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

[madvlad]

Testing finished today and man not looking great mainly for Honda and Yamaha remains in HP trouble. While Yamaha improved in some other senses from what Fabio and Franky said but definitely not the top speed they were expecting out of the new engine, it only reached 324kpm which is barely but a few more digits than what they usually register, so not sure whatever happened to the so called spaceship rocket they promised to deliver. The declarations from Marquez aren't great at all, he actually finished his testing day about half way through the day and left Valencia because he said that with this Honda they'll never contend and walked off, I highly doubt they'll find anything significant enough from here to the Sepang test in February to make a difference and be ready for the March kickoff at Portugal. The rest of the field is much of the same old, testing odds and bits here and there but for the most part Ducati remained dominant and pretty steady on their testing through the day. Bezecchi got the upgraded 22' and hit the ground running, Luca stayed on the same bike and finished the day on top. Both Rins and Mir I feel bad for, those two are in for a hell of an awakening having signed with HRC man, that bike is just not there. The surprise of the day is Oliveira who finished 4th with his first outing with the Aprilia and looks like he hit the ground running with that thing, hopefully Aprilia can get their shit together with the mistakes that happened under the pressure they were with at the last half of the season which cost them 3rd in the standings as well and 2nd in the Constructors title as well.

We'll see how the WSBK season wraps up, the title can be wrapped up this upcoming round and yes definitely weird to see them finish afterwards but well a bit more racing before going back to boredom so I'll take it haha. I honestly don't follow F1 anymore, it's become such an elitist clown show I actually despise it. Unfortunately MotoGP is becoming that way as well slowly but surely in the name of "entertainment" and I think this upcoming season with two more races on the calendar and the sprint races, some teams/riders are going to snap, they're on edge as is already with the long and demanding schedule and now they prolong it by two more rounds and also add sprint races on Saturdays, I foresee them reverting back by the end of 2023 if not sooner once people snap and they also start to ask for higher salaries given that it's more work now.

[The Black Knight]

Testing finished today and man not looking great mainly for Honda and Yamaha remains in HP trouble. While Yamaha improved in some other senses from what Fabio and Franky said but definitely not the top speed they were expecting out of the new engine, it only reached 324kpm which is barely but a few more digits than what they usually register, so not sure whatever happened to the so called spaceship rocket they promised to deliver. The declarations from Marquez aren't great at all, he actually finished his testing day about half way through the day and left Valencia because he said that with this Honda they'll never contend and walked off, I highly doubt they'll find anything significant enough from here to the Sepang test in February to make a difference and be ready for the March kickoff at Portugal. The rest of the field is much of the same old, testing odds and bits here and there but for the most part Ducati remained dominant and pretty steady on their testing through the day. Bezecchi got the upgraded 22' and hit the ground running, Luca stayed on the same bike and finished the day on top. Both Rins and Mir I feel bad for, those two are in for a hell of an awakening having signed with HRC man, that bike is just not there. The surprise of the day is Oliveira who finished 4th with his first outing with the Aprilia and looks like he hit the ground running with that thing, hopefully Aprilia can get their shit together with the mistakes that happened under the pressure they were with at the last half of the season which cost them 3rd in the standings as well and 2nd in the Constructors title as well.

I caught up on some highlights for testing on YouTube and got some commentary from Crash.net, MotoGP. Everyone looked how they finished the year. No surprises, and the bikes are more evolutions rather than revolutions. I did notice Rins bike looked different from Marquez' and it could be just different fairings being tested. I thought Mir was close enough to Marquez to not feel that bad. I agree though, from what Marquez had to say the bike is not looking to be a contender. Honestly, that's a good thing. I like seeing Honda at the bottom for awhile, they will be back and it will be a matter of time. All teams go through periods of dominance, right now we are in the era of Ducati. Was Honda and Yamaha before that.

I'd like to see KTM and Aprilia come in more and actually contend better for next year. I think we will see them do better, just how much better is left to be seen. With 8 Ducati's on the grid, only so many places in the top 10 for everyone else. You know Marquez will be there, maybe not winning races but for sure top 5's and podiums. I think we will see the factory Ducati team really go at it next season. I think if he can keep it together, Jorge Martin will be a sure threat. Zarco is always there for the most part. Then you've got Miller and Binder on KTM's and if the Aprilia's show up then it's a packed top 10. I agree, Aprilia needs to do more, they sucked in the second half of the season. They just couldn't finish strong.

I think that's why we saw so many riders within the 1 second rule. There were many times I'd look over the FP times and Quali times and see sometimes 15 to 18 riders all within 1 second, and a lot of the time you had 8-10 riders within .5 a second. That's competitive and very jammed at the front. It then becomes who can manage and have better strategy.

We'll see how the WSBK season wraps up, the title can be wrapped up this upcoming round and yes definitely weird to see them finish afterwards but well a bit more racing before going back to boredom so I'll take it haha. I honestly don't follow F1 anymore, it's become such an elitist clown show I actually despise it. Unfortunately MotoGP is becoming that way as well slowly but surely in the name of "entertainment" and I think this upcoming season with two more races on the calendar and the sprint races, some teams/riders are going to snap, they're on edge as is already with the long and demanding schedule and now they prolong it by two more rounds and also add sprint races on Saturdays, I foresee them reverting back by the end of 2023 if not sooner once people snap and they also start to ask for higher salaries given that it's more work now.

I'm hoping Bautista takes it this weekend. Would be nice to see him win one in WSBK. Who knows, he might start a run of championships himself.

MotoGP is doing the same thing as F1 with adding Sprint Races. I think it's too much. Verstappen had a good point when talking about Sprint Races, something to the effect, "for 28-30 laps all you think about is not crashing and hurting the car for the real race." And that's all Sprints are, just fodder for inattentive fans. F1 uses the Sprint races to determine qualifying for the actual Race but they do had out more points this year. It's a chance to gain some points but like it was mentioned, you see a lot of teams in places that they normally aren't because for a Sprint race, everyone put on the Soft slicks and give it hell, because the Soft's can last for that long.

Then it was mentioned in Formula 1, that with all the new extra races(2023 gets 24!) and Sprints added, that some teams may just be forced to sit out due to: trying to stay within budget cap, fatigue from all the travel and to save on wear on the cars. And that sucks, no one wants to see teams drop out due to not wanting to race. I think MotoGP would see the same thing, although their costs aren't as high.

Who knows, just bring on 2023 already!!

[mdub]

Thanks for keeping forum going guys…and merry Xmas

[madvlad]

Thanks for keeping forum going guys…and merry Xmas

Honestly I'm beyond surprised that this forum is still even up bro not sure if whoever hosts it forgot about it or something haha but I do see a ton of people lurking so who knows. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours man