September 3, 2025 • 33 mins
Pit Talk goes Spanish this week! 🇪🇸
From the roar of Montmeló, join Matt Clayton and Renita Vermeulen as they look ahead to the Catalan GP 🏁
Can Marc Marquez make it 8 in a row? Will Jorge Martin return to the podium? And when will Jack's 2026 ride be announced? 🤔
PitTalk is sponsored by Shannons Insurance: www.shannons.com.au
Watch MotoGP on ch. 506 or via Kayo Sports bit.ly/3wDpMnj
Follow us on social:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foxmotorsport
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/fox_motorsport
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fox_motorsport
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@foxsportsaus
Stay up to date on the latest MotoGP News: https://www.foxsports.com.au/motorsport
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ola Adodos MotoGP heads back to Barcelona, a circuit that
holds many fond memories for some of our riders, i e.
Fabriocordorarro in his first Moto GP victory and some not
so happy ones flash back to Alisia Spargaro celebrating the race,
our lap too early, but in the fight for the
(00:22):
very top step? Can anyone stop Mark Marquees on his
home turf. Welcome back to Pittok sponsored by Shannon's Insurance.
I'm your host, Rinita Vanmullen, and I've bought along my
partner in Chrime. He's got more hot takes than the
Catalan Sun and can drop Moto GP trivia Fassa. Then
Mark Marquees can go through that pack at the moment.
Matt Clayton, Matt, sorry, I had to give you a
(00:45):
really good intro this time to fill in, because I mean,
what are we gonna say? Mark Marquez is gonna win
in Barcelona?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I don't know about that. Reronetta. Look if I just
go the fist pump and just depart this podcast about
five minutes earlier is because I've got a lap too,
so you know I've done an Alisha Spargo. I'll just
I'll just leave you to close it out. But I
always enjoy this round because it's not what it seems
on paper. It's a bit of an odd one because
of the configuration of the track and the track surface
and what have you, which I'm sure we'll get into.
(01:13):
And it's also it's not really a Mark Marquez stronghold,
and given the form that he's been in for the
last seven rounds, we have to take everything we can
get at this point to think there might be someone
else that could win the Grand Prix this weekend. But
thoroughly looking forward to it because it does throw up
interesting races this place, which I'm sure we're going to
get into in the next twenty five minutes or so.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, exactly, And I guess that's one thing I wanted
to talk about, and hopefully our listens are interested to
know about the track surface here, because this is one
of the tracks on the calendar that does overlap with
Formula One to start with. But there's obviously a lot
of other racing that happens here, like the European Championships,
the Spanish Championships, all of that, but they do things
(01:54):
like cycle events here and more car races and events
that we don't know about. But the riders often say
about the surface of this track, it is one of
the more difficult parts to it.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, it's one of the busiest tracks in Europe because
of where it is. So I mean, obviously you've been there,
you know where this is. But this is one of
the more accessible tracks compared to major cities in Europe.
It's only about thirty k's outside of Barcelona. God knows.
I've miss to turn off at the circuit about three
hundred times when I've gone there off the freeway. But
it's a super busy track because f one goes there,
sports car goes there, there's always track days going on,
(02:27):
a lot of non motorsport related use as well, so
it's a very busy place. And the track surface itself,
it's just this really weird mix. It's billiard table smooth,
which is great because lasting riders want is bumps everywhere.
Hasn't been resurfaced to my memory, I reckon it's twenty eighteen.
Was the last time it was surface. I'd have to
go and dig that out. I reckon it's twenty eighteen.
(02:49):
And there's something about this track when it gets hot
that it doesn't actually grip up. It becomes even more slippery,
to the point where it's always like riding in the
wet to some degree. There's absolutely no rear grip whatsoever.
And you combine it with the configurations of corners here
there's a lot of really long corners, so you end
up with these really strange races a lot of the
(03:10):
time where they build to a boil.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You have these really really slow build ups and it's
all about you know you're going to run out of
tire at some point, but when do you deploy it.
Do you make a bolt at the start and try
and get a lead that you can't relinquish. Do you
push in the middle part of the race? Do you
have anything left in the last five or six laps?
So you end up with these quite interesting sort of
strategic races that perhaps you don't see anywhere else. But
(03:35):
the number one word you're going to hear what it's
two words you'll hear all weekend from Barcelona. You'll just
hear grip or complete lack thereof, and everyone will just
be talking about spinning the entire time because there is
just absolutely no rear grip at this place, so it
throws up interesting races. But something when I was doing
a little research. I actually do some research occasionally for
this podcast. It's really strange, right, So it's September. Last
(03:57):
year we had two races in Barcelona because the season
n AALI was moved there from Valencia when that region
got flooded. So last year we were there in round
six and Round twenty. So we're there in May and November,
and here we are in September. So you can take
a lot of what happened last year and kind of
throw it out because last year when we were there
in May, it was super hot. When we were there
(04:19):
in November, the sun, as you know, sets megafast in
Barcelona and it goes super cold, and like November in
barcelona's like really pushing it as far as you want
to race there. So you've got this different sort of
set of parameters this weekend. So yeah, we do the
end of season tests there. We had to race there
in round twenty. You had to race there in Round six.
I don't know how much relevance that's got for this
weekend because it kind of feels like it's a bit
(04:41):
of a hard reset because we're here in September. It's weird.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I'm just looking at the weather forecast, so for example,
it's saying, well, the circuit is it's class as Barcelona,
but it's just outside more in Catalan territory.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, moderl dolars.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, well mellow. Yeah, So looking at the weather Friday,
it's saying possible rain a top of twenty three, Sunday
a top of twenty five, and then Sunday a top
of twenty seven. But a lot of bit overcast on Sundays. So,
like you said, that does change everything. And if this
track is slippery and everything we're hearing about this script,
what other writers going to go off? They have all
(05:14):
this data, like they say, But I think it's going
to be a case of who can utilize the tires
their best. And we know that a Prilliers are strong here.
We know that that previously they have won Elisa.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So are we going to see more of Marco Batzeki
this weekend like we have been seeing in those last
few Grand Prix? Is he really going to take it
to Mark Marquez this weekend?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah? This has been in a Prillier track, even when
a brilliant work great at other tracks. He said. In
twenty twenty three they won the sprint and the Grand Prix,
won two in the Grand Prix with the Spargo and
Maverick Vignalez. As much as we were laughing about Alaish
losing count of how many laps there were to go
that one year, which frankly, of all the circuits in
the world, he should know how many laps there are
to go. He's probably done fifty million laps around there.
Because you mentioned Granolia's before, which is literally down the
(05:59):
road from this track, That's where Alasian Pole grew up.
So strange that he wouldn't know how many where the
timing towel was to see the laps counting down. But
this was a good Aprillia track even before Aprillia were
quite decent. We know that Aleish won the sprint there
last year, which was a lot of that was just
Peco making a massive mistake on the last lap and
falling off. But this is a good a Prillia track.
