Latest / Pit Talk / Mamma Mia, It’s Mugello! MotoGP Pit Talk

Transcript

Mamma Mia, It’s Mugello! MotoGP Pit Talk · Pit Talk

0:00
Speaker 1: Cell Aduti.
0:01
Speaker 2: Everyone, Moto GP is heading to Magnificent Magello for this
0:07
Speaker 2: weekend's Round nine of the twenty twenty five Moto GP
0:10
Speaker 2: World Championship, and as always, Pit Talk is brought to
0:14
Speaker 2: you by Shannon's Insurance. I'm your host Ronita Vmulan, and
0:18
Speaker 2: joining me is the man who knows more about Moto
0:21
Speaker 2: GP than I'm gonna say me and everyone else included
0:25
Speaker 2: Mac Layton Matt. We were talking off here about Migello
0:30
Speaker 2: and what's going on this weekend, and I feel like
0:32
Speaker 2: we have to start, as always with the whole top
0:36
Speaker 2: Rack and Jack Miller news because that is just a
0:38
Speaker 2: circulating NonStop at the moment.
0:41
Speaker 1: What's the latest with Jack?
0:42
Speaker 2: Then?
0:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, it sure is. I mean, it's the topic. It's
0:46
Speaker 3: been the big story since Aragon, the fact that top
0:49
Speaker 3: Rack is definitely coming to Moto GP, despite me banning
0:51
Speaker 3: myself from talking about him until it was official. Now
0:54
Speaker 3: I have to talk about him because it is official.
0:56
Speaker 3: But of course, the knock on effect with these things
0:58
Speaker 3: is three riders, two seats, not a great equation for somebody.
1:03
Speaker 3: So you've effectively got this shootout now between Miguel Olivera
1:06
Speaker 3: and Jack Miller it sounds like that's going to be
1:09
Speaker 3: for the next four rounds. It sounds like they're going
1:12
Speaker 3: to make a call on this by the latest, probably
1:14
Speaker 3: at the Czech Republic Grand Prix next month. So you've
1:17
Speaker 3: got what you've got, Italy, you've got asen. Czech Republic
1:21
Speaker 3: is the fourth. I think Austria's in there as well,
1:23
Speaker 3: so you've got the four rounds for these rights. Jack's
1:26
Speaker 3: obviously got a significant advantage over Miguel at the moment.
1:29
Speaker 3: It seems like we discussed this last week. There's a
1:32
Speaker 3: clause in Olivera's contract that if he is the fourth
1:36
Speaker 3: of the four Yamaha riders in the standings, then he
1:39
Speaker 3: can be effectively demoted. That twenty twenty six contract can
1:42
Speaker 3: be torn up. So right now, that is Jack's best
1:46
Speaker 3: bet to keep his seat with Yamaha for next year
1:49
Speaker 3: because statistically, right now he has the high ground. That's
1:53
Speaker 3: the good news for Rent the bad news. And I'm
1:55
Speaker 3: going to write about this for Fox Sports probably in
1:57
Speaker 3: the next twenty four hours or so. And I know
1:59
Speaker 3: this because I live this with Jack for many many years.
2:02
Speaker 3: Every rider or driver or anyone in a sport, they
2:05
Speaker 3: have a track or a ground or somewhere where it
2:09
Speaker 3: just goes to shit, let's be honest most of the time.
2:12
Speaker 3: And for Jack Miller, that place is Migello. The very,
2:16
Speaker 3: very grim statistic that I've managed to dig out this
2:19
Speaker 3: week is this is the least successful circuit of all
2:23
Speaker 3: the tracks that Jack has done in every year he's
2:25
Speaker 3: been in the World Championship. It's an absolute graveyard for him.
2:28
Speaker 3: So if he gets anything out of Magello this weekend,
2:32
Speaker 3: based on past history, that has got to be a
2:34
Speaker 3: very very big tick. And the good news for him
2:37
Speaker 3: is that he has more than just this one race
2:39
Speaker 3: weekend to sort of stake his claim for a twenty
2:41
Speaker 3: twenty six seat, because if it came down to Migello
2:43
Speaker 3: or nothing, nothing has generally won with Jack when it
2:46
Speaker 3: comes to Migello. And the funny part about it is
2:48
Speaker 3: he absolutely loves the place. He was a factory Gcatti rider,
2:52
Speaker 3: so he's sort of reveled in the support of all
2:54
Speaker 3: the grand stands there. He loves riding it. He's not
2:57
Speaker 3: slow there, it's just never worked out. For whatever reason.
3:01
Speaker 3: Somewhere has got to be your worst track, and unfortunately
3:04
Speaker 3: for Jack, this is that worst track. So anything he
3:07
Speaker 3: gets this weekend as a bonus, and then we move
3:09
Speaker 3: on to happier hunting grounds and hopefully that's the recipe
3:12
Speaker 3: for him to keep his seat for twenty six.
3:15
Speaker 2: So interesting because every time I've seen Jack on this track,
3:19
Speaker 2: you know, it looks like he enjoys it.
3:20
Speaker 1: I'm thinking back, like you said, the factory, do you Caddy?
3:23
Speaker 2: But then when you're talking about the results, how funny
3:25
Speaker 2: that a writer can love a track and just do
3:29
Speaker 2: dismal results and not not be able to produce anything there.
3:32
Speaker 2: But do you think for Jack though, knowing that this
3:35
Speaker 2: weekend is going to add some extra pressure to him?
3:38
Speaker 2: Or do you think because I, like I said to
3:40
Speaker 2: you we spoke about on the pod, is I see
3:42
Speaker 2: this new and improved, relaxed, happy Jack Do you think
3:44
Speaker 2: he'd like? No, my results are going to speak for
3:47
Speaker 2: themselves as a consistent over the whole entire season thus far.
3:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I reckon the latter. I mean, it's interesting like
3:54
Speaker 3: the Jack of old would have been turning up to
3:57
Speaker 3: this race weekend like a little bit jumpy, little bit
3:59
Speaker 3: on edge, knowing the history, knowing that it's not gone
4:01
Speaker 3: that well for him there in the past. He seems
4:04
Speaker 3: oddly for a guy who's got on paper no job security.
4:08
Speaker 3: He actually seems very relaxed, and I think part of
4:11
Speaker 3: that is he knows he's sort of got this career
4:14
Speaker 3: lifeline last year, because you remember when we spoke to
4:16
Speaker 3: him in September last year for the POT after he
4:18
Speaker 3: just signed that Pramak deal, he was he'd kind of
4:21
Speaker 3: come to terms with the fact that it was over,
4:23
Speaker 3: and he was not happy about it, but he understood
4:26
Speaker 3: it because the KTM tenure hadn't gone particularly well, particularly
4:30
Speaker 3: this second year, and it took a special set of
4:33
Speaker 3: circumstances for him to be on the greed for twenty
4:36
Speaker 3: five and he's almost been given this sort of like
4:38
Speaker 3: eleventh hour reprieve, and I think he's done a really
4:41
Speaker 3: good job with it. We've talked this year about he's
4:44
Speaker 3: so much more confident, he's so much happier. He knows
4:47
Speaker 3: he's having an impact with this team that yeah, you've
4:50
Speaker 3: got an established team in Pramak, you've got an established
4:52
Speaker 3: manufacturer in Yamaha, but it's kind of a startup, right,
4:55
Speaker 3: and so his fingerprints are all over that place at
4:57
Speaker 3: the moment, and I think his input there has been
5:00
Speaker 3: greatly appreciated. And I think he's enjoying being a bit
5:03
Speaker 3: of a leader. You know. You sort of don't think
5:05
Speaker 3: of Jack as being the responsible adult in the rub
5:08
Speaker 3: a lot of the time, but he certainly is because
5:09
Speaker 3: he's just now so experienced he's been around. I think
5:12
Speaker 3: he's actually really reveling in what the job requires. And
5:15
Speaker 3: so for a guy who contractually is actually under a
5:18
Speaker 3: bit of pressure right now, he seems quite relaxed. So
5:21
Speaker 3: how that pertains to this weekend, I don't think he's
5:24
Speaker 3: going to be as jumpy about Michello as perhaps he
5:26
Speaker 3: was in the past. It's a bit of age and
5:27
Speaker 3: a bit of wisdom, but he also knows that it
5:29
Speaker 3: doesn't quite come down to this one weekend. But he's
5:33
Speaker 3: so funny, isn't it, Like you were saying before that
5:35
Speaker 3: he likes everything about the place except for the results
5:38
Speaker 3: that he gets there, and it's just so weird. Like
5:40
Speaker 3: I used to have this discussion on four wheels with
5:43
Speaker 3: Daniel Ricardo all the time. We used to choke that
5:45
Speaker 3: he may as well not bother catching the Flights of
5:46
Speaker 3: Brazil for the Brazilian Grand Prix because it was absolutely grim.
5:50
Speaker 3: It was by far the worst place he ever went
5:53
Speaker 3: to whatever could go wrong in sow Paolo did go wrong.
5:56
Speaker 3: But the other one I always think about when you
5:58
Speaker 3: consider how good this guy was, Seis Stoner never did
6:01
Speaker 3: anything at her Wrath. It was really weird, Like he
6:03
Speaker 3: was so good everywhere else, he won so many Grand
6:06
Speaker 3: Prix everywhere else. It took him until the last year
6:09
Speaker 3: of his World Championship career to finally win a race
6:13
Speaker 3: at Herrath. All the years that he'd been in Europe,
6:15
Speaker 3: he never won anything in there until the very last time.
6:18
Speaker 3: He wrote it on the Honda before he retired. So
6:21
Speaker 3: maybe there's a lesson in there for Jackets, a bit
6:22
Speaker 3: of what good things come to those who wait sort
6:24
Speaker 3: of deal. But you know, for someone as good as Casey,
6:26
Speaker 3: for him to have this one circuit that he just
6:28
Speaker 3: couldn't do anything at didn't make any sense. And it's
6:31
Speaker 3: a bit like that with Jacket Magello. It makes no sense,
6:33
Speaker 3: but it is the reality.
6:35
Speaker 2: I was reading an article on crush dot net and
6:39
Speaker 2: they were speaking with a Yamaha motor Racing managing director,
6:43
Speaker 2: Paolo Pavesio. I hope I pronounced that right, you did, yes, yeah,
6:47
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you. They were saying that how they
6:50
Speaker 2: wanted top rack no matter what. But how they're realizing
6:53
Speaker 2: it is coming at a consequence.
6:55
Speaker 1: And to quote him here.
6:57
Speaker 2: He's saying, you know, Miguel has had a difficult start
6:59
Speaker 2: because of the injury, but Jack had the energy immediately
7:02
Speaker 2: in the project. Maybe some ups and downs, but he's
7:05
Speaker 2: also new to the m one. Me reading that, even
7:09
Speaker 2: though they continue on to say, you know, we're going
7:10
Speaker 2: to assess, we have until the summer, blah blah blah.
7:13
Speaker 2: Me reading that is like, okay, we like Jack. We
7:16
Speaker 2: spoke about the fact that he's tied in with the
7:19
Speaker 2: Suzuka eight hours as well.
7:21
Speaker 1: Then there's that other room.
7:23
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've heard that, Matt about potentially
7:26
Speaker 2: Jack going to superbikes and Cal Crutchlow stepping in as
7:29
Speaker 2: a team manager, and I think that was with Honda
7:31
Speaker 2: in Love Superbikes. So silly Sethan is just well and
7:34
Speaker 2: truly underway. But it seems like Jack Millers caught up
7:37
Speaker 2: in all.
