23' MotoGP/WSBK/MotoAmerica discussion thread **SPOILER ALERT**

[madvlad]

And the musical chairs begin!

Yamaha part ways with Morbidelli after the 2023 season and opt for Rins in 2024.

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...-season/474725


With this said, Morbidelli will most likely end up taking Toprak's seat at WSBK since now there are no Ducati seats open as that means both Marini and Bezecchi stay put and also Jorge Martin (but of course just my perception on things, this could change in the next few days or weeks) and Lucio Cecchinello will most likely sign Iker Lecuona for LCR since he already has had plenty of fill in rides with Honda and is familiar with the package, however this if IF he decides to continue on with HRC and not opt for KTM and or even a Yamaha satellite option as it has been rumored. Stay tuned for more craziness in these rider musical chairs

[madvlad]

Great races all around the board today at Silverstone. What a last lap win by Aleix Espargaro stealing it away from Pecco and Bezecchi definitely gifted some huge points to Pecco by losing the front ending his race early after having clawed some of those back in the sprint race yesterday. After a strong showing from Alex Marquez and somewhat of a strong start today, an internal mechanical issue with his gear box/selector would see him exit the race. The real highlight was the charge by Oliveira coming in from 16th and finishing 4th, he closed the gap to the front runners insanely quick, Aprilia looked very strong today with 3 of 4 bikes inside the top 5. In Moto3 news, David Alonso is the first Colombian to ever win in GP history, whom also came from dead last to win the race, that was something else to see, one of the closest races I've seen in a while. Of course being Colombian myself I was jumping of joy, had been waiting to see our flag on the top step of the podium and having the anthem played, that was a very cool moment. Aspar have found themselves a true talent in this kid and he's going places. In Moto2 Fermin Aldeguer wins his first Moto2 race, lost the front coming into parc ferme onto that plush carpet crap and took out both his techs, gladly nobody was hurt and the celebrations went on. American Joe Roberts pushed for a well earned 4th place finished, hopefully he can build on this. Toni Arbolino finished rather back on the grid today and Pedro Acosta finished in 3rd which now sees him leading the championship from Arbolino by 3 points.

[madvlad]

Latest MotoGP news:

Gresini continues with Alex Marquez for 2024

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...or-2024/475421

Gresini continues partnership with Ducati through 2025

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...of-2025/475426

Bautista set for Wildcard appearance at Sepang

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...ildcard/475492

Fabio Quartararo gives ultimatum to Yamaha

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...-chance/475387

Zarco linked with LCR Honda

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...e-proud/475302

Paolo Ciabatti links Morbidelli with a possible Ducati seat for 2024

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...-ducati/475384


Tons of rumors and moves starting to happen, Rins started the domino effect with the bombshell news of going to Yamaha for 2024, a contractual clause move that in my eyes is a master stroke of genius that his manager Carlo Pernat put in when he signed for LRC. Seeing as that Honda would have gotten him injured or killed at one point, he realized that HRC are nowhere near a solution or don't care about any other rider input but that of Marquez, which is why they find themselves in the shitter to begin with, no wonder all riders are looking to bail out. Now, with the confirmed Gresini news on both their rider for 2024 and continued alliance with Ducati, as well as the link in between LCR and Zarco, that opens two possibilities for Morbidelli to land at a Ducati seat as Paolo Ciabatti is hoping to make happen as stated on one of the links above. I'm sure Bezecchi and Marini will stay put, don't see Bezecchi leaving for Pramac as his mojo with the team and all is very good at the moment and sometimes messing with that chemistry can bury you. For Morbidelli going to either Pramac or Gresini, it would be about as great as a chance for revival as any regardless of package as any package has shown to have massive potential past the 2020 bike. As this decision unfolds, the balance of the likes or Arbolino and Acosta are also depending on this as they're both supposed to make a jump to MotoGP this upcoming season and with Morbidelli taking one of these seats, it only leaves one seat open. KTM apparently promised Acosta a seat but they have yet to come up with a feasible solution to keep the talented Acosta on with the KTM brand. As these next few weeks pass, we will see more and more pieces to the puzzle come together.