Aprilli has been pretty good for well since Silverston. Since
(06:22):
Berzeki won at Silveston, we've seen the Aprilli has been
right up there. He's been on the podium I think
four times in the last five Grand Prix. And then
you've got the Juge Martine factor in that he's still
so underdone and not necessarily ready for Grand Prix racing
and the bike. But what he did in Hungary last
time out, sixteenth on the grid, fourth in the Grand Prix,
I'm like, oh, okay, he's coming maybe faster than we thought.
(06:46):
And if there was ever going to be a Sunday
where Mark is vulnerable, I think it could be here
because of the corner configuration of the track. The Aprilli
is generally very good around here. Their bike is clearly
the second best in Motor GP right now. Bazeki's kind
of back in twenty twenty three. Bez form now like
the best we've ever seen of him, and I still
think that Juge Martin's going to win a race before
(07:08):
this seasons. I just have this feeling that there's going
to be a particular set of circumstances. We know that
the championship's been a total disaster, but the abilities there
in the bikes there we might find out where the
bike's ceiling is, because I think he's the guy most
likely to find it, so I'm actually look the sprint.
If Mark stays on board in the sprint, I think
Mark wins, because that's what happens with sprints in twenty
(07:28):
twenty five, as we've seen so far this year. But
over the longer Grand Prix distance, and because of the
super particular way this track needs to be ridden, I
could see it proorlyer really pushing Mark. The flip side
to this, of course, is that I kind of feel
like Mark's been riding with a little bit left in
the tank the last few rounds, particularly hungry. It kind
of felt like he could have pulled the pin whenever
(07:49):
he really wanted to, so we might get The answer
to the question is also how far fast is Mark
really in that if he really has to push, then
we might see how quick he is, because in Hungary
I kind of thought he was just sort of keeping
guests entertained for the first half of that race before
he disappeared. So I like a prilious chances this weekend,
but I don't think it'll be in the sprint. I
think if it happens, it'd be in the longer race
(08:10):
on the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I wanted to ask you this later, but I'm going
to ask you now, because this is the home grownd
Prix for many a lot of these Spanish and as
Hangen riders have done millions of laps around their circuit.
Could this be the one the Sunday race where we
see Johei Martin finally back on the metorgp podium in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I could see a podium. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think
he's quite ready to win a race yet, but I
think he's absolutely on course, given his adaptation has been
super fasted, like really impressive. I thought that there'd be
a race like he did in Hungary coming up, but
I didn't think it'd be yet. I thought it might
be until we get to the flyways something like that.
So yeah, absolutely, I could see him on the podium.
(08:52):
But you mentioned the fact that there's so many riders
from in and around this area and they've all done
a million laps here. They've generally all done a million
laps yet Anyway, like whenever Jack Miller does any training
on a proper track when he's not going around go
kart tracks, it's not far to get up to Catalonia
from where he is. All of these guys whether they're
Spanish or not, have done ten million laps around this place,
(09:13):
which is kind of fun because it takes just a
variable out of the equation. It's like there's none of
this unfamiliarity stuff you think of last round at Baloton Park,
nobody knew the track. This track's probably the circuit on
the calendar where these riders, all of them. I can't
think of another track where you would do more laps
than this. Maybe Malaysia because you've been there for preseason testing.
Other than that, they're always here. They know this track
(09:34):
so so well. So it becomes who can read the
condition's best, Who thinks on their feet the best, who
adapts the fastest. You mentioned that weather forecast coming in.
I love the fact that no three days are the same, right,
so you're going to have this sort of like moving
ground beneath you the whole time. Who can improvise the best?
And going back to the Juge Martine question, he's a
(09:56):
guy who and I'll say this politely and it's actually
a comp rather than a criticism. I'm not sure there's
a hell of a lot of thought and historical precedents
going into the way Jullgey Martin rides. I think he's
an instinctive writer. This is a weekend where you need
to just adjust to what it is that you've got
underneath you and perhaps not spend the entire weekend concerned
(10:16):
about or lamenting the fact that you don't have something
at Peco Vanya. So that might be one of those
weekends where the less thinking you do, with the more
riding you do, maybe it's better off for you. And
the more intellectually you try to approach this weekend, the
more you might tell yourself. If knots, I.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Think, yeah, Pecovana into a tea at the moment. Right now, man,
let's talk about the other resurgence that I'm really enjoying
at the moment. A prelier to the side, I will
talk about Pedro Acosta because he's leading the charge for
KTM and I feel like this could be this could
be another strong weekend for him. I'm looking at the
(10:51):
data from last year's race, and Pedro Acosta had the
best race lab, you know, and it wasn't that far
off of Alicias Bugger's pole lab to be fair. That's
in in the Moto GP race. So could we see
another strong Pedro a Costa race this weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It's interesting. I kind of feel that Pedro the first
half of this season. I said, the first eight to
ten rounds, there was so much outside noise going on
with him and with KTM. We know they had their
financial problems over the off season. New parts and things
were slow to arrive on the bike. What's the future
of this team? Who's going to own it, who's going
to buy it out? We know they got themselves into
(11:27):
some financial difficulties. We also know that he was having
his head turned. He was getting super restless. You know
there's links with Ducati. Is he possibly going to Honda?
Is he trying to get into onto a VR forty
six D Catty. It felt like the riding part was fine,
but there was just a lot of outside noise coming
from the team and was his head turn and was
he trying to get out of all of that. I
don't think it's any coincidence that as KTM's got itself
(11:50):
sorted financially. We know that there's been some Indian investment
in that company. Things seem a lot more stable now
from a financial platform, and all of the potential avenues
that he could have gone to have dried up for
the time being, and we've seen this week that VR
forty six is going with the same lineup for next
year with Franque Morberdelli being resigned. That was kind of
his only chance really to get on into Catti the
(12:10):
hont The things closed up because we know that's a
done deal now, and then I think if Honda were
going to look elsewhere, I don't think he's top of
that Q necessarily. I think, well, hey, Martin would be.
So things have kind of stabilized in terms of the
team in the manufacturer and also for him. I don't
think it's any great surprise that his form has started
to go up basically since Bruno when he first got
(12:30):
on that podium. The start of the year was super
disappointing because it felt like he was focused on the
wrong stuff, and we know how good the guys he
had one of the better rookie seasons we've seen in
a while. To me, he's now back to where he
probably should have been at the start of the season.
I don't know if he's made some amazing leap or something.
He's just back in the conversation now we know that
(12:51):
circuit to Catalogia has an enormously long front straight where
top speed then breaking down into turn one is a
really really big deal there. That KATM is an absolute
rocket ship in a straight line. It's motor Chip's fastest
bike in a straight line. It's all about for me.
If he can qualify on the first couple of rows,
I think he's going to be a major player on Sunday.
(13:12):
He has this bit of a propensity to mess up
Q three a little bit when he's been a Q
two Rather I'm going forward the right here Q two
when he's had a good weekend. You look at Hungary
last time out. He was fastest on Friday, he was
right up there on Saturday and then chucked it in.
Q two started too far back. He's on the third row.
