Latest / Pit Talk / Samba & Slipstreams: Brazil GP Preview ft. Louis Suddaby

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Samba & Slipstreams: Brazil GP Preview ft. Louis Suddaby · Pit Talk

0:06
Speaker 1: So Brazil it's famous for at senna kind of ball football,
0:11
Speaker 1: but Moto GP has arrived with three hundred horsepower, twenty
0:14
Speaker 1: two riders and absolutely no chill. So yeah, this is
0:17
Speaker 1: going to be wild. Welcome back to pittok podcast sponsored
0:21
Speaker 1: by Shannon's Insurance. I'm your host, Rinita Vmullin, and alongside
0:25
Speaker 1: me is the man who may not have the samba
0:28
Speaker 1: rhythm of Brazil, but he definitely knows the rhythm of
0:30
Speaker 1: Moto GP. Mister Matt Clayton, Matt, how you going?
0:34
Speaker 2: How dare you cast such as versions or may Rineta
0:37
Speaker 2: on this podcast. That's one of my hidden talents that
0:39
Speaker 2: I haven't revealed yet. But no, lovely to be back
0:41
Speaker 2: with you the important exports of Brazil. You've forgot to
0:43
Speaker 2: mention coffee as well, which will be very very handy
0:46
Speaker 2: for Australian audiences this weekend.
0:47
Speaker 1: I would suggest the time zone is definitely not in
0:51
Speaker 1: our favor, but I mean we should be grateful because
0:53
Speaker 1: we had Thailand in a Sunday afternoon where we could
0:56
Speaker 1: actually enjoy it for once, which is exactly nice. But
1:00
Speaker 1: before we continue on, we have to choose our other guests.
1:02
Speaker 1: Joining us is the man who greases our TV speakers
1:06
Speaker 1: twenty two weekends of the year. It's MotoGP's own Lewis
1:10
Speaker 1: Suderby Lewis, welcome to the pit Talk podcast.
1:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me on, guys, And yeah, you
1:15
Speaker 3: don't want to see me get involved in the sort
1:17
Speaker 3: of samba either. There's a reason why on gear Up
1:19
Speaker 3: after the Flag you don't see me walking much. It's
1:21
Speaker 3: because I struggles to put one point in front of
1:23
Speaker 3: the other without falling over.
1:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I reckon, Jack Aup. We are to have the
1:27
Speaker 2: samba side of things pretty sordid, I would have thought
1:29
Speaker 2: with the two of you, so you probably don't need
1:31
Speaker 2: to partake in that one.
1:33
Speaker 3: Yeah. He'll throw himself into absolutely anything. So yeah, if
1:37
Speaker 3: you see him engaging in a bit of sambrother weekend,
1:39
Speaker 3: do not be remotely surprised.
1:42
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to see that on like the Inside
1:45
Speaker 1: the Paddock and or a little social thing the JACKI
1:48
Speaker 1: goes on his little adventures. But enough about our second
1:51
Speaker 1: favorite Jack. We're going to talk about you, Lewis, so
1:55
Speaker 1: before we get into Brazil and everything that's that's coming
1:59
Speaker 1: up on the weekend. And one thing we like to
2:01
Speaker 1: do because it's not often that we get to talk
2:03
Speaker 1: to people who aren't riding a motor GP bike because
2:06
Speaker 1: of the people behind the scenes. How did you get
2:09
Speaker 1: involved in MotoGP? What's your story, what's your background?
2:16
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I i've in terms of motor GP,
2:19
Speaker 3: I was originally a part of the social media team.
2:21
Speaker 3: I was one of the admins. I guess, as they say,
2:23
Speaker 3: I joined Donner as it was called. Then I'm having
2:26
Speaker 3: to try and get used to not calling it Donner anymore.
2:29
Speaker 3: Back in twenty nineteen and yeah, for about four or
2:34
Speaker 3: five years, maybe less than that, I was basically commentating
2:37
Speaker 3: on the race, but through Twitter. I was doing the
2:40
Speaker 3: live Twitter updates during during all the races, which was
2:44
Speaker 3: an experience. It was pretty frenetic trying to sort of
2:47
Speaker 3: keep up with the race and try to, you know,
2:50
Speaker 3: try to update people on Twitter as best as I could.
2:52
Speaker 3: And then Steve Day obviously left the team at the
2:55
Speaker 3: end of twenty twenty one, and to my immense surprise,
3:00
Speaker 3: they offered the job to me. And I've done a
3:03
Speaker 3: couple of gd gps, I've done a bit of British
3:06
Speaker 3: Talent cop ups at that point, but they they threw
3:09
Speaker 3: me in head first. No arm bands at the deep
3:11
Speaker 3: end alongside Matt Burt and Yees had to sort of
3:15
Speaker 3: learn on the job, I guess, and I loved it.
3:18
Speaker 3: And you know, I absolutely love having the chance to,
3:21
Speaker 3: you know, try and bring across the excitement to follow
3:24
Speaker 3: you guys at home. But now, I've always been a
3:27
Speaker 3: big motorsports fan. I don't know whether this is the
3:31
Speaker 3: right thing to say to a most chipy audience, but
3:32
Speaker 3: I've been a formerly one fan longer than I've been
3:34
Speaker 3: a motor GP fan. So that was kind of that
3:37
Speaker 3: was kind of my route into bikes. I watched Formula
3:40
Speaker 3: one and through that realized how cool modor GP was
3:42
Speaker 3: as well. And now those GP is my life.
3:45
Speaker 2: And so now you're working shoulder to shoulder with Matt
3:48
Speaker 2: Burt on the weekend. I've known Matt for a million years,
3:50
Speaker 2: so he won't mind me telling his story. I'd be
3:53
Speaker 2: curious to see how you prepare for commentary, because I
3:55
Speaker 2: know how Matt does. He is the greatest over preparer
3:58
Speaker 2: for these things that I've ever seen. And that's actually
4:00
Speaker 2: a compliment because he's a print journo through and through,
4:03
Speaker 2: and he always likes to have too much material rather
4:05
Speaker 2: than not enough, but the notes that he takes and
4:08
Speaker 2: the highlighters and the preparation he does before a race weekend,
4:12
Speaker 2: is he doing your prep as well? Like could you
4:13
Speaker 2: just turn up and you're a natural you don't have
4:15
Speaker 2: to prepare for this stuff? Or how do you go
4:16
Speaker 2: about it? Because he's the biggest over preparer I think
4:19
Speaker 2: I've ever seen.
4:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've idea how he'd find the time to do
4:23
Speaker 3: my prep as well, because yeah, he anything he doesn't
4:26
Speaker 3: know about about most GP isn't really worth knowing to
4:28
Speaker 3: be honest, Yeah, I'm I wouldn't claim to prepare as
4:33
Speaker 3: well as he does, because, as you say, he's the
4:35
Speaker 3: best in the business. But I think I'm of the
4:38
Speaker 3: same mindset where I almost always feel like I'm underprepared
4:42
Speaker 3: going into a session, which which I guess is a
4:44
Speaker 3: good thing because you always want to feel like you've
4:45
Speaker 3: got as much information as possible. But yeah, I'm sort of.
4:50
Speaker 3: My notes are quite similar to his in terms of
4:53
Speaker 3: the information I have on it. Obviously having to prepare
4:56
Speaker 3: for MOTIGP, Motor two, Moto three, so there's a lot
4:59
Speaker 3: that when I say on it isn't actually in here,
5:02
Speaker 3: it's me simply reading off my notes a little bit
5:05
Speaker 3: with the benefit of no camera in my face. But no, yeah,
5:09
Speaker 3: it is. It's a it's a big challenge to try
5:12
Speaker 3: and sound somewhat informed on everything you're talking about, and
5:16
Speaker 3: i'd like to think that more often than not we
5:19
Speaker 3: get it right. But but yeah, for sure, it's it's
5:22
Speaker 3: a challenge, and I love that challenge, you know, to
5:24
Speaker 3: be able to particularly on Moto two Motor three off fine,
5:27
Speaker 3: because I guess the viewers maybe don't know so much
5:30
Speaker 3: about those riders. It's a chance to introduce them to
5:33
Speaker 3: the audience, tell their story, and and I really enjoy that.
5:36
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's you know, it's It's gonna be a
5:38
Speaker 3: busy day for me today where we're recording this on
5:40
Speaker 3: the Monday pre Brazil, so there's gonna be a lot
5:42
Speaker 3: of prep going on today to make sure that I'm
5:45
Speaker 3: ready for Brazil. Although one thing that I normally obviously
5:48
Speaker 3: look into, which is at least and help me this weekend,
5:50
Speaker 3: is that there's no previous record at this circuit that
5:52
Speaker 3: I've got to go and look look into. So that's
5:55
Speaker 3: at least going to give me one shortcut, and.