[madvlad]

WSBK News:

Dominique Aegerter remains with GRT Yamaha for 2024.

https://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/202...SBK%20campaign


Honestly a well deserved extension as he is having a great rookie season and clicked with that Yamaha R1 right away. Some were thinking that he would be the one to take over Toprak's seat at Yamaha but with these news, that subtracts one more name from the list as well as Morbidelli as he is projected to stay in the GP paddock but on a Ducati for 2024 and onwards. Rae has been speculated to cut his contract with Kawasaki short and make the move to Yamaha and that would make way for Redding to take over Rae's seat. Now all of this is speculation/rumors at this stage.

[madvlad]

Aaaaand we are back racing! Tune in this weekend for the MotoAmerica Pittsburgh round with 3 races again and also JD Beach comes back to race with Yamaha for this round as Cam Petersen is out for the rest of the season due to a surgery to fix his wrist. Also Austria Round for the MotoGP this weekend, should be a hell of a weekend with the new format and it'll be a Ducati/KTM showdown!

[madvlad]

Man what a clattering opening lap that was for the sprint race, holy crash fest. Thankfully everyone walked away but a horrible Saturday for Mooney VR46 and apparently now playing the role of MM is Jorge Martin, that dude was riding a bit out of control today which caused the first lap incident at T1 and then also contacted Marini at the entrance of the chicane and made him crash. Stewards reviewed it and said no further action but you can clearly tell that Marini was already starting to lean in when he came in late, he had more pace than Marini and opted for the worst spot to pass him at, both knucklehead moves in my opinion. Binder looks in very good shape and with renewed energy after signing another 3 year contract which puts him with KTM until the end of 2026. We'll see what tomorrow brings for the main races.

As far as MotoAmerica, what a shit show, their superbike race didn't even stream at all and they keep having issues weekend after weekend with their media, they really need to get their heads out of their asses with this and hire a proper media team to manage their stuff, whoever is doing it now is a proper n00b, so couldn't even see the race 1 and haven't seen the results yet on that and don't want to until I watch it. Hoping they'll have the race up soon and of course the ONLY race they had an issue with, every other race streamed just fine, go figure...

[madvlad]

MotoAmerica race 1 is now up on their YouTube channel, rather entertaining race actually. Fong and Scholtz had it going there for a good while and Fong with two INSANE saves too, sucks that bullshit call by the stewards cost Fong the podium position, no way that was an advantage whatsoever. Demolition job by Gagne, who has one hand on the title already and all his to lose. Nice to see JD Beach back at it again, met him at HPR a couple of times when Roadracing Factory was testing there during our race rounds a while ago when they were racing in the 600 class, super cool cat. Should be a fun race 2 and 3 tomorrow, we'll see if Gagne can seal it this weekend and take the title home early.

[madvlad]

Much better results for the VR46 boys today after yesterday's debacle and about the only action of the race was the last couple lap battle in between them and Alex Marquez for the last podium spot, other than that a rather uneventful and boring race. Chronometric pace by Pecco kept him at the front from the get go and even though Binder gave it all he could to stay with him, he had to put the KTM into mapping 2 mode and go into tire preservation mode which slowly but surely started to open up the gap in between him and Pecco. Another disaster day for Mir (wouldn't surprise me if he straight up quits, rumors of his retirement are already making their way into the paddock) seems like that Honda has broken his will, only 5 points scored in the whole season, that has to fuck with your head. Zarco confirms his Ducati exit and will now go to LCR Honda for double the salary (or so is being reported). With that confirmation now, that puts most likely Bezzechi at Pramac with the full 24' factory option and will open the door at Mooney VR46 for Morbidelli to get on a Ducati. IF indeed these seat predictions hold, I am going to laugh if Morbideli tears it up on the Ducati next year, that would make Yamaha look about as stupid as they'll ever look after all their comments that it's more the riders fault than the bike. Yamaha need to get their heads out of their asses and get with the program that the tradition train has left and it has come the time to be bold and take chances, like KTM/Ducati did which is why now they're lightyears ahead of them and HRC. The Japanese manufacturers got way too cushy on their set ups and thought shit was going to hold on forever but boy were they wrong... European manufacturers are raining down destruction on their asses right now, it's straight up embarrasing. We'll see with what more bullshit excuses they come up with now and probably will keep throwing money down on aero upgrades or small things to keep putting band-aids on this gushing wound but bring no real solutions.