Never really got a chance to do something in the sprint,
fell off, came through the pack and had a good
(13:34):
Grand Prix and finished second in the end. But I
think his weekend was he put a seiing on himself
because he made the mistake at the important part of
the weekend. If he gets up the front, he's clearly
the best KTM ryder right now because Vignalees is half fit.
Brad Binder he's had not a great year by Brad
Binder standards, fast you need. He's coming on, but he's
coming from a fair way back. So yeah, I wouldn't
(13:54):
be surprised at all to see a Costa right up there.
But you know what's interesting, and I'm sure you're probably
going to bring this up. I wrote earlier in the
week for Fox Sports dot com dot AU that we
talk about the Ducatti Cup at the start of the season,
and if you look at the headline results to Caadi
is still winning everything because I've got Buck Marquez riding
for them. But you look at where the other Ducaties
(14:15):
are relative to where they were at the start of
the season. If you're on a Ducati in the first
five rounds, you're probably finishing in the top five of
the Grand Prix, because they are all finishing in the
top five in the Grand Prix. But we've got fourteen
minutes into this podcast and we've talked about Joge Martin,
We've talked about Marco Batzeki, We've talked about Pedro Acosta.
There's different brands that are getting in the mix. Now,
you quoted that stat the last time we did a
(14:37):
pod where there were four manufacturers in the first five
finishes at a Grand Prix for the first time in
two years when we're in Hungary. Last time. It's still
Marques and a Ducati up front, but the configuration of
what's behind him has really changed from probably Silverston onwards.
That's really exciting as a neutral because quite frankly, you
and I don't care who wins. We just want to
see a good contest. We want to see it be entertaining.
(15:00):
And I like the fact that, yeah, Dcati's still winning
everything because I've got the best rider in motor GP.
But it's not a foregone conclusion anymore as to who's
going to be making up the podium and challenging for polls.
We've seen that, so a cost is part of that mix,
but I think it's a wider mix now where you
can't just turn up at a track and go, oh, yeah,
Decatti's going to lock out the podium here because it's
not happening as often as it was.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I'm literally looking at the championship standings right now as
we speak, and you're smack bang on the points. So yeah, okay,
the first three are do you caddies, and we know
that it's Mark Marquez, obviously Alex Marquez who had that
incredible strong start to the year that surprised us all
and obviously things have changed, and Peco Baannoya because there
was that consistency of him being third overall for that
(15:42):
first half of the year. Right. Then we get to
fourth position, Marco Bezekion Aprilia Pedro Cossa in fifth on
the ktm Okay. Yeah, then a couple more of the
the JU caddies, but Fabio Digi Antonio who's on the
same bike as Mark Marquez, He's currently in seventh. Then
let's go further down. We've got Zako in ninth for Honda,
and rounding out in tent is faber Corduro. So the
(16:06):
top six as we assumed it was going to be
for did you caddy Cup? It's not that You caddy Cup.
There's there's a few little hints and sprinkles of other
manufacturers in there.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah. Absolutely. Since Berzeki won at Silveston, he has scored
the second most points on the grid in that span,
more than Alex Marquez has other than Mark, and over
the last four rounds, I think it's Mark ahead of Berzeki,
ahead of a Costa. So you've only got one to
caddie in the top three since Bruno, So it's definitely changing.
And I think maybe we're not noticing it as much
because we look up and Mark Marquez is on a
(16:39):
fourteenth race winning streak. He this is becoming a lot
more now about I don't know if the bike's making
the difference, the ultimate difference anymore. I think Mark is,
and not necessarily because Mark's level has dropped. He's just
stayed exactly where he's been all year. But look at
where alex is, look at where Peco is. The VR
forty sixty caddies, it always seems like one of them
has a decent weekend, but never both of them at
(17:01):
the same time. I mean, Digia was pretty unlucky and
hungary because he had that electronics glitch on the on
the grid, probably would have fished top four in that race.
But this it doesn't feel like there's that same ever
present du Catti lockout now of these top four or
five positions, and it's what we want to see, and
someone like a resurgent Acosta or Bazeki who's just unlocked
(17:21):
this super consistent run. It just adds to the mix
and yeah, we know who's gonna be world champion. Let's
be honest, there's no intrigue here. But the back end
of the season is going to be interesting to see
how this narrative plays out. Du Cati Cup or not
du Catti Cup. We've got eight rounds to find out.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Can we just talk about the fact of Let's tell
her like the storytelling side of it. Take it away
from the racetrack for a minute of the sprint in
Hungary where it was Mark Marquez and the two VR
forty six's and I don't know if you saw that
clip that Moto GP posted Matt where it was the
you know how they all get in the back of
the car because they take them to the podium, which
is normally where the fan z owners. And there was
(17:59):
Digitia who was talking to Mark, and that was Morbidelli
who was just looking out the window. And you can
definitely tell where Morbidelli's alliance lies within the whole forty
six and then ninety three.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I love those videos. Well, two things to me. Can
we get a bigger car for them to sit into?
Why are there three adults sprammed into the back of
a car like I'm not getting in the back of
a car with two other adults, like what I was
sitting in the front, So one get a bigger car
or a bigger car sponsor. I don't know what that is,
but those videos are so funny, not because of what
is said. It is because of what is not said.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
And you need a body language.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Oh I love reading a bit of body language, like
Morbidelli was just looking at the window like he could
wait to get out of the car. And if you've
been around Fabio jan Antonio, he's literally the nicest guy
at motor GP. He will talk to you forever, so
he's happy to start a conversation with anyone, whether it's
Mark or not. And you could kind of tell Mark
was sitting in the middle of these two, but it
was a little bit on the awkward side. It was
(18:57):
so funny to watch because he's not just sitting there
with his brother, sitting there with Pecko looking sad that
he's been beaten again. There's just so much interesting body
language at a ninety second video. I always make a
point of watching them, but I never really necessarily listen
to what's being said. With my not particularly great Spanish
or reading subtitles. I just love watching the body language
between the three of them. That one was super interesting.
(19:18):
I'm glad you picked up on that.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, no, I loved it. And then when obviously I
saw Frankie was resigning R forty six, and I've replayed
that video in my head and I'm like, yep, we
know where his alliance lies on.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Oh yes, oh yes.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But before we round out this weekend, we obviously have
to talk about Jack Miller because we are waiting for
the announcement of whether Jack is resigning with Yamaha for
next year or if he's going to go to well Superbanks. Matt,
you obviously have the inside knowledge within the paddock. Have
you heard any updates? Do you think we'll get an
announcement this weekend?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So let's go behind the curtain here. I sin, I
thought it was gonna happen Tuesday night, so we speaking
Thursday morning. I sent someone who would know a message
and said, just asking for a friend, but do I
need to stay up past midnight tonight to write a
Jack Miller has resigned with Pramak Gamaha story. And the
response I got was tell your friend they could have
it early night it's not happening tonight, so I did
(20:13):
have it early night. It was great. But I think
what this now comes down to, and this is something
that we talked about off air a little while ago,
and I'm not going to reveal any secrets here, but
I think it's going to happen. I think the timing
of this now, because it has been pushed and pushed
and pushed. Would it not make sense that this gets
announced at Massano, given that it's Pramac's home round, It's
(20:34):
the race that they it's the race that they have
the greatest sort of commercial ties to, it's a home
race of paler Cabernati in that team. I don't think
there's any great conjecture as to the fact that it's
going to be Jack because you look at all the
other moves that have happened in the rider market in
the past two weeks on the superbike side and the
Motor GP side. So this week in Motor GP we've
had Jones Ziico signed for twenty six and twenty seven.