5:57
Speaker 2: I've got one more nerdy journalism question before you hear,
6:00
Speaker 2: because it's something I would always do when I was
6:02
Speaker 2: covering Formula one. When you get to a track, do
6:05
Speaker 2: you take a ride round on a scooter or do
6:07
Speaker 2: you like to get around to have a look at it?
6:09
Speaker 2: Because you're obviously seeing it through the same TV pictures
6:12
Speaker 2: that we are, but does it help you to actually
6:14
Speaker 2: see it with your own eyes to understand things like
6:16
Speaker 2: elevation and you know what the curbs are doing or
6:19
Speaker 2: that sort of things I think you know. Certainly from
6:21
Speaker 2: a writing point of view, I find it really helps
6:23
Speaker 2: me just to get more of the layer of the land.
6:24
Speaker 2: Is that something that's a bit of a routine for
6:26
Speaker 2: you as well?
6:28
Speaker 3: It certainly will be this weekend being a brand new circuit.
6:31
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously we raced here back in the late eighties,
6:34
Speaker 3: but obviously I wasn't around then, so so yeah, this weekend,
6:37
Speaker 3: for sure, I'll do my best to try and have
6:39
Speaker 3: a look around the circuit if possible, based on obviously
6:42
Speaker 3: the time that we have in Guyana, So yeah, i'll
6:48
Speaker 3: do that maybe once. So for instance, the tracks that
6:50
Speaker 3: we've been to europeon euroupon year, I won't do that
6:53
Speaker 3: every time I go there. If nothing's really changed. But
6:56
Speaker 3: but yeah, Hungry last year was a very good example
6:58
Speaker 3: where we arrived in Hungary I think on the Wednesday
7:02
Speaker 3: morning and was straight down to the circuit in the
7:04
Speaker 3: afternoon to travel around and have a walk around the
7:06
Speaker 3: circuit because there was a lot of talk about about
7:09
Speaker 3: the track layout and how they'd adapted it to make
7:11
Speaker 3: it motor GP spec. So it was it was interesting
7:14
Speaker 3: to have a look around there to see exactly what
7:16
Speaker 3: they've done, get an idea of just how how tight
7:18
Speaker 3: that was, and and yeah, it's it's every track. That
7:23
Speaker 3: layout is unique, I guess, but it looks like quite
7:25
Speaker 3: a unique and an interesting layout in going out and yes,
7:28
Speaker 3: so it's going to be. Yeah, it's going to be
7:29
Speaker 3: interesting to go and have a look at that and
7:30
Speaker 3: to see exactly what kind of race we're going to have.
7:33
Speaker 3: M hmm.
7:33
Speaker 1: I'm just listening to you pronounce the location because this
7:36
Speaker 1: is the thing that I'm at it.
7:38
Speaker 3: I don't know if I've quite mailed it yet.
7:40
Speaker 1: Look, I'm going to learn from you, sir. Let's go.
7:44
Speaker 1: I'm just going to wing it, okay, order Drummer International
7:47
Speaker 1: and Senna in Guyana. Look, that's the most Australian pronunciation
7:50
Speaker 1: of it.
7:52
Speaker 2: Thank you for practicing.
7:54
Speaker 1: What do you know about the track? Because I was
7:56
Speaker 1: talking to Senna Agis earlier in the week and he
7:58
Speaker 1: said he's been watching a YouTube video of like some
8:01
Speaker 1: local racing around the circuit. But I said to him,
8:05
Speaker 1: it's not going to be the same.
8:06
Speaker 3: Is that.
8:06
Speaker 1: Surely they're going to make some improvements to the track
8:09
Speaker 1: or some changes, But what do you know about this
8:12
Speaker 1: circuit that we're headed to.
8:15
Speaker 3: Bad as much as you guys? I guess. There's been
8:18
Speaker 3: some drone footage also released quite recently of the circuit,
8:22
Speaker 3: mainly I think to show the grand stands and what
8:24
Speaker 3: the fan experience is going to be like. But it's
8:26
Speaker 3: still quite interesting to look at it as a as
8:28
Speaker 3: a viewer's point of view. I guess the first thing
8:31
Speaker 3: just that everybody can see if they compare it to
8:33
Speaker 3: the tracks is it's short. It's going to be pretty
8:37
Speaker 3: fernetic around there. It's gonna be thirty one laps on Sunday,
8:41
Speaker 3: the most laps we've had in the Grand Prix since
8:43
Speaker 3: we were racing up with doing a seca. It's going
8:46
Speaker 3: to be the shortest lap of the year in terms
8:47
Speaker 3: of distance, and in terms of lap time, you probably
8:51
Speaker 3: might sound like a hero or complete idiot here, but
8:53
Speaker 3: you're probably looking at shortest lap, even shorts from the
8:55
Speaker 3: Saxon Ring. You're probably gonna have about a minute fifteen
8:58
Speaker 3: minute sixteen for a lapse something like that, because when
9:01
Speaker 3: the five hundreds are racing there back in the late eighties,
9:03
Speaker 3: they were doing one twenty fives around this circuit, which
9:06
Speaker 3: is roughly the same layout, if not complete the same
9:08
Speaker 3: layer as it is now. So you'd imagine that these
9:11
Speaker 3: incredibly complex CC bikes are going to be well under
9:15
Speaker 3: eighty seconds for a lap around there. Yeah, it's going
9:18
Speaker 3: to be pretty busy. It doesn't look particularly slow. There
9:23
Speaker 3: is a sort of infield section which looks a little
9:25
Speaker 3: bit tight and twisty, but I think the bulk of
9:27
Speaker 3: the lap looks pretty flowing, which I think will be good,
9:30
Speaker 3: good for us, good for the racing. Big log straight
9:31
Speaker 3: which lost the help for overtaking, and it's going to
9:36
Speaker 3: be it's going to put a lot of bonus on.
9:38
Speaker 3: Obviously the riders that learn quickest there's any new track
9:40
Speaker 3: would but it's been so short, only twelve corners around
9:43
Speaker 3: the circuit, just over two miles, I think so. I
9:46
Speaker 3: would imagine it's going to keep the field pretty close to.
9:49
Speaker 2: Well, and there'll be a couple of inflection points for that.
9:51
Speaker 2: I think the last two or three minutes or five
9:54
Speaker 2: minutes so of Friday practice, where you know, you've got
9:56
Speaker 2: guys that are on the casper trying to get it
9:58
Speaker 2: into Q two straight away. But then you think of
10:01
Speaker 2: what the grid might look like on Saturday. You know
10:04
Speaker 2: that sort of track distance you're talking about there that's
10:06
Speaker 2: like three and a half tenths from first to tenth
10:09
Speaker 2: or something. It's going to be super, super tight. So
10:11
Speaker 2: it's going to be one of those circuits where small
10:13
Speaker 2: mistakes have really big consequences. And because we see now
10:17
Speaker 2: how important Q two is for the rest of a
10:19
Speaker 2: race weekend, like the tension's going to be ratcheted up massively.
10:21
Speaker 2: I reckon on Friday afternoon, in particularly Saturday, because you
10:25
Speaker 2: can make one mistake on a track that's that tight
10:27
Speaker 2: and you can kind of define your week in good
10:29
Speaker 2: or bad. So I think the consequences will be pretty high.
10:32
Speaker 3: Yeah. Just having a look at the layout now, and
10:34
Speaker 3: the first sector looks pretty pretty open, pretty flowing. It's
10:37
Speaker 3: a series of right handers. It then does get pretty
10:40
Speaker 3: pretty tight in the southern field section, but big overtaking
10:43
Speaker 3: opportunities into the last corner and into term one as well.
10:48
Speaker 3: One thing I think it's going to be very interesting
10:50
Speaker 3: is we spoke in Thailand about Mark Marquez and physically
10:54
Speaker 3: how he was struggling a little bit in the right
10:56
Speaker 3: handers because of his shoulder. Now he's had three weeks
10:59
Speaker 3: too to a guest, get himself a little bit closer
11:01
Speaker 3: to one hundred seent fitness. But if he's still got
11:03
Speaker 3: any sort of issues with his shoulder this weekend, that
11:06
Speaker 3: might show up. Because you go right a lot around
11:09
Speaker 3: this Kayania circuit. The entire first sector in a bit
11:12
Speaker 3: is right hand that's around this circuit. So Mark, I'm
11:16
Speaker 3: sure he is much close. I'm sure this break since
11:18
Speaker 3: Buri Ram has done him a lot of good, but
11:20
Speaker 3: that might be something to keep an eye and if
11:22
Speaker 3: he's still short of one hundred percent fitness, and if
11:24
Speaker 3: he's still nursing that shoulder a bit, because he said
11:26
Speaker 3: that he didn't want to take the same risks through
11:28
Speaker 3: the right handers in Burrowan because he doesn't have the
11:29
Speaker 3: strength in his shoulder to save those moments at the moment,
11:32
Speaker 3: if he's still in that situation, then that it is
11:35
Speaker 3: going to be interesting to see how he sort of
11:37
Speaker 3: manages that.
11:39
Speaker 1: Just thinking on that, because it's obviously quite a level
11:43
Speaker 1: playing field. Is a level playing field. No one's been there,
11:45
Speaker 1: everyone's doing it for the first time. Is there anyone
11:48
Speaker 1: in particular who you think is going to adapt and
11:51
Speaker 1: adjust quickly? Like previously I would have always said, oh,
11:54
Speaker 1: it's Mark Marquez who's going to be the one to
11:56
Speaker 1: go out there quicker. But with what you're saying there,
11:58
Speaker 1: is there someone else?
11:59
Speaker 3: Is it? Paid?
12:00
Speaker 1: With these new round I don't know confidence or who
12:04
Speaker 1: do you think might adapt to this circuit quickest?
12:08
Speaker 3: Well, Historically new circuits have tended to lean towards Mark.
12:12
Speaker 3: As you say, he's so adaptable, he's able to ride
12:14
Speaker 3: in all sorts of different conditions, different layouts, because we
12:17
Speaker 3: also imagine the track early on off Friday will be
12:20
Speaker 3: quite quite dusty and quite dirty too. It's interesting though
12:24
Speaker 3: that before Mark Marquez in Hungary last year, the last
12:27
Speaker 3: new circuit we went to was India. Marco Nzeki won
12:30
Speaker 3: by a mile there in very tough conditions. Miguelaveria has
12:35
Speaker 3: won a couple of races at new tracks, but one
12:37
Speaker 3: of those Indonesia was a wet race. I think that
12:39
Speaker 3: was more down to his victory than the fact it
12:42
Speaker 3: was a new circuit. But I think one thing it
12:45
Speaker 3: might do as well is equalize it for manufacturers. So
12:48
Speaker 3: maybe Yamaha, maybe Fabrio Quatuara might feel that if there's
12:51
Speaker 3: going to be an oppor TTF him to punch hbump
12:53
Speaker 3: his weight while they're developing the deplet maybe it's here
12:56
Speaker 3: where everyone's on a level playing field. And also the rookies.
12:59
Speaker 3: You know, you had to you have to factor in
13:00
Speaker 3: the rookies. Jiogo Morera of course, can have so much attention,
13:03
Speaker 3: so much focus and support on his shoulders. This weekend
13:07
Speaker 3: and top rack, they're in the same boat as every
13:10
Speaker 3: other rider in that no rider has seen this circuit before.
13:13
Speaker 3: They're not going to be at a disadvantage in terms
13:15
Speaker 3: of track experience, track knowledge. They're going to be starting
13:17
Speaker 3: on the same level as everyone else. So potentially marea
13:21
Speaker 3: around top racking. I think, in their own ways had
13:23
Speaker 3: pretty impressive debut weekends, might field that they've got a
13:26
Speaker 3: real opportunity to to show what they're all about this week.
13:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good time as a rookie to get
13:31
Speaker 2: a brand new circuit because you're so far behind the
13:34
Speaker 2: eight ball when you go into these tracks at all
13:35
Speaker 2: these better GP guys know it's the most level playing
13:38
Speaker 2: field these guys are going to get for the entire season,
13:40
Speaker 2: and it comes early. But Lewis, I did want to
13:42
Speaker 2: look backwards a little bit before we go any further
13:44
Speaker 2: forwards because Thailand it does feel like a long time
13:46
Speaker 2: ago Thailand. But the interesting picture in that race was,
13:51
Speaker 2: you know, I've written about this today for Fox sports
13:52
Speaker 2: dot com dot are you in that? You know this
13:54
Speaker 2: time last year it was you know, it's the Dakati
13:57
Speaker 2: Kapa all over again. You know, we've got Dacatti's top
13:59
Speaker 2: four and it was looking like a bit of a
14:00
Speaker 2: whitewash what we saw a couple of weeks back. You know,
14:04
Speaker 2: if it wasn't for a cost of finishing. Second, you've
14:06
Speaker 2: got the four A Prillias you know, first, third, fourth,
14:08
Speaker 2: and fifth, and there's been this interesting trend I would
14:12
Speaker 2: say since Indonesia last year where a Prillia's really sort
14:14
Speaker 2: of set out at stall as being you know, the
14:17
Speaker 2: dominant manufacturer. Now this comes with an asterisk of course,
14:20
Speaker 2: because we didn't have Mark and Ducati from Indonesia onwards
14:23
Speaker 2: last year. But what are you seeing with Aprillier at
14:26
Speaker 2: the moment, And because there's some discussion that will maybe
14:28
Speaker 2: the Aprillias the bark you want to be on right
14:30
Speaker 2: now and I'm halfway there, but only halfway, because until
14:34
Speaker 2: you see a fully functioning Mark on a Ducati and
14:38
Speaker 2: if they're managing to beat that, then I'm prepared to
14:40
Speaker 2: have the conversation. But is it sort of it's in
14:42
Speaker 2: the wings of a conversation we should be having.
14:44
Speaker 3: I think, I think so. I think what we had
14:47
Speaker 3: in Bori Ram. I think there's two ways of looking
14:49
Speaker 3: at it. Borio Ram historically has not been a stronger
14:51
Speaker 3: Prelier circuit, So I guess we I think we went
14:54
Speaker 3: into Borrow. I'm thinking for Prilli are strong here. We
14:56
Speaker 3: know they're serious, and there were more strong as you say,
14:59
Speaker 3: from the Catty Cup to the Prillier Trophy. At one
15:02
Speaker 3: point they were one, two and three. At the end
15:04
Speaker 3: of the first lap, as you say, they were four
15:06
Speaker 3: of the top five. Only Pedro Costa broke back. Mark
15:09
Speaker 3: Marquez would have been in there too. Let's be fair.
15:11
Speaker 3: Had he not to be his mistake when he hit
15:13
Speaker 3: the curb and and the tire came off thro him.
15:15
Speaker 3: He would have probably finished third in that race. He
15:18
Speaker 3: would have been in that battle with a cost I
15:19
Speaker 3: think he would have also beaten Ralph Fernandez because I
15:22
Speaker 3: think Mark did a very good job of staying patient
15:24
Speaker 3: in that race and building as the race went on,
15:26
Speaker 3: and it looked like he was getting stronger the longer
15:29
Speaker 3: the race went on. We also had a bit of
15:32
Speaker 3: a specific situation with the tires that we were using
15:34
Speaker 3: in Burram for that specific demands of the heat and
15:37
Speaker 3: the demands of Burro Ram extra stiff casing, if you like,
15:41
Speaker 3: on the rate tie, which we'll also have in Brazil
15:43
Speaker 3: this weekend, so that may again play into a Prillier strength. Yeah,
15:48
Speaker 3: I'm with you. I think we need to see more
15:50
Speaker 3: evidence at more circuits to truly trust that the prey
15:53
Speaker 3: are going to be there for the entire season. As
15:56
Speaker 3: you say, we need to see them up against the
15:57
Speaker 3: fully fit Mark Marquez. I think if a Prillier are
16:01
Speaker 3: matching or beating Jakati mart Marquez in Austin next weekend,
16:06
Speaker 3: then I think we can have a serious, serious conversation
16:08
Speaker 3: because we know how strong mart Marquez is at that venue.
16:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, Matt, I'm just going to pause on this for
16:15
Speaker 1: a second. I know how I call you this the statman.
16:18
Speaker 1: I think Lewis is going to take the crown. Honestly,
16:21
Speaker 1: so far in this episode, he's like pulled stuff out
16:24
Speaker 1: of his back pocket left, right and center.
16:26
Speaker 2: So I think we get all the preparation and the
16:28
Speaker 2: highlighters and the notes in about three point that he's
16:31
Speaker 2: making himself for the Cobs Blog. I'm happy to relinquish
16:33
Speaker 2: the crown for this one.
