven and very unlikely,
20:40
Speaker 2: but what if the the decat he's not very good?
20:44
Speaker 2: What does he do then? Does he want to finish
20:46
Speaker 2: his career at Honda and sort of go back and
20:48
Speaker 2: close that circle, or will there come a point where
20:51
Speaker 2: you get to a certain age and you've already been
20:53
Speaker 2: through so much injury, ravage, seasons and what have you
20:57
Speaker 2: in pain and mental anguish? Is there a finish line
21:00
Speaker 2: for this? Like, I'd be super curious to know once
21:03
Speaker 2: the glow of the World Championship sort of fades a
21:05
Speaker 2: little bit, what motivates him now? Is it just being
21:08
Speaker 2: the best on every Sunday or is there something longer term?
21:12
Speaker 2: I think that'll be a super interesting question. I expect
21:15
Speaker 2: that when he wins, he will actually be really, really
21:18
Speaker 2: quite emotional about it, because I feel like he's been
21:20
Speaker 2: holding on to it the longer this season's gone, he's
21:23
Speaker 2: been you know, we'll talk about that when it happens.
21:25
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that when it happens. When it happens,
21:28
Speaker 2: I suspect that there'll be a lot of memories of
21:31
Speaker 2: maybe some of his worst days that will pop back
21:33
Speaker 2: into his head between twenty twenty and twenty twenty five
21:37
Speaker 2: that he'll probably think about and it'll be like, I
21:39
Speaker 2: overcame that as much as I won the World Championship.
21:42
Speaker 2: I think you'll be pretty emotional Sunday.
21:44
Speaker 1: I would say, imagine having a bird's eye view of
21:47
Speaker 1: witnessing what his actual thoughts are. Oh yeah, that would
21:51
Speaker 1: be incredible. But there's something you just touched on there
21:54
Speaker 1: and I just want to flag an article that you
21:57
Speaker 1: recently wrote titled Moto GP's best Losers, if that's anything
22:01
Speaker 1: to go off, and you said, they're like, you know
22:04
Speaker 1: what happens when when the confetti's fallen and what happens
22:09
Speaker 1: when the World Championship's over and done with? Is he
22:12
Speaker 1: going to keep trying to win? And I think you
22:15
Speaker 1: summed it up best and I'm going to totally brutalize
22:17
Speaker 1: what you've said, but is Valentino Rossi is the best
22:22
Speaker 1: example of this? Is he was fighting for it so hard,
22:26
Speaker 1: but then what happened? You know, he aged, he lost,
22:29
Speaker 1: like he didn't finish his career on a high. Yes,
22:32
Speaker 1: he is a goat and the best thing that's probably
22:35
Speaker 1: ever happened to Moto GP because you know, look what
22:38
Speaker 1: we saw in the Zanno, the amount of VF forty
22:40
Speaker 1: six floral yellow everywhere he's raced team. But tell me
22:44
Speaker 1: where did he finish in his last season in Moto GP?
22:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like eighteenth or something. You look at
22:49
Speaker 2: that twenty fifteen we talk about Malaysia twenty fifteen all
22:51
Speaker 2: the time, but in terms of you know, let's let's
22:55
Speaker 2: play the alternative circumstance out here. He led that World
22:58
Speaker 2: Championship in twenty fifteen for sixty out of the eighteen rounds.
23:01
Speaker 2: The biggest deficit he had all season was five points,
23:04
Speaker 2: which is the end of the championship at Valencia after
23:06
Speaker 2: he started from the back of the grid. After what
23:08
Speaker 2: happened in Malaysia. That would have been a six year
23:11
Speaker 2: gap between his two thousand and nine world title in
23:13
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. He finished second in twenty sixteen to Marques,
23:17
Speaker 2: but it was one of those runner up It's a
23:19
Speaker 2: bit Alex Marques is just like, well, someone's got to
23:21
Speaker 2: finish second, is not really in doubt, and he was
23:23
Speaker 2: never really there again, and his career sort of just
23:26
Speaker 2: dwindled to a bit of a conclusion. And you know,
23:29
Speaker 2: he obviously raced for a number of years after that
23:31
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen near miss. But how about that as a
23:34
Speaker 2: moment that changed the course of history and legacy and
23:37
Speaker 2: all of the other things. Not so much Malaysia twenty
23:40
Speaker 2: fifteen to what happened in that circumstance, but he was
23:43
Speaker 2: so close to the summit again after a really long
23:46
Speaker 2: period that he could almost touch it and then lost
23:49
Speaker 2: it in the final round and never got another chance
23:51
Speaker 2: to win. And it's on these little knife edge moments
23:55
Speaker 2: that these careers can completely change. So, you know, taking
23:58
Speaker 2: it back to the Marques consequence here, you have to
24:03
Speaker 2: think about the amounts of times during this past six
24:05
Speaker 2: years that he probably thought, well, maybe that is it,
24:07
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't win anymore. Maybe because of what happened
24:10
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty and the four arm surgeries and everything else.