(20:56):
That's interesting. We'll get hum back to that. Lukamurini signed
at Honda for next year. Franco Morbidelli confirmed at VR
forty six for next year. But then you look at
the potential avenues where other guys have signed superbikes like
iketh Le q Oona. We know that Johnny Ray's retiring,
Bautista's moving, sam Low's is heading over Sam Low's, Jake
Dixon is heading over. Got my British riders confused. There's
(21:18):
a lot of other dominoes in this that have fallen
where we kind of thought. So now we're just literally
waiting on two announcements that are kind of in the
done deal category, and I don't know which one will
come first, But it looks like the Diogo Morrera thing
to Honda is happening because both Yamaha and Honda wanted Marrera.
It looks like Honda have offered more years and full
factory status, which makes sense. And right now, if you're Marrera,
(21:41):
you're sitting there, you're thinking, I get to choose between
a Honda and a Yamaha. I reckon twelve months ago
that was a bit of a toss of the coin. Now,
I think Honda's shown more progress to me this year
than Yamaha has, and with the uncertainty of this whole
Yamaha V four thing, do you go with Honda, Yeah,
you probably do. That's a that we know is going
to fall. And then I think, I don't think Jack
(22:03):
keeps his seat at Pramac by default, necessarily because I
I've written this in the last couple of weeks. There's
a very sort of specific job requirement that he fills
because they are fast tracking this V four. You look
at the other riders in the Yamaha stable for next year.
Fabio Couaturero has never ridden a V four in his life,
Alex Ridds has done one or half of a season
(22:26):
when he got injured at Honda in twenty twenty three
and then left to go and right at Yamaha, and
Top Brack has never ridden a moor GP bike other
than a test at a race weekend. Yet, so three
quarters of your rider lineup have a grand total of
seven races on a V four between them, and you're
trying to bring this new bike in. Who's Jack Miller
written for? He is written for Honda V four, written
for Dacadi V four, written for KTM V four. Vastly
(22:49):
experienced knows how these engines work. The fact they could
have gone into next year with two rookies at Pramac
Alex Ridds has done half a dozen races on a
V four and Coaturo's ridden one that to me doesn't
align with trying to bring the V four project along
to make it your preferred engine of choice. So it's
a really specific job description if you like, like if
(23:10):
you're applying for a job through some website or what
have you. Jack has more of the boxes ticked on
that job description than a lot of other guys. And
you think, okay, Miguel Olivera's written some V fours as well,
which he has, but then you look at the points
table and it's been absolutely one way traffic this year. Yes,
Olivera's had some injury issues even when he's been fit.
I think he's out qualified Jack once all season. I
(23:31):
think it's fifty two to ten in the points all season.
So it's pretty clear which of those two writers should
be retained. So no, we don't have the announcement yet,
frustratingly because we all want it. I'm sure Jack wants
it as well, but I'll be really keen to see
what he's like in his pre event press availability at
Cassialounia on Thursday night, Australian time, because in Hungary he
was annoyed. He was really angsty about everything. I think
(23:53):
there would have been some conversations behind the scenes there,
just like look, just chill out here, we've got you,
this is fine. I think he's demeanor will be really
interesting in his press debriefs at CATALOONYA. What wouldn't surprise
me at all is if he gets on the front
foot with this this weekend, instead of waiting for the
inevitable question to be asked by one of the press pack,
he'll sit down and he'll go, yeah, look, no news
(24:15):
on the contract yet, but I've been told it's all
heading in the right direction. So when I have some yews,
I'll let you guys know. And they just put that
thing to bed instead of answering four or five questions
about it and getting increasingly agitated like he did in
Hungary last time out. There's an art to winning the
press conference if you like. I reckon that he will
go in there and be quite on the front foot
(24:35):
about this and just put that thing to bed. We
have the race weekend, then maybe we get to Masato
teams home race or sorted and everyone just gets on
with life. But yeah, that's a story. I thought I
would have written this week already, but apparently not.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I saw a video once again that Moto GP posted,
and they asked Jack, oh, is there a question that
you were just over being asked like you just want
to be put to bed? And he goes, what am
I doing next year? I answered that question, and then
they said to him, do you remember that viral video
last year where they found Jack had his blindfold on
and he put his hands in a box and there
(25:08):
was nothing there, and he goes, oh, is this my
contracts for twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
It's so funny. And this is where this is where
we love Jack from a media point of view, in
that he's this whole one year things not unusual to him.
If I'm remembering rightly, I think he only ever had
one multi year contract that was with KATM and one
sees it into that contract he was being asked when
he was getting booted for Pedro Acosta, which we as
we know that ended up happening, So this is not
unfamiliar territory for him. But this is where Jack's such
(25:34):
an asset to Motor GP in that Jack never ducks
a question and sometimes I can imagine if you're working
in the press department for his team, you'd have your
head in your hands. And some of these questions because
Jack only has the truth filter. There's no other filter.
You can't turn it off. And that's one of the
things you love about him. You ask him a direct question,
you get a direct answer, and then we all move on.
So yeah, sometimes the honesty is the best policy for
(25:56):
Jack ninety five percent of the time. But he does
get himself into a little hot water because he doesn't
know how to don't know how to big disorders with
these things.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
He doesn't. I love that he finished that video. Often
you guys can see it on the Moto GP socials
that he goes. Yeah, if you just need any viral content,
just put the camera on me. I'll give it to
you as it is.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
He's not wrong's wrong, He's not wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Moving on too quickly to our other Aussie sener ags,
he is back this weekend after that massive crash that
we saw in Austria.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Austria.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, okay, yes, it feels like we know we're on
race four hundred of this season, so they're all starting
to blend in. But yes, Sena ags is back says
he's ready to go. So that's for Moto two. And
then obviously we have our Aussies in Moto three, jcob
Ralston and Joel Kelso. So once again we mentioned this earlier.
This is a track that the MotoGP writers have done
a lot of laps on, but also our Aussies because
(26:45):
they've been over in the Lower championships as well. It's
close to their home. They ride here a lot. There's
close by is Rocko's Ranch. I don't know mat if
you've ever been there, but it's a it's a flat
track place literally right next to the circuit, which is
really cool. A lot of the MotoGP riders and other
wealthy bike riders and everyone goes there and trains flat tracks.