16:34
Speaker 1: I think we need to pass it across to Lewis
16:37
Speaker 1: for this, but I'm going to come in with a
16:39
Speaker 1: stat I'm gonna, you know, just shock the world here
16:42
Speaker 1: that's writing an article on this, Lewis, I'm sure you
16:45
Speaker 1: know about for our listeners though. This weekend is Jack
16:48
Speaker 1: Miller our Aussie Heroes two hundredth Moto GP start, which
16:53
Speaker 1: is insane. I mean it's a record for an Aussie
16:56
Speaker 1: in the premier class. How are you seeing Jack so far?
17:01
Speaker 1: Because we're only seeing what we see in the press,
17:03
Speaker 1: where you know, there's all this negativity around the Yamaha
17:06
Speaker 1: and the before, and we're seeing Fabrio's uh, frustrations and
17:10
Speaker 1: top rack. But then Jack will come in and he's like, no,
17:13
Speaker 1: it's good, like let's keep going. The Aussie's like grit,
17:17
Speaker 1: But what are you seeing behind the scenes from Jack?
17:21
Speaker 3: Very similar to that, to be honest. We spoke to
17:23
Speaker 3: him in Burrow Am Test and the timing kind of
17:28
Speaker 3: worked out for us in that we just had a
17:30
Speaker 3: lining to you with with Fabio Quatero and Jack joined
17:34
Speaker 3: us on the on the set and I sort of
17:35
Speaker 3: said at the time, well, we've had the glass half
17:37
Speaker 3: empty view on Yama half and Fabio, let's get the
17:39
Speaker 3: glass half full view with Jack, who was relexted, which
17:42
Speaker 3: he found quite funny. And I said at the time
17:45
Speaker 3: and I still feel it now. Jack Miller is the
17:48
Speaker 3: exact kind of rider in many ways that Yamaha need
17:52
Speaker 3: right now. He's, as you say, he's got so much
17:54
Speaker 3: experience over to and the Grand Priests, so much experience
17:57
Speaker 3: on different motorcycles, the bulk of them being V fours,
18:01
Speaker 3: which is of course going to help the Yamaha in
18:03
Speaker 3: the journey that they're on and you need someone It
18:07
Speaker 3: almost feels like a bit of a generalization of Jack,
18:10
Speaker 3: and it's perhaps unfair. Just he's happy, Go Luki Jack.
18:13
Speaker 3: He's much much more than that. He's You don't get
18:15
Speaker 3: to under grownd Prix unless you're super fast and super talented.
18:19
Speaker 3: But Yamaha need someone who's gonna help them develop the
18:23
Speaker 3: bike and be keep spirits up and keep the team
18:26
Speaker 3: driving forward, keep the team motivated. Because fabia Quatateraro, for
18:31
Speaker 3: all of his strength and for all of his talent,
18:34
Speaker 3: has let the burden, has let the I guess the
18:37
Speaker 3: pain of being on an uncompetitive motorcycle show up in
18:40
Speaker 3: preseason testing. You saw the footage of him in the
18:43
Speaker 3: BORGM test. We've seen him in the box. He wears
18:45
Speaker 3: his heart for his sleeve and we love Fabio for that.
18:48
Speaker 3: But with all the talk that Fabio is out of
18:50
Speaker 3: the door for the next season, potentially going to Honda,
18:53
Speaker 3: and of course fabia Quaaratero wants to be on a
18:55
Speaker 3: motorcycle that can win Growing Prix because he's a world champion.
18:58
Speaker 3: Jack Miller's role is so so important in that in
19:01
Speaker 3: that he's able to keep spirits up but also use
19:04
Speaker 3: that knowledge, use that experience he's got to help develop
19:06
Speaker 3: them other cycle, and I think he did a very
19:08
Speaker 3: good job too in Burra did Jack And I'm not
19:11
Speaker 3: just talking about the top top race that he and
19:13
Speaker 3: top rat one in dominant fashion. You know, I think
19:17
Speaker 3: he's he's going to be key to that Yamaha project.
19:20
Speaker 3: And if I was looking at the future going forward
19:22
Speaker 3: for the Yamaha knowing that they're in all probability going
19:24
Speaker 3: to lose Fabio, for me, Jack is a rider that
19:27
Speaker 3: you'd really want to keep around.
19:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is what I've said a couple of times
19:30
Speaker 2: this year. It's funny and that he's had this sort
19:32
Speaker 2: of lack of job security for quite a while. And
19:36
Speaker 2: you know, one of the reasons he went to KTM
19:37
Speaker 2: in the first place is that he was actually offered
19:39
Speaker 2: a deal that was worth more than one year for
19:41
Speaker 2: once in his life and he did have the job security.
19:43
Speaker 2: But it's interesting the Yamaha project at the moment. This
19:46
Speaker 2: is very very specific, narrow band job description that is
19:51
Speaker 2: almost like it's been written by Jack for himself, because
19:53
Speaker 2: he's one of the few guys that can actually fill
19:55
Speaker 2: the job. You need experienced with other manufacturers, you need
19:58
Speaker 2: to be a leader who can take the emotion out
20:01
Speaker 2: of the technical feedback. And I guess Lewis For me,
20:04
Speaker 2: the sign of how well Jack does this job is
20:07
Speaker 2: that the benefits of what he's doing now. He probably
20:10
Speaker 2: won't be around for if and when Yamaha comes good
20:13
Speaker 2: in the future, but maybe the legacy play for him
20:16
Speaker 2: is like, well, my fingerprints are on this company getting
20:18
Speaker 2: back to where it needed to be. He might not
20:21
Speaker 2: necessarily be holding the handle because when they get there,
20:24
Speaker 2: But it feels like what he does if he gets
20:26
Speaker 2: another yearnixt year, and I think he's probably got better
20:28
Speaker 2: job security now than he might have had previously, it
20:31
Speaker 2: feels like that's going to be his sort of swan
20:33
Speaker 2: song to Motor GP now and that when he eventually finishes,
20:36
Speaker 2: he's going to have a big say in what Yamaha does,
20:39
Speaker 2: assuming as we all do, that Yamaha is going to
20:41
Speaker 2: come back up the grid again.
20:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be important his role because, as we say,
20:47
Speaker 3: there's going to be a little bit of musical chairs
20:49
Speaker 3: going on in the Yamaha setup for next season. Whether
20:52
Speaker 3: that means Jack moves up to the Battery team or
20:54
Speaker 3: stays put at Pramak, I'm not sure at the moment.
20:57
Speaker 3: Potentially he'll stay where he is, but yeah, he's going
20:59
Speaker 3: to have a hugely important role. And what you said
21:01
Speaker 3: there reminds me of some comments from Pitt Byra when
21:05
Speaker 3: they announced that Pedro Acosta was replacing Jack at KATM
21:09
Speaker 3: in that he credited Jack with a lot of the
21:11
Speaker 3: progress that Kate had made with the bike. I think
21:13
Speaker 3: one tends of purposes. He said, Jack is a big
21:16
Speaker 3: reason for the progress on the bike. But unfortunately Jack
21:20
Speaker 3: wasn't the rider that ultimately exploited that progress that we've
21:23
Speaker 3: made for the bike. It was Brad Binder at the time.
21:25
Speaker 3: And we might find ourselves in a similar situation at
21:28
Speaker 3: Yamaha that once Yamaha do ultimately understand to improve the
21:34
Speaker 3: new motorcycle that they've got, the V four, which they're
21:36
Speaker 3: going to because they're too strong and too powerful the
21:39
Speaker 3: manufacturer not too over time that maybe ultimately it's going
21:44
Speaker 3: to be a Johey Martine if he does join Yamaha,
21:48
Speaker 3: or a top Rack who knows that ultimately exploits that.
21:50
Speaker 3: But but don't underestimate Jack's role in all of that.
21:53
Speaker 3: He is central the moment of that project because top
21:57
Speaker 3: Rack is new to Motive GP, so you can't really
21:59
Speaker 3: trust him at the moment with developing the bike and
22:01
Speaker 3: do you really want to trust Fabio Quattarara with developing
22:04
Speaker 3: the bike if you know he's leading the team at
22:06
Speaker 3: the end of the season. So Jack's role is going
22:08
Speaker 3: to be so important in terms of developing the bike,
22:10
Speaker 3: in terms of developing the bike on the Perellis for
22:12
Speaker 3: next season and everything that goes into it, and that
22:15
Speaker 3: experience is going to be so key. You mentioned top
22:18
Speaker 3: Rack there.
22:18
Speaker 1: That's another name that I kind of want to discuss
22:20
Speaker 1: a little bit and explore because when I was in
22:25
Speaker 1: paying for the test, we saw top Rack really struggling.