[madvlad]

Jake Gagne wraps his 3rd consecutive title today at race 3 in Pittsburgh. Hell of a race weekend with many passes and competitive riding. Speedy recovery to Cameron Beaubier after that clattering in race 2, didn't make it for race 3. Scholtz finished 2nd pushing Herrin back to 3rd which gave Gagne the title, now it's a battle for 2nd and 3rd place championship standings wise. Should still be a great last two races of the season which is at COTA next in a couple of weeks time and they finish at NJMP. I'm a Yamaha groupie so will say BLUCRU BABY!!!!

[madvlad]

In MotoGP seat news:

Zarco confirms a 2 to a possible 3 year project at LCR to help Honda bounce back, although I call bs, he knows he's on his way out and he's going to cash in while he can since they offered him double to salary to go over there. Now this confirms that Pramac seat is open which of course led to some questions to certain riders during the after race media sessions and man Franco Morbidelli wasn't having it. They asked him yet again for the 200th time in the last month what the plans are and if he was taking that Pramac seat now that it's open and you could tell his facial expression changed dramatically right away and he's so fucking fed up with it, told the reporter off pretty much and told him to be patient , Franky is just not a media guy unfortunately, during the COTA race we were out there and man he looked miserable during the media outings and also meeting the fans and stuff. Someone gifted us hero walk tickets and he was there and man he just wanted to leave as soon as possible, that outing with the factory Yamaha team really took it out of him and he's ready to move on from that shit for sure.

Also in KTM news, guess there is word that there won't be 2 new seats for next year as originally planned so they could keep Acosta (I get a feeling that Yamaha have something to do with this since they've been looking to get a satellite team going and they may have found a project for it next year although no confirmation has been made on this end, just my assumption at this point because they seemed certain that Aki Ajo was going to get those two seats and open up those seats for Acosta). Now with this said, some low and grimy corporate shit may be about to go down because someone's seat/contract may be about to get sacrificed and it's going to create a really hostile environment at KTM and that's the last thing they need now that the project is clicking along. They interviewed Pol and Augusto Fernandez and they both confirmed their seats are confirmed so only possible scenarios are:

1) Pol goes to a test ride/fill in rider position and that way they somewhat honor his contract.
2) Jack Miller's contract gets terminated, they do him dirty to give that seat to Acosta.
3) They honor their current contracts and let Acosta walk to another team although I don't know who would pick him up since there are no open seats and doubt he'd go to Honda.

Guess we'll see what happens in these next few weeks and what confirmation on all this contractual mess that the promise from KTM to Acosta to find him a seat as he doesn't want to stay at Moto2 has caused. The musical chair drama continues


Have a great rest of your week all!

[madvlad]

Moto2 news:

Jake Dixon signs renewal with GASGAS Aspar team for 2024

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...ar-team/476504

Toni Arbolino signs renewal with Marc VDS for 2024

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...-season/476475


With these two confirming that they're staying put in the Moto2 paddock after so many links to a MotoGP move, that means that now 2 Ducati seats are all that remain open as all other seats are now signed for at every other team. One will most likely go to Morbidelli but it is to be confirmed which one it will be although I have a feeling it will be at Pramac Ducati as it is his best option given it is being offered as a full factory supported ride, meanwhile the bike at Gresini will be a year prior model. This means that IF Morbidelli does indeed opt for Pramac, then Gresini either have the choice to renew Diggia for another season OR opt for another rider for 2024, which could also see Mir perhaps taking that seat as he is desperately trying to find a way out of HRC to restart his career. Also highly doubt they'll sign Marquez to either of those seats as the Ducati bosses don't seem very interested in him whatsoever. A wild scenario would be that KTM lose out on Acosta due to not delivering on a seat which breaches their current contract and Ducati could perhaps swing in to save the day and snatch even a greater young talent to add to their ever evolving future and already stacked line up. The musical chair enigma keeps unfolding, stay tuned for more!

