Latest / Pit Talk / Will the King Of Cota return? and Marquez mastery so far in 2025. MotoGP Pit Talk is BACK!

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Will the King Of Cota return? and Marquez mastery so far in 2025. MotoGP Pit Talk is BACK! · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Moto GP Pit Talk, and boy do
0:04
Speaker 1: we have some catching up to do. The tigrond Frie
0:08
Speaker 1: was so hot I could agrelled a steak in pit lane.
0:11
Speaker 1: Argentina gave us the Tango of drama and overtakes, and
0:14
Speaker 1: now we're looking ahead to coda with the bumps on
0:17
Speaker 1: the circuit are the real track limits?
0:20
Speaker 2: Joining me your host, Ronita.
0:21
Speaker 1: Vanmilan, as always is Matt Clayton, the human Moto GP encyclopedia.
0:26
Speaker 1: If there's a stat to be known, he's got it,
0:28
Speaker 1: and if there's a bad pun to be made, he's
0:30
Speaker 1: probably got that too. Matt, Happy New Year. It's been
0:33
Speaker 1: a while since we've chatted all things Moto GP.
0:36
Speaker 3: It is happy new season. I'm glad to see that
0:38
Speaker 3: you survived Thailand and appropriately hydrated, of course, because it
0:41
Speaker 3: was hot enough watching it from the couch, so I
0:43
Speaker 3: can't even imasure what you were doing running around at
0:45
Speaker 3: the back of the paddock there. But yeah, bit to
0:48
Speaker 3: catch up on. We're two rounds into a twenty two
0:50
Speaker 3: round season. It's like we've played the same movie twice
0:53
Speaker 3: in the first two rounds. But I think we probably
0:56
Speaker 3: saw this coming a little way away. But I think
0:58
Speaker 3: what's going to happen next is the more intriguing part
1:01
Speaker 3: of all of this.
1:02
Speaker 1: Before we touch on Coder and the King of Coder,
1:06
Speaker 1: as I've been plastering all over social media lately, I
1:08
Speaker 1: think let's touch back on Thailand and Argentina, and like
1:11
Speaker 1: you said, it was pretty much the same storyline. Mark
1:14
Speaker 1: Marquez has come out of the gates, dominating this year
1:18
Speaker 1: pole sprint victory and the main Grand Prix winner both
1:22
Speaker 1: round one and round two. We kind of knew this
1:25
Speaker 1: was going to happen, but I thought Peco might have
1:28
Speaker 1: given him a bit more of a run for his.
1:30
Speaker 3: Money, and I think that he will in time. I
1:33
Speaker 3: don't think anyone that's expecting this season to just be
1:35
Speaker 3: a complete Marquez whitewash from start to finish, I don't
1:38
Speaker 3: think that's really realistic. I think there were some extenuating
1:42
Speaker 3: circumstances with both these first two races, and you would
1:44
Speaker 3: have noticed this being on the ground in Thailand. I
1:46
Speaker 3: think when you've had a test at the same track
1:49
Speaker 3: as the first Grand Prix, you tend to the testing order,
1:54
Speaker 3: and the long runs of a test always tends to
1:57
Speaker 3: indicate what's going to happen in the Grand Prix, so
1:59
Speaker 3: I wasn't simvilly surprised with the way that Thailand shook out,
2:02
Speaker 3: And you got the sense in that race that you know,
2:05
Speaker 3: Marquez was kind of playing with them a little bit.
2:06
Speaker 3: I mean Banyai intimated as much in that. You know,
2:09
Speaker 3: he cleared off at the front of the Grand Prix,
2:10
Speaker 3: realized his tire pressure was a bit low, so elected
2:13
Speaker 3: to sit behind his brother for a bit and they
2:15
Speaker 3: just decided to pull the pin for the last three laps.
2:17
Speaker 3: So that was reasonably predictable. I think what was interesting Argentina, Yeah,
2:22
Speaker 3: we got the same Mark Marque Alex Marquez second result.
2:25
Speaker 3: That was a really different race for me Argentina in
2:28
Speaker 3: that I think Mark was pushed and you could see
2:31
Speaker 3: that he made a mistake early in the race, sat
2:33
Speaker 3: behind Alex for a bit, but this wasn't I'm choosing
2:36
Speaker 3: to sit behind Alex. He went for a pass about
2:39
Speaker 3: halfway through the race, couldn't make it stick and then
2:41
Speaker 3: was out of the seat. I think it's about lap sixteen,
2:44
Speaker 3: so probably inside the last ten laps, and it's like, oh, okay,
2:47
Speaker 3: he's really pushing here. Because we've never seen Alex Marquez
2:50
Speaker 3: ride like this Emotor GP. He's riding at an incredibly
2:53
Speaker 3: high level and it took one of, if not the
2:57
Speaker 3: greatest rider in the history of the World Championship to
2:59
Speaker 3: beat him on it that he's very very good at.
3:01
Speaker 3: So huge qutos to Alex Marquez what he's done in
3:04
Speaker 3: these first couple of rounds. But yeah, we see Sprinton
3:07
Speaker 3: Grand Prix win for Mark in both rounds so far,
3:09
Speaker 3: but to me they were two they were the same
3:11
Speaker 3: result achieved two different ways. And look, you mentioned Kocher
3:15
Speaker 3: coming up. We know Marquez's record there is completely crazy.
3:19
Speaker 3: Other than the Saxon Ring, it's the strongest circuit that
3:21
Speaker 3: he has. But I don't think this is going to
3:23
Speaker 3: be the narrative for the entire season because we know
3:25
Speaker 3: how Peko works, right. We saw this last year. He
3:28
Speaker 3: spotted Jorge Martin this big deficit at the start of
3:30
Speaker 3: the championship. And Peko's the guy who just hammers away
3:33
Speaker 3: at the rock twice three times, one hundred and three times.
3:37
Speaker 3: On one hundred and fourth time the rock splits. That's
3:39
Speaker 3: the Peco Badyay way of going about things. And you
3:42
Speaker 3: know that he's going to chip away to get himself
3:44
Speaker 3: closer to being contention for race wins. The only question
3:48
Speaker 3: then is does Mark Marquez have another level on that bike?
3:52
Speaker 3: We know how good he can be, But I don't
3:54
Speaker 3: think this is going to be an absolute whitewash from
3:56
Speaker 3: start to finish. I think Peko's still got some shots
3:57
Speaker 3: to fire.
3:59
Speaker 1: What's your thoughts on Pecu Banyaya talking about the engine,
4:03
Speaker 1: the twenty five engine and how it was down a
4:05
Speaker 1: twenty four point nine and a twenty four point eight,
4:08
Speaker 1: and it seems like now he's wanting to go back
4:09
Speaker 1: to the twenty four model big and clearly it's working.
4:12
Speaker 1: Look at Alex Marquez, what's your thoughts on that? Is
4:15
Speaker 1: that him trying to say that the direction they've headed
4:18
Speaker 1: in the off season hasn't gone the way that he'd
4:21
Speaker 1: hoped or is it just the tracks and not suiting him?
4:24
Speaker 3: Little bit of colum A and B I reckon for
4:26
Speaker 3: that in that when you are not performing, when you're
4:30
Speaker 3: under stress. This is anyone in life, not just people
4:32
Speaker 3: with your ride Bot to GP motor Cycles. We like
4:34
Speaker 3: to go back to what we know. There's a comfort
4:36
Speaker 3: factor there. He knows that on that twenty four bike
4:39
Speaker 3: he won eleven of the twenty Grand Prix last year
4:41
Speaker 3: and was in the championship until the last Grand Prix
4:44
Speaker 3: this season. So when things perhaps aren't going so well,
4:47
Speaker 3: you want to revert back to what you know, because
4:49
Speaker 3: it takes another variable out of the equations. Like I
4:52
Speaker 3: know this bike, I know what it's going to do.
4:54
Speaker 3: It's up to me to get to the bike's level.
4:57
Speaker 3: I think the looking a bit further forward, there's a
4:59
Speaker 3: one day ten after her Wrath, which is round five.
