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TWO POINTS. ZERO CHILL: MotoGP Pit Talk · Pit Talk

0:02
Speaker 1: I have no other way of starting today's podcast other
0:05
Speaker 1: than saying two points. Two points is all that separates
0:10
Speaker 1: Jorge from Mark. And with six rounds to go, we're
0:13
Speaker 1: officially entering the crazy portion of the championship. Welcome back
0:17
Speaker 1: to Pit Talk. This is sponsored by Shutter's Insurance. As always,
0:21
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Renita Vermeulen. And joining me is our
0:24
Speaker 1: resident MotoGP guru. Mr. Matt Clayton. Matt, first of all,
0:29
Speaker 1: I'm going to apologize. I'm here in the media center
0:31
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you can hear and see everybody walking
0:33
Speaker 1: around me. Scrums are happening right now as well. Photographers
0:37
Speaker 1: are setting up behind me because it is chaos. We're
0:39
Speaker 1: about to get underway here in Indonesia and I haven't
0:42
Speaker 1: seen you since Japan.
0:44
Speaker 2: No, it is a bit of a strange one to
0:46
Speaker 2: have sat with you the entire weekend at Motegi and
0:49
Speaker 2: then be on the other side of the world back
0:50
Speaker 2: doing a podcast four days later. But such is the
0:53
Speaker 2: way of the MotoGP calendar towards the end of the season. And, uh, Yeah,
0:57
Speaker 2: as you said, I mean, here we are 16 rounds in.
1:00
Speaker 2: It's two points between first and second. And to give
1:03
Speaker 2: our listeners a bit of insight as to how unusual
1:05
Speaker 2: that is, this is the closest margin between first and
1:08
Speaker 2: second in the history of the World Championship after 16 rounds.
1:12
Speaker 2: And the best part of it from here is we
1:14
Speaker 2: know what's left. We just don't know how this ends.
1:16
Speaker 2: And you can make a million arguments for either either
1:19
Speaker 2: to win this World Championship, but none of them are
1:22
Speaker 2: super watertight right now. And that's the best part about this.
1:26
Speaker 1: I think it's crazy. If you look back, we was
1:29
Speaker 1: spoken about, we've posted on socials, you've written about it
1:31
Speaker 1: for Fox sports on the website. The fact that Mark
1:35
Speaker 1: was able to come back from 102 point deficit to
1:38
Speaker 1: a two point deficit right now is phenomenal. But then
1:41
Speaker 1: there's the other side of it. If we look ahead
1:44
Speaker 1: at this weekend, Menelik is not a track that he's
1:46
Speaker 1: done well in the past. Yeah.
1:49
Speaker 2: Not done well is a slight understatement from you. He's
1:51
Speaker 2: never even finished a Grand Prix here, which is absolutely crazy.
1:55
Speaker 2: There's this, um, Fantastic statistical database that I use to
1:58
Speaker 2: write half the stuff that I write. And there's just
2:00
Speaker 2: this gigantic hole in the center of it where it
2:02
Speaker 2: just says Mandalika and there's no stats at all. Because,
2:05
Speaker 2: you know, we've been here four years. You remember 2022
2:08
Speaker 2: when Mark was at Honda, the massive, massive eyesight that
2:13
Speaker 2: he had in Sunday morning warmup the first time we
2:15
Speaker 2: were here. An accident that, you know, the double vision
2:18
Speaker 2: came back that had plagued him earlier in his career.
2:20
Speaker 2: And there was some discussion. I mean, he apparently said
2:22
Speaker 2: to his father that, you know, I don't know whether
2:24
Speaker 2: I want to keep doing this anymore. And then 23,
2:27
Speaker 2: you know, he basically has a couple of DNFs there. 24,
2:30
Speaker 2: the Grissini Ducati blows an engine. And then last year,
2:33
Speaker 2: of course, he gets taken out by Marco Buzzecchi on
2:36
Speaker 2: the first lap last year. And in some respects, that
2:40
Speaker 2: now feels to me like where 2026 started because Mark
2:44
Speaker 2: was super underdone coming into the start of this season
2:47
Speaker 2: because of the injury and the surgery that he had
2:49
Speaker 2: at this Grand Prix last year. And it kind of
2:52
Speaker 2: feels like that whole 102-point deficit that you were talking
2:55
Speaker 2: about and the comeback to being two points down now,
2:58
Speaker 2: it feels like Mandelica was where all this began because
3:01
Speaker 2: he missed the last five rounds of last year and
3:03
Speaker 2: that he clearly wasn't right when he came back. He
3:05
Speaker 2: had that subsequent operation. And yeah, it kind of feels
3:08
Speaker 2: that we've gone full circle here. The fact that he's
3:10
Speaker 2: still in a championship fight, given what he's gone through
3:13
Speaker 2: in the past 12 months, is kind of astonishing. And,
3:17
Speaker 2: you know, we've been all around the world since March
3:19
Speaker 2: and here we are with effectively like a six race
3:21
Speaker 2: championship to finish it. This is where we find ourselves.