[madvlad]

MotoAmerica news

Cameron Beaubier steps down for the remainder of the season and Stefano Mesa steps in to replace him

https://motoamerica.com/beaubier-out...37548828125000


A speedy recovery to Cam to come back stronger for next year, those last two rounds were brutal for him and I'm sure he's not 100%.

[madvlad]

Bezzechi opts to stay with Mooney VR46 for 2024

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...or-2024/476664

With this confirmed, the following scenarios can happen:

1. Morbidelli goes to either Pramac or Gresini
2. Mir goes to either Pramac or Gresini but given he's been world champion, I am sure he is shooting for the factory option at Pramac as priority
3. Mir stays put and Gresini re-signs Diggia for another season
4. Guess Marini hasn't been confirmed by VR46 after all although MotoGP had announced that he was earlier in the season. Another likely scenario is that his seat becomes Morbidellis and he takes either of the two remaining seats, although long shot that Rossi let's his brother leave his team.

[madvlad]

Back to racing in Catalunya this weekend, riders are already complaining about low grip levels and that seems to have been the story for many years now even after repaving. Weather is calling for rain tomorrow so we'll see how that affects the qualifiers and sprint race. For the first time all Japanese manufacturer riders find themselves in the last 6 spots of the grid, which is sad as shit. Yamaha and HRC have hit an all time low and it just keeps getting worse for them with no real answers but all talk from management. Although HRC said they're not going to quit MotoGP but I do foresee Yamaha pulling out of the paddock like Suzuki given they're not willing to invest what it takes to resurge from this embarrassing moment in their history. Also Ducati confirmed the continuance of Enea in the factory team for 2024, which is only fair given his injury kept him from performing and having a good season, hope he can make it count for next year and show us all what he's already done.

In WSBK news, Gigi Dall'igna confirms the return of The Maniac Andrea Iannone on an independent team for 2024.

In MotoAmerica news, JD Beach will be riding in for Cam Petersen for the remaining two rounds of the 2023 season.

[madvlad]

What a wild ass race day today in Catalunya...

Moto3

About one of the best races I have seen in a while, it literally went down to the wire and if you have the pass or can watch the replay somehow, do yourself a favor and do it, you will be at the edge of your seat the whole damn race down to the last turn. Super happy for my boy David Alonso for winning his second GP now and he is on a form unlike any other at the moment taking it to the big names in the moto3 paddock and showing that he means business. Never thought I'd see the Colombian flag in my lifetime on the top step of the podium but let alone 2 times now in a month, it's a beautiful thing. These moto3 races are freaking great.

Moto2

A superb win by Dixon while holding off a threatening Canet down to the last turn although he almost lost the front trying to keep the edge grip to pass Dixon on the last turn but they both stayed up right thankfully. Acosta was up there for a bit but faded back although it wasn't of much concern to him as Arbolino has been rather non-existent these last few rounds and very unlike him, not sure if the whole not moving up to MotoGP sort of took the wind out of him. Hell of a weekend for the Aspar team winning both Moto2-3 races.

