June 17, 2025 • 29 mins
It’s Mugello Week, baby! And the Italian GP is shaping up to be bellissimo – fast bikes, fiery fans, and maybe even a Pecco vs. Marc showdown?
In this episode of Pit Talk, we preview all the chaos, colour, and contenders heading into one of the most iconic races on the calendar.
🏁 Can Pecco Bagnaia deliver for Ducati at home?
🔥 Will Marc Marquez stir up the Italian party?
🤠 And what’s the latest on Jack Miller’s future?
From yellow smoke to hot takes, we’ve got your ultimate Mugello rundown right here.
Thank you to Shannons Insurance for sponsoring this episode of Pit Talk
📺 Watch MotoGP on ch. 506 or via Kayo Sports bit.ly/3wDpMnj
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cell Aduti.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Everyone, Moto GP is heading to Magnificent Magello for this
weekend's Round nine of the twenty twenty five Moto GP
World Championship, and as always, Pit Talk is brought to
you by Shannon's Insurance. I'm your host Ronita Vmulan, and
joining me is the man who knows more about Moto
(00:21):
GP than I'm gonna say me and everyone else included
Mac Layton Matt. We were talking off here about Migello
and what's going on this weekend, and I feel like
we have to start, as always with the whole top
Rack and Jack Miller news because that is just a
circulating NonStop at the moment.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
What's the latest with Jack?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Then?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah, it sure is. I mean, it's the topic. It's
been the big story since Aragon, the fact that top
Rack is definitely coming to Moto GP, despite me banning
myself from talking about him until it was official. Now
I have to talk about him because it is official.
But of course, the knock on effect with these things
is three riders, two seats, not a great equation for somebody.
So you've effectively got this shootout now between Miguel Olivera
(01:06):
and Jack Miller it sounds like that's going to be
for the next four rounds. It sounds like they're going
to make a call on this by the latest, probably
at the Czech Republic Grand Prix next month. So you've
got what you've got, Italy, you've got asen. Czech Republic
is the fourth. I think Austria's in there as well,
so you've got the four rounds for these rights. Jack's
obviously got a significant advantage over Miguel at the moment.
(01:29):
It seems like we discussed this last week. There's a
clause in Olivera's contract that if he is the fourth
of the four Yamaha riders in the standings, then he
can be effectively demoted. That twenty twenty six contract can
be torn up. So right now, that is Jack's best
bet to keep his seat with Yamaha for next year
because statistically, right now he has the high ground. That's
(01:53):
the good news for Rent the bad news. And I'm
going to write about this for Fox Sports probably in
the next twenty four hours or so. And I know
this because I live this with Jack for many many years.
Every rider or driver or anyone in a sport, they
have a track or a ground or somewhere where it
just goes to shit, let's be honest most of the time.
And for Jack Miller, that place is Migello. The very,
(02:16):
very grim statistic that I've managed to dig out this
week is this is the least successful circuit of all
the tracks that Jack has done in every year he's
been in the World Championship. It's an absolute graveyard for him.
So if he gets anything out of Magello this weekend,
based on past history, that has got to be a
very very big tick. And the good news for him
(02:37):
is that he has more than just this one race
weekend to sort of stake his claim for a twenty
twenty six seat, because if it came down to Migello
or nothing, nothing has generally won with Jack when it
comes to Migello. And the funny part about it is
he absolutely loves the place. He was a factory Gcatti rider,
so he's sort of reveled in the support of all
the grand stands there. He loves riding it. He's not
(02:57):
slow there, it's just never worked out. For whatever reason.
Somewhere has got to be your worst track, and unfortunately
for Jack, this is that worst track. So anything he
gets this weekend as a bonus, and then we move
on to happier hunting grounds and hopefully that's the recipe
for him to keep his seat for twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So interesting because every time I've seen Jack on this track,
you know, it looks like he enjoys it.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I'm thinking back, like you said, the factory, do you Caddy?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
But then when you're talking about the results, how funny
that a writer can love a track and just do
dismal results and not not be able to produce anything there.
But do you think for Jack though, knowing that this
weekend is going to add some extra pressure to him?
Or do you think because I, like I said to
you we spoke about on the pod, is I see
this new and improved, relaxed, happy Jack Do you think
(03:44):
he'd like? No, my results are going to speak for
themselves as a consistent over the whole entire season thus far.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, I reckon the latter. I mean, it's interesting like
the Jack of old would have been turning up to
this race weekend like a little bit jumpy, little bit
on edge, knowing the history, knowing that it's not gone
that well for him there in the past. He seems
oddly for a guy who's got on paper no job security.
He actually seems very relaxed, and I think part of
that is he knows he's sort of got this career
(04:14):
lifeline last year, because you remember when we spoke to
him in September last year for the POT after he
just signed that Pramak deal, he was he'd kind of
come to terms with the fact that it was over,
and he was not happy about it, but he understood
it because the KTM tenure hadn't gone particularly well, particularly
this second year, and it took a special set of
circumstances for him to be on the greed for twenty
(04:36):
five and he's almost been given this sort of like
eleventh hour reprieve, and I think he's done a really
good job with it. We've talked this year about he's
so much more confident, he's so much happier. He knows
he's having an impact with this team that yeah, you've
got an established team in Pramak, you've got an established
manufacturer in Yamaha, but it's kind of a startup, right,
and so his fingerprints are all over that place at
(04:57):
the moment, and I think his input there has been
greatly appreciated. And I think he's enjoying being a bit
of a leader. You know. You sort of don't think
of Jack as being the responsible adult in the rub
a lot of the time, but he certainly is because
he's just now so experienced he's been around. I think
he's actually really reveling in what the job requires. And
so for a guy who contractually is actually under a
(05:18):
bit of pressure right now, he seems quite relaxed. So
how that pertains to this weekend, I don't think he's
going to be as jumpy about Michello as perhaps he
was in the past. It's a bit of age and
a bit of wisdom, but he also knows that it
doesn't quite come down to this one weekend. But he's
so funny, isn't it, Like you were saying before that
he likes everything about the place except for the results
(05:38):
that he gets there, and it's just so weird. Like
I used to have this discussion on four wheels with
Daniel Ricardo all the time. We used to choke that
he may as well not bother catching the Flights of
Brazil for the Brazilian Grand Prix because it was absolutely grim.
It was by far the worst place he ever went
to whatever could go wrong in sow Paolo did go wrong.
But the other one I always think about when you
consider how good this guy was, Seis Stoner never did
(06:01):
anything at her Wrath. It was really weird, Like he
was so good everywhere else, he won so many Grand
Prix everywhere else. It took him until the last year
of his World Championship career to finally win a race
at Herrath. All the years that he'd been in Europe,
he never won anything in there until the very last time.
He wrote it on the Honda before he retired. So
maybe there's a lesson in there for Jackets, a bit
(06:22):
of what good things come to those who wait sort
of deal. But you know, for someone as good as Casey,
for him to have this one circuit that he just
couldn't do anything at didn't make any sense. And it's
a bit like that with Jacket Magello. It makes no sense,
but it is the reality.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I was reading an article on crush dot net and
they were speaking with a Yamaha motor Racing managing director,
Paolo Pavesio. I hope I pronounced that right, you did, yes, yeah,
thank you, thank you. They were saying that how they
wanted top rack no matter what. But how they're realizing
it is coming at a consequence.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And to quote him here.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
He's saying, you know, Miguel has had a difficult start
because of the injury, but Jack had the energy immediately
in the project. Maybe some ups and downs, but he's
also new to the m one. Me reading that, even
though they continue on to say, you know, we're going
to assess, we have until the summer, blah blah blah.