3:24
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really cool. It's really exciting. The fact that,
3:26
Speaker 1: you know, previously we've had championships won, like last year,
3:29
Speaker 1: Mark won it in Japan, right? That story in itself
3:31
Speaker 1: is phenomenal. But we still had a lot of races
3:33
Speaker 1: to go and continue on. Coming into this weekend, you know,
3:37
Speaker 1: you just said we've got six races still to go.
3:40
Speaker 1: It's Mark's 300th Grand Prix appearance this weekend as well.
3:43
Speaker 1: So he's hitting a milestone. It still seems like there's
3:46
Speaker 1: such a build-up happening in this championship, but also across
3:49
Speaker 1: all three because we haven't had a winner or a
3:51
Speaker 1: champion crowned yet out of all of them. So I
3:53
Speaker 1: think That's what's making this season in particular so good.
3:58
Speaker 1: Everyone's looking at next year. We know the testing. We
3:59
Speaker 1: know all that stuff in the background. But the fact
4:01
Speaker 1: that that is still happening right now I think is
4:04
Speaker 1: really cool. But this weekend, if we look at Indonesia
4:07
Speaker 1: in particular, it's hard to not look at the Aprilias
4:11
Speaker 1: this weekend. That is going to be the manufacturer to beat.
4:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely. It feels right now like we're sort of
4:19
Speaker 2: in this– it's like a tennis analogy in that Marquez
4:21
Speaker 2: was on serve last week at Motegi. He had the ball.
4:24
Speaker 2: He hit two aces. He won both races. That's fine.
4:27
Speaker 2: The ball is now very much in Jorge Martins' hands
4:29
Speaker 2: this weekend because, as you said, there's every possible things
4:33
Speaker 2: lined up for Aprilia this weekend. The nature of this circuit,
4:36
Speaker 2: it is an Aprilia-friendly track. Bozeki was awesomely fast here
4:40
Speaker 2: last year, qualified on pole, won the sprint after stuffing
4:43
Speaker 2: the start-up and probably would have won the Grand Prix
4:45
Speaker 2: if he'd stayed on. You add that, the fact that
4:48
Speaker 2: Mark has not been strong at Mandalika in the past,
4:50
Speaker 2: and then you've got the factor of this... stiffer construction
4:54
Speaker 2: rear tyre that the Ducati doesn't like. And we've seen
4:56
Speaker 2: it this year in Thailand, we've seen it in Austria,
4:58
Speaker 2: where they're kind of weekends where the Ducatis tend to
5:00
Speaker 2: survive as much as anything else. And you look at
5:03
Speaker 2: the remaining six rounds, including this weekend, this feels to
5:07
Speaker 2: me like the track where Aprilia and particularly Martin might
5:10
Speaker 2: have the biggest advantage over Ducati the rest of the way.
5:13
Speaker 2: And so in some respects, it kind of feels like,
5:17
Speaker 2: I don't know who you want to apportion more pressure to,
5:19
Speaker 2: but Martin really needs a good result here this weekend
5:22
Speaker 2: because this feels to me that he's going to have
5:24
Speaker 2: the biggest advantage from now to the end of the season. And,
5:28
Speaker 2: you know, we mentioned before about the Motegi thing with
5:30
Speaker 2: Mark winning the double, the Sprint Grand Prix double. It's
5:33
Speaker 2: crazy to me that Jorge Martin's even leading this championship.
5:36
Speaker 2: He's won one Grand Prix and Mark's won six. And
5:40
Speaker 2: the only times that Mark's been on the top step
5:42
Speaker 2: of the podium for Grand Prix this year, he's been
5:45
Speaker 2: on the top steps. He's six podiums, but they're all wins.
5:48
Speaker 2: And five of these weekends are double weekends. And Martin is,
5:52
Speaker 2: by virtue of just him being so consistent and he's
5:55
Speaker 2: always there, he's just managed to hang around in this
5:57
Speaker 2: championship fight. If he's going to win a race between
6:01
Speaker 2: now and the end of the year, it's not like
6:03
Speaker 2: it's either this or nothing. But this feels super important
6:05
Speaker 2: to me because this is where he and Aprilia shaped
6:09
Speaker 2: to me to have the best advantage from here. And
6:11
Speaker 2: it was interesting listening to Davide Tarozzi last weekend at Motegi.
6:14
Speaker 2: He was sort of intimating that this round in Indonesia
6:18
Speaker 2: is kind of a damage limitation round for Ducati in
6:20
Speaker 2: some respect in that I don't think they're expecting to
6:23
Speaker 2: go particularly well here, but it's one of those ones.
6:26
Speaker 2: If Mark finishes in the top five and doesn't ship
6:29
Speaker 2: too many points to Martine this weekend, that's almost a
6:33
Speaker 2: win of sorts because there's going to be other rounds
6:35
Speaker 2: between now and the end of the season where Mark
6:36
Speaker 2: is going to be stronger. So it's just super interesting
6:39
Speaker 2: to me that you've got these two, you know, they're
6:41
Speaker 2: almost on the same points, like you said at the top, but,
6:44
Speaker 2: they've come at it from such different perspectives. Martin's just like,
6:48
Speaker 2: he's not the tortoise, right? But he's always there. He's
6:50
Speaker 2: just there just churning out the results and churning out
6:52
Speaker 2: the podiums. And Mark's graph of his season has been
6:55
Speaker 2: much more spiky as I make a finger movement on
6:58
Speaker 2: an audio podcast, which is completely useless, of course. But,
7:01
Speaker 2: you know, Mark's had, you know, he's had DNFs, he's
7:03
Speaker 2: had races missed, and he's had these incredible highs of
7:05
Speaker 2: all these victories. So they're coming at it from two
7:08
Speaker 2: totally different angles. And here we are nearly at the end,
7:11
Speaker 2: and there's two points between the two of them.