MotoGP

Well shit, first turn carnage ensued again thanks to now knucklehead Enea, got a little eager and couldn't stop the bike in time ensuing a huge crash, thankfully all riders walked away from that one, HOWEVER literally a second later Pecco would be launched to the fucking moon 500cc style by his Ducati exiting T2. Reason this happened is because he went for a hard rear tire instead of a medium and tire was just too cold, he literally slides to nearly perpendicular when the tire caught back and that's all she wrote. While most riders missed him thankfully, Binder couldn't avoid him and ran over his legs, which also caused Binder's bike to rip his oil cooler/radiator open and throw fluid all over that section of the track. Pecco was transported and conscious to the medical center, however he was then transported to the local hospital for further analysis on some apparent fractures although according to the latest from MotoGP it doesn't seem to be major but we'll see what the final scans show. Every rider that went down with the exception of Enea and Pecco took the red flag restart. Second start was much cleaner and better, Aprilia dominated the race and they're breaking through. Maverick led most of the race but his tires were toast so Aleix took advantage and started hacking away at his lead. Well deserved for Aprilia, they have put the hard work in many years and it's paying dividends. A speedy recovery to Pecco and hope he won't lose the championship this way. The Apes helped him salvage some points by staying in front of Martin and also Binder's DNF due to a technical issue a few laps in after the restart and also that Bezzechi finished with minimal points. The issue now is that this happened at a stage where there are a lot of back to back races so it will be a race to get healthy and come back to try and salvage points. Onto the next one at Misano next weekend!

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend

[madvlad]

Medical updates for Pecco and Enea:

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...njuries/477181

[madvlad]

WSBK news

Bulega to be Bautistas teammate for 2024 replacing Rinaldi and in huge breaking news, after a lot of years with KRT Kawasaki, Jonathan Rae to Yamaha for 2024/2025 replacing Toprak

Moto2 news

Dylan Sean Kelley breaks ties with American Racing Team and has been seen testing with the MV Agusta team, which makes way for the return of Joe Roberts to ART for the 2024 season.

[madvlad]

Weekend will be packed full of racing action as MotoGP continue their consecutive races at Misano, WSBK comes back from their summer break at Magny Cours and MotoAmerica find themselves at their penultimate round at COTA.

[madvlad]

MotoGP - Main race was rather uneventful, it was all about salvage work for both injured Pecco and and Bezzechi and they did a great job at doing so while it was just a pure demolition derby by Martin this weekend to keep clawing away points at the lead. The greatest stand out was the ride by Dani Pedrosa man, it truly shows how much of a class act he is and while he could have taken a podium both days, he opted to hang back and not pass Pecco to not mess with the title run. Dani was testing the new CF chassis that KTM is developing and man this dude rode like he never left, goes to show you that their era was so much better than the current era, I don't care what people say. Their era was much more instinctive and truly developed pilots/riders to develop their feel and instinct for the ride instead of electronics aids and aero help molding them. Will give a bit of credit to MM for making that soft rear tire last an entire race in that heat and the pace that was being carried. Moto2 saw much of the same boring shit, Acosta keeps getting away with it, looks like Arbolino is checked out for the year and the fact that he won't be moving to MotoGP next year looks like it deflated his championship run, it is all down to Acosta to lose that title now. Moto3 saw a superb race as usual, those races never disappoint. David Alonso has won the last 3 of 4 races and has placed himself in serious title contention in his rookie year, this kid is smart as hell and also is a beast on the brakes, if he keeps at the rate he's going, he will not only be the first ever Colombian champion but he will be a force to be reckoned with in the future, some serious talent and taking it to the experienced of the likes of Oncu and Masia, they got outplayed today by a rookie of only 17 years of age. Onto India in two weeks time, which is a brand new venue for everyone, so this will be rather eventful to see how it all turns out.

Also some teams stay behind for the Misano test tomorrow which brings new parts for all kinds of riders specially for HRC and Yamaha riders as they scramble to find answers to close the monster gap to Ducati/KTM/Aprilia in 2024, although I fear it is much of the same smoke blowing as they've been doing these past few years and not much will be answered. According to crash.net, Marc has agreed to stay through the last year of his contract under the condition that HRC brings in European engineers (which allegedly HRC has agreed to do), however I see much of the same shit with Yamaha happening here. Both HRC and Yamaha brass is stuck in their ways so damn bad that unless they truly agree to get with the times and get bold with development like the European brands did, it will all be an utter waste of not only time but massive money/sponsors/resources. Guess we'll see if maybe they pull a rabbit out of the hat during this test but everything points to highly doubtful.