7:37
Speaker 1: Of it right now.
7:39
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, if you're looking at it from Jack's
7:41
Speaker 3: point of view, it sounds like he has options. Whereas
7:44
Speaker 3: this time last year, it was at Magello last year,
7:46
Speaker 3: on the Saturday of that race, weekend that he officially
7:49
Speaker 3: the news came out that he's been replaced by Pedro
7:51
Speaker 3: Costa at Katie the Factory Katim team. And that was
7:54
Speaker 3: the first Domino You remember Magello last year like it
7:57
Speaker 3: went completely crazy on the Sunday and then the Monday
8:00
Speaker 3: postseason test and you know, Mark Marquez says no to
8:03
Speaker 3: pramat Juge, Martin goes and signs with a Prillier, all
8:05
Speaker 3: Domino starts scattering in a million directions. This time last
8:09
Speaker 3: year Jack, The one thing Jack did not have were options.
8:12
Speaker 3: He was scratching around to cheep and try and have
8:14
Speaker 3: an option singular. So it does sound very much like
8:17
Speaker 3: he is a man with certain cards he can play
8:20
Speaker 3: this time. And I also read those Perversio comments and
8:24
Speaker 3: my reading between the lines, and you have to be
8:26
Speaker 3: careful with management speak. With this sort of stuff. It
8:28
Speaker 3: feels like it's Jack's to lose. And I know that
8:31
Speaker 3: sounds weird for a guy that's in a position of
8:33
Speaker 3: contractual weakness relative to Olivera. But I think that comment
8:37
Speaker 3: about Jack hit the ground running. He came in with
8:39
Speaker 3: the energy. He was doing well even before the Olivera injury.
8:44
Speaker 3: You've got to feel a little sympathy for Olivera here
8:46
Speaker 3: because he missed three rounds through absolutely no fALS own
8:50
Speaker 3: and that's the second big injury he's had in the past.
8:53
Speaker 3: They'd be nine months. You remember Indonesia last year, the
8:56
Speaker 3: bike's electronics spat him off over the over the edge
8:58
Speaker 3: because they thought he was in a different part the
9:00
Speaker 3: track and just high sighted him. And then he got
9:02
Speaker 3: taken out by fermin Aldegre in Argentina in the sprint race.
9:05
Speaker 3: So he's had two pretty significant setbacks that are nothing
9:08
Speaker 3: necessarily to do with him. And I still think that,
9:12
Speaker 3: and we sort of discussed this last time. I think
9:14
Speaker 3: that Miguel Olivera is a Motor GP writer still, I
9:17
Speaker 3: just don't know if it's here, and then you haven't
9:20
Speaker 3: had to look at where the other options are and
9:21
Speaker 3: could he be an option somewhere else. I still think
9:23
Speaker 3: he's worthy of a place on the grid, but in
9:26
Speaker 3: terms of what Yamaha need right now and what Yamaha
9:30
Speaker 3: need going forward, and as good as top rack is
9:33
Speaker 3: next year, he's still a rookie in Motor GP. He's
9:35
Speaker 3: a twenty eight year old rookie, but he's still a rookie,
9:38
Speaker 3: and you need someone with Jack's skill set to be
9:41
Speaker 3: on the sister bike a a benchmark what Razcatlioglu does
9:45
Speaker 3: because there's going to be some ups and downs. He's
9:47
Speaker 3: a rookie. I don't care how old he is and
9:49
Speaker 3: how good he is, but also the wider impact that
9:51
Speaker 3: Jack has with Yamaha now and then what that means
9:54
Speaker 3: for twenty seven when we go to this new rule set.
9:56
Speaker 3: I think Jack's the right guy for the job. I
10:00
Speaker 3: feel that he's in a position of strength contractually here.
10:02
Speaker 3: If it really does come down to these next four races,
10:05
Speaker 3: let's just survive Magello and then we can move on
10:07
Speaker 3: to the next ones. I still think it's his to lose.
10:10
Speaker 3: So it's a good position for him to be in
10:11
Speaker 3: because this time last year, you know, you and I
10:13
Speaker 3: were talking, it's like, man, like the doors are closing
10:16
Speaker 3: left and right here. When he didn't get that second
10:19
Speaker 3: the seat at the second KTMT, which was Tech three
10:23
Speaker 3: last year, when they just randomly signed Vignales and Bastindini
10:26
Speaker 3: from other manufacturers last year, that was when it first
10:29
Speaker 3: got to like this is looking pretty dicey here, because
10:33
Speaker 3: it's like the old game of musical chairs, right, you know,
10:35
Speaker 3: you keep circulating and the music stops and there's not
10:37
Speaker 3: too many chairs left and he grabbed the last one.
10:39
Speaker 3: He's made a good fist of it, and I think
10:41
Speaker 3: he's in a stronger position now than he was this
10:44
Speaker 3: time last year. So fingers crossed for all the Australian
10:46
Speaker 3: fans that it does work out.
10:47
Speaker 2: That way exactly, and fingers crossed this weekend for a
10:52
Speaker 2: better result for Pekobanaya heading into Magello Moto GP Releaser
10:57
Speaker 2: Masters of Magello video that you can see on their
11:00
Speaker 2: and they're talking about the previous amount of winners.
11:03
Speaker 1: I think Valentino Rossi's seven times winner.
11:05
Speaker 2: Here or Hee Lorenzo six and Peko Vanyaya three times winner.
11:10
Speaker 2: I posted on the Fox Motorsports socials last year the
11:13
Speaker 2: flashback to the kiss inspired helmet. They had the blue
11:17
Speaker 2: livery which was so cool. But for Peco, we've kind
11:20
Speaker 2: of been saying this since the circus came back to
11:24
Speaker 2: the European rounds, is when is he gonna step up?