22:28
Speaker 1: I was talking with Peter Baum and he was explaining
22:31
Speaker 1: the setup and the trying to figure out everything. We
22:35
Speaker 1: know that he's kind of gone in a bit of
22:37
Speaker 1: a different direction, But what have you seen from top
22:40
Speaker 1: Rack because he's starting to get the hang of the
22:42
Speaker 1: Yamaha and the V four and Moto GP as a whole.
22:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you know what, As I mentioned earlier, it
22:49
Speaker 3: doesn't get anywhere nearly attention because he's not winning on
22:52
Speaker 3: a BMW now he's near the back on the Yamaha.
22:54
Speaker 3: But I thought he did quite a good job in Burra.
22:57
Speaker 3: He qualified half a second. Think it was off Fabio
23:01
Speaker 3: and we know Fabio is potentially the fastest rider in
23:04
Speaker 3: the world. Over one lap. He was a quarter of
23:06
Speaker 3: a second or so off off Jacket and Alex Rinz,
23:09
Speaker 3: which I'd say in his first qualifying session in other
23:11
Speaker 3: GP is a is a very good job. He was
23:14
Speaker 3: in the same group as the of the Yamahas in
23:16
Speaker 3: the sprint when he crashed. And yes he beat Jack
23:20
Speaker 3: in the Grand Prix, but we know Jack had his
23:22
Speaker 3: issues towards towards the end of the race which don't
23:24
Speaker 3: quite paint a clear picture of where they were in
23:27
Speaker 3: the race. But I think top Rack's got the right
23:29
Speaker 3: attitude for this. You know, he's he's such a great
23:32
Speaker 3: guy just to just to talk to and be around
23:34
Speaker 3: because and I hope this doesn't change him this experience
23:36
Speaker 3: in the first half of this year with Yamaha. I
23:39
Speaker 3: hope he still remains as open with all of us
23:41
Speaker 3: and as chatty as he has been. He's got a
23:43
Speaker 3: very mature head on his shoulders, and many many riders
23:47
Speaker 3: would not be like that. Having been on a diet
23:49
Speaker 3: of winning and winning and winning for the last few years.
23:52
Speaker 3: Three time world champion over in superbike to then go
23:55
Speaker 3: to a championship where first of all, you know the
23:58
Speaker 3: levels a step up, you know the modor side, you
24:00
Speaker 3: know the tires. I think most importantly the Mitchellin's are
24:03
Speaker 3: different to what he's used to. And then you've got
24:05
Speaker 3: to go out there and compete and see, you know,
24:07
Speaker 3: for all your hard work to see p. Twenty one
24:10
Speaker 3: next to your name at the end of qualify. There
24:13
Speaker 3: are many many rylos that that would have a major
24:15
Speaker 3: psychological impact on but top ras keeping his head down,
24:19
Speaker 3: he's doing that for me as good a job as
24:22
Speaker 3: you can realistically expect of him at the moment. He's
24:25
Speaker 3: just not getting the plaud it's all the points to
24:26
Speaker 3: show for it at the moment because of the compesitiveness
24:28
Speaker 3: or lack of of the bike.
24:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what you were saying before. Like in
24:32
Speaker 2: some respects it's almost the perfect year for him to
24:34
Speaker 2: come in because twenty seven is such this hard reset anyway,
24:38
Speaker 2: and so if you've got your head around what it's
24:40
Speaker 2: like to be in the motor GP paddock, the way
24:42
Speaker 2: the weekend's unfold, getting used to circuits you've not written on,
24:46
Speaker 2: to a lot of circuits he's not written on, particularly
24:48
Speaker 2: a lot of the flyways. I think it's probably a
24:49
Speaker 2: good year for him to do that. But Rineta, I'm
24:52
Speaker 2: going to jump in here with something that we're going
24:53
Speaker 2: to talk about a bit later, but I want to
24:55
Speaker 2: go to the other end of the standings at the
24:56
Speaker 2: moment and ask Lewis a little bit about Marco Betzeki
25:00
Speaker 2: simply because it's really interesting what's happened there at a
25:04
Speaker 2: Prillier in that you know, if you gave Massimo Riverla
25:07
Speaker 2: some truth Cerreum, I don't think he ever would admit
25:09
Speaker 2: that he was hiring Marco Poseki to become this leader
25:12
Speaker 2: that he's become. And then with the way things played
25:15
Speaker 2: out with a Prillier last year in Juge Martin, just
25:17
Speaker 2: going from one incident and accident to the next thing,
25:20
Speaker 2: Aprillier might have stumbled across something almost accidentally with bed Zeki.
25:23
Speaker 2: Because the more responsibility that he has had, there's been
25:27
Speaker 2: this sort of different version of Marco that I think
25:29
Speaker 2: that's emerged over the last little while. And you can
25:31
Speaker 2: see that, you know, he and the team love each other,
25:33
Speaker 2: and you know, I know Masimo from his Formula one days.
25:36
Speaker 2: He's a certain guy to work for that is definitely
25:38
Speaker 2: going to empower someone in a position like that by
25:41
Speaker 2: some sort of happy accident. This has turned out to
25:44
Speaker 2: be a really formidable little partnership, hasn't it with these two.
25:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's worked out really well for them. I draw
25:50
Speaker 3: parallels with Andreda Bitcioso Jacati in that. Yeah, he wasn't
25:54
Speaker 3: really he wasn't brought to Jakati to be barely right,
25:57
Speaker 3: you'd argue Andre you Nona was supposed to be that,
26:00
Speaker 3: and for reasons that we weren't going too, that didn't
26:02
Speaker 3: really work out for him, and I think ultimately why.
26:08
Speaker 3: I also draw the comparison with with Dovies Andreda Vizioso
26:12
Speaker 3: elevated himself as much as the bike clearly did improve
26:15
Speaker 3: it Jacati to give him the package to fight Mark Marquez,
26:18
Speaker 3: Andreda Vicioso elevated himself as a rider to a level,
26:21
Speaker 3: but I'm not sure many thought he could. And maybe
26:23
Speaker 3: we're seeing that too with Bez where even in twenty
26:27
Speaker 3: twenty three when he was, you know, winning Grand Prix,
26:29
Speaker 3: was you know, in the top three in the world championship,
26:31
Speaker 3: I think we all saw him as a level below
26:34
Speaker 3: Banyai Martin, Mark Marquez, maybe Fabio Quatuaro. That sort of level.
26:38
Speaker 3: But he's now joining that conversation. I think as a genuine,
26:42
Speaker 3: you know, elite mother GPE rider, I think what Borro
26:46
Speaker 3: Ram demonstrated I think is still how far he has
26:49
Speaker 3: to go in that We we saw how strong he was.
26:52
Speaker 3: We saw as we saw in the last two granpries
26:55
Speaker 3: of last season. If you give him clear tarmac at
26:56
Speaker 3: the front of the fielding with a GP, he is
27:00
Speaker 3: super super strong, if not unbeatable on the right package.
27:03
Speaker 3: But Marco Betzeki should have left Burrow around with thirty
27:05
Speaker 3: seven points. There's no two ways about that. And if
27:08
Speaker 3: you're fighting for a world championship, you need to really
27:13
Speaker 3: really punish Mark, Marquees and Jakati on a weekend where
27:15
Speaker 3: they're on their back foot a little bit and you
27:17
Speaker 3: have the dominant package. So as super strong as Marco
27:21
Speaker 3: Betzeki is now, he's clearly up there with the fastest
27:26
Speaker 3: riders in mud GP and on argue with the fastest
27:28
Speaker 3: bike at the moment. We'll see if it is in
27:30
Speaker 3: the next couple of grown prize. So he's now going
27:33
Speaker 3: to find that level of consistency to befit a championship contender.
27:37
Speaker 3: Because he crashed three times ultimately didn't he On the Saturday,
27:40
Speaker 3: he had the warning in free practice too. He then
27:42
Speaker 3: crashed at the end of quarter fang after already taking
27:44
Speaker 3: whole position and then trying to pull clear of Mark
27:47
Speaker 3: Marquez in the sprint, he dumped it at turn eight.
27:50
Speaker 3: So if Marco Etzeki is going to go from genuine
27:54
Speaker 3: brector Mark Marquez and Jacati to ultimately beating them, he's
27:58
Speaker 3: got to try and you know, find that level of consistency,
28:01
Speaker 3: try to ride at ninety nine percent and still when
28:04
Speaker 3: rather than running up just over the limit as he
28:06
Speaker 3: was in the sprint in Burrogram. And if you could
28:08
Speaker 3: do that, for sure, there's a championship contender in there
28:11
Speaker 3: if a Prillier give him the bike over twenty two
28:13
Speaker 3: grod prize to show that he can fight up there.