7:14
Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think Mark's really going to–
7:18
Speaker 1: what you spoke about before is something you've taught me
7:20
Speaker 1: a lot is, you know, when it's your– maximize what
7:24
Speaker 1: you can on the weekends where you know you're not
7:25
Speaker 1: going to be 100%. And I think that's what he's doing.
7:28
Speaker 1: And if we look back at Japan, I don't know
7:30
Speaker 1: if this is in– if there's a kind of thing
7:35
Speaker 1: at the word I'm looking for, like something similar there,
7:37
Speaker 1: but you know, if you look at the entertainment factor
7:40
Speaker 1: of the fact that Mark didn't come out for that
7:42
Speaker 1: go-kart race and everything like that, and then you come
7:44
Speaker 1: out afterwards and you wrote about it saying, you know,
7:46
Speaker 1: he's got a championship to fight for, blah, blah, blah.
7:49
Speaker 1: I think he's, he's focused because I genuinely think that
7:52
Speaker 1: he thinks, you know, Jorge Martin can beat him. And
7:55
Speaker 1: this is where we get to see that inside of
7:58
Speaker 1: Mark's mind and how he works of seeing the focus and,
8:02
Speaker 1: what he's going to start to put on Martin. So
8:04
Speaker 1: I would say for the listeners at home, when you're
8:07
Speaker 1: watching the interviews, reading the articles, look at the quotes
8:10
Speaker 1: of what Mark says, look at how he's saying it,
8:13
Speaker 1: because this is where we're going to start to see
8:15
Speaker 1: all the work that's going off track also start to
8:18
Speaker 1: come into play this year.
8:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, completely. I mean, I think it's two things for me.
8:22
Speaker 2: I think there's a very healthy respect for Jorge Martin
8:25
Speaker 2: because he knows, you know, this is the most, the
8:27
Speaker 2: two most recent MotoGP world champions going head to head
8:30
Speaker 2: in 2026. So, Mark knows that Jorge can do it.
8:33
Speaker 2: And so that's not that sort of, well, you're up
8:35
Speaker 2: against an opponent where they've never done it before. There's
8:37
Speaker 2: not that proof of concept. He knows Martin can win
8:39
Speaker 2: a world championship. So there's a sign of respect for Martin.
8:43
Speaker 2: I also think the way Mark's approaching this, whether he
8:46
Speaker 2: wins it or whether he doesn't, and let's just assume
8:48
Speaker 2: that he does at the end of Valencia, I think
8:50
Speaker 2: we will find out post season that he is way
8:53
Speaker 2: more injured than he's letting on. And he's not letting
8:56
Speaker 2: that become something that's being discussed in the public eye
8:59
Speaker 2: every weekend, because again, if he comes out and admits
9:01
Speaker 2: that he's a lot more beaten up and he's struggling
9:03
Speaker 2: a lot more physically than he is at the moment,
9:05
Speaker 2: every single weekend is like, oh, so how are you feeling, Mark?
9:08
Speaker 2: What percentage are you, Mark? Are you going to be compromised, Mark?
9:11
Speaker 2: He doesn't want to have to deal with all that.
9:12
Speaker 2: And so I get the sense that he's probably hosing
9:17
Speaker 2: down a lot of the discussion about that particular topic,
9:20
Speaker 2: but it does tend to manifest itself in things like,
9:23
Speaker 2: I'm not going out in a go-kart race two hours
9:26
Speaker 2: before the Grand Prix where I could be spending 15
9:28
Speaker 2: minutes in the physio room getting work done on this shoulder. And,
9:32
Speaker 2: you know, we even saw it in Motegi before the
9:33
Speaker 2: sprint race. He's down on the tarmac doing shups before
9:36
Speaker 2: the sprint race now. And there's all these little sort
9:40
Speaker 2: of physical tells with Mark at the moment that he's
9:42
Speaker 2: clearly not right, but he's not going to talk about it,
9:45
Speaker 2: so you can't either. And I think it's one of
9:47
Speaker 2: those things that after the season, we'll actually find out
9:50
Speaker 2: that he's a lot more beaten up than he is.
9:52
Speaker 2: And every little moment he can take right now to
9:54
Speaker 2: try and help himself be better to deal with this,
9:57
Speaker 2: he's going to take it.
9:59
Speaker 1: Then you look at this week. right we've come from
10:01
Speaker 1: japan where the weather for for that race what was
10:05
Speaker 1: our air temperature somewhere around like mid 20s higher 20s
10:08
Speaker 1: during the day but you know it wasn't hot like
10:12
Speaker 1: Compared to where we are here in Indonesia, right now
10:15
Speaker 1: my watch is saying it's 30 degrees. I'm telling you,
10:17
Speaker 1: humidity is like well over 100%. It is so hot
10:22
Speaker 1: out there. So they've come into these flyaways where consistently
10:25
Speaker 1: in Europe, the weather's been like gradually going up because
10:28
Speaker 1: we were heading into summer. Everyone knew what to expect
10:30
Speaker 1: until we got to Austria. Even there, it was not
10:32
Speaker 1: too bad. Now we're coming into this tricky hot, cold, hot,
10:36
Speaker 1: cold kind of situation where And this is where we're
10:38
Speaker 1: going to start to see a bit of a difference.
