Binder is formidable when he's got everything dialed in. He's fast and seems to really like these Sprint races. I think the spring format plays to the strengths of the KTM. It allows them to run soft tires and extract the most of that bike. Pecco and Marquez were good and it was hard racing. I still think Marquez is riding over his abilities.Originally Posted by madvlad
Yamaha's problem is they have this mindset that what they make works and they think their riders should just adapt. Which to a point is right, as there is no perfect bike but there has to be some thought put into the bike and feedback from the riders. Suzuki were able to make the inline 4 work, not sure what Yamaha's problem with it is. What I also think has affected the Yamaha more than the other bikes is the new era of aerodynamics. Just got back 7-10 years and the M1 was a race/title winning bike. Didn't need the aero and was a sweet package. I think the one area Yamaha can't seem to figure out is the compulsory ECU. Everyone else either just adapted to it or figured out ways around it. Yamaha seems to have issues with it. One thing I also think that has really screwed up the Yamaha are the tires. Bridgestone era M1 was a total beast on the brakes and in corners. Let's face it, there are more corners than straights in MotoGP. So having a bike that can carve up the competition is just as good as mass top speed. Sure outright speed helps but look at what Rossi did to Stoner once they got the M1 dialed in all those years ago. Sure different bike, different era but balance and agility wins the long game.
Aprilia are starting to remind me of Ferrari F1 2022. Start out the gates as being contenders and then come race day, their strategy and execution go right out the window. It's something inherent to Italian teams. Ferrari can have a rocket for a car but then their race strategy is something a 1st grader would come up with. I can't remember the race last year, but everyone was going out on slicks as the track was drying and slicks were usable and what does Ferrari do? Send out Leclerc on intermediates, and leaves everyone including their own drivers scratching their heads. Aprilia are the same way, super fast bike and quality well. Come race day, either the setup goes out the window or their riders just can't hack it. Too inconsistent for a top level MotoGP team. And anyone will tell you, consistency is what wins championships. You can be the fastest guy out there but if you can't bring it home then what's the point? There are times when I think Leclerc is faster than Verstappen, but you can almost set a watch to when Leclerc will end up losing it and crashing into the wall. Same with Vinales, hands down has always been one of the fastest guys out there. You could almost get take bets as to just home many places he will lose at the start come Race Day.
And you know what a lot of the problem is, there is just too much sh*t on these bikes for these guys to get it right every time come race start. I think all these riders could use some serious time spent at the drag strip. Working on perfecting their launches. Working with their settings and then getting the best launch. How many times have we seen the Aprilia have issues with their ride height device? That shouldn't be happening, ever. Either the software sucks, or the riders fat finger it and get the bike stuck in launch mode. Then the bike is unridable.
Again, I think there is just too much going on with these bikes these days. With F1 cars, there is plenty of room to put all the hardware/software and so forth. On a bike, there is only so much room to pack all that sh*t in there and sooner or later something goes wrong.
Let's home for a good full race tomorrow
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