5:02
Speaker 3: I'm doing my maths correctly. That'll be really important as
5:05
Speaker 3: to where that bike goes developmentally for the rest of
5:08
Speaker 3: the season, obviously, because you've you've got a frozen engine
5:10
Speaker 3: at that point. But getting back to the tracks, as
5:13
Speaker 3: you mentioned Thailand, Mark's been really good there over the
5:17
Speaker 3: journey Argentina. Bizarrely hadn't raced it Argentina since twenty nineteen
5:21
Speaker 3: before this twenty twenty five round because he'd been injured
5:23
Speaker 3: and it'd been off the calendar and so on and
5:25
Speaker 3: so forth. But he was always very very good there. Coachure,
5:28
Speaker 3: we know how brilliant he is there. I think we
5:30
Speaker 3: get to Qatar and Harrath, where Banyai has won previously,
5:34
Speaker 3: including last year, and that's going to be I wouldn't
5:38
Speaker 3: say where his season starts, but I think this is
5:40
Speaker 3: where we're going to see him on more even terms
5:42
Speaker 3: with Marquez. So it's a little bit of both. I
5:45
Speaker 3: can understand the let's get the bike back to something
5:48
Speaker 3: that I really know to work out whether it's me
5:51
Speaker 3: that's the problem or whether it's the machine that's the problem.
5:54
Speaker 3: And this is the way Banyai works. He's not just
5:56
Speaker 3: going to go out there and rip the throttle harder
5:58
Speaker 3: and be faster and more spectacular. That's not the way
6:00
Speaker 3: he rolls. And that's what I love about this World
6:03
Speaker 3: championship in that last year had this what's the saying,
6:06
Speaker 3: styles make fights. It's like a boxing analogy. In that
6:09
Speaker 3: last year, Juge Martin had a certain way he was
6:11
Speaker 3: going racing, Pecovano I had a certain way he was
6:13
Speaker 3: going racing, which is the faster. We got to a
6:16
Speaker 3: point where the two of them were at such a
6:18
Speaker 3: high level last year. There was so little between them,
6:21
Speaker 3: but they came at it from completely different angles, which
6:23
Speaker 3: is what I appreciate about this sport. And Peko is
6:26
Speaker 3: a guy who grinds his way through problems and works
6:28
Speaker 3: and I think he will level that gap. But you
6:30
Speaker 3: couldn't really pick a worse trio of circuits for the
6:33
Speaker 3: start of the year when you've got Marquez on the
6:36
Speaker 3: fastest bike in the field. Because so far it's gone
6:38
Speaker 3: pretty much as we expected.
6:41
Speaker 1: Well, I wasn't expecting Alex Marquez to be so close
6:44
Speaker 1: to the front and fighting his brother and being second
6:46
Speaker 1: in the World Championship. Let's talk about that. Because we
6:50
Speaker 1: know factory decaddies, we know their strength. But I was
6:53
Speaker 1: kind of thinking we were going to see maybe a
6:56
Speaker 1: dgi Antonio a bit closer rather than Alex Marquez as
7:00
Speaker 1: being the one who's challenging his brother or being faster
7:03
Speaker 1: like we saw for most of the race in Argentina.
7:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting with Alex. There's a couple of things
7:08
Speaker 3: you mentioned. Did you You mentioned Franko Morbidelli, who was
7:11
Speaker 3: finally on a Grand Prix podium in Argentina. Did you
7:14
Speaker 3: has been injured. He missed a lot of the preseason
7:16
Speaker 3: after he busted his collarbone doing whey in Malaysia. Oh boy,
7:19
Speaker 3: that's not one that he's going to want to put
7:21
Speaker 3: on the highlight reel. So he's nowhere near fully fit
7:24
Speaker 3: and I think he will move forward. But it was
7:26
Speaker 3: interesting after Argentina there was an interview with Dabadau tar
7:29
Speaker 3: Dotzi and he said that this is just what Alex
7:32
Speaker 3: Marquez does in that he takes a while to arrive,
7:36
Speaker 3: as tar Dotsi put it, but then when he gets there,
7:39
Speaker 3: he's at a really, really high level. And you go
7:41
Speaker 3: back and think of his Moto III career as a
7:43
Speaker 3: slow burn won the World championship. Moto two slow burn
7:46
Speaker 3: in it for five years, won the World championship. So
7:48
Speaker 3: this is season six now for Alex in Motor GP.
7:51
Speaker 3: This is the first time he's been on a bike
7:53
Speaker 3: that has genuine weight race winning potential. He's always been
7:57
Speaker 3: good at Argentina, so I wasn't surprised to see him
7:59
Speaker 3: go well there. But to me, the truest test of
8:01
Speaker 3: whether he's made this really big jump or not. He's
8:04
Speaker 3: got a really poor record at Cota over the years,
8:06
Speaker 3: and it could just be circumstantial or what he's been riding.
8:08
Speaker 3: He was on Hondas for a while. If he's there
8:11
Speaker 3: or there abouts this weekend, I don't think anyone's expecting
8:13
Speaker 3: him to beat his older brother this weekend. But if
8:15
Speaker 3: he's right in the mix. To me, that shows what
8:19
Speaker 3: TARTOTSI was saying. It's this methodical build and then when
8:21
Speaker 3: he gets there, he stays there. So to me, that's
8:24
Speaker 3: one of the interesting stories about this weekend is this
8:27
Speaker 3: genuine Has he properly arrived as a guy who can
8:29
Speaker 3: bang in eight to ten podiums a season or was
8:32
Speaker 3: he just an advantageous start at one a circuit that
8:35
Speaker 3: he tested out and to a circuit that he's very
8:37
Speaker 3: good at. I think Cota is going to answer a
8:39
Speaker 3: lot of questions about Alex, but you can't deny what
8:41
Speaker 3: he's done so far. He has been seriously impressive. Second
8:44
Speaker 3: on the grid in both Grand Prix, second in both sprints. Second.
8:48
Speaker 3: Basically he is the next best guy in motor GP.
8:51
Speaker 3: Right now, that's not something I don't reckon that you
8:53
Speaker 3: and I thought we'd be saying after two rounds.
8:56
Speaker 1: You're so right talking about what Davide Tazots he was saying.
8:59
Speaker 1: I heard a quote where I might have even been
9:02
Speaker 1: tied dot. So he's saying, Mark Marquez is like a
9:04
Speaker 1: turbo petrol engine thought to one hundred and we'll get
9:08
Speaker 1: there as quick. Alex Marquez is a diesel engine takes
9:11
Speaker 1: his time to build up, and I guess you're right.
9:14
Speaker 1: I guess we're seeing that now. What we know what
9:16
Speaker 1: the GV twenty fours are capable of winning world titles,
9:19
Speaker 1: So no wonder he is up there. But morb Delli,
9:23
Speaker 1: that's one I didn't necessarily think i'd say. But we
9:25
Speaker 1: know he's a massive fan of South America. We saw
9:28
Speaker 1: the little dance as he got off the bike in
9:30
Speaker 1: park firm is that the boost of confidence that he
9:33
Speaker 1: needs going into this season to have that podium to
9:36
Speaker 1: continue on, especially after last year and that terrible start
9:39
Speaker 1: he had.
9:40
Speaker 3: Well last year never really got off the ground because
9:42
Speaker 3: he was just so injured, in so compromised at the
9:44
Speaker 3: start of the season, and then you're looking on the
9:46
Speaker 3: other side of the garage and your teammates winning the
9:48
Speaker 3: world championship. So I think there's a few guys in
9:51
Speaker 3: this series that ride predominantly with their right hand. If
9:53
Speaker 3: things are going badly, you just twist the throttle a
9:55
Speaker 3: little bit harder. Franco, a lot of it with him
9:57
Speaker 3: is between the years, and you know, the guy was
10:00
Speaker 3: runner up in a motor GP World Championship, So the
10:02
Speaker 3: talent is there. He's been so betrayed by his body
10:06
Speaker 3: for so many years, and I think he's one of
10:09
Speaker 3: those guys that normally overthinking is a good thing because
10:12
Speaker 3: you're actually analyzing it and you're being realistic with yourself.
10:15
Speaker 3: But he can sort of overthink his way into could
10:18
Speaker 3: sacks and not get out of them emotionally. And he's
10:20
Speaker 3: a guy who rides with his head at his heart
10:24
Speaker 3: as much as what he's doing physically. So he's been
10:27
Speaker 3: good in Argentina in the past. We know that's the
10:30
Speaker 3: bike to be on, and there's a couple of asterisks
10:33
Speaker 3: with other guys who Vanya is not very good at Argentina.
10:35
Speaker 3: It's one of the two tracks in the World Championship.
10:38
Speaker 3: He's never been on the podium. The jan Antonio is
10:40
Speaker 3: not fully fit. The other ducade because he's only six
10:42
Speaker 3: this year, is Ferminal Degere, who's a rookie. So the
10:45
Speaker 3: sea's kind of parted a little bit for Morbidelli to
10:48
Speaker 3: get his way onto the podium. But to my mind,
10:51
Speaker 3: it'll be interesting now that he's got that. Why haven't
10:53
Speaker 3: you had a podium since twenty twenty one? That's god,
10:56
Speaker 3: that's out of the equation. Now does it free him
10:59
Speaker 3: up to ride with the emotion that we know he has.
