MotoGP Catalunya (SPOILER)

[Drano]

I think we might be saying the same things if he were on a Ducati. Look to 2007 when Casey Stoner was on the Ducati. Ducati nailed the newly redesigned 2007 800cc spec bike and clearly had an advantage on the rest of the bikes on the grid. I'm not taking anything away from Stoner's achievements but it was very clear to see his bike in 2007 was the dominant bike on the grid in terms of power. Was it as forgiving as the RC213V is now?? No, I'll agree with that. The Ducati was a bike that had to be ridden hard and the problems ridden around rather than being worked out. The Ducati didn't respond as well to set-up as the Honda, plus the Honda has never had the front end issues that Ducati has been plagued with for years.

Marquez is a very talented rider and I agree with you. He's blessed to be on the best bike at the moment.

I personally believe the Honda is the better bike. Can the Yamaha beat it?? Yes, I believe so. I think the main problem for the Yamaha is it's lack of power(compared to the Honda) and it's lack of not being as forgiving in mistakes as the Honda. Look how many times Marquez had mistakes, yet was able to cancel them out rather quickly in the race. He is able to recover quicker than the Yamaha's.

I do agree though that these guys are very determined riders. Lorenzo's performance last year at Assen is a testament to that. However, like any highly paid athlete, I would expect that no only his competitive nature spurred him on, but the fact that he's getting a big paycheck from Yamaha and didn't want to come across as letting them down. In my opinion I wouldn't have thought twice about sitting a race out because of a broken collar bone. But for him, the championship was at stake and he was pushing to retain his title. I think for racers(or athletes of all facets of sports) their incentive to compete while injured his greater than would be a regular person.

I will say this, if someone offered me millions upon millions of dollars to ride and race motorcycles I can say that I'd be more than willing to push the limits at all times because of the paycheck. Even while injured because the end would justify the means because of the paycheck.

With regards to the Ducati, Marc Marquez can certainly ride the pants off of a motorcycle, and with the concessions Ducati has received this year and having Gigi Dall'igna helming the team, Marc could possibly make the bike competitive. I think we both agree that, when it comes to Ducati (in its current iteration), sometimes even the best talent isn't enough to make the bike a winner, unless the bike suits that rider's style. So, sure, if the Ducati and Marquez worked well together, anything's possible, but I don't think we'll be finding that out any time soon.

I thought I remembered hearing one of the announcers mention that the M1 was getting a boost to their power last week. All I could find is this article, but they won't see that bike until 2015. http://www.yamahamotogp.com/news/16-...t-in-catalunya Hopefully that helps next year.

I want to keep seeing some real racing like the previous 2 races, and if Rossi, Lorenzo, and Pedrosa are getting stronger, the rest of this season won't disappoint! Truly, we are watching history in the making with Marquez of the likes we haven't had in quite some time. But I like watching races for the seat of the pants action. Give me more of that!

[The Black Knight]

With regards to the Ducati, Marc Marquez can certainly ride the pants off of a motorcycle, and with the concessions Ducati has received this year and having Gigi Dall'igna helming the team, Marc could possibly make the bike competitive. I think we both agree that, when it comes to Ducati (in its current iteration), sometimes even the best talent isn't enough to make the bike a winner, unless the bike suits that rider's style. So, sure, if the Ducati and Marquez worked well together, anything's possible, but I don't think we'll be finding that out any time soon.

I thought I remembered hearing one of the announcers mention that the M1 was getting a boost to their power last week. All I could find is this article, but they won't see that bike until 2015. http://www.yamahamotogp.com/news/16-...t-in-catalunya Hopefully that helps next year.

I want to keep seeing some real racing like the previous 2 races, and if Rossi, Lorenzo, and Pedrosa are getting stronger, the rest of this season won't disappoint! Truly, we are watching history in the making with Marquez of the likes we haven't had in quite some time. But I like watching races for the seat of the pants action. Give me more of that!