28:17
Speaker 1: Let's touch on the sprint. You mentioned that there, and
28:20
Speaker 1: it was kind of a little bit controversial that last lap.
28:25
Speaker 1: Should we just say like that was a little bit
28:26
Speaker 1: smarte It kind of kept us on ounces a bit.
28:29
Speaker 1: What were you guys, I mean, we were listening to
28:32
Speaker 1: you and Bertie on the broadcast, but what were you
28:34
Speaker 1: guys thinking when that was happening between Pedro and Mark,
28:38
Speaker 1: what was going through your head?
28:40
Speaker 3: Well, we have the I guess, the lovely benefit of
28:42
Speaker 3: doing the job we do of we think out loud
28:44
Speaker 3: right on the broadcast. So I said, at the time
28:48
Speaker 3: we were I think we were waiting to see more
28:50
Speaker 3: angles of it, given that we were on the final lap.
28:52
Speaker 3: It wasn't the ideal moment to really do that. But
28:55
Speaker 3: I said straight away, the students have got a big
28:56
Speaker 3: decision to make here, And that wasn't me saying I
28:59
Speaker 3: thought it should have been a penalty. But you can
29:01
Speaker 3: understand why kat m would be waiving the imagine a
29:05
Speaker 3: yellow card saying we need something done about this, and
29:07
Speaker 3: why Jakati would be a little unhappy if a decision
29:10
Speaker 3: was made and they the stewards, led of course by
29:14
Speaker 3: a guy we know well in Simon Crowfart. They they
29:17
Speaker 3: were in a position that I do not envy at
29:20
Speaker 3: all there in that they had to they had to
29:22
Speaker 3: make a snap decision because because no one wants to
29:25
Speaker 3: see a race victory change hands after the checker flag
29:28
Speaker 3: has been taken. We all want to see a finish,
29:30
Speaker 3: we want to see an end, we want to see
29:32
Speaker 3: a winner. So they they made the decision that they made.
29:36
Speaker 3: It's not the decision I would have made. I would
29:38
Speaker 3: have left it alone. I would have let Mark Marquez
29:41
Speaker 3: keep that victory because I think it was it was
29:42
Speaker 3: on the limit, and I think both riders ultimately played
29:46
Speaker 3: a part in that. I said it during commentary that
29:49
Speaker 3: this is in no way blaming Pedro Acosta for this,
29:52
Speaker 3: but Pedro Acosta tried to sort of hang out around
29:55
Speaker 3: the outside of Mark Marquez rather than doing what mart
29:58
Speaker 3: Marquez did in the sprint when Pedro was overtaken to
30:01
Speaker 3: that corner, which is, let Pedro have the corner and
30:03
Speaker 3: just duck underneath him on the way out and get
30:05
Speaker 3: the run onto the main straight. Pedro had done that,
30:09
Speaker 3: there would have been no collision or no no sort
30:11
Speaker 3: of incident into the corner. He depends on who you
30:14
Speaker 3: speak to as to whether there was contact or not,
30:17
Speaker 3: but ultimately they decided that contact had been made, that
30:21
Speaker 3: it was I think the distinction they made was that
30:23
Speaker 3: it wasn't an safe maneuver, but it was an unfair
30:28
Speaker 3: maneuver on Pedro Costa in that it didn't give him,
30:32
Speaker 3: I guess the fair run onto the straight. I can
30:34
Speaker 3: see the rashtale behind that. Yeah, but if i'd been
30:38
Speaker 3: in that decision, which ultimately I'm not so as crazy
30:40
Speaker 3: for me to say that I wouldn't have had that
30:42
Speaker 3: I didn't have that pressure on my shoulders. I think
30:44
Speaker 3: I would have let Mark Marquez away with that, maybe
30:47
Speaker 3: giving him a talking to the race to say that's
30:49
Speaker 3: on the limit. You know, we've seen incidents like that
30:52
Speaker 3: go unpunished. We've seen in a Bashnini with a Grand
30:54
Speaker 3: Prima zan a couple of years ago against Jhe Martine
30:57
Speaker 3: where you could argue they were similar, if not identical,
31:00
Speaker 3: moves on the last lap, and Bashnini was allowed to
31:03
Speaker 3: keep the win. So I can understand why Jakati were
31:06
Speaker 3: pretty hot about that after the race. David Ata dots
31:08
Speaker 3: In particularly, who never he's never shined showing us how
31:11
Speaker 3: he feels about something. He was pretty he was pretty
31:13
Speaker 3: unhappy about that after the race. But it's great for us.
31:16
Speaker 3: It's great for the spot because it got the whole
31:18
Speaker 3: world talking about my other GP on the first one
31:20
Speaker 3: Saturday of the season, which is perfect.
31:22
Speaker 2: Well, the funny part about it is because the way
31:24
Speaker 2: that race was playing out, you knew that whatever the
31:27
Speaker 2: order was coming into that penultimate lap, that that situation
31:29
Speaker 2: was probably going to play out. And it's like the
31:32
Speaker 2: football match where two guys literally turn around and gesticulate
31:35
Speaker 2: to the reference, like how about that?
31:36
Speaker 3: And you knew that.
31:37
Speaker 2: Whatever whether the roles were reversed or not, it was
31:40
Speaker 2: sort of boiling down to that someone's going to put
31:43
Speaker 2: their hand up and say, how about the other guy.
31:45
Speaker 2: I'm a bit in your category, Lewis, in that I'm
31:48
Speaker 2: more thinking not so much about the incident itself, but
31:50
Speaker 2: when you adjudicate on something like this one way or
31:53
Speaker 2: the other, it's to set a precedent, right, so the
31:56
Speaker 2: next time there is a situation like this, someone will
31:59
Speaker 2: do exactly what you just mentioned there with the best
32:01
Speaker 2: you knowed you want. At Messano the other year, it's like, well,
32:02
Speaker 2: how is this any different to tyler ad last quarter, second,
32:05
Speaker 2: last lap. So that now becomes like the test case.
32:09
Speaker 2: Now we have to fit everything into that particular box.
32:11
Speaker 2: And the subtext of watching those two go at it,
32:14
Speaker 2: and I know Nita and I were talking about this,
32:15
Speaker 2: We're thinking these two are going to be teammates this year.
32:18
Speaker 2: How good is this? And the fact they haven't even
32:20
Speaker 2: haven't even announced that, you know, there's a bottleneck of
32:22
Speaker 2: the announcements at the moment, But I just kept thinking,
32:25
Speaker 2: these two are going to be sharing a box next year,
32:26
Speaker 2: and they're already at it in the first sprint of
32:28
Speaker 2: the season. Just added another layer to the story, didn't it.
32:31
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think mart Marquez is very He's very smart
32:35
Speaker 3: in the way he deals with you. So I think
32:37
Speaker 3: he lets emotions sort of bubble up a little bit
32:40
Speaker 3: when he gave the imaginary of the sort of sarcastic
32:42
Speaker 3: applause up up the resirection after the sprint had finished,
32:46
Speaker 3: once he got off the bike, he said, first of all, look,
32:49
Speaker 3: I'm never going to cry about Jewish decisions. That's just
32:51
Speaker 3: not in my makeup. That's just not how I go
32:54
Speaker 3: about things. Mart Marquez is very good at knowing where
32:57
Speaker 3: the line is and pushing as far as he can
33:00
Speaker 3: without going past it. Now I guess he's now found
33:02
Speaker 3: out in the not the way he wanted to, but
33:04
Speaker 3: he found out in perhap where the line is, and
33:06
Speaker 3: it's slightly before where he ultimately got to with Pedro Acosta.