11:03
Speaker 3: Because the other thing with him, of course, is that
11:05
Speaker 3: so many of these riders are on two year contracts.
11:07
Speaker 3: So the whole contract cycle to the end of twenty six,
11:09
Speaker 3: there's only four riders that are out of contract at
11:11
Speaker 3: the end of the year, and he's one of them.
11:13
Speaker 3: And so that might be a related story to something
11:15
Speaker 3: I know you're going to ask me about in a minute,
11:17
Speaker 3: But the fact that he's I wouldn't say fighting for
11:20
Speaker 3: his motor GP life, but I do wonder if anyone
11:22
Speaker 3: other than Valentino Rossi would have hired Borbadelli this year,
11:25
Speaker 3: given the connection that they have, and that Franco has
11:28
Speaker 3: been really off the pace for quite some time. So
11:30
Speaker 3: he's got this sort of career eleventh hour chance, great
11:35
Speaker 3: time to make the most of it, given how good
11:36
Speaker 3: the equipment is. It's up to him, but he needs
11:39
Speaker 3: to prove it because look, there's going to be a
11:42
Speaker 3: few seat shuffling ground at the end of this year
11:44
Speaker 3: and a few moving pieces. He needs to try to
11:45
Speaker 3: take himself out of that rider market as soon as possible.
11:49
Speaker 1: Let's move on to write a market I love this
11:51
Speaker 1: segue because let's look about Pramaha.
11:54
Speaker 2: Oh the first shot of the year. Take it.
11:56
Speaker 3: Yes, box ticked, box ticked.
11:59
Speaker 1: Miguel olivera man, he is having a terrible run, and
12:03
Speaker 1: it just seems like how when injuries, was it like six?
12:07
Speaker 1: Five out of the six injuries he hasn't caused himself.
12:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the thing.
12:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just not what you're hoping for.
12:13
Speaker 1: But in the positive side, is Jack Miller look how
12:16
Speaker 1: strong he was in Thailand?
12:17
Speaker 2: Can we know the Yamaha struggled in Argentina?
12:19
Speaker 1: But is this what Jack needs to be able to
12:22
Speaker 1: secure that seat for next year? No?
12:24
Speaker 3: I mean Olivera first. I mean if he's not crossed
12:27
Speaker 3: a black cat or walked under a ladder or broke
12:28
Speaker 3: it a few mirrors or probably all three of them
12:30
Speaker 3: at the same time. Like you're saying, it's one thing
12:33
Speaker 3: to get injured, it's another thing to get injured where
12:34
Speaker 3: it's not your fault and it's always somebody else's fault
12:37
Speaker 3: and he's always the one recovering. So we know that
12:39
Speaker 3: he's out for Cocha this weekend and possibly longer. Augusto
12:42
Speaker 3: Fernandez steps in for him. But Jack Miller in Thailand.
12:46
Speaker 3: Was funny because if you look back at Jack's career,
12:50
Speaker 3: more or less every time he goes to a new situation,
12:53
Speaker 3: he's on the pace super super fast. Now we saw
12:57
Speaker 3: this he was on pole in Argentina. Funnily enoughcond race
13:00
Speaker 3: at Pramak Yamaha. His best result when he was at
13:02
Speaker 3: katm for those two years I think came three races
13:04
Speaker 3: in at Harrath he won two of the first five
13:07
Speaker 3: races when he was in the Decating factory team in
13:09
Speaker 3: one of the COVID years, So we know how talented
13:12
Speaker 3: Jack is. He has this ability to get on a
13:15
Speaker 3: new bike and get to the performance ceiling super super quickly.
13:19
Speaker 3: That wasn't a surprise where Jack's got into problems in
13:22
Speaker 3: the passes and he hits his head on the ceiling
13:23
Speaker 3: and there's no room to go that little bit further,
13:26
Speaker 3: so gets to the top of the bike and then
13:28
Speaker 3: kind of flat lines. And then we saw with KTM
13:30
Speaker 3: last year the flat line became a downward spiral for
13:33
Speaker 3: him and he was out. But it was interesting in
13:36
Speaker 3: that Yamaha's expanded to four bikes now had two previously
13:40
Speaker 3: and Quaturo and you would have probably been there for
13:42
Speaker 3: this when he was asked in Thailand about Jack's qualifying
13:45
Speaker 3: lap where he did the fastest lap of Buram ever
13:47
Speaker 3: by Yamaha and put himself forth on the grid and
13:50
Speaker 3: kwaturo and he's hilariously French. Jack centered English said something
13:53
Speaker 3: along the lines of Jack disconnected his brain, and I
13:56
Speaker 3: think it was more a compliment than an insult, in that,
13:59
Speaker 3: you know, Kat riding within the limits. He knows of
14:02
Speaker 3: what the Yamaha can and can't do. Alex Rinz's three
14:05
Speaker 3: quarters fit on a good day, so he's not really
14:07
Speaker 3: a great reference. Jack's just got on the thing and said, yeah,
14:11
Speaker 3: I can handle with how I can handle this. It's
14:13
Speaker 3: great in the high speed as we know, and he's
14:15
Speaker 3: put the thing forth on the grid. So I think
14:16
Speaker 3: Fabio was saying, huh, this is kind of what we
14:19
Speaker 3: need to see where the boundaries of this bike are.
14:22
Speaker 3: So I'm not surprised that Jack has started strongly. Argentina
14:27
Speaker 3: was difficult, but it was difficult for all the Yamahas,
14:29
Speaker 3: so I'm not pinning too much of that on Jack
14:31
Speaker 3: per se. But he's been good at cojur in the past.
14:33
Speaker 3: He's been on the podium there you know he's a
14:35
Speaker 3: guy who's fighting for his Motor GP life, but you'd
14:38
Speaker 3: have to say what he's doing and the way he's
14:41
Speaker 3: doing it. Jack's now this sort of I can't believe
14:44
Speaker 3: I'm saying this sensible old elder states but in his
14:48
Speaker 3: thirties now, so he's actually acting like a grown up
14:50
Speaker 3: for the first time in his life. But he's a
14:52
Speaker 3: huge asset for a factory like Yamaho. They just need
14:55
Speaker 3: experience and data because they've had two bikes for too
14:58
Speaker 3: long and they've had half or maybe a quarter of
15:01
Speaker 3: the data of what Jucati had. Jack's a great reference here,
15:04
Speaker 3: so it's up to him to make himself so invaluable
15:07
Speaker 3: to that project that perhaps he gets another year. On
15:09
Speaker 3: top of that, It'll make a lot of sense to
15:12
Speaker 3: me to sign him for twenty six, because you've got
15:13
Speaker 3: this big rule reset coming for twenty seven. So if
15:17
Speaker 3: you know you're playing devil's advocate here, they don't go
15:18
Speaker 3: with Jack for twenty six. Are you promoting someone from
15:21
Speaker 3: their Motor two team Tony Abellino is san Guavara. What's
15:25
Speaker 3: the point of doing that when you've got this sort
15:27
Speaker 3: of rule set that's frozen for twenty six, then you
15:31
Speaker 3: go into twenty seven, and then maybe you make a decision,
15:33
Speaker 3: do we get a fast young guy on the bike
15:34
Speaker 3: when everything changes to the eight fifties. Jack will be
15:37
Speaker 3: thirty two that season, so it's not old by murdor
15:41
Speaker 3: GP standards, but it's certainly getting towards, you know, the
15:44
Speaker 3: upper stages of a career. I think he's done everything
15:48
Speaker 3: right in these first two rounds, and I'll be curious
15:51
Speaker 3: to see what happens in Koda because if it is
15:52
Speaker 3: bumpy and it is sketchy, he revels and that sort
15:55
Speaker 3: of stuff. Some guys love to complain about it. He'll
15:57
Speaker 3: just shrug his shoulders and say, well, it's not great.
16:00
Speaker 3: I'm going to make the best of this. So I'm
16:01
Speaker 3: actually expecting he'll be pretty strong this weekend.
16:04
Speaker 1: I must tell you when we were at Thailand, the
16:07
Speaker 1: biggest thing I noticed, I mean, apart from the results
16:09
Speaker 1: on the track, was Jack off the track and how
16:11
Speaker 1: relaxed and happy he looked. And I didn't see that
16:14
Speaker 1: up Philip a little last year. He just was casual.
16:17
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm excited. I feel at home with the team,
16:19
Speaker 1: and that's what we want because we know when there's
16:21
Speaker 1: Jack's happy, he's fast an yeah.