10:39
Speaker 1: So I also think that's going to come into play
10:42
Speaker 1: because now we're going to see the riders' health and
10:44
Speaker 1: fitness levels. And if they're already dealing with these injuries
10:47
Speaker 1: and whatnot and then adding that on top of it,
10:50
Speaker 1: I think it's a whole other issue that they're going
10:52
Speaker 1: to have to come to play with.
10:54
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we know how fit these guys are,
10:55
Speaker 2: but these races turn into mental battles as much as
10:58
Speaker 2: physical ones because you know that you're just going to
11:02
Speaker 2: have to suffer to get to the result that you want.
11:04
Speaker 2: That's just a given. There's no way around that. And,
11:07
Speaker 2: you know, you look at it's interesting because we've got
11:09
Speaker 2: this grid that's scattering to a whole bunch of different
11:11
Speaker 2: addresses next year. You do wonder about the motivations of
11:14
Speaker 2: some of these riders right now. Like, are they really
11:16
Speaker 2: as locked in and want to push as much as
11:18
Speaker 2: they can for an employer that they're possibly leaving? So
11:21
Speaker 2: you've got people who are massively motivated that can win
11:24
Speaker 2: world championships or are staying with their current manufacturers. There's
11:27
Speaker 2: others that are sort of doing, you know, everyone's quit
11:29
Speaker 2: a job from time to time where they're serving out
11:31
Speaker 2: their three months mandatory notice. This is what they're doing
11:33
Speaker 2: right now. And so you get to 27 laps on Sunday.
11:38
Speaker 2: By the time you get to seven, eight, nine laps
11:40
Speaker 2: to go, you see the pit board come out and
11:42
Speaker 2: there'll be some of these riders going, my God, how
11:44
Speaker 2: were there nine laps still to go in this thing?
11:45
Speaker 2: I am just about done. And one of the things
11:49
Speaker 2: I do like to write is that this time of
11:51
Speaker 2: the season, it's a survival of the fittest as much
11:53
Speaker 2: as the fastest, right? There's two elements to that here.
11:56
Speaker 2: And this race, as well as Thailand, these are the
11:58
Speaker 2: two that if you're in any way underprepared, you are
12:00
Speaker 2: going to be found out.
12:02
Speaker 1: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Matt, one thing I
12:06
Speaker 1: wanted to bring up on the pod, I haven't done
12:08
Speaker 1: a post yet for Fox yet, but it's something I
12:11
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to you about. We saw the announcement
12:13
Speaker 1: come through about the new schedule changes for next year.
12:16
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because media scrums have been happening behind
12:19
Speaker 1: me all morning and we're starting to hear the feedback
12:21
Speaker 1: from the writers and what they think. But initially, and
12:25
Speaker 1: from what I've been reading online, there's a lot of
12:28
Speaker 1: kick up about it. A lot of people having their
12:31
Speaker 1: fair share of opinions, but It's something that's been definitely
12:34
Speaker 1: being talked about, that's been talked about for such a
12:37
Speaker 1: long time behind. What's your initial thoughts? Because you've come
12:40
Speaker 1: from the F1 world. It's very similar to that.
12:44
Speaker 2: It is to a degree. I mean, you can sort
12:46
Speaker 2: of break it down. I think there's kind of three
12:49
Speaker 2: elements to this. Like the fact that Friday is going
12:51
Speaker 2: to be a 45-minute FP1, a 30-minute FP2, and then
12:55
Speaker 2: a separate 15-minute sprint qualifying. To me, I don't really
13:00
Speaker 2: think that changes how Friday works that much to a
13:02
Speaker 2: degree because we know that the second half of that
13:04
Speaker 2: Friday practice session becomes a pseudo-qualifying session anyway. So, I mean, yes,
13:08
Speaker 2: the fact we've got two separate grids, but in terms
13:10
Speaker 2: of the way Friday works on track, I don't think
13:12
Speaker 2: it changes a hell of a lot. I personally, like
13:16
Speaker 2: two things can be true here. I have never liked
13:19
Speaker 2: the fact that one grid is, one qualifying session sets
13:22
Speaker 2: the grid for two races. I think they're two separate entities.
13:26
Speaker 2: The biggest issue I have with the sprint was probably
13:28
Speaker 2: two issues. I think there's probably too many of them
13:31
Speaker 2: in that we need to be a little bit more selective.
