What is crazy is I've heard rumors on Marc's arm looking all shriveled and puny. Some say, the surgery really took a toll on his during recovery. I also didn't know he had to have another surgery, but I'm with you then if he does then yes he might not be ready for 2021. We could be finally seeing his dominance come to an end through injury. Which in all honesty, was a "when" and not "if" scenario. A rider can't ride the way Marquez does, take the risks he does and then not have to pay the piper when it all comes down. I think Marquez knew it as well, that's why he was riding the way he did. He knew that if he could amass as many wins, and championships as possible in the shortest time. That when he eventually did get an injury he could look back and see his accomplishments. Which basically, he can be extremely proud of all he's accomplished. Time will tell though if he can recover, and then come back to the level he was at pre-crash/arm break.Originally Posted by madvlad
Sorry I've been off for a minute haha, not much talk around here anymore but I'm sure people still lurk....
Yeah definitely very cool seeing Suzuki back on top and with two very young riders, Mir has been super consistent ever since his bad start to the season and has been finding himself more and more. Now they have a chance to get the triple crown which will cement them as kings of 2020. Yeah definitely will agree that MM will have something serious to prove this upcoming 2021 but it'll all lie on whether he can completely recover from his injury given that he will have to go through another surgery and even more recovery so there's talk that he may not even be ready for the start of 2021 but guess we'll see. Yeah Yamaha is definitely found ways to complicate their own lives even more and crazy enough is that even though the reliability issues and all that craziness, they still have 7 wins this season which crazy enough 6 of them come from their satellite team lol, that's insane and 2021 won't be much different given the engine allocation is frozen so they're going to have to pray that those engines hold out given that if 2021 goes to a normal calendar setting, there will be 6 more races than this year so fingers crossed for them.
As far as Cal's naming for test rider, in all honesty I'm not against it as he's got plenty of experience and honestly Lorenzo has been off a bike for way too long and has lost his rhythm/level so I don't blame Yamaha for going with him instead of Lorenzo, given that also Lorenzo has intentions of coming back onto the grid and Yamaha were kind of mad that he was trying to use them as a stepping stone back pre-covid to find another seat since he couldn't handle the Honda. Lorenzo honestly won't be back in the paddock mainly with how much upcoming talent there is in moto2 and moto3 outfits and teams seem to be promoting from there instead of bringing old dogs back. I also see Dovi being finished after this so called year off as well, he let his ego get the best of him and damn shame cause he had a lot more to give but well best of luck to him in the new ventures which he seems to have a lot of business going on outside of MotoGP. Speaking of finished careers, Iannone's career is also done with a 4 year ban not including the year he's been off, damn shame for that dude to end the way he did over something that dumb.
I believe the 2021 season will raise the bar insanely in many ways given a lot of riders have found form they never thought they'd get so that'll bring the challenge to MM if he can manage to come back and stay healthy. There's rumors as of today in FP2 in Portugal of Joe Roberts from Moto2 taking the Aprilia Factory seat and although rumors but man how cool would that be for another American getting promoted just like Cameron Beaubier is taking Roberts seat at American Racing for 21-22 and Yamaha even had Gerloff turn a few laps on Rossi's bike at Valencia and man he impressed them insanely, I see Gerloff getting a chance at a MotoGP ride if he keeps this up or at least the Pata Yamaha WSBK seat next year since he's only on a 1 year contract with GRT and again impressed hardcore given he had never been on a prototype bike and or Valencia before and he was very close to the top runners with very consistent and improving lap times in also tricky and cold conditions. The MotoAmerica program is showing to be working wonders and is starting to promote riders to the big stage and it's a very exciting time for US based riders man, hope it makes the sport boom here even more.
Should be a good last race weekend, sucks it has to come to an end but as weird as the season was, I for one am glad that all stages had a season and it did not disappoint at all. Hope everyone has a good thanksgiving and holidays, I know it's been a weird ass year and all but hope everyone is hanging in there
I'm not really looking for much from Yamaha in 2021. Except, for a bunch more of inconsistency. They really are out to sea in terms of getting their act together. You're right, they have won the most races and really have nothing to show for it. It's what I've always thought, you can win races all the time, but if engines blow up in the races you don't win. It erases those points from all the wins you gain. DNF's(or lack thereof) are probably more crucial than race wins. Perfect example is Mir. Started off slow but then just kept building. Putting in the time and effort, getting the points and then finally the race win. It took him to the championship. Not because he was the most dominant but because he had the most consistency and less DNF's.
Look at Rossi this year, how many DNF's or DNS's does he have?? 6,7 or 8??... He's basically missed half the season, due to either falling off the bike, bike blowing up, bike just stopping, the "Rona". And let's not forget the miracle of "NOT" being taken out once, but twice in the same moment of time by Zarco and Morbidelli's bikes(Austria). I'm surprised he has any points, talk about a dismal year.
I'm sure Cal will be a better test rider than Lorenzo. Albeit just because he's still been racing and active. Lorenzo took a hiatus and has been buying Lambo's and doing his thing. Can't blame him, he's earned it and 2020 was just a year for weird things to happen. But I agree, he wanted out of Honda so bad that he took retirement. Then came back in a pseudo-test rider way. Only for it to leak that he wants back in with a ride from a factory team. Would surprise me if Aprilia pick him up considering what happened to Iannone. For Aprilia it really is a no risk decision. They didn't lose much not having Iannone, let's face it A. Espargaro does his thing, and B. Smith is nothing fancy. So having Lorenzo in the mix would make things spicy and make get them some better results and the odd podium here and there. Win, win for Aprilia.
Iannone can go back to getting cosmetic surgery and botox, thus indulge his vanity.
Funny you bring up MotoAmerica. Thought this year was a little odd, seemed Suzuki or Elias didn't bother to show up. Beaubier seemed to always win but a country mile and no one had anything for him. Kind of a turd of a season for them. Supersports had some good action though. I am glad to see MotoAmerica at least be the platform to develop riders and hopefully prepare them for the world stage if they make it there. Gerloff posted some decent races this year in WSBK.
Do I think he's a threat to the top guys, especially Rea?? Not really, only thing that will stop Johnny Rea is Johnny Rea. While I think Scott Redding gave him some competition this year, wasn't like when Bautista showed up last year. Rea just keeps getting better and faster. Gerloff will get better but he's going to have to dig deep to get to the sharp end with the top guys.
I do think Gerloff will do better in WSBK, than what Beaubier is going to find in Moto2. I like Beaubier and respect him but I think he's going to get crushed in Moto2. Moto2 guys don't mess around and I think he's going to find out what fast is all about when he gets there. He's had it fairly easy in America with his only competition being an aging Elias. This year, was cake walk for him as well with no competition. Moto2 is going to be a reality check. Wish him all the best in Moto2, he's going to need it.
I'm glad we did get some racing in 2020. Formula 1 was good, eventhough it's Hamilton series. Racing was good and at least they did a lot of tracks. MotoGP could have been better with more tracks but better than nothing. WSBK was actually pretty good this year and MotoAmerica was good. Always looked forward to coming home and jumping on YouTube to see their highlights of races, even show some lower class races in full length on their YouTube channel.
Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and Christmas and a nice quiet end to 2020. It's been a weird year and nothing surprises anyone, anymore.
But I will say this, hold on to your seats people because, if you think 2020 was bad. I think we're going to get really humped hardcore in 2021, got a bad feeling about 2021. Let's hope it all doesn't happen though.
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