So the boys are local to this circuit just as
(27:06):
much as they are for Philip Island.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah. Yeah, like all the Aussie guys would have done
more laps around Barcelona than they would have done Philip
Island for sure, and a lot of them when they
moved to When they move to Europe to compete in
the World Championship, they do go and live in Spain,
and it makes sense to go and live close to
this track because you can always get on it, so
they're practically locals, they'll know their way around here. Good
to see center back. That was a pretty scary accident. Yes,
(27:31):
you missed Grand Prix round, but that was one of
those ones when you saw it as it happened. Oh boy,
that's like that had potentially really really bad consequences. So
I'm glad that he's back and Moto three at this
track because of the nature of it is the last
five laps of Moto three, like you'll find yourself just
giggling most of the time because there's absolutely no analysis
being done here. It's like what on earth is going
(27:52):
to go along? So looking forward to that. But before
you get off the ifore we finish this podcast and
get off the Aussie seed, do we need to talk
about marquees matchpoint stats here? Because there is a chance,
and there is a chance that he could set himself
up to win the World Championship at Massano, and wouldn't
that be a story? He can win the world He
(28:14):
could win the World Championship Massado if things go well
this weekends. I've crunched the numbers. I just want to
let you know the numbers because I know you'll be
wondering and our listeners will be wondering too. So he
is one hundred and seventy five points in the league
right now. So to be world champion at Massano, he
needs to lead by two hundred and twenty two points.
Sounds like a lot. So he needs to outscore Alex
Marquez by forty seven points in the next two rounds.
(28:35):
That sounds like a lot. The last two rounds were
Austria and Hungary. Mark has outscored Alex by fifty five
points in the past two rounds, so it's absolutely doable.
At Massano. Mark's been amazing for the last seven rounds.
Alex has gone the other direction. He's had one Grand
Prix podium and two sprint podiums in the last five rounds,
(28:57):
so he's had of a potential ten podiums he had
free and you think at the start of the year
it was Mark Marquez first, Alex Marquez second in just
about every single time we went for a race. So
Mark's in the best four he's been in for eleven
years and Alex has dropped off and that's what's open
this possibility that he could potentially win the World Championship
at Massano, and as much as it would be kind
(29:20):
of cool for him to win the championship in Japan
because he's won championships in Japan in the past, and
it's almost like full circle moment, he decided in Japan
a couple of years ago that was time to leave
Honda after all the success they'd had. Imagine what social
media is going to be like if he wins the
World Championship in Valentino Rossi's backyard in Messado. Oh my god,
Like you may as well just sit back from your
chair right now, because it's going to be nuts in
your world.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I I'm glad you bought it up because I wasn't
sure whether to or not, but I think we need
to talk about it. So obviously I do social media.
And I was listening to an interview with Mark Marquez
and he said, I don't want to win in San Marino.
His words were because that would mean Alex has had
a bad run in bus. What I didn't read here
(30:03):
and what I'm reading through the subtext is I don't
want to win in Italy, literally next door to Valentino's
rossis because I will have to have security guards and
get flown out by the Spanish Army. Can you imagine
that the people probably knocking on his boator home.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
And the other part of this, of course, is that
this is something that hasn't been discussed enough. When's the
next in season test. It's the Monday after Massano because
we've been talking about it, because Yamaha's going to run
the V four and Crosserera and probably Jack Miller will
get a run at that. If you're Mark Marquees and
you're going to have the world's greatest party after winning
your seventh World Championship you've been waiting for since twenty nineteen,
(30:42):
do you think you're going to want to go and
test the next morning. I wouldn't have thought so. So Yeah,
there's a number of reasons why he'd probably like it
to be Japan. The security aspect of Massarto might be
one of them. But yeah, I'm not sure I'd be
up for a ten am pit laid open start on
the Monday after winning a World championship. I might call
him sick that day. I think I don't.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Blame you because he did say, you know, I'd rather
win in Japan or Indonesia, and I felt like that
was a very pr thing to say because of his
massive fan base in Asia. We know that, and then
how much the love motorcycles and obviously Mark Marquez. But yeah,
I'm thinking maybe it's just because of the VR forty
six army, because we saw what they did at Magello
(31:22):
and I was there on the ground, and yes, the booing,
the like. Even Mark said, you don't have to hate
my brother. He had nothing to do with it. But
you know, so could you I just keep saying, could
you imagine, just just picture it?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yes, I can imagine it would be that.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Would make world news for sure.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, I can imagine it. And there's there's probably a
part of it, part of it for Mark that he
probably secretly enjoy it as well, if only for the
fact that, you know, the only way he really gets
here is he needs to be excellent and Alex probably
needs to be a bit rubbish, which he's not been
great for the past five rounds. I think we need
to look at Alex Marquez's season and say, well, maybe
the first seven eight rounds were kind of the outlier
(32:02):
because he was so good at the start of the year,
But that's also not really in keeping with how his
career is beg to this point, like he was massively
outperforming his normal expectations. Mark's just doing what Mark does
when he give him the best bike and the gritty
makes everyone look a bit average. So yeah, look, the
main thing for Mark is he'll take a win wherever
because it's been so long since he won one. But yeah,
(32:23):
winning it at Masano with everything you talked about and
then the fact you have to do a test the
next day. Maybe not the greatest idea, maybe not.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
But I think that's going to make this weekend even
more exciting because listeners just see what's happening, Watch what
Mark is doing, figure out the tactics he's doing, because yeah,
like what if we do have a juge Martine, Marco Barzeki,
a stronger prillier weekend and we see Mark maybe not
pushing as hard as he normally does. Like I feel
like all that's going to come into play if he's
really really considering this, not winning at Mazano because he
(32:52):
keeps calling it impossible.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Nothing's impossible. This year for Marcus, we've seen who would
have thought we'd been talking about a guy winning fourteen consecutives. Yeah,
it's been one of those seasons. Anything is possible this season,
and yeah, the next two weekends as a back to
back is going to be super interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Definitely is. But you guys can watch all of the
Catalan Grand Prix live and I Break Free on Fox
Sports and KO usually on channel five oh six on
Fox Sports, so make sure you're checking that out. If
you want to read more of Matt's articles and what
he has upcoming, you can do at Fox sports dot
com do AU forward Slash Motorsport. Plus you can keep
up to date with all of our information our insider
(33:30):
goss on our social channels at Fox Motorsport or Fox
Sports OZ everywhere, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, you name it, it
is there. And make sure you have subscribed to Pittalk
so you never miss an episode. But from Matt Clayton
and myself Ronita Vermullen, we're going to be back real
soon with more Moto GP Pit Talk
Ola Adodos MotoGP heads back to Barcelona, a circuit that
holds many fond memories for some of our riders, i e.
Fabriocordorarro in his first Moto GP victory and some not
so happy ones flash back to Alisia Spargaro celebrating the race,
our lap too early, but in the fight for the
(00:22):
very top step? Can anyone stop Mark Marquees on his
home turf. Welcome back to Pittok sponsored by Shannon's Insurance.