24:13
Speaker 2: The fact that he's able able to get back to
24:14
Speaker 2: even being contingent to win another one as a story
24:17
Speaker 2: in itself, because Rossie, as really good as he was
24:20
Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, that was the when he didn't win
24:24
Speaker 2: that world title. That was the beginning of a long,
24:27
Speaker 2: slow decline. And when we think about the great career
24:30
Speaker 2: of Valentino Rossi, no one's really talking about twenty seventeen
24:33
Speaker 2: to twenty one, are they. We're almost trying to sort
24:35
Speaker 2: of forget it existed, a bit like he's Ducaddy time, Like, oh,
24:37
Speaker 2: that didn't exist. We know what happened, but let's not
24:39
Speaker 2: talk about it. By the end, it felt that you know,
24:44
Speaker 2: and he's got the right to do whatever he wants
24:45
Speaker 2: because he won seventy world championships, but it kind of
24:47
Speaker 2: felt that he stayed that little bit too long. And
24:50
Speaker 2: you know, you look at sometimes these guys get out
24:52
Speaker 2: too early, very rarely, but Casey Stoder probably got out
24:55
Speaker 2: too early. There's some guys that leave at the right time.
24:58
Speaker 2: I always thought to Vizio, so you know, pretty much
25:01
Speaker 2: got it right. It's a hard line to find. You
25:04
Speaker 2: look in the four wheel space, like you wonder if
25:05
Speaker 2: we're going to be having this conversation about Lewis Hamilton
25:07
Speaker 2: in a year or two. It's like, well, this Ferrari
25:09
Speaker 2: stuff's not gone very well and he's forty one years old.
25:12
Speaker 2: How's that going? So trying to find the right time
25:14
Speaker 2: to go is the hard thing. Valentino probably outstate. He's
25:17
Speaker 2: welcome a little bit, but he was completely within his
25:19
Speaker 2: rights to do so because of what he'd done. And Marquees,
25:22
Speaker 2: this is what I said before, like this is the
25:24
Speaker 2: second career of a guy with the same name, because
25:27
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen to nineteen, Marquees was a complete force of
25:31
Speaker 2: nature who just won for fun on six titles in
25:34
Speaker 2: seven years. He is a different writer now, in a
25:36
Speaker 2: different person, but it's at a different time of his career.
25:39
Speaker 2: But also knowing when to stop, that's always the key thing.
25:44
Speaker 2: But yeah, the Rossie thing, These things turn on such
25:47
Speaker 2: a knife agent. The point I was trying to make
25:49
Speaker 2: in the story is that, you know, yeah, I was
25:51
Speaker 2: being a little bit disingenuous when I described him as
25:53
Speaker 2: the best loser of the past decade, but he is
25:55
Speaker 2: the most competitive runner up of the past decade in
25:58
Speaker 2: Motor GP. The only thing that made me go down
26:01
Speaker 2: that rabbit hole and work that out was, yeah, Alex
26:04
Speaker 2: Marquez is going to be runner up this season, but
26:06
Speaker 2: it's not the most competitive runner up season of all time.
26:09
Speaker 2: It's been an amazing season for Alex because he's completely
26:13
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but he's exceeded any expectation
26:16
Speaker 2: I had of what he would do in Botter GP
26:18
Speaker 2: this year. I'm like, is this the same guy that
26:19
Speaker 2: I've seen for the previous five years? In and of itself,
26:22
Speaker 2: He's had a fantastic season as a runner up, and
26:25
Speaker 2: has it been competitive? Absolutely not No.
26:28
Speaker 1: But I mean the news that's come out of it
26:30
Speaker 1: is he's going to be on a factory es you
26:31
Speaker 1: caddy next year, so whether that's something he wants to
26:37
Speaker 1: is it even going to be a GP twenty six
26:39
Speaker 1: or is it going to be twenty four point seven
26:41
Speaker 1: eighty two or whatever version.
26:43
Speaker 2: They are on the classic case of a poison Chalice,
26:46
Speaker 2: congratulations on having the best year of your career. He's
26:48
Speaker 2: a worse bike, yes, So we'll.
26:51
Speaker 1: See what next year brings. But this weekend, Matt, I
26:55
Speaker 1: asked you this and I just want to I want
26:57
Speaker 1: you to reanswer it for me, because I was a
26:59
Speaker 1: little bit confused because we keep seeing Mark only has
27:01
Speaker 1: to be Alex by three points to win the World Championship.
27:05
Speaker 1: Can he do it on Sunday? Or is it just
27:07
Speaker 1: going to be on Sunday that that's going to happen.