16:24
Speaker 3: Completely. The thing I noticed with him is that every
16:28
Speaker 3: time he gets off the bike, there's this line of
16:31
Speaker 3: people in the garage because they want to know, so,
16:34
Speaker 3: where's our bike different to the KTM, how's it different
16:37
Speaker 3: to the DUCADDI? What you developed there? He's got this
16:40
Speaker 3: data bank from other places that Yavaha haven't had access to,
16:44
Speaker 3: and that's what makes him a coveted asset in murder
16:46
Speaker 3: GP these days, because you know, Decadie's been the reference.
16:48
Speaker 3: KTM can be very good. Maybe not this year, but
16:50
Speaker 3: that's another story. But I think they're so keen to
16:53
Speaker 3: tap into what Jack provides from a knowledge bank that
16:57
Speaker 3: he's become hugely valuable. He's a very good good I
17:02
Speaker 3: was going to say guinea pick probably a little bit
17:03
Speaker 3: on cod but in the nicest possible way that you
17:05
Speaker 3: can give him new equipment and material and he'll go
17:08
Speaker 3: out beat instantly on the limit with it and say
17:11
Speaker 3: it's doing this, that or the next thing, and they
17:12
Speaker 3: go right. He'll get to the limit faster than other
17:15
Speaker 3: people do. And that's what Yamaha needs right now. They
17:17
Speaker 3: need to know what are we doing? Is it working?
17:20
Speaker 3: And if it's not working, how can we get it
17:22
Speaker 3: to work better? And I think where a writer like
17:24
Speaker 3: Jack Miller, you fast track that process, and you'd have
17:26
Speaker 3: to say, Yamaha and Honda, relative to where they've been
17:29
Speaker 3: in recent years, have been kind of two of the
17:31
Speaker 3: stories of the first two rounds because they're not just
17:34
Speaker 3: in this Japanese Cup down the back like they have been.
17:36
Speaker 3: They've actually been a lot more competitive and it's really
17:40
Speaker 3: nice to see them actually feature into TV coverage and
17:43
Speaker 3: not just be cast a drift at the back. And
17:45
Speaker 3: then you look at the results and go, oh boy,
17:46
Speaker 3: someone finished thirty five seconds behind the win. They're actually
17:49
Speaker 3: in there to a reasonable degree, and I think with
17:52
Speaker 3: what Yamaha is doing, I think Jack's got a lot
17:54
Speaker 3: to do with that.
17:55
Speaker 1: I'm going to propose you a cool question here, just thinking,
17:58
Speaker 1: do you think Jack Miller could replace Alex Rin's at
18:01
Speaker 1: Factory Yama purely for that development side of things, because
18:04
Speaker 1: look at Alex You see him walking around with the
18:06
Speaker 1: leg brace, so we know he's nowhere near one hundred percent.
18:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know. It was interesting, actually, Argentina. It was
18:12
Speaker 3: the first time he'd been at a race weekend since
18:14
Speaker 3: Magello twenty twenty three when he broke his leg without
18:17
Speaker 3: a crutch, so he had the leg brace on. He
18:19
Speaker 3: wasn't walking with a crush, and it's the first time
18:21
Speaker 3: he's not been on a crush. That's two years ago,
18:24
Speaker 3: give or take a month. And I wrote about this
18:28
Speaker 3: for Fox Sports dot com dot Au this week. I
18:30
Speaker 3: think the Rin's tail is sort of instructive to Jorge
18:33
Speaker 3: Martin sitting at these first few races, because Joje only
18:37
Speaker 3: has to look around and see Alex Rins came back
18:40
Speaker 3: too quickly after breaking his leg and it's wrecked his career.
18:42
Speaker 3: Mart Marquez came back too quickly after breaking his arm
18:45
Speaker 3: and it wrecked four years and probably changed the course
18:48
Speaker 3: of Motor GP history. And so they're two sort of
18:51
Speaker 3: tails for Johey to really keep in mind with when
18:54
Speaker 3: he comes back. But the Alex Rinns thing, Look, we
18:57
Speaker 3: know how good the guy is. We saw what he
19:00
Speaker 3: did at the tail end of Suzuki's time in Motor GP.
19:02
Speaker 3: Won that amazing race at philip Isilot in twenty two,
19:04
Speaker 3: won their final race incredibly emotional Day of Valencia in
19:08
Speaker 3: twenty two, won a race on a Honda in twenty three,
19:11
Speaker 3: but he's not being the same rider, and it doesn't
19:14
Speaker 3: look like it's getting better because I don't know if
19:17
Speaker 3: you can tell with him whether he still completely hasard
19:20
Speaker 3: or not, because he's so injury compromised. I mean, the
19:23
Speaker 3: guy struggles to walk around the paddock. You would have
19:25
Speaker 3: seen this in thaire Land. Just getting around is really
19:28
Speaker 3: really hard. And you do wonder about the weight of
19:32
Speaker 3: the mental toll that the physical injuries have exerted on him.
19:37
Speaker 3: Is he ever going to get back to what he was?
19:39
Speaker 3: And so yeah, like it's a super interesting question with
19:41
Speaker 3: Jack because whether he keeps himself in that Pramac setup
19:47
Speaker 3: or whether they look at him as a short term
19:49
Speaker 3: solution perhaps in the factory team. I will be stunned
19:52
Speaker 3: if Jack's not on a Yamaha next year. No our contenty,
19:54
Speaker 3: which colour, whether it's a purple one or a blue one.
19:56
Speaker 3: I'll be super surprised if he's not on one of
19:58
Speaker 3: those two Yamahas next year. The Rin's question is who's
20:02
Speaker 3: the successor If it's not him, right, who's the young
20:05
Speaker 3: guy they can get hold of, who believes in the
20:07
Speaker 3: Amaha project that's on the right timeline to come in
20:10
Speaker 3: And it's sad with Alex Rance because we've seen, you know,
20:12
Speaker 3: he went toe to toe with Mark Marquez to win
20:14
Speaker 3: Grand Prix. He's a very, very good Grand Prix rider,
20:17
Speaker 3: but he's just been so beat up for the last
20:19
Speaker 3: few years because he tried to come back too soon.
20:21
Speaker 3: So on a personal level, I hope he does get
20:23
Speaker 3: back to what he was, but on the strength of
20:25
Speaker 3: the last two years, it seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it.
20:28
Speaker 2: I mean, that's why I thought about him.
20:30
Speaker 1: And asked you that because we know Fabio is the
20:33
Speaker 1: one that Yamaha wanted to take to win the championship.
20:35
Speaker 1: We know that we can see that by what he's doing.
20:37
Speaker 1: We see what Jack's doing, Shama, but Miguelbert sham about Alex.
20:41
Speaker 1: I think that Yamaha are on their uptake and we're
20:44
Speaker 1: starting to see that. But also let's talk about Honda
20:47
Speaker 1: and their uptake this year.
20:48
Speaker 2: John Zako in.
20:51
Speaker 1: Argentina wild, I honestly, I didn't expect them to jump
20:56
Speaker 1: that quickly. Shows that all the testing, everything they've been
20:59
Speaker 1: doing in the off season has been paying off. But
21:02
Speaker 1: the fact that it's Zarko doing it, I'm soaked that
21:04
Speaker 1: Marini and Mea aren't tucking the front every time and
21:08
Speaker 1: seeing crash come up everything. He laps in the Grand Prix,
21:11
Speaker 1: but it's Zarko.
21:13
Speaker 2: What's your take on that?
21:14
Speaker 1: Is that just because he's been with LCI, is a
21:16
Speaker 1: bit more comfortable and there's less.
21:18
Speaker 2: Pressure for him.