Me reading that is like, okay, we like Jack. We
spoke about the fact that he's tied in with the
(07:19):
Suzuka eight hours as well.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Then there's that other room.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I don't know if you've heard that, Matt about potentially
Jack going to superbikes and Cal Crutchlow stepping in as
a team manager, and I think that was with Honda
in Love Superbikes. So silly Sethan is just well and
truly underway. But it seems like Jack Millers caught up
in all.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Of it right now.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Well, I mean, if you're looking at it from Jack's
point of view, it sounds like he has options. Whereas
this time last year, it was at Magello last year,
on the Saturday of that race, weekend that he officially
the news came out that he's been replaced by Pedro
Costa at Katie the Factory Katim team. And that was
the first Domino You remember Magello last year like it
went completely crazy on the Sunday and then the Monday
(08:00):
postseason test and you know, Mark Marquez says no to
pramat Juge, Martin goes and signs with a Prillier, all
Domino starts scattering in a million directions. This time last
year Jack, The one thing Jack did not have were options.
He was scratching around to cheep and try and have
an option singular. So it does sound very much like
he is a man with certain cards he can play
(08:20):
this time. And I also read those Perversio comments and
my reading between the lines, and you have to be
careful with management speak. With this sort of stuff. It
feels like it's Jack's to lose. And I know that
sounds weird for a guy that's in a position of
contractual weakness relative to Olivera. But I think that comment
about Jack hit the ground running. He came in with
the energy. He was doing well even before the Olivera injury.
(08:44):
You've got to feel a little sympathy for Olivera here
because he missed three rounds through absolutely no fALS own
and that's the second big injury he's had in the past.
They'd be nine months. You remember Indonesia last year, the
bike's electronics spat him off over the over the edge
because they thought he was in a different part the
track and just high sighted him. And then he got
taken out by fermin Aldegre in Argentina in the sprint race.
(09:05):
So he's had two pretty significant setbacks that are nothing
necessarily to do with him. And I still think that,
and we sort of discussed this last time. I think
that Miguel Olivera is a Motor GP writer still, I
just don't know if it's here, and then you haven't
had to look at where the other options are and
could he be an option somewhere else. I still think
he's worthy of a place on the grid, but in
(09:26):
terms of what Yamaha need right now and what Yamaha
need going forward, and as good as top rack is
next year, he's still a rookie in Motor GP. He's
a twenty eight year old rookie, but he's still a rookie,
and you need someone with Jack's skill set to be
on the sister bike a a benchmark what Razcatlioglu does
because there's going to be some ups and downs. He's
(09:47):
a rookie. I don't care how old he is and
how good he is, but also the wider impact that
Jack has with Yamaha now and then what that means
for twenty seven when we go to this new rule set.
I think Jack's the right guy for the job. I
feel that he's in a position of strength contractually here.
If it really does come down to these next four races,
let's just survive Magello and then we can move on
to the next ones. I still think it's his to lose.
(10:10):
So it's a good position for him to be in
because this time last year, you know, you and I
were talking, it's like, man, like the doors are closing
left and right here. When he didn't get that second
the seat at the second KTMT, which was Tech three
last year, when they just randomly signed Vignales and Bastindini
from other manufacturers last year, that was when it first
got to like this is looking pretty dicey here, because
(10:33):
it's like the old game of musical chairs, right, you know,
you keep circulating and the music stops and there's not
too many chairs left and he grabbed the last one.
He's made a good fist of it, and I think
he's in a stronger position now than he was this
time last year. So fingers crossed for all the Australian
fans that it does work out.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
That way exactly, and fingers crossed this weekend for a
better result for Pekobanaya heading into Magello Moto GP Releaser
Masters of Magello video that you can see on their
and they're talking about the previous amount of winners.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I think Valentino Rossi's seven times winner.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Here or Hee Lorenzo six and Peko Vanyaya three times winner.
I posted on the Fox Motorsports socials last year the
flashback to the kiss inspired helmet. They had the blue
livery which was so cool. But for Peco, we've kind
of been saying this since the circus came back to
the European rounds, is when is he gonna step up?
(11:27):
When's he gonna step up? We spoke about that small
little change. You wrote the article on Fox sports dot
com for Slash Motorsport. Is this the weekend for Peko Banyaya.
Is this him back on his home turf where he's comfortable,
he's made those shifts. Are we gonna see Herko Banyaya
back on top this weekend?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Matt, I think we have to right for the sake
of the World Championship. This kind of feels that, I
know there's still fourteen rounds to go, We're only at
round eight. If this championship is going to burn for
the duration of the year. GP does this great job
at having last round showdowns. We've had three in a row.
It tends to boil down to that this next two
(12:06):
weeks or ten days or whatever it is. From where
we're speaking here, you've got Magello where Bangyoa has won
the last three years, and you've got Asen where Bagnyai
has won the last three years. And you compare and
contrast Banya's fantastic record at Magello to Mark Marquez's record,
which is probably more pertinent here. Marquees is only one
at Magello once, and you know, it's not a bogey
circuit as such, like Mark has a couple of you know,
(12:28):
inverted commas bogie circuits. But this is such Banyaya territory
that I still think he's too far behind Mark as
it stands right now to be in the championship fight
unless Mark helps him by a couple of DNFs. So
I don't think it's necessarily going to come down to
what Peco does. But now never's a hard thing to
say with fourteen rounds to go. But if he's ever
(12:50):
going to stand his ground and ever going to stick
it to Marquez on home territory, it has to be now,
and it has to be these next two weeks. Whether
what he found at Aragon is terms of you know,
he uses the word feeling a lot. I don't have
the front feeling on the bike. What that really means
is I just don't have the confidence to hammer the breaks,
which is the greatest strength. And we're he's so awesome
(13:12):
at Magello, like the ground he makes up into that
first corner there has always been one of his calling cards.
It kind of feels like this is the weekend it
has to happen. So for the sake of the World Championship,
I love it to happen. But what's been weird this year? Right?
We talked all last year once Pecko was signed there
to be alongside Marquez. Oh wait, till these two get
together on tracks, it's going to be fireworks. It's going
(13:33):
to be fantastic. They've almost had this season this year
where they've kind of existed in parallel, like they've been
on the same racetrack. They haven't fought for a lot
of positions in races together because Mark's been too far ahead,
or he's made a mistake, or you Pecko's having an
off weekend, other than the early laps at Harath where
they've really got into each other. On those first couple
(13:55):
of laps that they was pretty ferocious. They made contact
a few times behind Quasherraro at the start of that race,
and then Mark fell off early in that race and
sort of took that out of the equation. They've not
had too many fights on track. It's been kind of
weird that we've got eight rounds in and we've not
had the like fall on Bangnai Marquez fight like was
it large The last year at her Wath when Mark
was on the Grassini bike like that was epic. The
(14:16):
fight between those two in that race, it was fantastic.
And when they were teammates, logically you sort of thought,
well they're on the same bike. This will just be
on week after week after week. It hasn't happened. So
I guess the question for me is that Mark's been
so good this year, as we know, this is absolute
Bangnayo territory. You combine those two things, does this mean
(14:36):
we get the fight between the two of them on
track that we've been so looking forward to the whole year.