27:10
Speaker 2: No, it has to be Sunday. So let's play the
27:12
Speaker 2: scenario out. Say Mark wins the sprint and Alex doesn't
27:15
Speaker 2: score a point just to go the worst case scenario
27:18
Speaker 2: for Alex. Best case scenario for Mark, that means that
27:20
Speaker 2: Mark would be fifteen points ahead coming into Sunday's Grand
27:23
Speaker 2: Prix at Motegi. There's twenty five points available on Sunday
27:26
Speaker 2: at Motegi. So if you had a situation where say
27:28
Speaker 2: Alex wins the Grand Prix and Mark finishes seventh, then
27:32
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, he's not going to be ahead
27:34
Speaker 2: by the points he needs to cement the World Championship
27:36
Speaker 2: by the end of the Motigi round, because it'll be
27:38
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty five available. So you could have
27:41
Speaker 2: this really weird situation where Mark could get the three
27:45
Speaker 2: points that he needs over Alex to be in a
27:48
Speaker 2: position to win the World Championship by Saturday night. He
27:51
Speaker 2: could go to bed Saturday night and motegi as World
27:54
Speaker 2: Champion in waiting or put air quotes around it, because
27:56
Speaker 2: he might have a one hundred and eighty seven point
27:59
Speaker 2: gap over his younger brother in the standings, but that
28:02
Speaker 2: doesn't mean anything because the World Championship standings are calculated
28:04
Speaker 2: at the end of the round, and there is still
28:06
Speaker 2: a chance for Alex to actually overtake Mark if Mark
28:09
Speaker 2: was to have a shaker on Sunday and Alex was
28:10
Speaker 2: to be by several places. So points wise, yeah, he
28:14
Speaker 2: can have the number of points that he would need
28:16
Speaker 2: to be World champion by Saturday night, but there's still
28:18
Speaker 2: a race on Sunday, and the race on Sunday's got
28:20
Speaker 2: double the amount of points, and so you could have
28:23
Speaker 2: this really really strange situation. It's like, well, he's basically
28:25
Speaker 2: world champion, but he's not. Strange. One, it feels more
28:29
Speaker 2: appropriate to be celebrating or moving on from these things
28:32
Speaker 2: after a Grand Prix rather than a sprint, because it
28:35
Speaker 2: would be a little bit sort of flat. It's like, oh,
28:37
Speaker 2: we've had a sprint. Oh yeah, by the way, you're
28:39
Speaker 2: the world champion, and now we've got to turn up
28:40
Speaker 2: twenty four hours later and do the big show on
28:43
Speaker 2: the Sunday. So simply because of the points gap between
28:46
Speaker 2: the sprints and the Grand Prix this year, number of
28:48
Speaker 2: points available, no, he can't win it on Saturday, but
28:50
Speaker 2: he can wein it on Sunday.
28:52
Speaker 1: Now, the important question for the weekend is it going
28:56
Speaker 1: to be a Cloud nine celebration for March? You think
28:59
Speaker 1: they're going to be like a seven plus two or.
29:03
Speaker 2: A seventh plus two. We're going in an yetto territory here,
29:07
Speaker 2: Mark Mark being Mark, I can see now. I mean,
29:11
Speaker 2: if you you look around social media, you do a
29:13
Speaker 2: bit of reading, there is some sort of discussion that
29:15
Speaker 2: Downer have said, by the way, this is your seventh championship,
29:18
Speaker 2: so you know there'll be some sort of themed celebration
29:20
Speaker 2: that they've cooked up. Hopefully no, not involving any like
29:24
Speaker 2: CGI Dancing Devils. The low point of Moto GP championship
29:27
Speaker 2: celebrations with Coutaterero a few years ago. Still an absolutely
29:30
Speaker 2: shocking one, that one. But you do since Mark being Mark,
29:34
Speaker 2: he'll probably acquiesce to the whole seventh Moto GP World
29:38
Speaker 2: Championship thing. I'd be looking very closely at what that
29:40
Speaker 2: number seven is because it might have a little plus
29:42
Speaker 2: two just in there in like sort of you know,
29:44
Speaker 2: ten point type or something, or with an asterisk or something,
29:47
Speaker 2: because you'll want to acknowledge the nine world championships. So
29:50
Speaker 2: he'll probably be a good boy and do what he's told,
29:51
Speaker 2: but it'll also be a bit of by the way,
29:53
Speaker 2: I won two other world championships as well, and I'm
29:56
Speaker 2: not forgetting about those. So they might have had to
29:59
Speaker 2: hastily redo the T shirts this week or something you
30:01
Speaker 2: get them out to MOOTEGI. But I don't think that
30:04
Speaker 2: the one, two, five and the Motor two Championships I
30:07
Speaker 2: go to be forgotten in the celebration. I'll say that no,
30:10
Speaker 2: that's one.