21:20
Speaker 3: Amazing what being the oldest rider on the grid and
21:22
Speaker 3: riding for a contract does for you as well. He's
21:25
Speaker 3: really good at Argentina. He's always been good there, but
21:27
Speaker 3: it was super jarring, wasn't it? When you saw the
21:30
Speaker 3: photo after qualifying in Argentina. You see Mark Marquez in
21:33
Speaker 3: the middle, you see Alex Marquez next to him, and
21:35
Speaker 3: there's a guy in some Honda overall standing in the
21:37
Speaker 3: top three pictures, Like, what's going on here? Is like
21:39
Speaker 3: this twenty eighteen all over again. But he's really good
21:42
Speaker 3: at Argentina. Honda's made some serious gains this year and
21:46
Speaker 3: there's some real low hanging fruit for them in terms
21:49
Speaker 3: of where they can get better, because it's still a snail,
21:51
Speaker 3: relatively speaking at Motor GP snail, but it's still shipping
21:54
Speaker 3: ten k's an hour down the straight at most tracks
21:56
Speaker 3: to all the other bikes, and yet he's Zarco third
21:58
Speaker 3: on the grid. Is you know Jewan mir and Luca
22:01
Speaker 3: Marini finishing in the top ten. I can't remember this
22:03
Speaker 3: start off the top of my head. I should read
22:05
Speaker 3: my own stories, but I think it was the first
22:06
Speaker 3: time we'd had three Hondas in a top ten for
22:09
Speaker 3: four years. And you think about it, like, since Marquez
22:12
Speaker 3: got injured and then he was half back, and then
22:13
Speaker 3: he's between surgeries, you just haven't seen many Hondas up
22:17
Speaker 3: in the top ten for a while. And so your
22:19
Speaker 3: question about Zarko, I more answer that question looking at
22:22
Speaker 3: the other two guys. Marini's a very, very technically astute
22:26
Speaker 3: rider who wants to understand everything that's going on with
22:29
Speaker 3: a bike before he pushes it, because that's the way
22:30
Speaker 3: he's wired. That's why that's why Gerdo's loved talking to Marini,
22:34
Speaker 3: because he can tell you every little detail of every
22:36
Speaker 3: little thing in perfect English about what's going on. And
22:39
Speaker 3: I admire Juan MirZ just I'm just going to push
22:42
Speaker 3: this thing to its limits and probably beyond and end
22:45
Speaker 3: up in the gravel somewhere, because that's what he does.
22:47
Speaker 3: But there's no lack of trying with Juan. So you
22:50
Speaker 3: look at the way those two HRC factory guys, I
22:54
Speaker 3: nearly call them reps a Honda then, so you can
22:55
Speaker 3: scrub that one off your bing go card. The fact
22:58
Speaker 3: that they are behind Zarco, maybe it doesn't surprise me
23:00
Speaker 3: as much because of the way they're wired, the two
23:03
Speaker 3: of them, But that bike's clearly getting better. And Zako
23:06
Speaker 3: was the first non Ducatty across the line in Argentina.
23:09
Speaker 3: Now he was in sixth place, which tells you a
23:11
Speaker 3: bit about Ucatti at the moment. But someone has to
23:15
Speaker 3: be best of the rest at the moment to think
23:16
Speaker 3: we'd be talking about Honda as being second in the
23:18
Speaker 3: Constructors Championship. I know it's only two rounds, but you
23:21
Speaker 3: would have got pretty good odds of me saying that
23:22
Speaker 3: before the season started.
23:24
Speaker 1: Honestly, I thought we would be saying Pedro costa factory
23:27
Speaker 1: ktmy taking it?
23:29
Speaker 2: Did you, Caddy?
23:30
Speaker 1: And let's go on to that because I don't know. Listeners,
23:33
Speaker 1: if you've been reading the news or the room is
23:36
Speaker 1: going around how Pedro is trying to get out of
23:37
Speaker 1: his contract already, you can see he's not happy. Even
23:41
Speaker 1: in a post race debrief. I just heard him say
23:44
Speaker 1: I'm not happy the results aren't there. This shouldn't be
23:47
Speaker 1: like this. I don't necessarily think it's because of the
23:51
Speaker 1: whole KTM Winter fiasco and everything that happened on the
23:54
Speaker 1: business side. We know that KTM, though they kind of
23:57
Speaker 1: go awaves, There'll be a while where they're really strong,
23:59
Speaker 1: and then there's also times where they are just so
24:01
Speaker 1: far from where they need to be.
24:03
Speaker 2: But if they lose Pager or Costa, I feel.
24:06
Speaker 1: Like they're losing their bet trying to take you Cuddy
24:10
Speaker 1: for the championship.
24:11
Speaker 3: He's the golden goose, isn't he. He's why you exist
24:14
Speaker 3: as an operation like this. You've got the fastest, best
24:17
Speaker 3: young guy, the guy who's been talked about as the
24:20
Speaker 3: best rookie since Mark Marquez, and that worked out reasonably well.
24:23
Speaker 3: He's a generational talent. You know, he won two world
24:26
Speaker 3: titles before while he was still a teenager. It came
24:28
Speaker 3: to Boto GP, you know, podiums in his first three races.
24:31
Speaker 3: He had a start to his Voter GP career that
24:33
Speaker 3: we were talking about. This is in the same conversation
24:36
Speaker 3: as Jorge Lorenzo. This is in the same conversation as
24:38
Speaker 3: Casey Stoner. That's how good he was at the start
24:40
Speaker 3: of the season. We know he's on pole position. He
24:43
Speaker 3: crashed from a few advantageous positions, but this year they
24:46
Speaker 3: have been not very quick. He threw it down the
24:50
Speaker 3: road in Thailand when you were there. It's chewing its tires.
24:55
Speaker 3: There's a lot wrong with that bike at the moment,
24:57
Speaker 3: and it's easy, like you were saying, to draw the parallel.
25:00
Speaker 3: They had a lot of off track instability and the
25:02
Speaker 3: financial situation with the parent company, which has been eyned
25:05
Speaker 3: out to a degree. Everyone within the race teams has
25:08
Speaker 3: said no, that's not affected us, okay, So basically, if
25:12
Speaker 3: they've said that, then they're either doing a good pr
25:14
Speaker 3: jor whether they believe it to be true. So if
25:16
Speaker 3: it's not that, then what's going on with this bike?
25:18
Speaker 3: Because you've got the situation at the moment, a Costa
25:21
Speaker 3: can get a lap out of it because his pedro
25:23
Speaker 3: Coster is amazing. Brad Binder has never been the greatest
25:26
Speaker 3: qualifier of all time, but he's also the sort of
25:28
Speaker 3: guy who'll take eleven risks on the first lap and
25:30
Speaker 3: be inside the top six and then defend like hell.
25:33
Speaker 3: You get the sense that Binda's riding to the limit
25:35
Speaker 3: of the bike, which is a pretty low limit. A
25:38
Speaker 3: cost is trying to push beyond the limit of the
25:39
Speaker 3: bike and the frustration mounts. It's one of the things
25:42
Speaker 3: we love about a Cost. He's got this sort of
25:45
Speaker 3: urgent personality about him and that he wants everything yesterday,
25:49
Speaker 3: like all twenty year olds. But he is contracting to
25:54
Speaker 3: the end of twenty six, and to my mind, that's
25:56
Speaker 3: super interesting because there's not many seats that are up
25:59
Speaker 3: for grabs for twenty six, but we mentioned one of
26:01
Speaker 3: them before, the Franco Morbidelli seat at VR forty six.
26:05
Speaker 3: And I'm sure there will be some sort of performance
26:08
Speaker 3: clause in that contract that if Katm's not achieving certain
26:10
Speaker 3: things by certain times, that he maybe could look around
26:13
Speaker 3: or become a free agent. We know that his management's
26:16
Speaker 3: been sort of rattling the cage a little bit in
26:18
Speaker 3: these first couple of rounds. If you're another manufacturer, say
26:21
Speaker 3: you're Decaddie, and you get a chance to get hold
26:23
Speaker 3: of Pedro Acosta, there's two benefits there. A you get
26:26
Speaker 3: hold of Pedro Acosta, but you stop anyone else from
26:29
Speaker 3: having Pedro Acosta, So it's almost like two benefits in one.
26:34
Speaker 3: There's only one Dacaddy seat available for next year as
26:36
Speaker 3: we speak, and so if he was able to wriggle
26:40
Speaker 3: himself loose, then Valentino ROSSI might have to make a
26:42
Speaker 3: decision do I drop my protege and the guy I
26:45
Speaker 3: brought up through the academy in Franco Morbidelli to sign
26:48
Speaker 3: the best young talent and motor GP. There's no right
26:51
Speaker 3: or rock answer to that question if it comes true.
26:53
Speaker 3: But KATM can stop all of this if they get
26:55
Speaker 3: on top of what they're doing. And you know, look,
26:57
Speaker 3: it was in the US last year where a Costa's like, Wow,
27:00
Speaker 3: he's leading a race for the first time, he's on
27:02
Speaker 3: the podium. He's finishing second to only behind Maverick Vinalees.
27:06
Speaker 3: It's like this guy he came in with this huge hype,
27:09
Speaker 3: and three rounds in it's like, oh, he's actually better
27:11
Speaker 3: than we thought he was and this year has been
27:14
Speaker 3: pretty ordinary. So they're going to need to turn that
27:16
Speaker 3: around pretty quickly because these stories of humagitating to go elsewhere,
27:20
Speaker 3: whether they're being planted by his management or some sympathetic media,
27:23
Speaker 3: they're just going to get louder, aren't they.