And if we get it, like Banyai's record is so good,
Master's and Magello, like you mentioned, it's going to take
something pretty special for Mark to stop that if Peko's
in one of those moods that he gets into at Magello.
And the one thing, you know, the last couple of years,
Peko has been so good at Magello that the races
(14:58):
up front have actually been pretty pedestrian because he's just
way too good for everybody else. If you combine a
more confident Banyaya and a marker is trying to make
a point, like if Mark can beat Peco here, that's
worth more than like twenty five points. Psychologically that's massive
for Mark. So you add all those things and this
is why I'm so looking forward to this weekend because
(15:19):
a it's an awesome race track from Oto GP bikes.
We love it and I'm deeply envious that you're going
to be there this weekend. And yes, we will talk
Corden names because we're not calling them numbers. Michael Lemonato,
I'm talking to you here. But the thing about this
track is that we know how awesome Peco is here.
So if he's ever going to stand his ground against market,
kind of feels like it's going to be this weekend.
And I am fully here for this because I think
(15:41):
whatever happens one way or the other, we've got an
awesome storyline, don't we.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
There's a rumor that started which started from our friends Matt.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oxley and Peter Baum at the Oxley Bomb podcast.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Okay, they joked about how Valentino Rossi is going to
give Pego Vannyaya a bonus if he beats Mark Marcos
here hundred grand or whatever they said, And now I
keep seeing it across everywhere saying, yeah, Valentino and Rossi
has given Pego Vanyay and extra bonus to beat Marc
has A Magello, which I think is just I can't
believe that that's that's gone into a rumor. But here's
(16:14):
this for the statsman, Mark is only one pole position,
so if he gets poll this weekend, that's his one
hundredth pole position and his career number ninety three victory.
If he wins, you think, wow, they're big numbers to
happen in Magello, right on the Italian's home race, Peggo
(16:34):
Vanya's home race, DW Caddi's literally home Racemugine.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
If the Spaniard does it all, that's.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Well, ninety three wins for ninety three that's and we
can see that's a Matt Burke commentary special that'll be
coming out on the weekend for sure. But the thing
with Mark is that Mark loves finding ways to motivate himself, right.
I mean, he's done so much winning over so long,
and he's obviously got this. He's on this redemptive tale.
Now that you know I've said this before, I think
if he wins this year World championship, given what he's
(17:03):
been through physically for the last six years, it's one
of the great redemptive tales in any sport, forget motorsport.
But you also know that he loves being the villain.
He absolutely loves it. So a chance to go into
Migello in Peco's backyard and Rossi's backyard. There's no love
lost between those two. And win for the Italian team,
but beat the Italian riders in their backyard. That Mark
(17:25):
loves this sort of stuff. So yeah, it's not been
a fantastic track for him in the past. He's had podiums,
he's been beaten in some pretty awesome last lap battles.
I remember Lorenzo getting him there one year. How much
would he love to beat Banaya this weekend? So you're
going to have two super motivated riders, And the key
thing for me was, you know, I think we know
how important qualifying there is there because you want to
(17:47):
be out the front and not courting those crazy slipstreaming
battles that you get up and down at the start.
Finished straight there. Q two on Saturday is going to
be awesome because those two will be throwing absolutely everything
at it. And then you add the fact that you
know Alex Marquez is like sort of motor GP's metronome,
like he's just ticking away at the same pace the
entire time you look up and go, oh look, Alex
(18:08):
Markeez is second again, because that's where Alex Marquez lives
these days, You've got a whole bunch of other Italian
riders on fastikes wanting to play spoiler. There's a lot
going on this weekend and Saturday. I think the intensity
of Saturday is going to be fantastic, and then you
know that place will pack out on Sunday. We know
what it's going to be like on Sunday. We know
that Decadie will have some special livery because they always
(18:30):
do for this particular round. It's going to be a
great round. It's a fantastic racetrack at the best of times.
But you look at all those little side plots that
we've just discussed in the last ten minutes. I cannot
wait for this weekend.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
You mentioned Alex Marquez, then I definitely want to highlight
your article that you've got on Fox sports dot com
do Au Forward Slash Motorsport of Alex Marquez and why
he won't win the world title, which I thought was
really interesting because obviously everyone's saying, you know, he has
missed a consistency.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
He's mister P two. He's always there. Moment is Mark
crashing too much or Peko's trying to hard, but Alex
is there.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Let's dive into that, Matt, because Alex Marquez, yeah, he
has missed a consistency. Buddy is on last year's bike, right,
is that he's downfall for not winning the world title
and obviously not being Mark Marquez.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah, I mean, well, the latter part's pretty difficult. At
the moment, he's the second best rider in the World Championship.
He's the second best rider in his own household. That's
a little bit depressing, but he he's been this year.
I never thought that we would ever discuss Alex Marquez
the way we've discussed him, because there's been nothing that
we've seen in his previous years in motor GP that
suggested he was anything other than a guy who would
(19:39):
occasionally have an awesome weekend at a track that he's
good at and get all the podium, Like he's always
good at Sapang, he's always good at Cataloonia. He has
certain tracks where he's good. But you know, the fact
that we're, what eight rounds into the season, he's already
scored more points this season than he has in any
other full season in his career. We're not even what
thirty five percent of the way through the season. Yes,
we know that GDP twenty four is a fantastic bike,
(20:02):
but he's shown a level this year that I don't
think too many of us thought that he had in him,
and the consistency thing he certainly hasn't had in him
in the past, and at the moment he's staying in
this title fight based on the fact that he's crazily
consistently had that one DNF at Lamont in the Rain,
which quite frankly was an excusable one because that was
a crazy race for everybody. Other than that, he's just
(20:24):
there the whole time. He's been first or second in
every single sprint. And we talked in Germany last year
the fact that, oh wow, the two Marquez brothers are
on the podium. It's the first time for thirty years
we'd had brothers on the podium. It's almost a shock
these days when they're not on the podium together. We've
seen it so often this year. He's redefined my ceiling
(20:44):
of how good of a rider I think he is.
And you can't say it's all about the bike because
Franco Morbidelli's on a GP twenty four. In fact, he
rode a twenty four last year as well, so he
should theoretically be more used to it than Alex Marquez,
who rode A twenty three last year. He's ahead of
Morbidelli in the standings. He's the head of Banaya in
the standings on A twenty five. He's ahead of de
jan Antonio in the standings on A twenty five. You
(21:06):
would expect him to be ahead of his teammate firm
and Aldergare because Aldagare is good, but he's also rookie,
so he's still got a bit to learn. So Alex
has been awesome this year. I think Alex's biggest issue
is his sibling is a in the lead b one
of the greatest riders we've ever seen and see. You
do wonder if Alex sometimes thinks, can I actually beat
(21:26):
Mark in a straight head to head because we've seen
them go ahead to head a couple of times this year.