WSBK - Pretty good outing at Magny-Cours for American Garret Gerloff and the Bonovo BMW outfit. Gerloff got his first pole position (John Hopkins was the last American to get a pole position and that was over a decade ago). Was new grounds for him and more so on a whole new bike and team and honestly even with Redding taking him out in the superpole race, he finished top 5 and as top BMW for the weekend and close to the podium so they're making really good steps on that team. Hopefully BMW doesn't only feed Toprak good parts next season but it all trickles down to all riders, Baz and Gerloff have been getting better results than the Factory team and deserve something good for their efforts but we'll see, hopefully BMW doesn't make the mistake to develop the bike ONLY for Toprak and fuck the rest of their riders like most manufacturers are opting for these days, doesn't make any sense. Great battle in race 2 in between Toprak and Rae, that was the highlight of the weekend, such great respect on and off track in between those two and left it all out there. Off to Aragon in 2 weeks time and only 3 rounds left but looks like Bautista will walk away with this one yet again, mainly after the gift that FIM gave him after taking out his own teammate and got no penalty for it, that will forever be controversial to me and how biased FIM is as Redding got a penalty for taking out Gerloff and then also Aegerter in race 2, wasn't any different of a situation and they opted to turn the other way in Bautistas case, which pretty much gifted him the race 2 win given he didn't have to serve a penalty.

MotoAmerica - Xavi Fores and Gillim clinch championships in their respective classes at COTA. Gagne took the win in race 1 which also saw JD Beach and Richie Escalante in the podium which was super dope to see, Escalante had been fighting teeth and nails to get that podium all year and finally got it. Herrin was black flagged due to his Ducati V4R smoking and DNF'd race 1, however he would come back with a vengeance to win race 2, Gagne 2nd and PJ Jacobsen in 3rd. Unfortunately both JD Beach and Escalante crashed out of race 2. MotoAmerica moves onto NJMP in two weeks time for their season finale

[madvlad]

As expected Yamaha/HRC smoke show continues and neither MM or FQ are happy at all with the test results. Judging by their statements earlier after the test was over, doesn't sound like MM will stick around for HRC in 2024 so expect that Gresini announcement soon and we will see him and his brother side by side again. Also FQ was severely displeased and said and I quote "I expected much better", link to MM's statement below. Seems like these two former champions will be on the move for 2024 although not sure where Quartararo would end up going to since not many seats are open for 2024 if he decides to also break his contract early with Yamaha just as MM is expected to do with HRC. Not looking good at all for the Japanese manufacturers but they're paying the deep price for their complacency.


https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...d-japan/477892

[madvlad]

Celestino Vietti and Deniz Oncu join KTM in Moto2 for the 2024 season, which confirms Acosta's exit now. However, there is no confirmation from KTM where he actually is going and that is IF they're even able to keep him given they weren't able to actually open a seat for him officially. Wonder who will get the guillotine....

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...-vietti/477931

[madvlad]

Franco Morbidelli officially signs with Pramac Ducati for the 2024 season riding a full factory spec 24' bike

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...-racing/478350

[madvlad]

Taakaki Nakagami renews for 2024 with Idemitsu LCR Honda

https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...to-2024/478363

We all know GAS GAS is going to open one seat for Acosta come next year, now will it be Pol or Fernandez who gets the ax, who knows? There are rumors that KTM may ax Miller to make way for Acosta in the Factory team and keep Fernandez in GAS GAS but that would be utter bullshit given Miller has shown some potential in only being his first year with the manufacturer and he just had his first kid as well. This now technically only leaves one seat remaining open with the Gresini team and 3 possible riders taking that seat which are Fabio DiGannantonio, Marc Marquez or Fabio Quartararo. Most likely all of this will be answered probably by this weekend in India.

[madvlad]

According to reports many riders and team members still don't have their visas among those is MM and they haven't even traveled to India yet and the GP is this week!!! This round is in jeopardy of not happening and with how bad of a shit show it has been to get things into the country and having less than a week to travel to Japan after this, it just has bad juju all over it, yikes. Logistics and the Indian governing bodies really dropped the ball on this one.....