11:27
Speaker 2: When's he gonna step up? We spoke about that small
11:30
Speaker 2: little change. You wrote the article on Fox sports dot
11:33
Speaker 2: com for Slash Motorsport. Is this the weekend for Peko Banyaya.
11:37
Speaker 2: Is this him back on his home turf where he's comfortable,
11:41
Speaker 2: he's made those shifts. Are we gonna see Herko Banyaya
11:45
Speaker 2: back on top this weekend?
11:46
Speaker 3: Matt, I think we have to right for the sake
11:50
Speaker 3: of the World Championship. This kind of feels that, I
11:52
Speaker 3: know there's still fourteen rounds to go, We're only at
11:54
Speaker 3: round eight. If this championship is going to burn for
11:58
Speaker 3: the duration of the year. GP does this great job
12:01
Speaker 3: at having last round showdowns. We've had three in a row.
12:03
Speaker 3: It tends to boil down to that this next two
12:06
Speaker 3: weeks or ten days or whatever it is. From where
12:08
Speaker 3: we're speaking here, you've got Magello where Bangyoa has won
12:11
Speaker 3: the last three years, and you've got Asen where Bagnyai
12:14
Speaker 3: has won the last three years. And you compare and
12:16
Speaker 3: contrast Banya's fantastic record at Magello to Mark Marquez's record,
12:20
Speaker 3: which is probably more pertinent here. Marquees is only one
12:22
Speaker 3: at Magello once, and you know, it's not a bogey
12:25
Speaker 3: circuit as such, like Mark has a couple of you know,
12:28
Speaker 3: inverted commas bogie circuits. But this is such Banyaya territory
12:32
Speaker 3: that I still think he's too far behind Mark as
12:36
Speaker 3: it stands right now to be in the championship fight
12:39
Speaker 3: unless Mark helps him by a couple of DNFs. So
12:42
Speaker 3: I don't think it's necessarily going to come down to
12:44
Speaker 3: what Peco does. But now never's a hard thing to
12:47
Speaker 3: say with fourteen rounds to go. But if he's ever
12:50
Speaker 3: going to stand his ground and ever going to stick
12:53
Speaker 3: it to Marquez on home territory, it has to be now,
12:55
Speaker 3: and it has to be these next two weeks. Whether
12:58
Speaker 3: what he found at Aragon is terms of you know,
13:00
Speaker 3: he uses the word feeling a lot. I don't have
13:03
Speaker 3: the front feeling on the bike. What that really means
13:06
Speaker 3: is I just don't have the confidence to hammer the breaks,
13:09
Speaker 3: which is the greatest strength. And we're he's so awesome
13:12
Speaker 3: at Magello, like the ground he makes up into that
13:14
Speaker 3: first corner there has always been one of his calling cards.
13:18
Speaker 3: It kind of feels like this is the weekend it
13:20
Speaker 3: has to happen. So for the sake of the World Championship,
13:22
Speaker 3: I love it to happen. But what's been weird this year? Right?
13:25
Speaker 3: We talked all last year once Pecko was signed there
13:28
Speaker 3: to be alongside Marquez. Oh wait, till these two get
13:31
Speaker 3: together on tracks, it's going to be fireworks. It's going
13:33
Speaker 3: to be fantastic. They've almost had this season this year
13:37
Speaker 3: where they've kind of existed in parallel, like they've been
13:40
Speaker 3: on the same racetrack. They haven't fought for a lot
13:43
Speaker 3: of positions in races together because Mark's been too far ahead,
13:47
Speaker 3: or he's made a mistake, or you Pecko's having an
13:49
Speaker 3: off weekend, other than the early laps at Harath where
13:52
Speaker 3: they've really got into each other. On those first couple
13:55
Speaker 3: of laps that they was pretty ferocious. They made contact
13:57
Speaker 3: a few times behind Quasherraro at the start of that race,
14:00
Speaker 3: and then Mark fell off early in that race and
14:02
Speaker 3: sort of took that out of the equation. They've not
14:04
Speaker 3: had too many fights on track. It's been kind of
14:06
Speaker 3: weird that we've got eight rounds in and we've not
14:08
Speaker 3: had the like fall on Bangnai Marquez fight like was
14:12
Speaker 3: it large The last year at her Wath when Mark
14:14
Speaker 3: was on the Grassini bike like that was epic. The
14:16
Speaker 3: fight between those two in that race, it was fantastic.
14:19
Speaker 3: And when they were teammates, logically you sort of thought,
14:22
Speaker 3: well they're on the same bike. This will just be
14:24
Speaker 3: on week after week after week. It hasn't happened. So
14:28
Speaker 3: I guess the question for me is that Mark's been
14:29
Speaker 3: so good this year, as we know, this is absolute
14:32
Speaker 3: Bangnayo territory. You combine those two things, does this mean
14:36
Speaker 3: we get the fight between the two of them on
14:38
Speaker 3: track that we've been so looking forward to the whole year.
14:42
Speaker 3: And if we get it, like Banyai's record is so good,
14:45
Speaker 3: Master's and Magello, like you mentioned, it's going to take
14:48
Speaker 3: something pretty special for Mark to stop that if Peko's
14:51
Speaker 3: in one of those moods that he gets into at Magello.
14:54
Speaker 3: And the one thing, you know, the last couple of years,
14:56
Speaker 3: Peko has been so good at Magello that the races
14:58
Speaker 3: up front have actually been pretty pedestrian because he's just
15:01
Speaker 3: way too good for everybody else. If you combine a
15:04
Speaker 3: more confident Banyaya and a marker is trying to make
15:07
Speaker 3: a point, like if Mark can beat Peco here, that's
15:10
Speaker 3: worth more than like twenty five points. Psychologically that's massive
15:14
Speaker 3: for Mark. So you add all those things and this
15:17
Speaker 3: is why I'm so looking forward to this weekend because
15:19
Speaker 3: a it's an awesome race track from Oto GP bikes.