Oh I agree the more intense the battles the better it makes for a historic race. I think the other three are catching up. Of the three that I think are the most hungry to beat Marquez I'd have to say it's Rossi with Pedrosa coming in a close second. Aside from Mugello and Catalunya, Rossi had been the only rider to battle with Marquez albeit he's lost every battle this year. I think Rossi is/was the most ready to take the fight to Marquez this year. Just lacks a little bit in the bike department to make it completely happen. I think we are going to see some fireworks in Assen this coming weekend. It's a small track that favors agility over brute power. One the reasons I was sad to see Laguna Seca go away. It along with Sachsenring are all three tracks that favor agility and setup over brute power. Though I will say the Yamaha's aren't that far down on power compared to the Honda. I was rather shocked with Rossi's straight line speed at Montmelo. Marquez wasn't able to reel him as quickly. I think much of that boils down to ECU programming. With the 20L of fuel restriction, we see early in the race the bikes are evenly matched in terms of power. It's only until they burn off the fuel then the ECU takes over to manage the fuel consumption to the end of the race. This area of the race I also believe is where the Honda has the advantage. Late in the race they manage fuel better than the Yamaha. Hence it appears they have the power advantage later on.

Also from what I've gathered and read. Engines are frozen this year in terms of development and upgrades. The five engines they have are sealed and those five are the only five they get for the year. So how they were developed during Winter testing and design is how they would stay for the rest of the season. Obviously Honda gambled on having the most powerful engine(which they do) also I think they put in a little more time and effort into fuel management. This is something that Yamaha could have put a stop to last year when they agreed with Honda to do a engine development freeze. In my opinion Yamaha are kicking themselves now for agreeing to such an engine freeze.

Granted they had the option of going "Open Class" but that's not what they are about. I do think Yamaha will have more grunt come next year though. With them testing the 2015 bike already it shows that they are determined to not get left behind in terms of power come next year.

One thing I would like to point out is that when Rossi joined Yamaha in 2004 he chose the engine that was less powerful than the others Yamaha had developed. Obviously in 2004 they had way different and better regulations on engine development but to begin with Rossi chose a bike with a less powerful engine but with the chassis that he felt gave him the best package. I think we are seeing Yamaha going back to that mindset again now that Rossi is back on the team. They have made great progress with developing the braking(which for a long time has always been Yamaha's strong point), they've also made the bike a little more agile and able to give more front end feedback to the rider.

I think with Rossi gone for two years, they developed a bike that suited Lorenzo's style of high corner speed. The problem with that is now the bike only suited one style of riding(Lorenzo's). Spies never really could make the package work as well for him. Crutchlow said he couldn't get his Tech 3 M1 to respond in the same manner either. Crutchlow tried his hardest to ride the way Lorenzo rides, and he did well in some races but would crash in my others.

One thing I thought was interesting in Lorenzo's last post race interview was that he said he wasn't able to ride the way he does when he's alone(in reference to when Rossi passed him for the lead). I think this is Lorenzo's biggest weakness and strength. If he can get out in front, he's able to do those metronome type laps and just keep that pace lap after lap. The problem with that style is he's never been the greatest dog fighter. Yes he can do fight but he becomes very unstable when riding to dog fight. He's not comfortable and you can see it in his riding and also in post race interviews. He's more than content to get out front and just lap by himself. In my opinion, that's not racing that's just running a time attack. Stoner had a similar mindset of getting out front, doing a series of quick laps, building a distance between him and second place and then just rolling it back and managing the race. I will say Stoner never had a problem with dog fighting though. Yet he was more comfortable doing the metronome thing as well. I think just about any racer would be more comfortable being left alone during the race and just managing it. It's easier and a lot less stressful than having someone breathing down your neck the whole race.

I'm with you though, I want to see more intense racing and I hope we get it the rest of the season. The championship might be wrapped up now for Marquez. I think though we'll see some different winners this year. I'm hoping Rossi can take one or two races, same with Pedrosa and Lorenzo. It would make it more exciting and while I agree Marquez is history in the making(especially if he wins all the races this year) it is a bit boring knowing seeing him win them all. Was hoping he'd lose Le Mans, Mugello and Catalunya, because in those races I felt others deserved to win them(Rossi = Le Mans, Lorenzo = Mugello, Catalunya = Rossi or Pedrosa).

Honestly though, this has been a great season for MotoGP racing. Far more exciting than the last few seasons. Even with Rossi's win last year, I'd say he's far more exciting this year and far more competitive this year than last year.