I'm your host, Rinita Vanmullen, and I've bought along my
partner in Chrime. He's got more hot takes than the
Catalan Sun and can drop Moto GP trivia Fassa. Then
Mark Marquees can go through that pack at the moment.
Matt Clayton, Matt, sorry, I had to give you a
(00:45):
really good intro this time to fill in, because I mean,
what are we gonna say? Mark Marquez is gonna win
in Barcelona?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I don't know about that. Reronetta. Look if I just
go the fist pump and just depart this podcast about
five minutes earlier is because I've got a lap too,
so you know I've done an Alisha Spargo. I'll just
I'll just leave you to close it out. But I
always enjoy this round because it's not what it seems
on paper. It's a bit of an odd one because
of the configuration of the track and the track surface
and what have you, which I'm sure we'll get into.
(01:13):
And it's also it's not really a Mark Marquez stronghold,
and given the form that he's been in for the
last seven rounds, we have to take everything we can
get at this point to think there might be someone
else that could win the Grand Prix this weekend. But
thoroughly looking forward to it because it does throw up
interesting races this place, which I'm sure we're going to
get into in the next twenty five minutes or so.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, exactly, And I guess that's one thing I wanted
to talk about, and hopefully our listens are interested to
know about the track surface here, because this is one
of the tracks on the calendar that does overlap with
Formula One to start with. But there's obviously a lot
of other racing that happens here, like the European Championships,
the Spanish Championships, all of that, but they do things
(01:54):
like cycle events here and more car races and events
that we don't know about. But the riders often say
about the surface of this track, it is one of
the more difficult parts to it.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, it's one of the busiest tracks in Europe because
of where it is. So I mean, obviously you've been there,
you know where this is. But this is one of
the more accessible tracks compared to major cities in Europe.
It's only about thirty k's outside of Barcelona. God knows.
I've miss to turn off at the circuit about three
hundred times when I've gone there off the freeway. But
it's a super busy track because f one goes there,
sports car goes there, there's always track days going on,
(02:27):
a lot of non motorsport related use as well, so
it's a very busy place. And the track surface itself,
it's just this really weird mix. It's billiard table smooth,
which is great because lasting riders want is bumps everywhere.
Hasn't been resurfaced to my memory, I reckon it's twenty eighteen.
Was the last time it was surface. I'd have to
go and dig that out. I reckon it's twenty eighteen.
(02:49):
And there's something about this track when it gets hot
that it doesn't actually grip up. It becomes even more slippery,
to the point where it's always like riding in the
wet to some degree. There's absolutely no rear grip whatsoever.
And you combine it with the configurations of corners here
there's a lot of really long corners, so you end
up with these really strange races a lot of the
(03:10):
time where they build to a boil.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You have these really really slow build ups and it's
all about you know you're going to run out of
tire at some point, but when do you deploy it.
Do you make a bolt at the start and try
and get a lead that you can't relinquish. Do you
push in the middle part of the race? Do you
have anything left in the last five or six laps?
So you end up with these quite interesting sort of
strategic races that perhaps you don't see anywhere else. But
(03:35):
the number one word you're going to hear what it's
two words you'll hear all weekend from Barcelona. You'll just
hear grip or complete lack thereof, and everyone will just
be talking about spinning the entire time because there is
just absolutely no rear grip at this place, so it
throws up interesting races. But something when I was doing
a little research. I actually do some research occasionally for
this podcast. It's really strange, right, So it's September. Last
(03:57):
year we had two races in Barcelona because the season
n AALI was moved there from Valencia when that region
got flooded. So last year we were there in round
six and Round twenty. So we're there in May and November,
and here we are in September. So you can take
a lot of what happened last year and kind of
throw it out because last year when we were there
in May, it was super hot. When we were there
(04:19):
in November, the sun, as you know, sets megafast in
Barcelona and it goes super cold, and like November in
barcelona's like really pushing it as far as you want
to race there. So you've got this different sort of
set of parameters this weekend. So yeah, we do the
end of season tests there. We had to race there
in round twenty. You had to race there in Round six.
I don't know how much relevance that's got for this
weekend because it kind of feels like it's a bit
(04:41):
of a hard reset because we're here in September. It's weird.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
I'm just looking at the weather forecast, so for example,
it's saying, well, the circuit is it's class as Barcelona,
but it's just outside more in Catalan territory.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, moderl dolars.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, well mellow. Yeah, So looking at the weather Friday,
it's saying possible rain a top of twenty three, Sunday
a top of twenty five, and then Sunday a top
of twenty seven. But a lot of bit overcast on Sundays. So,
like you said, that does change everything. And if this
track is slippery and everything we're hearing about this script,
what other writers going to go off? They have all
(05:14):
this data, like they say, But I think it's going
to be a case of who can utilize the tires
their best. And we know that a Prilliers are strong here.
We know that that previously they have won Elisa.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
So are we going to see more of Marco Batzeki
this weekend like we have been seeing in those last
few Grand Prix? Is he really going to take it
to Mark Marquez this weekend?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah? This has been in a Prillier track, even when
a brilliant work great at other tracks. He said. In
twenty twenty three they won the sprint and the Grand Prix,
won two in the Grand Prix with the Spargo and
Maverick Vignalez. As much as we were laughing about Alaish
losing count of how many laps there were to go
that one year, which frankly, of all the circuits in
the world, he should know how many laps there are
to go. He's probably done fifty million laps around there.
Because you mentioned Granolia's before, which is literally down the
(05:59):
road from this track, That's where Alasian Pole grew up.
So strange that he wouldn't know how many where the
timing towel was to see the laps counting down. But
this was a good Aprillia track even before Aprillia were
quite decent. We know that Aleish won the sprint there
last year, which was a lot of that was just
Peco making a massive mistake on the last lap and
falling off. But this is a good a Prillia track.
Aprilli has been pretty good for well since Silverston. Since
(06:22):
Berzeki won at Silveston, we've seen the Aprilli has been
right up there. He's been on the podium I think
four times in the last five Grand Prix. And then
you've got the Juge Martine factor in that he's still
so underdone and not necessarily ready for Grand Prix racing
and the bike. But what he did in Hungary last
time out, sixteenth on the grid, fourth in the Grand Prix,
I'm like, oh, okay, he's coming maybe faster than we thought.
(06:46):
And if there was ever going to be a Sunday
where Mark is vulnerable, I think it could be here
because of the corner configuration of the track. The Aprilli
is generally very good around here. Their bike is clearly
the second best in Motor GP right now. Bazeki's kind
of back in twenty twenty three. Bez form now like
the best we've ever seen of him, and I still
think that Juge Martin's going to win a race before
(07:08):
this seasons. I just have this feeling that there's going
to be a particular set of circumstances. We know that
the championship's been a total disaster, but the abilities there
in the bikes there we might find out where the
bike's ceiling is, because I think he's the guy most
likely to find it, so I'm actually look the sprint.