15:21
Speaker 3: We love it and I'm deeply envious that you're going
15:24
Speaker 3: to be there this weekend. And yes, we will talk
15:26
Speaker 3: Corden names because we're not calling them numbers. Michael Lemonato,
15:28
Speaker 3: I'm talking to you here. But the thing about this
15:32
Speaker 3: track is that we know how awesome Peco is here.
15:34
Speaker 3: So if he's ever going to stand his ground against market,
15:37
Speaker 3: kind of feels like it's going to be this weekend.
15:39
Speaker 3: And I am fully here for this because I think
15:41
Speaker 3: whatever happens one way or the other, we've got an
15:43
Speaker 3: awesome storyline, don't we.
15:45
Speaker 2: There's a rumor that started which started from our friends Matt.
15:49
Speaker 1: Oxley and Peter Baum at the Oxley Bomb podcast.
15:52
Speaker 2: Okay, they joked about how Valentino Rossi is going to
15:56
Speaker 2: give Pego Vannyaya a bonus if he beats Mark Marcos
15:59
Speaker 2: here hundred grand or whatever they said, And now I
16:03
Speaker 2: keep seeing it across everywhere saying, yeah, Valentino and Rossi
16:06
Speaker 2: has given Pego Vanyay and extra bonus to beat Marc
16:08
Speaker 2: has A Magello, which I think is just I can't
16:11
Speaker 2: believe that that's that's gone into a rumor. But here's
16:14
Speaker 2: this for the statsman, Mark is only one pole position,
16:18
Speaker 2: so if he gets poll this weekend, that's his one
16:20
Speaker 2: hundredth pole position and his career number ninety three victory.
16:26
Speaker 2: If he wins, you think, wow, they're big numbers to
16:29
Speaker 2: happen in Magello, right on the Italian's home race, Peggo
16:34
Speaker 2: Vanya's home race, DW Caddi's literally home Racemugine.
16:39
Speaker 1: If the Spaniard does it all, that's.
16:42
Speaker 3: Well, ninety three wins for ninety three that's and we
16:45
Speaker 3: can see that's a Matt Burke commentary special that'll be
16:47
Speaker 3: coming out on the weekend for sure. But the thing
16:49
Speaker 3: with Mark is that Mark loves finding ways to motivate himself, right.
16:54
Speaker 3: I mean, he's done so much winning over so long,
16:56
Speaker 3: and he's obviously got this. He's on this redemptive tale.
16:59
Speaker 3: Now that you know I've said this before, I think
17:01
Speaker 3: if he wins this year World championship, given what he's
17:03
Speaker 3: been through physically for the last six years, it's one
17:05
Speaker 3: of the great redemptive tales in any sport, forget motorsport.
17:09
Speaker 3: But you also know that he loves being the villain.
17:11
Speaker 3: He absolutely loves it. So a chance to go into
17:14
Speaker 3: Migello in Peco's backyard and Rossi's backyard. There's no love
17:18
Speaker 3: lost between those two. And win for the Italian team,
17:22
Speaker 3: but beat the Italian riders in their backyard. That Mark
17:25
Speaker 3: loves this sort of stuff. So yeah, it's not been
17:28
Speaker 3: a fantastic track for him in the past. He's had podiums,
17:30
Speaker 3: he's been beaten in some pretty awesome last lap battles.
17:32
Speaker 3: I remember Lorenzo getting him there one year. How much
17:35
Speaker 3: would he love to beat Banaya this weekend? So you're
17:38
Speaker 3: going to have two super motivated riders, And the key
17:42
Speaker 3: thing for me was, you know, I think we know
17:44
Speaker 3: how important qualifying there is there because you want to
17:47
Speaker 3: be out the front and not courting those crazy slipstreaming
17:49
Speaker 3: battles that you get up and down at the start.
17:51
Speaker 3: Finished straight there. Q two on Saturday is going to
17:54
Speaker 3: be awesome because those two will be throwing absolutely everything
17:58
Speaker 3: at it. And then you add the fact that you
18:01
Speaker 3: know Alex Marquez is like sort of motor GP's metronome,
18:04
Speaker 3: like he's just ticking away at the same pace the
18:07
Speaker 3: entire time you look up and go, oh look, Alex
18:08
Speaker 3: Markeez is second again, because that's where Alex Marquez lives
18:11
Speaker 3: these days, You've got a whole bunch of other Italian
18:14
Speaker 3: riders on fastikes wanting to play spoiler. There's a lot
18:18
Speaker 3: going on this weekend and Saturday. I think the intensity
18:21
Speaker 3: of Saturday is going to be fantastic, and then you
18:24
Speaker 3: know that place will pack out on Sunday. We know
18:26
Speaker 3: what it's going to be like on Sunday. We know
18:28
Speaker 3: that Decadie will have some special livery because they always
18:30
Speaker 3: do for this particular round. It's going to be a
18:33
Speaker 3: great round. It's a fantastic racetrack at the best of times.
18:35
Speaker 3: But you look at all those little side plots that
18:37
Speaker 3: we've just discussed in the last ten minutes. I cannot
18:40
Speaker 3: wait for this weekend.
18:41
Speaker 2: You mentioned Alex Marquez, then I definitely want to highlight
18:44
Speaker 2: your article that you've got on Fox sports dot com
18:46
Speaker 2: do Au Forward Slash Motorsport of Alex Marquez and why
18:51
Speaker 2: he won't win the world title, which I thought was
18:54
Speaker 2: really interesting because obviously everyone's saying, you know, he has
18:56
Speaker 2: missed a consistency.