27:24
Speaker 2: They are going to get louder.
27:25
Speaker 1: And I think that it's kind of overlooking the fact
27:28
Speaker 1: of what you said about Brad Linder, but also Maverick
27:31
Speaker 1: and Air, and you know they're trying to adjust to
27:33
Speaker 1: a new new team, new bike.
27:35
Speaker 2: Knew everything.
27:35
Speaker 1: I read that Maverick's having a new I want to
27:40
Speaker 1: say a new bike, but obviously new parts and everything coming.
27:43
Speaker 1: For Coder, He's openly said, I know I'm not going
27:47
Speaker 1: to win this weekend, but I'm going to try my best.
27:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to try and improve for KTM. That's bad
27:53
Speaker 1: when they're saying we know we we're going to win,
27:56
Speaker 1: but we're just going to try and be the best
27:58
Speaker 1: of the rest. Never thought I'd be saying that about
28:01
Speaker 1: KTM in twenty twenty five.
28:03
Speaker 3: It's interesting, though, with those two riders, because they strike
28:06
Speaker 3: me as two riders who maybe aren't great with change,
28:09
Speaker 3: in that they like a stable situation, and they both
28:12
Speaker 3: have their pretty obvious weaknesses. Mavericks, a good qualifier who
28:16
Speaker 3: can't do the first lap of a Grand Prix always
28:18
Speaker 3: goes backwards. Bashidi, he's the guy who can't qualify, and
28:21
Speaker 3: then we'll come from nowhere in the last ten laps
28:22
Speaker 3: and make podiums or wing Grand Prix like he used
28:24
Speaker 3: to do on the Ducati. They don't strike me as
28:27
Speaker 3: being maybe the most adaptable riders, and so when you're
28:29
Speaker 3: putting them on a new machine that they've never been
28:31
Speaker 3: on before, they have to race it a different way.
28:34
Speaker 3: They've been slow out of the gate. Maybe that's accentuated
28:38
Speaker 3: by the fact katm bike's not great, but the fact
28:40
Speaker 3: that neither of them seem to have adjusted that well yet,
28:43
Speaker 3: like Maverick's been a total afterthought so far these first
28:45
Speaker 3: couple of rounds. Of course, we go to Cota this weekend,
28:48
Speaker 3: and the stat is that, you know, the last time
28:50
Speaker 3: Ducati lost to Grand Prix was at Cota last year
28:53
Speaker 3: because Maverick Vinalez won it for a Prillier. So I'll
28:56
Speaker 3: be shocked if we see Maverick anywhad hear a podium
28:58
Speaker 3: this weekend. But the fact that you've got two guys
29:00
Speaker 3: who are maybe taking a bit too long, possibly for
29:03
Speaker 3: their experience, to settle in with a bike that's not
29:06
Speaker 3: quite there either. It's no wonder that you look and
29:08
Speaker 3: they're both out in Q one like you're not really
29:10
Speaker 3: seeing them feature anywhere near the front. We know how
29:13
Speaker 3: good they are. Maverick's got this crazy spiky career where
29:15
Speaker 3: he can be absolutely brilliant one weekend and then you
29:17
Speaker 3: forget that he's at the race track the next weekend,
29:20
Speaker 3: and Bashidini has this one like it's a party trick
29:23
Speaker 3: that everyone knows. It's like, yes, he's amazing at tire
29:25
Speaker 3: management and he comes through late in races, but when
29:28
Speaker 3: he's on it and he's good at doing it, he's
29:30
Speaker 3: basically unstoppable. We saw it last year when he's fighting
29:32
Speaker 3: with Peco and Martine on the odd weekend to win
29:34
Speaker 3: Grand Prix. Never going to be consistent, but he's got
29:37
Speaker 3: a definable skill and so now it's up to KTM
29:40
Speaker 3: to provide all four of them with the equipment because
29:43
Speaker 3: right now, I know it's early, but we've talked in
29:45
Speaker 3: glowing terms about what Yamaha is doing because we can
29:47
Speaker 3: see a future Honda's coming off a really strong round
29:50
Speaker 3: in Argentina. They shouldn't be ahead of KTM, not really,
29:53
Speaker 3: and yes there's been some offseas of stuff going on,
29:55
Speaker 3: but it's pretty alarming if that continues.
29:59
Speaker 1: The manufacturer, who who I thought this year would have
30:02
Speaker 1: been battling KTM and for obvious reasons, isn't a Priller.
30:05
Speaker 1: We have to talk about that. Joge Martin. I don't
30:10
Speaker 1: even know where to start. I think it's good and
30:12
Speaker 1: you wrote an article the fact that he is sitting
30:14
Speaker 1: at and he is waiting, and we know Mark Marquez
30:17
Speaker 1: has been very vocal about the fact that he's openly
30:19
Speaker 1: said to him, better to come back when you're fully fit, don't.
30:23
Speaker 2: Just don't come back just because you want to.
30:25
Speaker 1: But then we've got the highs and lows, because we've
30:27
Speaker 1: had Ayagura, this rookie who's come out the gate like
30:31
Speaker 1: a bull, but Ralph Fernandez, who we know track House
30:35
Speaker 1: and Brivio just love, even Masilo Rivla, but he's not
30:41
Speaker 1: doing anything. So it's just this weird situation going on
30:44
Speaker 1: at a Prillier. I didn't think twenty twenty five was
30:47
Speaker 1: going to be this way. Let's talk about Joje Martin
30:50
Speaker 1: to start. Yeah.
30:51
Speaker 3: I mean, look that you have to put an asterisk
30:53
Speaker 3: on anything that Aprillia has done so far because the
30:55
Speaker 3: guy they shelled out a massive amount of money for
30:57
Speaker 3: and to bring the number one plate with him hasn't
30:59
Speaker 3: been on the bike and it's incredibly unlucky. I mean,
31:02
Speaker 3: to suffer two injuries to suffer an injury training to
31:04
Speaker 3: get over the first injury. I mean, that's the absolute
31:07
Speaker 3: definition of bad luck. You mentioned the Marquez conversation. I
31:10
Speaker 3: thought that Thailand press conference, which I'm sure you were in,
31:13
Speaker 3: was super interesting where he said I didn't miss is
31:16
Speaker 3: Mark speaking. He said, I didn't respect my body in
31:18
Speaker 3: the past, and I paid a price for it. And
31:21
Speaker 3: that's the wisdom of Mark Beek thirty two now, and
31:23
Speaker 3: you know he's back winning again, so he can look
31:25
Speaker 3: at the bad old days and say, well, at least
31:27
Speaker 3: they ended at some point. But his message to Martin like,
31:29
Speaker 3: they're not the best of mates. They're ever going to
31:31
Speaker 3: be those two because the way they roll. But the
31:33
Speaker 3: fact he said, look, if you miss two, three, four
31:35
Speaker 3: or five races, that's nothing in the context of a career.
31:40
Speaker 3: Mark knows this because for four years and four arm
31:43
Speaker 3: surgeries and just stopped his run of winning completely cold.
31:47
Speaker 3: He knows the perils of coming back too soon. So
31:50
Speaker 3: I thought that was interesting. Martin seems to think that
31:54
Speaker 3: he'll be back for Qatar, which still seems a little optimistic,
31:57
Speaker 3: but I think you'll want to get one or two
31:59
Speaker 3: under his bell. Well, even if he's three quarters fit
32:02
Speaker 3: to be able to do that test at her Reth.
32:04
Speaker 3: I think, you know, trying to jump back on the
32:05
Speaker 3: bike for that it's going to be far too difficult.
32:08
Speaker 3: But the revelation of the season to me is just
32:10
Speaker 3: how good Agura has been. Yeah, he had a preseason
32:14
Speaker 3: test at Thailand before he did the race there. He's
32:16
Speaker 3: been good there in the past. He sealed his Moto
32:18
Speaker 3: two championship there last year. I love the way he
32:21
Speaker 3: goes about it and that first lab in Thailand where
32:25
Speaker 3: he got to the first quarter and afterwards he said, oh,
32:27
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe how hard Miller and Morbidelli breaked in
32:30
Speaker 3: front of me. So I just went round the outside,
32:32
Speaker 3: like you know, he's done a hundred races and you
32:34
Speaker 3: look up and you go, oh, he's all over the
32:36
Speaker 3: back of Pekoebanyay for a podium and his first Motor
32:39
Speaker 3: GP stars. Absolutely unbelievable. It's exciting to see a really
32:45
Speaker 3: fast younger rider from Japan come in and be on
32:48
Speaker 3: the pace straight away. He's the thing that Aprili has
32:52
Speaker 3: got to be happiest about, because, let's be honest, it
32:55
Speaker 3: wasn't the most obvious selection to pick him for Aprilia.