30:10
Speaker 1: Thing, like we spoke about earlier. Everyone can have their
30:13
Speaker 1: opinion and everything about that, but I think you, hands down,
30:17
Speaker 1: Mark Marquez is our alien right now. He is the
30:20
Speaker 1: best that we've had since Valentino Rossi. And you can
30:23
Speaker 1: go back the name whoever your favorite best is, but
30:25
Speaker 1: right now it is Mark Marquez. No one can get
30:28
Speaker 1: even close to him, and we're witnessing one of the
30:31
Speaker 1: best comebacks we've ever seen in sport. I've said to you,
30:34
Speaker 1: this is like Michael Jordan, and you were like, yeah,
30:36
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to know when Michael Jordan actually did.
30:38
Speaker 2: That, so I had Actually I'd actually argue, and this
30:42
Speaker 2: is me putting my other sporting hat on here, because
30:44
Speaker 2: I covered a lot of the Jordan era because again,
30:46
Speaker 2: old other sports, that sort of stuff. I'd actually argue,
30:49
Speaker 2: it's more impressive than what Jordan did. Because Jordan chose
30:52
Speaker 2: to walk away and do another sport for a couple
30:54
Speaker 2: of years, and he won three consecutive championships, so he
30:57
Speaker 2: won six in all in a nine year period. Because
30:59
Speaker 2: he spent the best part of those middle three years
31:01
Speaker 2: either not playing or just getting back to playing again.
31:04
Speaker 2: Mark didn't have a choice in all of this in
31:06
Speaker 2: that Mark's body was broken and he's had to come
31:08
Speaker 2: back through all the physical anguish and the mental anguish
31:11
Speaker 2: that goes with that to get himself back to the
31:13
Speaker 2: top in a completely different spec series at this point,
31:16
Speaker 2: with different rivals. And you only have to look, and
31:19
Speaker 2: I mentioned this when we had Keith Ewanon last week.
31:23
Speaker 2: You go back and look at photos of Mark's first
31:25
Speaker 2: championship at Honda in twenty thirteen and look at the bikes.
31:29
Speaker 2: They look so sort of, I don't know, they look
31:31
Speaker 2: so they look like motorbikes as a start for their
31:34
Speaker 2: air no weeks, but they look like they're out of
31:37
Speaker 2: a museum or something. They look look like a totally
31:39
Speaker 2: different sport because we get so used to seeing what
31:42
Speaker 2: these bikes look like and the right height devices and
31:44
Speaker 2: the way they're ridden. These days, you look at the
31:47
Speaker 2: ninety three repsol Honda in twenty thirteen, it's like, man,
31:50
Speaker 2: this thing seems so basic, Like there are amazing bits
31:53
Speaker 2: of kit for their time, incredibly fast as a sound,
31:56
Speaker 2: and the amazing bikes to watch, but it looks like
31:59
Speaker 2: a different hatch. Agreed, isn't it?
32:01
Speaker 1: Yeah? I completely agree. I see the same when I
32:03
Speaker 1: look at my brother's bike from two thousand and seven
32:06
Speaker 1: sitting in his house and it's.
32:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like, where's the rest of it?
32:09
Speaker 1: Yea, hey, you wrote this thing. This is like a
32:10
Speaker 1: big hunker metal.
32:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well it was a very fast, big hugger metal,
32:15
Speaker 2: but yes it was.
32:17
Speaker 1: Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are about to witness history
32:20
Speaker 1: in the making this weekend for around seventeen and twenty
32:23
Speaker 1: twenty five at Moto GP World Championship. Can Mark Marquez
32:27
Speaker 1: get another star added to his belt? We will find out,
32:31
Speaker 1: and you guys can find out all live and ad
32:33
Speaker 1: break free on Fox Sports and Ko. If you want
32:36
Speaker 1: to read any of the articles, and I highly suggest
32:38
Speaker 1: you read Matt's one on Moto GP's Best Losers, you
32:42
Speaker 1: can do so at Fox Motorsupport no sorry, Fox sports
32:44
Speaker 1: dot com dot au Ford Slash Motorsport Plus. Keep up
32:47
Speaker 1: to date with all the latest on our socials at
32:50
Speaker 1: Fox Motorsport, at Fox Sports OS or at KO Sports
32:53
Speaker 1: as well, where we give you the best social media updates.
32:57
Speaker 1: You can follow us on Twitter at Fox motus thought
33:00
Speaker 1: as well. But now that I've got all those out
33:03
Speaker 1: of the way from myself and Matt Clayton. We're going
33:06
Speaker 1: to be back real soon to talk about all the
33:08
Speaker 1: action from the Japanese Grand Prix