If Mark stays on board in the sprint, I think
Mark wins, because that's what happens with sprints in twenty
(07:28):
twenty five, as we've seen so far this year. But
over the longer Grand Prix distance, and because of the
super particular way this track needs to be ridden, I
could see it proorlyer really pushing Mark. The flip side
to this, of course, is that I kind of feel
like Mark's been riding with a little bit left in
the tank the last few rounds, particularly hungry. It kind
of felt like he could have pulled the pin whenever
(07:49):
he really wanted to, so we might get The answer
to the question is also how far fast is Mark
really in that if he really has to push, then
we might see how quick he is, because in Hungary
I kind of thought he was just sort of keeping
guests entertained for the first half of that race before
he disappeared. So I like a prilious chances this weekend,
but I don't think it'll be in the sprint. I
think if it happens, it'd be in the longer race
(08:10):
on the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I wanted to ask you this later, but I'm going
to ask you now, because this is the home grownd
Prix for many a lot of these Spanish and as
Hangen riders have done millions of laps around their circuit.
Could this be the one the Sunday race where we
see Johei Martin finally back on the metorgp podium in
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I could see a podium. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think
he's quite ready to win a race yet, but I
think he's absolutely on course, given his adaptation has been
super fasted, like really impressive. I thought that there'd be
a race like he did in Hungary coming up, but
I didn't think it'd be yet. I thought it might
be until we get to the flyways something like that.
So yeah, absolutely, I could see him on the podium.
(08:52):
But you mentioned the fact that there's so many riders
from in and around this area and they've all done
a million laps here. They've generally all done a million
laps yet Anyway, like whenever Jack Miller does any training
on a proper track when he's not going around go
kart tracks, it's not far to get up to Catalonia
from where he is. All of these guys whether they're
Spanish or not, have done ten million laps around this place,
(09:13):
which is kind of fun because it takes just a
variable out of the equation. It's like there's none of
this unfamiliarity stuff you think of last round at Baloton Park,
nobody knew the track. This track's probably the circuit on
the calendar where these riders, all of them. I can't
think of another track where you would do more laps
than this. Maybe Malaysia because you've been there for preseason testing.
Other than that, they're always here. They know this track
(09:34):
so so well. So it becomes who can read the
condition's best, Who thinks on their feet the best, who
adapts the fastest. You mentioned that weather forecast coming in.
I love the fact that no three days are the same, right,
so you're going to have this sort of like moving
ground beneath you the whole time. Who can improvise the best?
And going back to the Juge Martine question, he's a
(09:56):
guy who and I'll say this politely and it's actually
a comp rather than a criticism. I'm not sure there's
a hell of a lot of thought and historical precedents
going into the way Jullgey Martin rides. I think he's
an instinctive writer. This is a weekend where you need
to just adjust to what it is that you've got
underneath you and perhaps not spend the entire weekend concerned
(10:16):
about or lamenting the fact that you don't have something
at Peco Vanya. So that might be one of those
weekends where the less thinking you do, with the more
riding you do, maybe it's better off for you. And
the more intellectually you try to approach this weekend, the
more you might tell yourself. If knots, I.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Think, yeah, Pecovana into a tea at the moment. Right now, man,
let's talk about the other resurgence that I'm really enjoying
at the moment. A prelier to the side, I will
talk about Pedro Acosta because he's leading the charge for
KTM and I feel like this could be this could
be another strong weekend for him. I'm looking at the
(10:51):
data from last year's race, and Pedro Acosta had the
best race lab, you know, and it wasn't that far
off of Alicias Bugger's pole lab to be fair. That's
in in the Moto GP race. So could we see
another strong Pedro a Costa race this weekend.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It's interesting. I kind of feel that Pedro the first
half of this season. I said, the first eight to
ten rounds, there was so much outside noise going on
with him and with KTM. We know they had their
financial problems over the off season. New parts and things
were slow to arrive on the bike. What's the future
of this team? Who's going to own it, who's going
to buy it out? We know they got themselves into
(11:27):
some financial difficulties. We also know that he was having
his head turned. He was getting super restless. You know
there's links with Ducati. Is he possibly going to Honda?
Is he trying to get into onto a VR forty
six D Catty. It felt like the riding part was fine,
but there was just a lot of outside noise coming
from the team and was his head turn and was
he trying to get out of all of that. I
don't think it's any coincidence that as KTM's got itself
(11:50):
sorted financially. We know that there's been some Indian investment
in that company. Things seem a lot more stable now
from a financial platform, and all of the potential avenues
that he could have gone to have dried up for
the time being, and we've seen this week that VR
forty six is going with the same lineup for next
year with Franque Morberdelli being resigned. That was kind of
his only chance really to get on into Catti the
(12:10):
hont The things closed up because we know that's a
done deal now, and then I think if Honda were
going to look elsewhere, I don't think he's top of
that Q necessarily. I think, well, hey, Martin would be.
So things have kind of stabilized in terms of the
team in the manufacturer and also for him. I don't
think it's any great surprise that his form has started
to go up basically since Bruno when he first got
(12:30):
on that podium. The start of the year was super
disappointing because it felt like he was focused on the
wrong stuff, and we know how good the guys he
had one of the better rookie seasons we've seen in
a while. To me, he's now back to where he
probably should have been at the start of the season.
I don't know if he's made some amazing leap or something.
He's just back in the conversation now we know that
(12:51):
circuit to Catalogia has an enormously long front straight where
top speed then breaking down into turn one is a
really really big deal there. That KATM is an absolute
rocket ship in a straight line. It's motor Chip's fastest
bike in a straight line. It's all about for me.
If he can qualify on the first couple of rows,
I think he's going to be a major player on Sunday.
(13:12):
He has this bit of a propensity to mess up
Q three a little bit when he's been a Q
two Rather I'm going forward the right here Q two
when he's had a good weekend. You look at Hungary
last time out. He was fastest on Friday, he was
right up there on Saturday and then chucked it in.
Q two started too far back. He's on the third row.
Never really got a chance to do something in the sprint,
fell off, came through the pack and had a good
(13:34):
Grand Prix and finished second in the end. But I
think his weekend was he put a seiing on himself
because he made the mistake at the important part of
the weekend. If he gets up the front, he's clearly
the best KTM ryder right now because Vignalees is half fit.
Brad Binder he's had not a great year by Brad
Binder standards, fast you need. He's coming on, but he's
coming from a fair way back. So yeah, I wouldn't
(13:54):
be surprised at all to see a Costa right up there.
But you know what's interesting, and I'm sure you're probably
going to bring this up. I wrote earlier in the
week for Fox Sports dot com dot AU that we
talk about the Ducatti Cup at the start of the season,
and if you look at the headline results to Caadi
is still winning everything because I've got Buck Marquez riding
for them. But you look at where the other Ducaties
(14:15):
are relative to where they were at the start of
the season. If you're on a Ducati in the first
five rounds, you're probably finishing in the top five of
the Grand Prix, because they are all finishing in the
top five in the Grand Prix. But we've got fourteen
minutes into this podcast and we've talked about Joge Martin,
We've talked about Marco Batzeki, We've talked about Pedro Acosta.