33:10
Speaker 3: But that extra context is absolutely right that you brought up,
33:13
Speaker 3: and I think I think I referenced that soon afterwards,
33:16
Speaker 3: and that I think I felt that was mar Marquez
33:18
Speaker 3: also proving a point to Pedro Acosta at the end
33:21
Speaker 3: of the sprint. If this is going to be the
33:23
Speaker 3: Jacati factory team for the next year or two, We'll
33:26
Speaker 3: see how long that mart Marquez remains at the top
33:29
Speaker 3: top level of MOTORGP for They're going to be battling
33:32
Speaker 3: for world championships against each other in the next two
33:35
Speaker 3: to three years, there's no question about that. Assuming Jacati
33:38
Speaker 3: don't completely botch the eight fifty, which we're not expecting
33:42
Speaker 3: them to. Mar Marcus and Pedro Costa are going to
33:44
Speaker 3: be on the same piece of racetrack a lot in
33:46
Speaker 3: the next couple of years. And Pedro Acosta quite rightly
33:50
Speaker 3: wants to prove a point to Mark that I'm here
33:52
Speaker 3: to take your crown away from you. I'm what you
33:55
Speaker 3: were back in twenty thirteen when you came into MOTORGP,
33:59
Speaker 3: and Mark Marquez is now the experienced old hand who
34:01
Speaker 3: wants to defend his territory in motor GP and dit Chikati,
34:05
Speaker 3: so he's not going to let Pedro Acosta push him around.
34:08
Speaker 3: Mart Marquez is a very proud athlete, so I'm sure
34:12
Speaker 3: he's well aware that he spent most of the Tigro
34:15
Speaker 3: on pre weekend being overtaken by Pedro a Costa, and
34:18
Speaker 3: he won't enjoy that one bit. So I'm sure he'll
34:20
Speaker 3: want to try and fight back in any way he can,
34:22
Speaker 3: because of course we very early stages, but Pedro Costa
34:25
Speaker 3: is the world championship.
34:26
Speaker 1: Yep, he does into Brazil and it's exciting. But just
34:30
Speaker 1: listening to you then talking, I was replaying the races
34:32
Speaker 1: in my head. It kind of reminds me of that
34:34
Speaker 1: like older brother younger brother, like they'd really like trying
34:37
Speaker 1: to fight it out. But for us as the fans
34:39
Speaker 1: at home, it made the race so exciting. And there's
34:43
Speaker 1: something me and Matt we were talking about. We were
34:44
Speaker 1: on teams at the same time. We're like, oh my god,
34:47
Speaker 1: this is happening, and it's cool because obviously, you know,
34:50
Speaker 1: for so long it would be Mark just done both
34:53
Speaker 1: the du caddies end previously with Hondas, So for us
34:56
Speaker 1: as fans, like this is what we need. But how
34:59
Speaker 1: cool If the rumors are true that on the Jucati
35:02
Speaker 1: factory bikes is going to be two Spaniards, right, you know,
35:05
Speaker 1: We've got the Italian of Macro Medzeki on the Italian one.
35:08
Speaker 1: Maybe there's another Italian going there. I don't know what
35:11
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, but like, imagine, if we've got all this,
35:13
Speaker 1: We've got this competitiveness and this like fire that's going again,
35:18
Speaker 1: and this is what Moto GP needs. This is what
35:21
Speaker 1: we're going to get so excited about. But Brazil, when
35:25
Speaker 1: you get excited about Brazil because us this weekend you
35:28
Speaker 1: have the joy of the really long flight to get
35:30
Speaker 1: to South America, and we have the joy of having
35:33
Speaker 1: to watch it at like two am in the morning
35:35
Speaker 1: or three am whatever time is.
35:36
Speaker 3: If it's an ideal one for you guys, is it
35:39
Speaker 3: this is not fun? Yeah?
35:40
Speaker 2: I mean so for you Queenslanders that don't get the
35:43
Speaker 2: whole daylight saving things, it's actually worse for you. So's yeah,
35:46
Speaker 2: self inflicted for you. So I've got absolutely no sympathy
35:49
Speaker 2: for you whatsoever. It's five am Australian Eastern daylight time,
35:52
Speaker 2: which is not diabolical. It's not you know, it's not
35:56
Speaker 2: a katar no matter whether you have katar in April
35:58
Speaker 2: or November. It's a pain in one month or in
36:00
Speaker 2: the other month. There's not quite in that category. But
36:02
Speaker 2: a five am is reasonable.
36:04
Speaker 3: But not.
36:05
Speaker 2: The greatest start of the week is at five am Monday.
36:07
Speaker 3: No.
36:08
Speaker 1: I mean it's good. You can watch the Grand Prix
36:09
Speaker 1: and then head to work right like, It's a good
36:11
Speaker 1: way to start a Monday morning. But predictions for this weekend, Lewis,
36:17
Speaker 1: We're going to throw you under the bus. What are
36:19
Speaker 1: you envisioning from this Sunday's Grand Prix.
36:24
Speaker 3: Action? I think, as I say thirty one lapse, it's
36:27
Speaker 3: going to be pretty fast. And for an etic, I'm
36:31
Speaker 3: a bit of a default position here in new circuit,
36:34
Speaker 3: I tend to go for mart Marquees. I think he's
36:37
Speaker 3: going to be a little bit stung by what happened
36:39
Speaker 3: to him and what happened to Jakati in burw Ram.
36:42
Speaker 3: So Mart Marquez is as good as the mental game
36:46
Speaker 3: as he is at the actual game on track, and
36:48
Speaker 3: I think he'll want to go out there and I
36:49
Speaker 3: prove a point and send a message to everyone else
36:52
Speaker 3: that you know, the world champion is still here. Guys,
36:54
Speaker 3: just because they were on their back for a little
36:56
Speaker 3: bit and playing catchup to a prettier in Thailand is
37:00
Speaker 3: by no means is that going to be the case
37:01
Speaker 3: throughout the season. So yeah, I think Mark Marquez is
37:04
Speaker 3: going to be super super strong, and I think Marco
37:07
Speaker 3: Betzeki there's no reason for me why he can't be
37:10
Speaker 3: as competitive as he was in Thailand. Whether he's going
37:14
Speaker 3: to have that same ultimate pace advantage that so I
37:17
Speaker 3: win by such a margin, I'm not sure, but I
37:20
Speaker 3: think Marco Betzeki will be there too. And I think,
37:23
Speaker 3: as I say I said right on the top, I
37:24
Speaker 3: think room for a really close weekend. I think given
37:26
Speaker 3: that the track is is so so short, it's not
37:30
Speaker 3: the most technical trackllout. It's not like we're going to
37:32
Speaker 3: an Austin or a Sapang where you know you've got
37:36
Speaker 3: a huge two minute lap with very technical sections. I
37:39
Speaker 3: think this circuit will keep the field nice and close.
37:42
Speaker 3: So I think room for a huge battle at the front.
37:45
Speaker 3: And I think this if you're looking at other riders
37:48
Speaker 3: that will see this as an opportunity, I think Pedro
37:50
Speaker 3: Costa will also see this one as a big, big opportunity.
37:54
Speaker 3: I think new circuits are where you see the rider,
37:57
Speaker 3: the rider talent and the rider adaptability he come through.
38:01
Speaker 3: And I think Pedro Costa, for all of you know,
38:04
Speaker 3: the plaudits he rightly gets, still not one a motor
38:07
Speaker 3: GP Sunday grow on Prix even if he is a
38:10
Speaker 3: sprint winner, so he may be another one this weekend.
38:12
Speaker 3: That will be saying, right, a level playing field here, guys.
38:15
Speaker 3: No one's seen this place before. Here's a chance for
38:17
Speaker 3: me to really show how good I am and a
38:20
Speaker 3: chance for me to make the difference on a brand
38:22
Speaker 3: new circuit. So I'm kind of naming the obvious the
38:25
Speaker 3: obvious names there. But if I had to pick a winner,
38:27
Speaker 3: I'd say I'd say I think Marco went on Sunday best, second,
38:32
Speaker 3: and Pedro and third.
38:34
Speaker 2: I like the prediction. I've got two predictions for you,
38:38
Speaker 2: RealD while we're here. No tuk tuks, but I'm saying
38:42
Speaker 2: the whole griddle be in Brazilian soccer shirts at some
38:44
Speaker 2: point over the course of the weekend. I think that's
38:46
Speaker 2: an absolute given. Yeah, drink to that. My other prediction
38:52
Speaker 2: is I think Jorge Martin finishes on a Grand Prix
38:55
Speaker 2: podium for Aprilier for the first time. Not the top step,
38:58
Speaker 2: but I can see him possibly second, more likely third.
39:01
Speaker 2: I think this guy's in better shape than him, but
39:04
Speaker 2: there's enough signs of he's starting to look a bit
39:07
Speaker 2: more like Jege Martine again. And given that we know
39:10
Speaker 2: that that bike is good, there is a podium coming
39:12
Speaker 2: and I reckon that you clean slate of a brand
39:15
Speaker 2: new circuit. We might see that at about quarter to
39:17
Speaker 2: six on Monday morning for me. And if it doesn't happen,
39:20
Speaker 2: then no one's going to be awake in Australia to
39:22
Speaker 2: tell me that I'm wrong anyway, So that's all fine.