13:34
Speaker 2: And I don't know if the points that are on
13:36
Speaker 2: offer in the sprint are a massive incentive to push
13:41
Speaker 2: because we know that, you know, there's 12 points for
13:44
Speaker 2: a win, nine points for second and the sliding scale,
13:46
Speaker 2: so on and so forth. You do wonder whether people
13:49
Speaker 2: are going to take massive risks trying to get from
13:51
Speaker 2: seventh to sixth or from eighth to seventh when there's
13:53
Speaker 2: only one point at play. when you've got the big
13:56
Speaker 2: race the next day that pays the big points. And
13:58
Speaker 2: that's kind of my issue with the sprint in that,
14:01
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, you can't have full distance Grand Prix
14:03
Speaker 2: points for a half distance race. I get that. But
14:05
Speaker 2: there needs to be more incentive for the riders and
14:08
Speaker 2: the teams, particularly those who are on the fringe of
14:10
Speaker 2: the points or just outside of it. Other than that,
14:12
Speaker 2: you're just riding around having a data collecting exercise at
14:16
Speaker 2: this point. So I'm not really sure what the solution
14:18
Speaker 2: is there. But look, I mean, the Friday thing I'm
14:21
Speaker 2: not super bothered with. I don't mind the fact that...
14:25
Speaker 2: we're going to have separate qualifyings for the two races
14:27
Speaker 2: because I've never particularly been comfortable with the fact that
14:30
Speaker 2: your entire weekend can pretty much go in the bin
14:32
Speaker 2: on Friday afternoon at the moment if it doesn't work.
14:34
Speaker 2: If you catch a yellow flag at the wrong time
14:37
Speaker 2: or you just have a bit of a crap lap,
14:38
Speaker 2: you're going to be buried in the pack for both races.
14:41
Speaker 2: And I kind of note that aspect of it. The
14:44
Speaker 2: qualifying thing for the Grand Prix is interesting. So for
14:47
Speaker 2: those of you that haven't caught up on that, it's
14:48
Speaker 2: going to be still Q1 and Q2, but it's going
14:51
Speaker 2: to be very different. On the Saturday morning, all 22
14:53
Speaker 2: riders will be on track for Q1 for 15 minutes,
14:56
Speaker 2: and then the fastest 12 of those go through into Q2,
14:59
Speaker 2: as we see right now. And I know there's been
15:01
Speaker 2: some discussion, it's like, oh, having 22 bikes on track
15:04
Speaker 2: at the same time in a Q1 could be a
15:06
Speaker 2: bit of a disaster. And there's certain tracks where, you know,
15:09
Speaker 2: you think Saxon Ring or, you know, tracks that are
15:11
Speaker 2: a bit tight and twisty and difficult to get out
15:13
Speaker 2: of the way. But then I'm also thinking, well, Isn't
15:16
Speaker 2: that just the same as the last 15 minutes of
15:18
Speaker 2: Friday practice anyway? We're just going for all 22 riders
15:21
Speaker 2: out there at the same time. So, look, I mean,
15:24
Speaker 2: I guess we need like any of these things. We
15:26
Speaker 2: need to see how it looks in reality before we
15:29
Speaker 2: sort of make too big of a judgment on it.
15:31
Speaker 2: I know there was some discussion they were talking about
15:33
Speaker 2: making Grand Prix qualifying like a Q1, Q2, Q3 thing
15:37
Speaker 2: like Formula One does. And that hasn't got over the line.
15:40
Speaker 2: I'm actually happy about that. I think that's probably just
15:42
Speaker 2: a step slightly too far for MotoGP. I don't know
15:45
Speaker 2: how we're going to go there, but the idea of
15:47
Speaker 2: having two separate grids, I don't mind simply because it
15:50
Speaker 2: gives you a chance to rescue your weekend if Friday
15:52
Speaker 2: doesn't go super well. I don't mind that aspect of it.
15:56
Speaker 2: But look, I mean, at the end of the day,
15:58
Speaker 2: we are in the entertainment business and it's interesting that
16:02
Speaker 2: you look at the people who are most upset about
16:04
Speaker 2: this whole change. They are people who are either in
16:07
Speaker 2: the sport, are fans of the sport, ride in the
16:09
Speaker 2: sport And if they're going to grow this sport to
16:12
Speaker 2: a wider audience, you're not necessarily trying to sell it
16:15
Speaker 2: to those people because they're already in. They've already decided
16:17
Speaker 2: they love MotoGP and they're in. They're trying to change
16:20
Speaker 2: the entertainment content product, if you like, for people that
16:24
Speaker 2: might be sitting on the fence. And that's who these
16:27
Speaker 2: are all aimed at. It's aimed at the people who
16:28
Speaker 2: haven't discovered MotoGP yet. And you hope that if those
16:31
Speaker 2: people discover it, then they realize what an amazing series
16:34
Speaker 2: this is and they want to be involved more. So,
16:37
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess I'm looking at it from a
16:38
Speaker 2: slightly different perspective, but just because of my background in
16:41
Speaker 2: both series. But, you know, at the end of the day,
16:44
Speaker 2: a little less practice time, a little more meaningful session time, sure.