It's been Mark in Thailand, Mark and Argentina. Alex's two
big results in the two races where he's led the
championship after Austin when Mark crashed, and after Spain, where
he won his first Grand Prix after Mark had crashed
on lap three. Now caveat to that he was ahead
of Mark on the road at the time when Mark
threw it down the road, so good for him. But
(21:48):
he also made the most of Mark's bad days. So
for him to stay in championship contention, he needs to
retain this crazy consistency that's almost unsustainable that he's had
for eight rounds. Is going to need Mark to help him,
and I think those two things will probably actually go
against him as this season goes on, because the GP
twenty four has got to a very high level, but
(22:09):
it's hit its level. It's not really going to get
a lot better from here. You suspect the twenty five
will I also suspect that you can see a bit
of this with Mark at the moment. Mark's crushing people
on the weekends where he can like Aragon, and he's
riding really smart on the weekends where he doesn't quite
have it. And we'll look back at this championship. If
Mark gets it, it'll be huh. He finished on the
(22:30):
podium at Silveston where he's not particularly good. He kept
his head when everyone was losing theirs at Lamar where
everyone's throwing it down the road, and Mark's like you
know what Zarko's got this, but I'm going to finish
second here and I'm going to bank twenty super important
points on a day where my brother's not scoring at all.
They're the days that are going to win Mark the
World Championship. So I think the twenty five will get better.
(22:52):
I'd be amazed if Alex can sustain this for an
entire year. I mean, it's hugely impressive he's done it
for this long. I don't want to discredit what he's
done year Alex, but I still don't necessarily see him
as a championship contender, and I reckon his biggest fight
might actually come from behind him. For all the reasons
that I mentioned about the twenty five bike and Banyaya
perhaps getting back to doing what Banyaya can do, I
(23:15):
can imagine the gap between second and third and the
championship shrinking to the point where if I had to
put my money on who's going to finish second in
the Championship, I still think it's going to be Banyaia.
But I don't think either of them they're going to
either of them are going to beat Mark. I know
Banyai is spotting Alex Marquez a big disadvantage at this point.
Still fourteen rounds to go, so long Togo. Still, I
don't see Alex being a championship contender for the long
(23:37):
haul unless Mark helps him be a championship contender by
doing a few silly things like Austin and Spain. I
think those mistakes will come be less frequent as the
season goes on. To say all of that, the reason
that I wanted to highlight what Alex is doing in
that story that I wrote for Fox sports dot com,
don Au, that you mentioned. He's having a seriously good season,
(24:00):
and I don't know about you. I never expected to
be having conversations about Alex Marquez being second in the
World Championship and being as good as he has, so
fair play to him. Guy's twenty nine years old. You
don't often rewrite your career story at twenty nine, like
you kind of set at that point. He's been better
than we expected, but I don't know if that's necessarily
going to be good enough.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It's nice to kind of be starting the championship off
like this. I'm thinking back to when it was I
think Fabio versus Mark, or maybe I've got this wrong
way around Dovey versus Mark and the other one would
come in and you weren't expecting it. I remember Mark
saying press conference, I was not expecting Dovey to be
there or Fabio to be there, right, So to have
Alex there, I think is really refreshing. Like you said,
(24:40):
this year is going to be Mark and Peco butting
heads the.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Whole time, and what was that? When was the war
going to get put up in the garage and all that,
any of that has gone completely the opposite.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
But like you said, Digitis on the GP twenty five,
why is he what is he missing? Where's that missing piece? Morbidelli,
you said John GP twenty five for he's obviously.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
So I think him.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Though it does feel like we're about seven hundred races
into this year, We've got a seven hundred more to go,
and with Marquez it's hard to not bank on him
right now, even me thinking about this weekend going in
and it's hard to not want a bank on Mark Marquez.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
But also the same time, I want Pecker. I want
to come back because it's Italy. Is that homegrownd Priod.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I want to feel the passion from the Italians fans
while I'm there.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, A great thing for the championship for the next
ten days would be for Banyai to win these next
to Grand Prix and to take a pretty hefty chunk
out of Mark's championship margin, because I think that introduces
another element that we know there's going to be tracks
later in the year where Mark is awesome, like anything
that's anti Clockoise. Let's be honest, Like once we get
to Saxon Ring, I think I think we know what's
(25:52):
going to happen at Saxon Ring. I mean, whether asterisks permitting,
which is a big thing to say. For Philip Island.
I think Mark will be absolutely awesome at Phillip Island
because we haven't seen him on the best bike at
Philip Island for a long time, and we know how
good he is there even when he doesn't have the
best bike. But we want this to be a live
championship with storylines that go on for the remainder of
the season, and I think a lot of that is
(26:14):
not necessarily to do with Mark. I think it's what's
behind him, and to my mind, like if Banyaa can
win at least one of these two Grand Prix in
the next two weeks and preferably both of them for
the sake of the championship. Then I think it's going
to be super interesting as we get past the mid
season breaking into the second half.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Well, let's move on.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
To Magello because you mentioned there about the corner names
and a little spoiler alert, Jacob Rylstone, our Aussie star
in Moto three, is going to take me around Migello
to give me his insights on when I make my
Moto three career debut and how I can raise around
that track.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
But you've mentioned corner names here, so tell me what are.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
The interesting corner names in at Magello because you've given
us the rundown on them on and that was not
to be expected.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I love this track because the quarner names are so
over the top, flam boyanly Italian, but they're just perfect
at the same time. And you know, anytime you have
a corner sequence it's called Casanova and Savelli. When you're
going down the hill there with that packed hillside and
everyone's still wearing yellow despite the fact that Valentino is
not on the grid any murdor GP sights and the
(27:18):
warm up lap before the Grand Prix on the Sunday
where every single person has managed to get in a
canned air horn and a yellow flare and it's all
going off on the hill as it going round to
the formation lap when they're coming into the grid and
there's still smoke just wafting over the valley there from
what's got on the formation lap. It's one of the
great sites and I'm hoping for your sake being on
the ground if you do get an Italian winning there.
(27:41):
The way that podium juts out over the start finished
straight and everyone'll invade the track national anthem there is
pretty unhinged when an Italian rider wins. So I'm very
much looking forward to see what you're able to capture
from there, because you'll get swept up with a bunch
of people going completely crazy for an Italian rider winning.
But I I mean it's a great track because it
has undulation, it has history, it's incredibly picturesque and there's
(28:06):
just no there's so much elevation change in so many
high speed corners here, but it's the elevation change that
makes it when you see these bikes side to side
down the hill through the Arabiatas is absolutely fantastic. That Chicane,
the Scarporea Pelagio, Chicaine. There were're going through ten and eleven.
There's a lot of stuff going on there, a lot
of passing and repassing Moto three. If it's closed in
(28:29):
the last few laps, you know something's going down there
because there'll be six riders in the lead pack going
in there on the last lap and not six of
them coming out. You can guarantee that, so there'll be
some sillyness going on there. But then also the charge
out of the last corner there because it is so
steep and it is so uphill. I do hope you've
got some comfortable shoes for this track walk, because you'll
look up coming out of fifteen and look up at
(28:49):
the start figure straight and you won't be able to
see it because it's so steep. You might want to
be on the vesper for the last part of that lap.
I reckon, So hopefully Jacob Birch. Hopefully Jacob treats you
well or at least gives you a slip straight up
the straight there, because as I'm sure he'll tell you,
coming out of that last quarter on a motor three bike,
that's where racists can be one and lost. We've seen
some awesome last light battles at this track, so yeah,
(29:10):
bring it on, thoroughly looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yes, well, guys, you can catch that and all the
other action alive and i'd break free on Fox Sports
and ko If you want to see what Jacob gives
me my little pointers around Magello, that is going to
be on the Fox Sports YouTube channel. All of Matt's
articles and more about MotoGP are on Fox sports dot com,
door Au forard Slash Motorsport, and if you want to
(29:34):
keep up to date with us on socials, we are
at Foxmotorsport everywhere. I'm going to take you guys behind
the scenes as much as I can at Migello Matt
as always, thank you so much for joining me on
this episode of Pit Talk, which is brought to.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
You by Shannon's Insurance.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I'm Ronita vmuland and we're going to be back real
soon with more motor GP Pit Talk
Cell Aduti.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Everyone, Moto GP is heading to Magnificent Magello for this
weekend's Round nine of the twenty twenty five Moto GP
World Championship, and as always, Pit Talk is brought to
you by Shannon's Insurance. I'm your host Ronita Vmulan, and
joining me is the man who knows more about Moto
(00:21):
GP than I'm gonna say me and everyone else included
Mac Layton Matt. We were talking off here about Migello
and what's going on this weekend, and I feel like
we have to start, as always with the whole top
Rack and Jack Miller news because that is just a
circulating NonStop at the moment.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
What's the latest with Jack?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Then?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah, it sure is. I mean, it's the topic. It's
been the big story since Aragon, the fact that top
Rack is definitely coming to Moto GP, despite me banning
myself from talking about him until it was official. Now
I have to talk about him because it is official.
But of course, the knock on effect with these things
is three riders, two seats, not a great equation for somebody.
So you've effectively got this shootout now between Miguel Olivera
(01:06):
and Jack Miller it sounds like that's going to be
for the next four rounds. It sounds like they're going
to make a call on this by the latest, probably
at the Czech Republic Grand Prix next month. So you've
got what you've got, Italy, you've got asen. Czech Republic
is the fourth. I think Austria's in there as well,
so you've got the four rounds for these rights. Jack's
obviously got a significant advantage over Miguel at the moment.
(01:29):
It seems like we discussed this last week. There's a
clause in Olivera's contract that if he is the fourth
of the four Yamaha riders in the standings, then he
can be effectively demoted. That twenty twenty six contract can
be torn up. So right now, that is Jack's best
bet to keep his seat with Yamaha for next year
because statistically, right now he has the high ground. That's
(01:53):
the good news for Rent the bad news. And I'm
going to write about this for Fox Sports probably in
the next twenty four hours or so. And I know
this because I live this with Jack for many many years.
Every rider or driver or anyone in a sport, they
have a track or a ground or somewhere where it
just goes to shit, let's be honest most of the time.
And for Jack Miller, that place is Migello. The very,
(02:16):
very grim statistic that I've managed to dig out this
week is this is the least successful circuit of all
the tracks that Jack has done in every year he's
been in the World Championship. It's an absolute graveyard for him.
So if he gets anything out of Magello this weekend,
based on past history, that has got to be a
very very big tick. And the good news for him
(02:37):
is that he has more than just this one race
weekend to sort of stake his claim for a twenty
twenty six seat, because if it came down to Migello
or nothing, nothing has generally won with Jack when it
comes to Migello. And the funny part about it is
he absolutely loves the place. He was a factory Gcatti rider,
so he's sort of reveled in the support of all
the grand stands there. He loves riding it. He's not
(02:57):
slow there, it's just never worked out. For whatever reason.
Somewhere has got to be your worst track, and unfortunately
for Jack, this is that worst track. So anything he
gets this weekend as a bonus, and then we move
on to happier hunting grounds and hopefully that's the recipe
for him to keep his seat for twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
So interesting because every time I've seen Jack on this track,
you know, it looks like he enjoys it.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I'm thinking back, like you said, the factory, do you Caddy?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
But then when you're talking about the results, how funny
that a writer can love a track and just do
dismal results and not not be able to produce anything there.
But do you think for Jack though, knowing that this
weekend is going to add some extra pressure to him?
Or do you think because I, like I said to
you we spoke about on the pod, is I see
this new and improved, relaxed, happy Jack Do you think
(03:44):
he'd like? No, my results are going to speak for
themselves as a consistent over the whole entire season thus far.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Yeah, I reckon the latter. I mean, it's interesting like
the Jack of old would have been turning up to
this race weekend like a little bit jumpy, little bit
on edge, knowing the history, knowing that it's not gone
that well for him there in the past. He seems
oddly for a guy who's got on paper no job security.
He actually seems very relaxed, and I think part of
that is he knows he's sort of got this career
(04:14):
lifeline last year, because you remember when we spoke to
him in September last year for the POT after he
just signed that Pramak deal, he was he'd kind of
come to terms with the fact that it was over,
and he was not happy about it, but he understood
it because the KTM tenure hadn't gone particularly well, particularly
this second year, and it took a special set of
circumstances for him to be on the greed for twenty
(04:36):
five and he's almost been given this sort of like
eleventh hour reprieve, and I think he's done a really
good job with it. We've talked this year about he's
so much more confident, he's so much happier. He knows
he's having an impact with this team that yeah, you've
got an established team in Pramak, you've got an established
manufacturer in Yamaha, but it's kind of a startup, right,
and so his fingerprints are all over that place at
(04:57):
the moment, and I think his input there has been
greatly appreciated. And I think he's enjoying being a bit
of a leader. You know. You sort of don't think
of Jack as being the responsible adult in the rub
a lot of the time, but he certainly is because
he's just now so experienced he's been around. I think
he's actually really reveling in what the job requires. And
so for a guy who contractually is actually under a
(05:18):
bit of pressure right now, he seems quite relaxed. So
how that pertains to this weekend, I don't think he's
going to be as jumpy about Michello as perhaps he
was in the past. It's a bit of age and
a bit of wisdom, but he also knows that it
doesn't quite come down to this one weekend. But he's
so funny, isn't it, Like you were saying before that
he likes everything about the place except for the results
(05:38):
that he gets there, and it's just so weird. Like
I used to have this discussion on four wheels with
Daniel Ricardo all the time. We used to choke that
he may as well not bother catching the Flights of
Brazil for the Brazilian Grand Prix because it was absolutely grim.
It was by far the worst place he ever went
to whatever could go wrong in sow Paolo did go wrong.
But the other one I always think about when you
consider how good this guy was, Seis Stoner never did
(06:01):
anything at her Wrath. It was really weird, Like he
was so good everywhere else, he won so many Grand
Prix everywhere else. It took him until the last year
of his World Championship career to finally win a race
at Herrath. All the years that he'd been in Europe,
he never won anything in there until the very last time.
He wrote it on the Honda before he retired. So
maybe there's a lesson in there for Jackets, a bit
(06:22):
of what good things come to those who wait sort
of deal. But you know, for someone as good as Casey,
for him to have this one circuit that he just
couldn't do anything at didn't make any sense. And it's
a bit like that with Jacket Magello. It makes no sense,
but it is the reality.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I was reading an article on crush dot net and
they were speaking with a Yamaha motor Racing managing director,
Paolo Pavesio. I hope I pronounced that right, you did, yes, yeah,
thank you, thank you. They were saying that how they
wanted top rack no matter what. But how they're realizing
it is coming at a consequence.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And to quote him here.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
He's saying, you know, Miguel has had a difficult start
because of the injury, but Jack had the energy immediately
in the project. Maybe some ups and downs, but he's
also new to the m one. Me reading that, even
though they continue on to say, you know, we're going
to assess, we have until the summer, blah blah blah.
Me reading that is like, okay, we like Jack. We
spoke about the fact that he's tied in with the
(07:19):
Suzuka eight hours as well.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Then there's that other room.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I don't know if you've heard that, Matt about potentially
Jack going to superbikes and Cal Crutchlow stepping in as
a team manager, and I think that was with Honda
in Love Superbikes. So silly Sethan is just well and
truly underway. But it seems like Jack Millers caught up
in all.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Of it right now.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
Well, I mean, if you're looking at it from Jack's
point of view, it sounds like he has options. Whereas
this time last year, it was at Magello last year,
on the Saturday of that race, weekend that he officially
the news came out that he's been replaced by Pedro
Costa at Katie the Factory Katim team. And that was
the first Domino You remember Magello last year like it
went completely crazy on the Sunday and then the Monday
(08:00):
postseason test and you know, Mark Marquez says no to
pramat Juge, Martin goes and signs with a Prillier, all
Domino starts scattering in a million directions. This time last
year Jack, The one thing Jack did not have were options.
He was scratching around to cheep and try and have
an option singular. So it does sound very much like
he is a man with certain cards he can play
(08:20):
this time. And I also read those Perversio comments and
my reading between the lines, and you have to be
careful with management speak. With this sort of stuff. It
feels like it's Jack's to lose. And I know that
sounds weird for a guy that's in a position of
contractual weakness relative to Olivera. But I think that comment
about Jack hit the ground running. He came in with
the energy. He was doing well even before the Olivera injury.
(08:44):
You've got to feel a little sympathy for Olivera here
because he missed three rounds through absolutely no fALS own
and that's the second big injury he's had in the past.
They'd be nine months. You remember Indonesia last year, the
bike's electronics spat him off over the over the edge
because they thought he was in a different part the
track and just high sighted him. And then he got
taken out by fermin Aldegre in Argentina in the sprint race.
(09:05):
So he's had two pretty significant setbacks that are nothing
necessarily to do with him. And I still think that,
and we sort of discussed this last time. I think
that Miguel Olivera is a Motor GP writer still, I
just don't know if it's here, and then you haven't
had to look at where the other options are and
could he be an option somewhere else. I still think
he's worthy of a place on the grid, but in
(09:26):
terms of what Yamaha need right now and what Yamaha
need going forward, and as good as top rack is
next year, he's still a rookie in Motor GP. He's
a twenty eight year old rookie, but he's still a rookie,
and you need someone with Jack's skill set to be
on the sister bike a a benchmark what Razcatlioglu does
because there's going to be some ups and downs. He's
(09:47):
a rookie. I don't care how old he is and
how good he is, but also the wider impact that
Jack has with Yamaha now and then what that means
for twenty seven when we go to this new rule set.
I think Jack's the right guy for the job. I
feel that he's in a position of strength contractually here.
If it really does come down to these next four races,
let's just survive Magello and then we can move on
to the next ones. I still think it's his to lose.
(10:10):
So it's a good position for him to be in
because this time last year, you know, you and I
were talking, it's like, man, like the doors are closing
left and right here. When he didn't get that second
the seat at the second KTMT, which was Tech three
last year, when they just randomly signed Vignales and Bastindini
from other manufacturers last year, that was when it first
got to like this is looking pretty dicey here, because
(10:33):
it's like the old game of musical chairs, right, you know,
you keep circulating and the music stops and there's not
too many chairs left and he grabbed the last one.
He's made a good fist of it, and I think
he's in a stronger position now than he was this
time last year. So fingers crossed for all the Australian
fans that it does work out.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
That way exactly, and fingers crossed this weekend for a
better result for Pekobanaya heading into Magello Moto GP Releaser
Masters of Magello video that you can see on their
and they're talking about the previous amount of winners.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I think Valentino Rossi's seven times winner.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Here or Hee Lorenzo six and Peko Vanyaya three times winner.
I posted on the Fox Motorsports socials last year the
flashback to the kiss inspired helmet. They had the blue
livery which was so cool. But for Peco, we've kind
of been saying this since the circus came back to
the European rounds, is when is he gonna step up?
(11:27):
When's he gonna step up? We spoke about that small
little change. You wrote the article on Fox sports dot
com for Slash Motorsport. Is this the weekend for Peko Banyaya.
Is this him back on his home turf where he's comfortable,
he's made those shifts. Are we gonna see Herko Banyaya
back on top this weekend?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Matt, I think we have to right for the sake
of the World Championship. This kind of feels that, I
know there's still fourteen rounds to go, We're only at
round eight. If this championship is going to burn for
the duration of the year. GP does this great job
at having last round showdowns. We've had three in a row.
It tends to boil down to that this next two
(12:06):
weeks or ten days or whatever it is. From where
we're speaking here, you've got Magello where Bangyoa has won
the last three years, and you've got Asen where Bagnyai
has won the last three years. And you compare and
contrast Banya's fantastic record at Magello to Mark Marquez's record,
which is probably more pertinent here. Marquees is only one
at Magello once, and you know, it's not a bogey
circuit as such, like Mark has a couple of you know,
(12:28):
inverted commas bogie circuits. But this is such Banyaya territory
that I still think he's too far behind Mark as
it stands right now to be in the championship fight
unless Mark helps him by a couple of DNFs. So
I don't think it's necessarily going to come down to
what Peco does. But now never's a hard thing to
say with fourteen rounds to go. But if he's ever
(12:50):
going to stand his ground and ever going to stick
it to Marquez on home territory, it has to be now,
and it has to be these next two weeks. Whether
what he found at Aragon is terms of you know,
he uses the word feeling a lot. I don't have
the front feeling on the bike. What that really means
is I just don't have the confidence to hammer the breaks,
which is the greatest strength. And we're he's so awesome
(13:12):
at Magello, like the ground he makes up into that
first corner there has always been one of his calling cards.
It kind of feels like this is the weekend it
has to happen. So for the sake of the World Championship,
I love it to happen. But what's been weird this year? Right?
We talked all last year once Pecko was signed there
to be alongside Marquez. Oh wait, till these two get
together on tracks, it's going to be fireworks. It's going
(13:33):
to be fantastic. They've almost had this season this year
where they've kind of existed in parallel, like they've been
on the same racetrack. They haven't fought for a lot
of positions in races together because Mark's been too far ahead,
or he's made a mistake, or you Pecko's having an
off weekend, other than the early laps at Harath where
they've really got into each other. On those first couple
(13:55):
of laps that they was pretty ferocious. They made contact
a few times behind Quasherraro at the start of that race,
and then Mark fell off early in that race and
sort of took that out of the equation. They've not
had too many fights on track. It's been kind of
weird that we've got eight rounds in and we've not
had the like fall on Bangnai Marquez fight like was
it large The last year at her Wath when Mark
was on the Grassini bike like that was epic. The
(14:16):
fight between those two in that race, it was fantastic.
And when they were teammates, logically you sort of thought,
well they're on the same bike. This will just be
on week after week after week. It hasn't happened. So
I guess the question for me is that Mark's been
so good this year, as we know, this is absolute
Bangnayo territory. You combine those two things, does this mean
(14:36):
we get the fight between the two of them on
track that we've been so looking forward to the whole year.
And if we get it, like Banyai's record is so good,
Master's and Magello, like you mentioned, it's going to take
something pretty special for Mark to stop that if Peko's
in one of those moods that he gets into at Magello.
And the one thing, you know, the last couple of years,
Peko has been so good at Magello that the races
(14:58):
up front have actually been pretty pedestrian because he's just
way too good for everybody else. If you combine a
more confident Banyaya and a marker is trying to make
a point, like if Mark can beat Peco here, that's
worth more than like twenty five points. Psychologically that's massive
for Mark. So you add all those things and this
is why I'm so looking forward to this weekend because
(15:19):
a it's an awesome race track from Oto GP bikes.
We love it and I'm deeply envious that you're going
to be there this weekend. And yes, we will talk
Corden names because we're not calling them numbers. Michael Lemonato,
I'm talking to you here. But the thing about this
track is that we know how awesome Peco is here.
So if he's ever going to stand his ground against market,
kind of feels like it's going to be this weekend.
And I am fully here for this because I think
(15:41):
whatever happens one way or the other, we've got an
awesome storyline, don't we.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
There's a rumor that started which started from our friends Matt.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oxley and Peter Baum at the Oxley Bomb podcast.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Okay, they joked about how Valentino Rossi is going to
give Pego Vannyaya a bonus if he beats Mark Marcos
here hundred grand or whatever they said, And now I
keep seeing it across everywhere saying, yeah, Valentino and Rossi
has given Pego Vanyay and extra bonus to beat Marc
has A Magello, which I think is just I can't
believe that that's that's gone into a rumor. But here's
(16:14):
this for the statsman, Mark is only one pole position,
so if he gets poll this weekend, that's his one
hundredth pole position and his career number ninety three victory.
If he wins, you think, wow, they're big numbers to
happen in Magello, right on the Italian's home race, Peggo
(16:34):
Vanya's home race, DW Caddi's literally home Racemugine.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
If the Spaniard does it all, that's.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Well, ninety three wins for ninety three that's and we
can see that's a Matt Burke commentary special that'll be
coming out on the weekend for sure. But the thing
with Mark is that Mark loves finding ways to motivate himself, right.
I mean, he's done so much winning over so long,
and he's obviously got this. He's on this redemptive tale.
Now that you know I've said this before, I think
if he wins this year World championship, given what he's
(17:03):
been through physically for the last six years, it's one
of the great redemptive tales in any sport, forget motorsport.
But you also know that he loves being the villain.
He absolutely loves it. So a chance to go into
Migello in Peco's backyard and Rossi's backyard. There's no love
lost between those two. And win for the Italian team,
but beat the Italian riders in their backyard. That Mark
(17:25):
loves this sort of stuff. So yeah, it's not been
a fantastic track for him in the past. He's had podiums,
he's been beaten in some pretty awesome last lap battles.
I remember Lorenzo getting him there one year. How much
would he love to beat Banaya this weekend? So you're
going to have two super motivated riders, And the key
thing for me was, you know, I think we know
how important qualifying there is there because you want to
(17:47):
be out the front and not courting those crazy slipstreaming
battles that you get up and down at the start.
Finished straight there. Q two on Saturday is going to
be awesome because those two will be throwing absolutely everything
at it. And then you add the fact that you
know Alex Marquez is like sort of motor GP's metronome,
like he's just ticking away at the same pace the
entire time you look up and go, oh look, Alex
(18:08):
Markeez is second again, because that's where Alex Marquez lives
these days, You've got a whole bunch of other Italian
riders on fastikes wanting to play spoiler. There's a lot
going on this weekend and Saturday. I think the intensity
of Saturday is going to be fantastic, and then you
know that place will pack out on Sunday. We know
what it's going to be like on Sunday. We know
that Decadie will have some special livery because they always
(18:30):
do for this particular round. It's going to be a
great round. It's a fantastic racetrack at the best of times.
But you look at all those little side plots that
we've just discussed in the last ten minutes. I cannot
wait for this weekend.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
You mentioned Alex Marquez, then I definitely want to highlight
your article that you've got on Fox sports dot com
do Au Forward Slash Motorsport of Alex Marquez and why
he won't win the world title, which I thought was
really interesting because obviously everyone's saying, you know, he has
missed a consistency.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
He's mister P two. He's always there. Moment is Mark
crashing too much or Peko's trying to hard, but Alex
is there.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Let's dive into that, Matt, because Alex Marquez, yeah, he
has missed a consistency. Buddy is on last year's bike, right,
is that he's downfall for not winning the world title
and obviously not being Mark Marquez.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah, I mean, well, the latter part's pretty difficult. At
the moment, he's the second best rider in the World Championship.
He's the second best rider in his own household. That's
a little bit depressing, but he he's been this year.
I never thought that we would ever discuss Alex Marquez
the way we've discussed him, because there's been nothing that
we've seen in his previous years in motor GP that
suggested he was anything other than a guy who would
(19:39):
occasionally have an awesome weekend at a track that he's
good at and get all the podium, Like he's always
good at Sapang, he's always good at Cataloonia. He has
certain tracks where he's good. But you know, the fact
that we're, what eight rounds into the season, he's already
scored more points this season than he has in any
other full season in his career. We're not even what
thirty five percent of the way through the season. Yes,
we know that GDP twenty four is a fantastic bike,
(20:02):
but he's shown a level this year that I don't
think too many of us thought that he had in him,
and the consistency thing he certainly hasn't had in him
in the past, and at the moment he's staying in
this title fight based on the fact that he's crazily
consistently had that one DNF at Lamont in the Rain,
which quite frankly was an excusable one because that was
a crazy race for everybody. Other than that, he's just
(20:24):
there the whole time. He's been first or second in
every single sprint. And we talked in Germany last year
the fact that, oh wow, the two Marquez brothers are
on the podium. It's the first time for thirty years
we'd had brothers on the podium. It's almost a shock
these days when they're not on the podium together. We've
seen it so often this year. He's redefined my ceiling
(20:44):
of how good of a rider I think he is.
And you can't say it's all about the bike because
Franco Morbidelli's on a GP twenty four. In fact, he
rode a twenty four last year as well, so he
should theoretically be more used to it than Alex Marquez,
who rode A twenty three last year. He's ahead of
Morbidelli in the standings. He's the head of Banaya in
the standings on A twenty five. He's ahead of de
jan Antonio in the standings on A twenty five. You
(21:06):
would expect him to be ahead of his teammate firm
and Aldergare because Aldagare is good, but he's also rookie,
so he's still got a bit to learn. So Alex
has been awesome this year. I think Alex's biggest issue
is his sibling is a in the lead b one
of the greatest riders we've ever seen and see. You
do wonder if Alex sometimes thinks, can I actually beat
(21:26):
Mark in a straight head to head because we've seen
them go ahead to head a couple of times this year.
It's been Mark in Thailand, Mark and Argentina. Alex's two
big results in the two races where he's led the
championship after Austin when Mark crashed, and after Spain, where
he won his first Grand Prix after Mark had crashed
on lap three. Now caveat to that he was ahead
of Mark on the road at the time when Mark
threw it down the road, so good for him. But
(21:48):
he also made the most of Mark's bad days. So
for him to stay in championship contention, he needs to
retain this crazy consistency that's almost unsustainable that he's had
for eight rounds. Is going to need Mark to help him,
and I think those two things will probably actually go
against him as this season goes on, because the GP
twenty four has got to a very high level, but
(22:09):
it's hit its level. It's not really going to get
a lot better from here. You suspect the twenty five
will I also suspect that you can see a bit
of this with Mark at the moment. Mark's crushing people
on the weekends where he can like Aragon, and he's
riding really smart on the weekends where he doesn't quite
have it. And we'll look back at this championship. If
Mark gets it, it'll be huh. He finished on the
(22:30):
podium at Silveston where he's not particularly good. He kept
his head when everyone was losing theirs at Lamar where
everyone's throwing it down the road, and Mark's like you
know what Zarko's got this, but I'm going to finish
second here and I'm going to bank twenty super important
points on a day where my brother's not scoring at all.
They're the days that are going to win Mark the
World Championship. So I think the twenty five will get better.
(22:52):
I'd be amazed if Alex can sustain this for an
entire year. I mean, it's hugely impressive he's done it
for this long. I don't want to discredit what he's
done year Alex, but I still don't necessarily see him
as a championship contender, and I reckon his biggest fight
might actually come from behind him. For all the reasons
that I mentioned about the twenty five bike and Banyaya
perhaps getting back to doing what Banyaya can do, I
(23:15):
can imagine the gap between second and third and the
championship shrinking to the point where if I had to
put my money on who's going to finish second in
the Championship, I still think it's going to be Banyaia.
But I don't think either of them they're going to
either of them are going to beat Mark. I know
Banyai is spotting Alex Marquez a big disadvantage at this point.
Still fourteen rounds to go, so long Togo. Still, I
don't see Alex being a championship contender for the long
(23:37):
haul unless Mark helps him be a championship contender by
doing a few silly things like Austin and Spain. I
think those mistakes will come be less frequent as the
season goes on. To say all of that, the reason
that I wanted to highlight what Alex is doing in
that story that I wrote for Fox sports dot com,
don Au, that you mentioned. He's having a seriously good season,
(24:00):
and I don't know about you. I never expected to
be having conversations about Alex Marquez being second in the
World Championship and being as good as he has, so
fair play to him. Guy's twenty nine years old. You
don't often rewrite your career story at twenty nine, like
you kind of set at that point. He's been better
than we expected, but I don't know if that's necessarily
going to be good enough.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It's nice to kind of be starting the championship off
like this. I'm thinking back to when it was I
think Fabio versus Mark, or maybe I've got this wrong
way around Dovey versus Mark and the other one would
come in and you weren't expecting it. I remember Mark
saying press conference, I was not expecting Dovey to be
there or Fabio to be there, right, So to have
Alex there, I think is really refreshing. Like you said,
(24:40):
this year is going to be Mark and Peco butting
heads the.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Whole time, and what was that? When was the war
going to get put up in the garage and all that,
any of that has gone completely the opposite.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
But like you said, Digitis on the GP twenty five,
why is he what is he missing? Where's that missing piece? Morbidelli,
you said John GP twenty five for he's obviously.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
So I think him.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Though it does feel like we're about seven hundred races
into this year, We've got a seven hundred more to go,
and with Marquez it's hard to not bank on him
right now, even me thinking about this weekend going in
and it's hard to not want a bank on Mark Marquez.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
But also the same time, I want Pecker. I want
to come back because it's Italy. Is that homegrownd Priod.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I want to feel the passion from the Italians fans
while I'm there.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, A great thing for the championship for the next
ten days would be for Banyai to win these next
to Grand Prix and to take a pretty hefty chunk
out of Mark's championship margin, because I think that introduces
another element that we know there's going to be tracks
later in the year where Mark is awesome, like anything
that's anti Clockoise. Let's be honest, Like once we get
to Saxon Ring, I think I think we know what's
(25:52):
going to happen at Saxon Ring. I mean, whether asterisks permitting,
which is a big thing to say. For Philip Island.
I think Mark will be absolutely awesome at Phillip Island
because we haven't seen him on the best bike at
Philip Island for a long time, and we know how
good he is there even when he doesn't have the
best bike. But we want this to be a live
championship with storylines that go on for the remainder of
the season, and I think a lot of that is
(26:14):
not necessarily to do with Mark. I think it's what's
behind him, and to my mind, like if Banyaa can
win at least one of these two Grand Prix in
the next two weeks and preferably both of them for
the sake of the championship. Then I think it's going
to be super interesting as we get past the mid
season breaking into the second half.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Well, let's move on.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
To Magello because you mentioned there about the corner names
and a little spoiler alert, Jacob Rylstone, our Aussie star
in Moto three, is going to take me around Migello
to give me his insights on when I make my
Moto three career debut and how I can raise around
that track.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
But you've mentioned corner names here, so tell me what are.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
The interesting corner names in at Magello because you've given
us the rundown on them on and that was not
to be expected.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I love this track because the quarner names are so
over the top, flam boyanly Italian, but they're just perfect
at the same time. And you know, anytime you have
a corner sequence it's called Casanova and Savelli. When you're
going down the hill there with that packed hillside and
everyone's still wearing yellow despite the fact that Valentino is
not on the grid any murdor GP sights and the
(27:18):
warm up lap before the Grand Prix on the Sunday
where every single person has managed to get in a
canned air horn and a yellow flare and it's all
going off on the hill as it going round to
the formation lap when they're coming into the grid and
there's still smoke just wafting over the valley there from
what's got on the formation lap. It's one of the
great sites and I'm hoping for your sake being on
the ground if you do get an Italian winning there.
(27:41):
The way that podium juts out over the start finished
straight and everyone'll invade the track national anthem there is
pretty unhinged when an Italian rider wins. So I'm very
much looking forward to see what you're able to capture
from there, because you'll get swept up with a bunch
of people going completely crazy for an Italian rider winning.
But I I mean it's a great track because it
has undulation, it has history, it's incredibly picturesque and there's
(28:06):
just no there's so much elevation change in so many
high speed corners here, but it's the elevation change that
makes it when you see these bikes side to side
down the hill through the Arabiatas is absolutely fantastic. That Chicane,
the Scarporea Pelagio, Chicaine. There were're going through ten and eleven.
There's a lot of stuff going on there, a lot
of passing and repassing Moto three. If it's closed in
(28:29):
the last few laps, you know something's going down there
because there'll be six riders in the lead pack going
in there on the last lap and not six of
them coming out. You can guarantee that, so there'll be
some sillyness going on there. But then also the charge
out of the last corner there because it is so
steep and it is so uphill. I do hope you've
got some comfortable shoes for this track walk, because you'll
look up coming out of fifteen and look up at
(28:49):
the start figure straight and you won't be able to
see it because it's so steep. You might want to
be on the vesper for the last part of that lap.
I reckon, So hopefully Jacob Birch. Hopefully Jacob treats you
well or at least gives you a slip straight up
the straight there, because as I'm sure he'll tell you,
coming out of that last quarter on a motor three bike,
that's where racists can be one and lost. We've seen
some awesome last light battles at this track, so yeah,
(29:10):
bring it on, thoroughly looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yes, well, guys, you can catch that and all the
other action alive and i'd break free on Fox Sports
and ko If you want to see what Jacob gives
me my little pointers around Magello, that is going to
be on the Fox Sports YouTube channel. All of Matt's
articles and more about MotoGP are on Fox sports dot com,
door Au forard Slash Motorsport, and if you want to
(29:34):
keep up to date with us on socials, we are
at Foxmotorsport everywhere. I'm going to take you guys behind
the scenes as much as I can at Migello Matt
as always, thank you so much for joining me on
this episode of Pit Talk, which is brought to.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
You by Shannon's Insurance.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I'm Ronita vmuland and we're going to be back real
soon with more motor GP Pit Talk
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