18:57
Speaker 1: He's mister P two. He's always there. Moment is Mark
19:01
Speaker 1: crashing too much or Peko's trying to hard, but Alex
19:03
Speaker 1: is there.
19:04
Speaker 2: Let's dive into that, Matt, because Alex Marquez, yeah, he
19:08
Speaker 2: has missed a consistency. Buddy is on last year's bike, right,
19:12
Speaker 2: is that he's downfall for not winning the world title
19:14
Speaker 2: and obviously not being Mark Marquez.
19:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, well, the latter part's pretty difficult. At
19:20
Speaker 3: the moment, he's the second best rider in the World Championship.
19:22
Speaker 3: He's the second best rider in his own household. That's
19:24
Speaker 3: a little bit depressing, but he he's been this year.
19:28
Speaker 3: I never thought that we would ever discuss Alex Marquez
19:32
Speaker 3: the way we've discussed him, because there's been nothing that
19:34
Speaker 3: we've seen in his previous years in motor GP that
19:37
Speaker 3: suggested he was anything other than a guy who would
19:39
Speaker 3: occasionally have an awesome weekend at a track that he's
19:42
Speaker 3: good at and get all the podium, Like he's always
19:44
Speaker 3: good at Sapang, he's always good at Cataloonia. He has
19:46
Speaker 3: certain tracks where he's good. But you know, the fact
19:49
Speaker 3: that we're, what eight rounds into the season, he's already
19:51
Speaker 3: scored more points this season than he has in any
19:53
Speaker 3: other full season in his career. We're not even what
19:56
Speaker 3: thirty five percent of the way through the season. Yes,
19:59
Speaker 3: we know that GDP twenty four is a fantastic bike,
20:02
Speaker 3: but he's shown a level this year that I don't
20:04
Speaker 3: think too many of us thought that he had in him,
20:06
Speaker 3: and the consistency thing he certainly hasn't had in him
20:09
Speaker 3: in the past, and at the moment he's staying in
20:12
Speaker 3: this title fight based on the fact that he's crazily
20:15
Speaker 3: consistently had that one DNF at Lamont in the Rain,
20:18
Speaker 3: which quite frankly was an excusable one because that was
20:20
Speaker 3: a crazy race for everybody. Other than that, he's just
20:24
Speaker 3: there the whole time. He's been first or second in
20:27
Speaker 3: every single sprint. And we talked in Germany last year
20:31
Speaker 3: the fact that, oh wow, the two Marquez brothers are
20:33
Speaker 3: on the podium. It's the first time for thirty years
20:35
Speaker 3: we'd had brothers on the podium. It's almost a shock
20:37
Speaker 3: these days when they're not on the podium together. We've
20:40
Speaker 3: seen it so often this year. He's redefined my ceiling
20:44
Speaker 3: of how good of a rider I think he is.
20:46
Speaker 3: And you can't say it's all about the bike because
20:49
Speaker 3: Franco Morbidelli's on a GP twenty four. In fact, he
20:51
Speaker 3: rode a twenty four last year as well, so he
20:54
Speaker 3: should theoretically be more used to it than Alex Marquez,
20:57
Speaker 3: who rode A twenty three last year. He's ahead of
20:59
Speaker 3: Morbidelli in the standings. He's the head of Banaya in
21:01
Speaker 3: the standings on A twenty five. He's ahead of de
21:03
Speaker 3: jan Antonio in the standings on A twenty five. You
21:06
Speaker 3: would expect him to be ahead of his teammate firm
21:08
Speaker 3: and Aldergare because Aldagare is good, but he's also rookie,
21:10
Speaker 3: so he's still got a bit to learn. So Alex
21:13
Speaker 3: has been awesome this year. I think Alex's biggest issue
21:15
Speaker 3: is his sibling is a in the lead b one
21:20
Speaker 3: of the greatest riders we've ever seen and see. You
21:22
Speaker 3: do wonder if Alex sometimes thinks, can I actually beat
21:26
Speaker 3: Mark in a straight head to head because we've seen
21:28
Speaker 3: them go ahead to head a couple of times this year.
21:30
Speaker 3: It's been Mark in Thailand, Mark and Argentina. Alex's two
21:34
Speaker 3: big results in the two races where he's led the
21:36
Speaker 3: championship after Austin when Mark crashed, and after Spain, where
21:40
Speaker 3: he won his first Grand Prix after Mark had crashed
21:42
Speaker 3: on lap three. Now caveat to that he was ahead
21:44
Speaker 3: of Mark on the road at the time when Mark
21:46
Speaker 3: threw it down the road, so good for him. But
21:48
Speaker 3: he also made the most of Mark's bad days. So
21:52
Speaker 3: for him to stay in championship contention, he needs to
21:54
Speaker 3: retain this crazy consistency that's almost unsustainable that he's had
21:58
Speaker 3: for eight rounds. Is going to need Mark to help him,
22:01
Speaker 3: and I think those two things will probably actually go
22:04
Speaker 3: against him as this season goes on, because the GP
22:07
Speaker 3: twenty four has got to a very high level, but
22:09
Speaker 3: it's hit its level. It's not really going to get
22:11
Speaker 3: a lot better from here. You suspect the twenty five
22:13
Speaker 3: will I also suspect that you can see a bit
22:16
Speaker 3: of this with Mark at the moment. Mark's crushing people
22:19
Speaker 3: on the weekends where he can like Aragon, and he's
22:22
Speaker 3: riding really smart on the weekends where he doesn't quite
22:25
Speaker 3: have it. And we'll look back at this championship. If
22:27
Speaker 3: Mark gets it, it'll be huh. He finished on the
22:30
Speaker 3: podium at Silveston where he's not particularly good. He kept
22:34
Speaker 3: his head when everyone was losing theirs at Lamar where
22:37
Speaker 3: everyone's throwing it down the road, and Mark's like you
22:39
Speaker 3: know what Zarko's got this, but I'm going to finish
22:41
Speaker 3: second here and I'm going to bank twenty super important
22:44
Speaker 3: points on a day where my brother's not scoring at all.
22:47
Speaker 3: They're the days that are going to win Mark the
22:49
Speaker 3: World Championship. So I think the twenty five will get better.
22:52
Speaker 3: I'd be amazed if Alex can sustain this for an
22:54
Speaker 3: entire year. I mean, it's hugely impressive he's done it
22:56
Speaker 3: for this long. I don't want to discredit what he's
22:59
Speaker 3: done year Alex, but I still don't necessarily see him
23:03
Speaker 3: as a championship contender, and I reckon his biggest fight
23:07
Speaker 3: might actually come from behind him. For all the reasons
23:09
Speaker 3: that I mentioned about the twenty five bike and Banyaya
23:11
Speaker 3: perhaps getting back to doing what Banyaya can do, I
23:15
Speaker 3: can imagine the gap between second and third and the
23:16
Speaker 3: championship shrinking to the point where if I had to
23:19
Speaker 3: put my money on who's going to finish second in
23:21
Speaker 3: the Championship, I still think it's going to be Banyaia.
23:23
Speaker 3: But I don't think either of them they're going to
23:25
Speaker 3: either of them are going to beat Mark. I know
23:26
Speaker 3: Banyai is spotting Alex Marquez a big disadvantage at this point.
23:30
Speaker 3: Still fourteen rounds to go, so long Togo. Still, I
23:34
Speaker 3: don't see Alex being a championship contender for the long
23:37
Speaker 3: haul unless Mark helps him be a championship contender by
23:42
Speaker 3: doing a few silly things like Austin and Spain. I
23:45
Speaker 3: think those mistakes will come be less frequent as the
23:49
Speaker 3: season goes on. To say all of that, the reason
23:52
Speaker 3: that I wanted to highlight what Alex is doing in
23:54
Speaker 3: that story that I wrote for Fox sports dot com,
23:56
Speaker 3: don Au, that you mentioned. He's having a seriously good season,
24:00
Speaker 3: and I don't know about you. I never expected to
24:02
Speaker 3: be having conversations about Alex Marquez being second in the
24:05
Speaker 3: World Championship and being as good as he has, so
24:08
Speaker 3: fair play to him. Guy's twenty nine years old. You
24:10
Speaker 3: don't often rewrite your career story at twenty nine, like
24:12
Speaker 3: you kind of set at that point. He's been better
24:14
Speaker 3: than we expected, but I don't know if that's necessarily
24:17
Speaker 3: going to be good enough.
24:19
Speaker 2: It's nice to kind of be starting the championship off
24:22
Speaker 2: like this. I'm thinking back to when it was I
24:24
Speaker 2: think Fabio versus Mark, or maybe I've got this wrong
24:28
Speaker 2: way around Dovey versus Mark and the other one would
24:30
Speaker 2: come in and you weren't expecting it. I remember Mark
24:32
Speaker 2: saying press conference, I was not expecting Dovey to be
24:35
Speaker 2: there or Fabio to be there, right, So to have
24:37
Speaker 2: Alex there, I think is really refreshing. Like you said,
24:40
Speaker 2: this year is going to be Mark and Peco butting
24:43
Speaker 2: heads the.
24:43
Speaker 1: Whole time, and what was that? When was the war
24:45
Speaker 1: going to get put up in the garage and all that,
24:48
Speaker 1: any of that has gone completely the opposite.
24:51
Speaker 2: But like you said, Digitis on the GP twenty five,
24:54
Speaker 2: why is he what is he missing? Where's that missing piece? Morbidelli,
24:58
Speaker 2: you said John GP twenty five for he's obviously.
25:02
Speaker 1: So I think him.
25:04
Speaker 2: Though it does feel like we're about seven hundred races
25:06
Speaker 2: into this year, We've got a seven hundred more to go,
25:11
Speaker 2: and with Marquez it's hard to not bank on him
25:15
Speaker 2: right now, even me thinking about this weekend going in
25:17
Speaker 2: and it's hard to not want a bank on Mark Marquez.
25:21
Speaker 1: But also the same time, I want Pecker. I want
25:24
Speaker 1: to come back because it's Italy. Is that homegrownd Priod.
25:26
Speaker 2: I want to feel the passion from the Italians fans
25:29
Speaker 2: while I'm there.
25:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, A great thing for the championship for the next
25:34
Speaker 3: ten days would be for Banyai to win these next
25:36
Speaker 3: to Grand Prix and to take a pretty hefty chunk
25:39
Speaker 3: out of Mark's championship margin, because I think that introduces
25:43
Speaker 3: another element that we know there's going to be tracks
25:46
Speaker 3: later in the year where Mark is awesome, like anything
25:48
Speaker 3: that's anti Clockoise. Let's be honest, Like once we get
25:50
Speaker 3: to Saxon Ring, I think I think we know what's
25:52
Speaker 3: going to happen at Saxon Ring. I mean, whether asterisks permitting,
25:56
Speaker 3: which is a big thing to say. For Philip Island.
25:57
Speaker 3: I think Mark will be absolutely awesome at Phillip Island
26:00
Speaker 3: because we haven't seen him on the best bike at
26:02
Speaker 3: Philip Island for a long time, and we know how
26:04
Speaker 3: good he is there even when he doesn't have the
26:06
Speaker 3: best bike. But we want this to be a live
26:08
Speaker 3: championship with storylines that go on for the remainder of
26:11
Speaker 3: the season, and I think a lot of that is
26:14
Speaker 3: not necessarily to do with Mark. I think it's what's
26:16
Speaker 3: behind him, and to my mind, like if Banyaa can
26:19
Speaker 3: win at least one of these two Grand Prix in
26:20
Speaker 3: the next two weeks and preferably both of them for
26:22
Speaker 3: the sake of the championship. Then I think it's going
26:24
Speaker 3: to be super interesting as we get past the mid
26:26
Speaker 3: season breaking into the second half.