32:58
Speaker 3: He'd been in the Honda family the whole time there
33:00
Speaker 3: was all this, So they should take Joe Roberts. There
33:02
Speaker 3: an American team, they should take this guy. That should
33:04
Speaker 3: take that guy, Dabideo. Brivio's got this amazing ability to
33:07
Speaker 3: spot talent. I mean he bought Alex Ridden through. He
33:10
Speaker 3: was part of the early days Jojoirs mirr at t Suzuki,
33:12
Speaker 3: which was a weird one at the time. It's like,
33:14
Speaker 3: why are you putting this guy? And he's had one
33:15
Speaker 3: motor two season end up winning the World championship. So
33:18
Speaker 3: Brivio's got four ward spotting talent. But you would have
33:21
Speaker 3: seen this entirely. There's something cool about the way Agura
33:24
Speaker 3: goes about it because he's kind of understated, like he's
33:27
Speaker 3: not carrying on making a big scene. He's actually super funny,
33:31
Speaker 3: like really dry in that sort of slightly disarming Japanese
33:35
Speaker 3: way about the way he goes racing. I love the
33:37
Speaker 3: way he's approached it so far, and the fact he's
33:40
Speaker 3: been up there at the front. It's a bit of a
33:41
Speaker 3: breath of fresh air, isn't it.
33:43
Speaker 1: It's been interesting watching him on and off track, Like,
33:46
Speaker 1: like you said, off track, he's a character quirky. Quirky,
33:50
Speaker 1: that's the word, like you don't expect it or you
33:52
Speaker 1: don't expect him to say what he says.
33:54
Speaker 2: And because I.
33:55
Speaker 1: Know he doesn't drink a lot of alcohol and then
33:57
Speaker 1: he'll got like one little glass in him and all
33:59
Speaker 1: of a sudden he's you care about it in in
34:02
Speaker 1: press conferences and things that Watching him on track, what
34:05
Speaker 1: I thought was really interesting in Thailand was the fact
34:08
Speaker 1: that he was standing the bike up a lot quicker
34:11
Speaker 1: than everybody else.
34:12
Speaker 2: Right where we were situated in the media center was
34:15
Speaker 2: right before the final turn, and I said to our Bostrano.
34:21
Speaker 1: Watching him come out of that final corner, he is
34:23
Speaker 1: standing that bike up and you can see that drive
34:26
Speaker 1: that he's getting. No wonder he is as fast as
34:29
Speaker 1: he is is he's understanding there's a brillia from the
34:32
Speaker 1: get go. He knows it's in and out and now
34:34
Speaker 1: he can use it to his advantage and clearly that's
34:37
Speaker 1: what he's doing.
34:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's been super impressive and it just adds to
34:41
Speaker 3: We could probably go to the Ral Fernande's shoulder shrunk
34:44
Speaker 3: corner of the podcast, which would probably be somewhere we
34:46
Speaker 3: visit most most episodes this year, because I honestly, I
34:51
Speaker 3: don't get this. I think we might have said this
34:52
Speaker 3: last year. To me, he's always he's been one year
34:55
Speaker 3: away from being good for five years. And if we
34:57
Speaker 3: feel like we have the same conversation with Fananda year
35:00
Speaker 3: after year after year, it's like, Oh, here it comes,
35:02
Speaker 3: it's going to be this year, It's going to be
35:03
Speaker 3: this year he's at the front of a race. Oh no,
35:05
Speaker 3: he's crashed, and then there'll be another weekend where you
35:07
Speaker 3: don't see him and you know he battled Remy Gardener
35:10
Speaker 3: for that Moto Iwo title. It's a long time ago,
35:13
Speaker 3: and I just don't necessarily understand why they are so
35:19
Speaker 3: patient waiting for this thing that by now probably should
35:22
Speaker 3: have come if it was coming. But then to see
35:24
Speaker 3: a Gura come in in two rounds and go, oh, okay,
35:27
Speaker 3: that's what this fight can do in the same team,
35:29
Speaker 3: given the a Gura's lack of experience, I think it
35:32
Speaker 3: says a lot about a Gura. I think it says
35:34
Speaker 3: a lot about Fernandez, and I think it gives them
35:37
Speaker 3: some optimism. It's like, Okay, you've got a guy that's
35:39
Speaker 3: done too Grand Prix. That's putting the air preller up
35:41
Speaker 3: in positions where it shouldn't be. Once all, hey, Martin
35:44
Speaker 3: gets up to speed. We know how good the writer is.
35:47
Speaker 3: That's going to be an emerging story. How long does
35:49
Speaker 3: it take Martine to get back up to speed? Is
35:51
Speaker 3: world Championship defense has shot? Let's be honest, he's too
35:53
Speaker 3: far behind and he's been out for too long? Can
35:56
Speaker 3: I see Martin winning races this year? Like if you
35:58
Speaker 3: had to pick a non dicatdie rider to win a
36:00
Speaker 3: Grand Prix. He's absolutely a top of your wist, isn't he?
36:03
Speaker 2: Yeah?
36:03
Speaker 1: But do you not think it's This is the part
36:05
Speaker 1: where we're actually going to see where the ceiling is
36:08
Speaker 1: or where the aprilliate, what the apillia is capable of,
36:10
Speaker 1: because we're not seeing that the moment with a little
36:13
Speaker 1: bit with a gura.
36:14
Speaker 2: But I think Huai Martin is that writer who's going.
36:16
Speaker 3: To show that completely. That's where like if you were
36:19
Speaker 3: marking report cards after two rounds. We know where Tocaddie is,
36:22
Speaker 3: we know where the two Japanese manufacturers are, we know
36:24
Speaker 3: where Katiem is and Aprilli is just this we don't
36:27
Speaker 3: know it's the palms up. I'm not sure, because we
36:31
Speaker 3: don't have the guy who's going to be the reference
36:34
Speaker 3: there once he gets his feet on top of the
36:36
Speaker 3: bike and he can stop injuring himself. But Agura has
36:38
Speaker 3: been a massive right spot for them. He has been
36:41
Speaker 3: better more quickly than I expected. I thought he would
36:45
Speaker 3: be a bit of a slow burn and start to
36:46
Speaker 3: come on towards the end of the season, But the
36:48
Speaker 3: first two rounds have blown that theory out of the water.
36:51
Speaker 2: I think we've done pretty well.
36:52
Speaker 1: They're thirty seven minutes and we've kind of capped the
36:54
Speaker 1: first two rounds and all the boss and everything that's
36:56
Speaker 1: happened there. So let's look at Coder. You mentioned last year,
37:00
Speaker 1: Maverick Vignalez, batmanv. We have to say Batman made his
37:04
Speaker 1: appearance for the first time.
37:06
Speaker 2: We had who.
37:07
Speaker 1: Else was on the podium? We had Pedro Acosta and
37:10
Speaker 1: who was second.
37:12
Speaker 3: Or I believe Peco. I believe Peko was third. Off
37:14
Speaker 3: the top of my head, Heeko was third, sorry, and
37:17
Speaker 3: Astuneni was third. I'll take that back.
37:19
Speaker 2: Yes, that's it. So it was an interesting race.
37:22
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the fact that Jack Miller and Mark
37:24
Speaker 1: Marquez collided last year. Do you remember that with the
37:27
Speaker 1: lying off everywhere. But we know this track it's very
37:31
Speaker 1: physical for these riders. We also know that's quite bumpy,
37:34
Speaker 1: like I said in my intro, so a lot of
37:35
Speaker 1: the times you'll hear them complaining about that. Okay, Apart
37:39
Speaker 1: from Mark Marquez dominating this weekend, what's your thoughts Are
37:43
Speaker 1: we going to see a very similar outcome with Alex
37:46
Speaker 1: Marquez or do you think this is a chance where
37:48
Speaker 1: we might see Peco actually battling with Mark.
37:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got my question marks about Alex Marquez, not
37:53
Speaker 3: because of anything he's done this year, because he just
37:56
Speaker 3: historically has not been good here and so it's a
37:59
Speaker 3: real examination for me, is like is this progress that
38:02
Speaker 3: he's made in twenty five actually real and sustainable because
38:05
Speaker 3: he's going to an unfavorable track for him. You're right,
38:08
Speaker 3: it's a pretty unique challenge to this track. It's such
38:11
Speaker 3: a long lap with so many types of corners. There's
38:15
Speaker 3: parts of this circuit that are going to punish Honda
38:17
Speaker 3: and Yamaha. That back straight is far too long for Yamaha.