39:24
Speaker 2: But Brazilian soccer shirts and Jollgey Martin on the podium,
39:27
Speaker 2: they're my two predictions.
39:29
Speaker 1: What about Peko Vanyaya Lewis? What's your thoughts on Pecko?
39:33
Speaker 1: How do you think he's going to go? Because we
39:34
Speaker 1: know he's the professor and he likes to be really
39:36
Speaker 1: methodical and everything. But is he Is he on his
39:39
Speaker 1: way back like everyone's been saying.
39:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I I've given up predicting how Pakka
39:45
Speaker 3: Banyai is going to do. We go, but let's have
39:48
Speaker 3: her go anyway I thought he was. I wasn't going
39:53
Speaker 3: as far as saying Paco is back because I feel
39:55
Speaker 3: like there's a drinking game being set up. Now how
39:57
Speaker 3: many times we hear Paco is back over weekend? Davidetadots
40:01
Speaker 3: He said it at the end of the burro M
40:02
Speaker 3: test and I sort of went out. I was interviewing
40:04
Speaker 3: him at the time, and when he said that, I thought,
40:06
Speaker 3: you've gone and said it day you've said is back.
40:09
Speaker 3: I'm not saying he's wrong because he was a little
40:14
Speaker 3: unlucky in Burahm. You make your own look to a
40:17
Speaker 3: certain extent, but it wasn't a normal Friday, Let's be fair.
40:21
Speaker 3: There was the rain that was sort of on and
40:23
Speaker 3: off throughout most of a Friday practice. Now, ultimately it
40:26
Speaker 3: was up to the rider and the team to maximize
40:28
Speaker 3: what can the conditions that were in front of you,
40:30
Speaker 3: and Pekabanya I didn't do that, he said himself. He
40:32
Speaker 3: didn't quite maximize that session. And once you then put
40:36
Speaker 3: yourself in a Q one session that also featured ralpher
40:38
Speaker 3: Nandez on the super FASTA Prillier also featured Frankie Morbidelli
40:42
Speaker 3: on on the Chikati. Albeit the Jacati that Pecabanya is
40:45
Speaker 3: so key to see the back of last season the
40:47
Speaker 3: GP twenty five, one of those is always going to
40:50
Speaker 3: miss out in qualifying one and once Pecko qualified thirteen,
40:53
Speaker 3: he was always on a bit of a hiding to
40:55
Speaker 3: nothing because in the traffic, higher on the front tier,
40:58
Speaker 3: all the situations that we know about when you're in
41:00
Speaker 3: the packing on GP, he found it so hard to
41:03
Speaker 3: fight his way through. So if Pekka Banyaya has a
41:06
Speaker 3: good Friday gets himself into Q two on Friday in Brazil,
41:11
Speaker 3: then I would expect a much more normal weekend from
41:13
Speaker 3: Pekka Banyaya. What a normal weekend looks like this year
41:17
Speaker 3: for Peco it is I guess another matter because with
41:20
Speaker 3: that question, the front of the field is more competitive
41:23
Speaker 3: than it was at the start of last year, when
41:25
Speaker 3: he was having poor weekends but still finishing third behind
41:27
Speaker 3: the Marquez brothers. At this stage of the season, we
41:30
Speaker 3: saw last year, once a pretty yer got stronger, once
41:33
Speaker 3: Pedera Costa started getting involved in the battle of the
41:36
Speaker 3: front Japan apart, Pekka Banyaya struggled to stay with that group.
41:41
Speaker 3: So I think it's a big weekend for Peko to
41:44
Speaker 3: demonstrate that the progress we saw from him in pre
41:46
Speaker 3: season testing was real, because I think it was genuinely there.
41:49
Speaker 3: He looked much happier, he sounded much happier with the bike.
41:52
Speaker 3: The lap time's backled up. He did a sprint simulation
41:55
Speaker 3: in Brewram, which was very very quick. We just did
41:58
Speaker 3: not see that when the points regrets in the actual
42:01
Speaker 3: Grand Prix weekend itself. So yeah, I think Paco is
42:04
Speaker 3: stronger than it looked for a lot of borrow around,
42:07
Speaker 3: but where they were strong enough to win the Grand
42:09
Speaker 3: Prix this weekend, I'm not ultimately that shut.
42:12
Speaker 2: Well, there's the other aspect of that too, in that
42:14
Speaker 2: if he has another weekend that's not so great, then
42:16
Speaker 2: it starts to become the same old Peco narrative and
42:18
Speaker 2: we're still talking about what we did last year. And
42:21
Speaker 2: he's a guy that we've seen in the past that
42:24
Speaker 2: momentum shifts good or bad seem to almost have like
42:27
Speaker 2: outsize effects on the way that he goes because you
42:30
Speaker 2: know you're talking before you know the Professor Rode. You
42:32
Speaker 2: remember twenty twenty four, the level that he attained that season.
42:36
Speaker 2: I know he did win the World Championship that year,
42:38
Speaker 2: but his absolute top level was unbelievably good. Last year.
42:42
Speaker 2: I still think he's going to be closer to that
42:44
Speaker 2: than whatever that was most of last year was. But
42:47
Speaker 2: how soon he can get back to anywhere near that?
42:49
Speaker 2: And your point, Lewis, is really well made about the
42:52
Speaker 2: fact that you can't just have a bit of a
42:53
Speaker 2: ropie weekend and still finish in the top four. Now
42:56
Speaker 2: the field is too close. It's the classic case of
42:59
Speaker 2: the last year of a very mature rule set in
43:01
Speaker 2: that everyone's kind of squeezed every available drop there is
43:05
Speaker 2: out of the orige at this point, like we've almost
43:07
Speaker 2: got to the absolute prime way you can ride these.
43:11
Speaker 3: Two years ago, two years ago, and I've been trying
43:15
Speaker 3: to improve on that since. And I think you'd make
43:17
Speaker 3: a very good case that Jakati still hasn't improved on
43:20
Speaker 3: the GP twenty four even now.
43:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's exactly right. So, yeah, it's going to
43:24
Speaker 2: be so much closer now, So you can't have those
43:26
Speaker 2: sort of like bar weekends and still finish top five.
43:29
Speaker 2: You do that now, and you're going to be stiffing
43:30
Speaker 2: at the back end of Q of Q two.
43:32
Speaker 1: Really right, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here. First,
43:37
Speaker 1: Lewis picked the three favorites that we knew he was
43:40
Speaker 1: going to pick, and Matt went in with a wild card.
43:43
Speaker 2: So just rogue, that's fine, just.
43:45
Speaker 1: Wrote and we love it.
43:46
Speaker 3: We love it.
43:47
Speaker 1: That's what we're here for. Lewis, thank you so much
43:50
Speaker 1: for joining us on the pod. We better let you
43:52
Speaker 1: go and prep all your notes so that when you
43:54
Speaker 1: do get on air on Friday, you're not like, ah,
43:57
Speaker 1: I can't remember anything.
44:00
Speaker 3: If not, when I hit the bottom, I'm gonna have
44:01
Speaker 3: to start talking anyway. So even if I'm not prepared,
44:04
Speaker 3: we'll just like you guys. But we'll do our best
44:06
Speaker 3: because you'll first hear me obviously Mooto two Friday morning
44:09
Speaker 3: talking about Senna. So yeah, I'll look forward to talking
44:12
Speaker 3: to you guys out from Brazil on Friday.
44:15
Speaker 1: Amazing, we can't we Yeah, Fingers Cross Center has a
44:17
Speaker 1: bit of a better weekend and same with y'all in
44:20
Speaker 1: this weekend in Brazil as well. But a big thank
44:24
Speaker 1: you as always to Shannon's Insurance for sponsoring this podcast,
44:28
Speaker 1: and you guys know the drill. You can catch every practice, qualifying, Sprint,
44:31
Speaker 1: and Grand Prix live and add break free on Fox
44:34
Speaker 1: Sports and KO, including this weekends Brazil Grand Prix for
44:38
Speaker 1: the early birds. As Matt clearly pointed out, But if
44:41
Speaker 1: you want to stay up to date with all of
44:43
Speaker 1: Matt's articles, you can do so on our website Fox
44:45
Speaker 1: sports dot com dot au Forward Slash Motorsport and you
44:49
Speaker 1: can follow us on socials everywhere at Foxmotorsport. And don't
44:53
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44:55
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45:00
Speaker 1: You can see how beautiful faces once again, but from
45:04
Speaker 1: the lower side of Matt Clayton and myself Erneda of Amulion.
45:06
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