16:49
Speaker 2: The one misgiving I have, and, you know, Alessia Spargaro
16:53
Speaker 2: is the 31st different rider to start a Grand Prix
16:56
Speaker 2: this year, this weekend, when he fills in for Joao
16:58
Speaker 2: Mir at Honda. A lot more pressure for riders in
17:01
Speaker 2: a lot more sessions over a lot more rounds. I
17:03
Speaker 2: think we're going to see injuries. And that's the only
17:05
Speaker 2: bad part about all of this, And again, it comes
17:08
Speaker 2: back to the fact that I don't think the sprints
17:09
Speaker 2: are necessarily worth enough points in and of themselves to
17:15
Speaker 2: be really incentivized to push from start to finish. And
17:17
Speaker 2: I just think it's one of those things like, you know,
17:19
Speaker 2: in any sport, right? Scarcity of something sometimes makes things
17:23
Speaker 2: more special. And if we had 10 sprints a year, great.
17:27
Speaker 2: You remember when Formula One started, I think they had three.
17:31
Speaker 2: You forgot that they existed half the time. Now Formula
17:33
Speaker 2: 1's moving to about 8 or 10, and that's kind of,
17:36
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, Formula 1 sprints are 100 times
17:38
Speaker 2: worse than MotoGP. Let's not even start about that. The
17:41
Speaker 2: MotoGP sprints are generally pretty good. But I just think
17:44
Speaker 2: there's slightly too many of them at the moment. And
17:46
Speaker 2: not every track makes for a good sprint. A lot
17:48
Speaker 2: of the time, the Saturday sprint in MotoGP is kind
17:51
Speaker 2: of just like watching half the Grand Prix. It's not
17:53
Speaker 2: super interesting. And so I reckon if you had fewer
17:56
Speaker 2: sprints and you had this format, that's almost a sweet spot. Now,
17:59
Speaker 2: what the number is, is it half the rounds? Is
18:01
Speaker 2: it two thirds? I don't know. But I just think
18:04
Speaker 2: there's a little bit too, there's too many sprints at
18:06
Speaker 2: the moment for too few points. And I think we
18:08
Speaker 2: could make them a bit more interesting if we just
18:10
Speaker 2: had them every second or third round. Because it just
18:12
Speaker 2: adds another degree of strategy and tactics to the championships. Like, oh,
18:17
Speaker 2: this weekend's a sprint weekend, as opposed to every weekend's
18:19
Speaker 2: a sprint weekend.
18:21
Speaker 1: The only thing that I would say, my opinion based
18:24
Speaker 1: on that, is I hear what you're saying, but I
18:27
Speaker 1: do think as trying to get new eyes onto the sport,
18:30
Speaker 1: if we're seeing the sprints and we're seeing the changes happen,
18:34
Speaker 1: because like you said, it's almost like the qualifying results
18:38
Speaker 1: are going to be the sprint and the Grand Prix results.
18:41
Speaker 1: We're not often seeing many changes. But if we are
18:44
Speaker 1: going to start to see the changes, then I think
18:46
Speaker 1: we're going to get more eyes, people tuning in on
18:48
Speaker 1: both days. That's from that entertainment sport. But I know
18:52
Speaker 1: the purists, I know the diehards are going to hate
18:54
Speaker 1: me for saying that because it's different. It's not what
18:58
Speaker 1: they're used to. And I get that that's just taking
19:00
Speaker 1: away from the core.
19:02
Speaker 2: One other thing I did think of, just as you
19:03
Speaker 2: were saying that, is that At the moment, the sprints
19:06
Speaker 2: in the Grand Prix can often be pretty similar because
19:09
Speaker 2: we know that the current 1000cc bikes with all the
19:11
Speaker 2: aero on them, overtaking is way more difficult than it
19:14
Speaker 2: used to be. That's just a fact. And I think
19:17
Speaker 2: the one thing that fills me with some sort of
19:18
Speaker 2: optimism for next year is because we are going into
19:21
Speaker 2: effectively a brand new formula, 850cc bikes, a massive reduction
19:25
Speaker 2: on aero and ride height and everything else. We don't
19:27
Speaker 2: yet know how these bikes are going to race each
19:30
Speaker 2: other because we've not seen it. We don't know. So
19:33
Speaker 2: maybe the sprints next year will be a bit more
19:34
Speaker 2: lively because you get the sense at the moment that
19:37
Speaker 2: because passing is hard and the incentive to really go
19:42
Speaker 2: for stuff in the sprint is reduced because the points
19:44
Speaker 2: aren't really there, the race is kind of, you know,
19:46
Speaker 2: people go for it for the first two or three
19:48
Speaker 2: laps and then they kind of just settle into a
19:49
Speaker 2: bit of a conclusion. You don't often have really interesting sprints.
19:53
Speaker 2: I do wonder if these bikes can race a bit
19:55
Speaker 2: more closely and there's more chance to overtake next year,
19:57
Speaker 2: whether that changes the way these are run.
20:00
Speaker 1: I mean, we're just going to have to wait and see.
20:02
Speaker 1: It's been a big talking point. You'll see it all
20:04
Speaker 1: over socials. I mean, we can only share our opinions
20:07
Speaker 1: on it, but. It is what it is. That's the
20:08
Speaker 1: new rules. That's what's coming in next year. So stay
20:11
Speaker 1: tuned for that, guys. But I'm not going to ask
20:14
Speaker 1: you your predictions because I already know what you predicted
20:17
Speaker 1: for this weekend. You sent that through to me. So
20:20
Speaker 1: that's going to come out on socials shortly. But you
20:23
Speaker 1: mentioned Marco Bettecchi, which I was really, really curious about. Now,
20:27
Speaker 1: we know Marco got a third of a teggy. What's he,
20:30
Speaker 1: 49 points behind Martin?
20:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:33
Speaker 1: Do you rule him out of the championship, Matt? No,
20:36
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, it's hard with those top two.
20:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:41
Speaker 1: But you put him in for your winner this weekend. So, Matt,
20:44
Speaker 1: take it away. There's the floor. Yeah.
20:47
Speaker 2: I mean, I kind of feel that, you know, we're
20:48
Speaker 2: saying there's six rounds to go. For Marco, there's kind
20:51
Speaker 2: of like, you know, it feels like there's two rounds
20:52
Speaker 2: to go. Like, it's either now or never for him. Yeah.
20:55
Speaker 2: We know that he's had this really weird, uneven sort
20:58
Speaker 2: of a season in that the first seven rounds of
21:00
Speaker 2: the season, you felt like he was going to win
21:01
Speaker 2: the championship by 100 points. He was just absolutely dominating.
21:04
Speaker 2: Mark was injury compromised. Jorge hadn't quite got his head
21:07
Speaker 2: around the Aprilia yet. And Bozeki won four of the
21:09
Speaker 2: first seven Grands Prix. And despite the fact that he
21:12
Speaker 2: wasn't getting results in the sprints, he had a pretty
21:14
Speaker 2: decent lead. And you felt, okay, now he's had, you know,
21:18
Speaker 2: he's slapped a marshal. He's broken his collarbone. He's had
21:21
Speaker 2: all sorts of brain fades and injuries and other things.
21:24
Speaker 2: It's gone a bit off the rails. And at the moment,
21:27
Speaker 2: he feels like the third rider in a two-horse race,
21:30
Speaker 2: if that makes sense, in that it's either Jorge or
21:33
Speaker 2: it's Mark. And you go, oh, yeah, and Bozeki's the
21:35
Speaker 2: other guy on the podium because he tends to just
21:37
Speaker 2: finish third a lot at the moment. And so I
21:40
Speaker 2: kind of feel that the end of his season is
21:42
Speaker 2: approaching quickly and that he needs to change that narrative
21:45
Speaker 2: sooner rather than later. Last year at Mandalika, he was
21:50
Speaker 2: unbelievably fast. Like he was just in a completely different level.
21:54
Speaker 2: um broke the circuit record in qualifying absolutely stuffed the
21:57
Speaker 2: startup of the sprint i think he was eighth after
21:59
Speaker 2: the first lap and came back and passed out again
22:01
Speaker 2: to win the race on the last lap of the
22:03
Speaker 2: sprint and his race pace was crazy through practice last
22:07
Speaker 2: year and i have no doubt that he would have
22:09
Speaker 2: won that grand prix had he have not come up
22:11
Speaker 2: entangled with mark on the first lap so you know
22:14
Speaker 2: the fact that he's been here on the aprilia martin
22:16
Speaker 2: hasn't been here on the aprilia i think that's pretty
22:17
Speaker 2: significant The fact that Buzek is so quick here, and
22:20
Speaker 2: we've seen that in the past, and I just think
22:22
Speaker 2: that there's a bit of now or never about it
22:24
Speaker 2: for this weekend with Marco, and if he's going to
22:26
Speaker 2: be in this fight more than just mathematically for the
22:30
Speaker 2: remaining six rounds, it kind of has to start now,
22:32
Speaker 2: because if it's not here, then I'm not really sure
22:34
Speaker 2: where it is.
22:36
Speaker 1: For the listeners, I need to tell them the other
22:39
Speaker 1: two that you've picked, and you can go and tell
22:42
Speaker 1: us your comments on the social post that I'll do
22:44
Speaker 1: at Fox Motorsport. Guys, this is who Matt has picked
22:47
Speaker 1: for his podium, right? Winner, Marco Bazzecchi. Closest challenger, Ai Higura. Podium, Smokey.
22:55
Speaker 1: Fermin Aldeguerre. Honestly, when you sent that through to me,
22:59
Speaker 1: I was going, Matt, are you okay? You're still a
23:01
Speaker 1: bit jet-lagged from Japan. Yes.
23:04
Speaker 2: Look possibly we'll see we'll see how much of a
23:06
Speaker 2: genius or an idiot i look like by sunday afternoon
23:08
Speaker 2: but there is a little bit of method to the
23:10
Speaker 2: madness here in that it feels like agura like the
23:13
Speaker 2: thought the hand injury that he had in the motocross
23:15
Speaker 2: accident he obviously missed a couple of rounds it feels
23:17
Speaker 2: like that's not really a thing um it feels like
23:19
Speaker 2: he's kind of back we know the aprilia is a
23:21
Speaker 2: great bike around this circuit he's one of those guys
23:24
Speaker 2: and he even said it in track house's pre-event preview
23:26
Speaker 2: so he If it's going to be hot, I don't care.
23:29
Speaker 2: Bring it on. Because the Japanese riders train in some
23:31
Speaker 2: pretty brutal conditions with the humidity in Japan. So the
23:34
Speaker 2: heat's going to bother him way less than it bothers
23:37
Speaker 2: other people. He's been really strong here in the past
23:39
Speaker 2: in Moto2. So I can see him having a strong weekend.