38:20
Speaker 3: It's going to start running out of gas about eight
38:22
Speaker 3: hundred meters down that straight. It's such a long straight
38:24
Speaker 3: there but look, it is unless Mark falls off, which
38:28
Speaker 3: he has done from the lead there before. He was
38:30
Speaker 3: in the lead last year and fell off twenty nineteen,
38:32
Speaker 3: memorably the only race he didn't finish on the podiums
38:34
Speaker 3: because he crashed from the lead there. So it does
38:37
Speaker 3: strike me as being a race for second place. But
38:40
Speaker 3: it's such a physical race. So someone like de jan Antonio,
38:43
Speaker 3: who we know is still not one hundred percent fit,
38:45
Speaker 3: how is he going to go over twenty laps of
38:47
Speaker 3: a track like that on Sunday, So that'll be super
38:51
Speaker 3: curious to me. But I think this has to be
38:52
Speaker 3: a weekend as much psychologically as anything else. That anything
38:57
Speaker 3: other than second place for Vanyaira, I think is a
38:58
Speaker 3: bit of it, not as but it's super alarm bells
39:01
Speaker 3: ringing at this point because he needs to be there.
39:05
Speaker 3: He needs to show some steps forward. Getting beaten by
39:07
Speaker 3: Mark Marquez Atkota is hardly a disgrace, but you need
39:10
Speaker 3: to be the next best guy, so you minimize the
39:12
Speaker 3: points damage, you get a little bit of momentum and
39:15
Speaker 3: you can start taking that once we go back through
39:17
Speaker 3: the Middle Eastern Europe. So Banyai is definitely someone to
39:20
Speaker 3: watch of the other manufacturers look at such a bummer
39:23
Speaker 3: that Martin's not going to be there this weekend, because
39:26
Speaker 3: we know how good he is in circuits like this.
39:29
Speaker 3: I think it's the right decision, by the way, to
39:31
Speaker 3: not go this weekend if you're not quite right. So
39:34
Speaker 3: to my mind, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a
39:37
Speaker 3: bit of a random person on the podium this weekend,
39:39
Speaker 3: maybe in the sprint and the Grand Prix, because we
39:42
Speaker 3: know probably what's going to happen for first, but other
39:45
Speaker 3: than that, there's a lot of question marks. Isn't there
39:47
Speaker 3: around a lot of people, so big weekend for Banyai
39:50
Speaker 3: and yeah, picking who could be in the podium mix,
39:53
Speaker 3: I would say someone like a cost on a normal weekend,
39:55
Speaker 3: but katm just seems a bit lost at the moment,
39:57
Speaker 3: so that's a caveat for that one. I'm really curious
39:59
Speaker 3: to see how this shakes out behind what we think
40:02
Speaker 3: is going to be the person at the front, because
40:03
Speaker 3: it kind of feels up for grabs for me.
40:05
Speaker 1: Speaking about that backstraight you said, we know it's one
40:08
Speaker 1: of the longest ones on the calendar, so it's hard
40:10
Speaker 1: for this track to not say it's going to be
40:12
Speaker 1: another Duke Caddie dominant with all them. I know you
40:16
Speaker 1: mentioned Digio being unfit, but more Bedellian those guys being
40:19
Speaker 1: closer to the front. But that turn one for me
40:23
Speaker 1: as they come up that, oh, that must be just unbelievable.
40:27
Speaker 3: To experience well, because it's so wide, because effectively it's
40:31
Speaker 3: car track, it's bill it was made for Formula one
40:32
Speaker 3: when they went there. There's about ten different lines you
40:35
Speaker 3: can take into turn one. You can go super wide
40:37
Speaker 3: on the entry and then cut back across all those
40:39
Speaker 3: ninety degrees. You can hug the inside curb. You could
40:42
Speaker 3: be mid track and hope to God that no one
40:44
Speaker 3: loses it on the inside curb and skills you. Because
40:46
Speaker 3: we've seen that there before where guys get pushed out
40:48
Speaker 3: onto the runoff. So the first corner there, and because
40:51
Speaker 3: we get two starts with a sprint and a Grand Prix,
40:54
Speaker 3: I'll be super curious because you obviously retain the same
40:57
Speaker 3: grid for the sprint in the Grand Prix, what riders
40:59
Speaker 3: do tack And one thing I'm definitely going to do
41:02
Speaker 3: after the sprint on Sunday morning OS Time is I
41:06
Speaker 3: want to watch that first quarter and watch where people
41:08
Speaker 3: position themselves because you've got that big, long, cascading series
41:11
Speaker 3: of quarters from term one onwards. Where do you position
41:14
Speaker 3: yourself on the grid for the sprint because you get
41:16
Speaker 3: another go at it the next day. So there'll be
41:19
Speaker 3: guys that like, oh, I hug the insight that didn't
41:21
Speaker 3: work because I was too slow on the apex, and
41:24
Speaker 3: you'll be people on the outside and it can turn
41:25
Speaker 3: into a bit of ten big bowling out there if
41:27
Speaker 3: you're not careful. So yeah, I reckon the fact that
41:29
Speaker 3: you get almost like a dry run at doing the
41:31
Speaker 3: first corner on the sprint Saturday will be super interesting
41:34
Speaker 3: for the Grand Prix because now, look, a sprint minimal points,
41:37
Speaker 3: you can only make up so much, but a Grand Prix,
41:39
Speaker 3: it's such a long race and it's such an arduous
41:42
Speaker 3: race there that you want to be in the right
41:43
Speaker 3: spot because your race can be pretty much done at
41:46
Speaker 3: Kosa if you are buried in the packet term one.
41:49
Speaker 3: So that's going to be interesting.
41:50
Speaker 1: I reckon I agree with you by I'm just going
41:53
Speaker 1: to challenge you. Mark Marquez, I think it was twenty twenty,
41:58
Speaker 1: always definitely on a repsole and he started the back
42:01
Speaker 1: peak twenty four and made his way back to six
42:04
Speaker 1: Do you.
42:04
Speaker 3: Remember twenty two, Yes, twenty twenty two, So he won
42:08
Speaker 3: there in twenty twenty one when he had one and
42:10
Speaker 3: a half working shoulders, and then twenty two was when
42:13
Speaker 3: he pulled up on the grid and selected the start
42:16
Speaker 3: device and there were a whole bunch of alarms going on,
42:18
Speaker 3: and the thing basically it was like it was stuck
42:20
Speaker 3: in the pit limiter. He was last at term one
42:23
Speaker 3: by about one hundred meters. He wasn't even in the
42:24
Speaker 3: photo most of the time because everyone else a crested
42:26
Speaker 3: term one. Only he could do this, overtook eighteen riders,
42:30
Speaker 3: it wasn't fully fit, and finished sixth. One of the
42:32
Speaker 3: greatest rides of his career that never ended up in
42:35
Speaker 3: a podium. It was absolutely crazy. He was riding past
42:38
Speaker 3: guys like they're on motor three bikes. But yeah, if
42:42
Speaker 3: you can do that on a bike, that's basically trying
42:44
Speaker 3: to shut down into the first quarters, having a you know,
42:46
Speaker 3: once a software to be updated like your laptop at
42:48
Speaker 3: an inconvenient time. One of his great rides, and certainly
42:52
Speaker 3: one that isn't probably heralded because it's like, well, this
42:54
Speaker 3: is one of the three times you haven't finished on
42:56
Speaker 3: the podium at Kota, one of his absolutely best rides.
42:59
Speaker 3: But I would suggest I don't think we're going to
43:01
Speaker 3: be seeing that this weekend.
43:03
Speaker 1: I agree, I don't think we're going to see that vs.
43:05
Speaker 1: One of the highlights of Coder and guys, don't forget
43:08
Speaker 1: you can catch all the action this weekend Koda early
43:11
Speaker 1: in the morning for us for Saturday morning, Sunday morning
43:14
Speaker 1: and Monday morning, and that is a live on Fox
43:17
Speaker 1: Sports and KO Plus. If you want to keep up
43:19
Speaker 1: the cape, well I'm gonna try the again. Keep up
43:21
Speaker 1: to date with the latest news. Head to foxsport dot com,
43:24
Speaker 1: do au forward, Slash Motorsport for all the latest Moto
43:27
Speaker 1: GP and motorsport news, or you can check us out
43:30
Speaker 1: on socials at Fox Motorsport, on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
43:36
Speaker 1: But from Matt Clayton and myself, that was a quick
43:39
Speaker 1: recap of Argentina, the tigrand Prix and looking ahead at Coder.
43:43
Speaker 2: We're going to be back real soon with more Pittok