26:29
Speaker 1: Well, let's move on.
26:30
Speaker 2: To Magello because you mentioned there about the corner names
26:33
Speaker 2: and a little spoiler alert, Jacob Rylstone, our Aussie star
26:36
Speaker 2: in Moto three, is going to take me around Migello
26:39
Speaker 2: to give me his insights on when I make my
26:42
Speaker 2: Moto three career debut and how I can raise around
26:44
Speaker 2: that track.
26:45
Speaker 1: But you've mentioned corner names here, so tell me what are.
26:48
Speaker 2: The interesting corner names in at Magello because you've given
26:51
Speaker 2: us the rundown on them on and that was not
26:53
Speaker 2: to be expected.
26:56
Speaker 3: I love this track because the quarner names are so
26:58
Speaker 3: over the top, flam boyanly Italian, but they're just perfect
27:02
Speaker 3: at the same time. And you know, anytime you have
27:04
Speaker 3: a corner sequence it's called Casanova and Savelli. When you're
27:07
Speaker 3: going down the hill there with that packed hillside and
27:10
Speaker 3: everyone's still wearing yellow despite the fact that Valentino is
27:13
Speaker 3: not on the grid any murdor GP sights and the
27:18
Speaker 3: warm up lap before the Grand Prix on the Sunday
27:21
Speaker 3: where every single person has managed to get in a
27:23
Speaker 3: canned air horn and a yellow flare and it's all
27:26
Speaker 3: going off on the hill as it going round to
27:27
Speaker 3: the formation lap when they're coming into the grid and
27:30
Speaker 3: there's still smoke just wafting over the valley there from
27:33
Speaker 3: what's got on the formation lap. It's one of the
27:35
Speaker 3: great sites and I'm hoping for your sake being on
27:38
Speaker 3: the ground if you do get an Italian winning there.
27:41
Speaker 3: The way that podium juts out over the start finished
27:43
Speaker 3: straight and everyone'll invade the track national anthem there is
27:46
Speaker 3: pretty unhinged when an Italian rider wins. So I'm very
27:49
Speaker 3: much looking forward to see what you're able to capture
27:51
Speaker 3: from there, because you'll get swept up with a bunch
27:54
Speaker 3: of people going completely crazy for an Italian rider winning.
27:57
Speaker 3: But I I mean it's a great track because it
28:00
Speaker 3: has undulation, it has history, it's incredibly picturesque and there's
28:06
Speaker 3: just no there's so much elevation change in so many
28:09
Speaker 3: high speed corners here, but it's the elevation change that
28:12
Speaker 3: makes it when you see these bikes side to side
28:15
Speaker 3: down the hill through the Arabiatas is absolutely fantastic. That Chicane,
28:20
Speaker 3: the Scarporea Pelagio, Chicaine. There were're going through ten and eleven.
28:23
Speaker 3: There's a lot of stuff going on there, a lot
28:25
Speaker 3: of passing and repassing Moto three. If it's closed in
28:29
Speaker 3: the last few laps, you know something's going down there
28:31
Speaker 3: because there'll be six riders in the lead pack going
28:33
Speaker 3: in there on the last lap and not six of
28:35
Speaker 3: them coming out. You can guarantee that, so there'll be
28:38
Speaker 3: some sillyness going on there. But then also the charge
28:40
Speaker 3: out of the last corner there because it is so
28:42
Speaker 3: steep and it is so uphill. I do hope you've
28:45
Speaker 3: got some comfortable shoes for this track walk, because you'll
28:47
Speaker 3: look up coming out of fifteen and look up at
28:49
Speaker 3: the start figure straight and you won't be able to
28:50
Speaker 3: see it because it's so steep. You might want to
28:53
Speaker 3: be on the vesper for the last part of that lap.
28:54
Speaker 3: I reckon, So hopefully Jacob Birch. Hopefully Jacob treats you
28:58
Speaker 3: well or at least gives you a slip straight up
29:00
Speaker 3: the straight there, because as I'm sure he'll tell you,
29:03
Speaker 3: coming out of that last quarter on a motor three bike,
29:05
Speaker 3: that's where racists can be one and lost. We've seen
29:07
Speaker 3: some awesome last light battles at this track, so yeah,
29:10
Speaker 3: bring it on, thoroughly looking forward to it.
29:12
Speaker 2: Yes, well, guys, you can catch that and all the
29:15
Speaker 2: other action alive and i'd break free on Fox Sports
29:18
Speaker 2: and ko If you want to see what Jacob gives
29:21
Speaker 2: me my little pointers around Magello, that is going to
29:23
Speaker 2: be on the Fox Sports YouTube channel. All of Matt's
29:27
Speaker 2: articles and more about MotoGP are on Fox sports dot com,
29:31
Speaker 2: door Au forard Slash Motorsport, and if you want to
29:34
Speaker 2: keep up to date with us on socials, we are
29:36
Speaker 2: at Foxmotorsport everywhere. I'm going to take you guys behind
29:40
Speaker 2: the scenes as much as I can at Migello Matt
29:43
Speaker 2: as always, thank you so much for joining me on
29:46
Speaker 2: this episode of Pit Talk, which is brought to.
29:48
Speaker 1: You by Shannon's Insurance.
29:50
Speaker 2: I'm Ronita vmuland and we're going to be back real
29:52
Speaker 2: soon with more motor GP Pit Talk