23:42
Speaker 2: And then Aldergeir last year, I mean, other than Bizecki
23:45
Speaker 2: kind of throwing it away, Aldergeir's got this style on
23:49
Speaker 2: that harder Michelin rear that I was talking about. He
23:51
Speaker 2: still rides it a bit like a Moto2 bike, and
23:53
Speaker 2: then he's looking to slide the bike a lot. And
23:56
Speaker 2: I think you combine with the high track temperatures and
23:58
Speaker 2: the nature of the corners at Mandelica, he was awesome
24:01
Speaker 2: here last year. And it kind of got overshadowed a
24:03
Speaker 2: bit by Bozeki taking out Marquez and Marquez going into
24:06
Speaker 2: surgery and everyone yelling at each other on social media
24:09
Speaker 2: and so on and so forth. But Aldergeir last year,
24:12
Speaker 2: for a guy who was a rookie, was spectacular here.
24:15
Speaker 2: And I don't think he's the most consistent rider this year.
24:17
Speaker 2: We know he's been battling some injuries. But as a
24:20
Speaker 2: one-off for a guy to make a podium, I think,
24:22
Speaker 2: you know, we've seen him on this tyre in the past.
24:24
Speaker 2: He's been really good. The other Ducatis, Dejan Antonio's a
24:28
Speaker 2: bit beaten up and has kind of lost his way
24:29
Speaker 2: a little bit. Alex Marquez, you know, a bit of
24:32
Speaker 2: an erratic weekend for him last weekend at Motegi. And
24:35
Speaker 2: we remember how bad it was for Pecco here last year.
24:37
Speaker 2: So I think if another Ducati is going to step up,
24:39
Speaker 2: it could be Aldergeir.
24:40
Speaker 1: But.
24:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have decided to push the boat out on
24:43
Speaker 2: the predictions this week. So come about, what, Sunday evening
24:46
Speaker 2: Australian time, I'm either going to look like a complete
24:48
Speaker 2: genius or an idiot and it'll be one extreme or
24:50
Speaker 2: the other.
24:52
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned the time zone because Australia, MotoGP
24:55
Speaker 1: is back in our time zone and it's bloody brilliant.
24:58
Speaker 1: I'm just looking at the schedule now. Saturday and Sunday,
25:01
Speaker 1: both the sprint and the Grand Prix are 3 p.m.
25:03
Speaker 1: local time. Now we know that daylight savings come in.
25:06
Speaker 1: So for all you guys in New South Wales and Victoria,
25:08
Speaker 1: that's 6 p.m. For you guys, 6 p.m. And in
25:12
Speaker 1: Queensland for us, 5 p.m., I think. Yeah, did I
25:15
Speaker 1: do that right? 5 p.m.? Yeah.
25:17
Speaker 2: You did.
25:17
Speaker 1: How bloody good is that? So you guys have no
25:20
Speaker 1: reason to not tune in this weekend because it's just
25:24
Speaker 1: on Cook a Barbie, Get Mates Over, Put on MotoGP.
25:27
Speaker 1: What else do you want to do on your Saturday
25:29
Speaker 1: and Sunday evenings, Matt? Nothing.
25:32
Speaker 2: I'm almost as impressed by the starting time for these
25:35
Speaker 2: two races as I am with you actually working out
25:37
Speaker 2: daylight savings time, being a Queenslander and not understanding how
25:40
Speaker 2: the other half of the east coast of Australia works.
25:42
Speaker 2: So here we are in October 2026. You finally mastered it.
25:46
Speaker 2: So congratulations. There'll be another test next week.
25:49
Speaker 1: Guys, numbers are not my thing. And when we're in
25:51
Speaker 1: Japan trying to work out the time difference and I'm like, Matt,
25:53
Speaker 1: is it this? And he's like, well, I'm not sure. Anyway, well, actually,
25:57
Speaker 1: you did know. You were the one who was able
25:58
Speaker 1: to help me. That's why I question you. Otherwise, it's
26:00
Speaker 1: a chat GPT. But... Guys, I'm going to wrap up
26:04
Speaker 1: this preview for Indonesia because we need to get those
26:07
Speaker 1: bikes out on track. Make sure you tune in this weekend, guys,
26:10
Speaker 1: because every practice, qualifying, sprint, and Grand Prix is live
26:13
Speaker 1: and ad break free. Fox Sports and KO. If you
26:16
Speaker 1: can't watch it, though, make sure you stay up to
26:18
Speaker 1: date with all of Matt's articles on our website at
26:20
Speaker 1: foxsports.com.au forward slash motorsport. And you can follow us on socials.
26:25
Speaker 1: We are at Fox Motorsport, at Fox Sports Oz, and
26:27
Speaker 1: at KO Sports. I try and take you guys behind
26:29
Speaker 1: the scenes as much as I can here at the
26:32
Speaker 1: Grand Prix. So make sure you tune in because we
26:35
Speaker 1: need to see if Matt's predictions come true this weekend.
26:39
Speaker 1: But for now, we're going to wrap up the Indoor Preview.
26:42
Speaker 1: Myself and Matt Clayton will be back real soon with
26:43
Speaker 1: more Roto-GP Pit Talk.