There's different brands that are getting in the mix. Now,
you quoted that stat the last time we did a
(14:37):
pod where there were four manufacturers in the first five
finishes at a Grand Prix for the first time in
two years when we're in Hungary. Last time. It's still
Marques and a Ducati up front, but the configuration of
what's behind him has really changed from probably Silverston onwards.
That's really exciting as a neutral because quite frankly, you
and I don't care who wins. We just want to
see a good contest. We want to see it be entertaining.
(15:00):
And I like the fact that, yeah, Dcati's still winning
everything because I've got the best rider in motor GP.
But it's not a foregone conclusion anymore as to who's
going to be making up the podium and challenging for polls.
We've seen that, so a cost is part of that mix,
but I think it's a wider mix now where you
can't just turn up at a track and go, oh, yeah,
Decatti's going to lock out the podium here because it's
not happening as often as it was.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I'm literally looking at the championship standings right now as
we speak, and you're smack bang on the points. So yeah, okay,
the first three are do you caddies, and we know
that it's Mark Marquez, obviously Alex Marquez who had that
incredible strong start to the year that surprised us all
and obviously things have changed, and Peco Baannoya because there
was that consistency of him being third overall for that
(15:42):
first half of the year. Right. Then we get to
fourth position, Marco Bezekion Aprilia Pedro Cossa in fifth on
the ktm Okay. Yeah, then a couple more of the
the JU caddies, but Fabio Digi Antonio who's on the
same bike as Mark Marquez, He's currently in seventh. Then
let's go further down. We've got Zako in ninth for Honda,
and rounding out in tent is faber Corduro. So the
(16:06):
top six as we assumed it was going to be
for did you caddy Cup? It's not that You caddy Cup.
There's there's a few little hints and sprinkles of other
manufacturers in there.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah. Absolutely. Since Berzeki won at Silveston, he has scored
the second most points on the grid in that span,
more than Alex Marquez has other than Mark, and over
the last four rounds, I think it's Mark ahead of Berzeki,
ahead of a Costa. So you've only got one to
caddie in the top three since Bruno, So it's definitely changing.
And I think maybe we're not noticing it as much
because we look up and Mark Marquez is on a
(16:39):
fourteenth race winning streak. He this is becoming a lot
more now about I don't know if the bike's making
the difference, the ultimate difference anymore. I think Mark is,
and not necessarily because Mark's level has dropped. He's just
stayed exactly where he's been all year. But look at
where alex is, look at where Peco is. The VR
forty sixty caddies, it always seems like one of them
has a decent weekend, but never both of them at
(17:01):
the same time. I mean, Digia was pretty unlucky and
hungary because he had that electronics glitch on the on
the grid, probably would have fished top four in that race.
But this it doesn't feel like there's that same ever
present du Catti lockout now of these top four or
five positions, and it's what we want to see, and
someone like a resurgent Acosta or Bazeki who's just unlocked
(17:21):
this super consistent run. It just adds to the mix
and yeah, we know who's gonna be world champion. Let's
be honest, there's no intrigue here. But the back end
of the season is going to be interesting to see
how this narrative plays out. Du Cati Cup or not
du Catti Cup. We've got eight rounds to find out.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Can we just talk about the fact of Let's tell
her like the storytelling side of it. Take it away
from the racetrack for a minute of the sprint in
Hungary where it was Mark Marquez and the two VR
forty six's and I don't know if you saw that
clip that Moto GP posted Matt where it was the
you know how they all get in the back of
the car because they take them to the podium, which
is normally where the fan z owners. And there was
(17:59):
Digitia who was talking to Mark, and that was Morbidelli
who was just looking out the window. And you can
definitely tell where Morbidelli's alliance lies within the whole forty
six and then ninety three.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I love those videos. Well, two things to me. Can
we get a bigger car for them to sit into?
Why are there three adults sprammed into the back of
a car like I'm not getting in the back of
a car with two other adults, like what I was
sitting in the front, So one get a bigger car
or a bigger car sponsor. I don't know what that is,
but those videos are so funny, not because of what
is said. It is because of what is not said.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
And you need a body language.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Oh I love reading a bit of body language, like
Morbidelli was just looking at the window like he could
wait to get out of the car. And if you've
been around Fabio jan Antonio, he's literally the nicest guy
at motor GP. He will talk to you forever, so
he's happy to start a conversation with anyone, whether it's
Mark or not. And you could kind of tell Mark
was sitting in the middle of these two, but it
was a little bit on the awkward side. It was
(18:57):
so funny to watch because he's not just sitting there
with his brother, sitting there with Pecko looking sad that
he's been beaten again. There's just so much interesting body
language at a ninety second video. I always make a
point of watching them, but I never really necessarily listen
to what's being said. With my not particularly great Spanish
or reading subtitles. I just love watching the body language
between the three of them. That one was super interesting.
(19:18):
I'm glad you picked up on that.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah, no, I loved it. And then when obviously I
saw Frankie was resigning R forty six, and I've replayed
that video in my head and I'm like, yep, we
know where his alliance lies on.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Oh yes, oh yes.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But before we round out this weekend, we obviously have
to talk about Jack Miller because we are waiting for
the announcement of whether Jack is resigning with Yamaha for
next year or if he's going to go to well Superbanks. Matt,
you obviously have the inside knowledge within the paddock. Have
you heard any updates? Do you think we'll get an
announcement this weekend?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So let's go behind the curtain here. I sin, I
thought it was gonna happen Tuesday night, so we speaking
Thursday morning. I sent someone who would know a message
and said, just asking for a friend, but do I
need to stay up past midnight tonight to write a
Jack Miller has resigned with Pramak Gamaha story. And the
response I got was tell your friend they could have
it early night it's not happening tonight, so I did
(20:13):
have it early night. It was great. But I think
what this now comes down to, and this is something
that we talked about off air a little while ago,
and I'm not going to reveal any secrets here, but
I think it's going to happen. I think the timing
of this now, because it has been pushed and pushed
and pushed. Would it not make sense that this gets
announced at Massano, given that it's Pramac's home round, It's
(20:34):
the race that they it's the race that they have
the greatest sort of commercial ties to, it's a home
race of paler Cabernati in that team. I don't think
there's any great conjecture as to the fact that it's
going to be Jack because you look at all the
other moves that have happened in the rider market in
the past two weeks on the superbike side and the
Motor GP side. So this week in Motor GP we've
had Jones Ziico signed for twenty six and twenty seven.
(20:56):
That's interesting. We'll get hum back to that. Lukamurini signed
at Honda for next year. Franco Morbidelli confirmed at VR
forty six for next year. But then you look at
the potential avenues where other guys have signed superbikes like
iketh Le q Oona. We know that Johnny Ray's retiring,
Bautista's moving, sam Low's is heading over Sam Low's, Jake
Dixon is heading over. Got my British riders confused. There's
(21:18):
a lot of other dominoes in this that have fallen
where we kind of thought. So now we're just literally
waiting on two announcements that are kind of in the
done deal category, and I don't know which one will
come first, But it looks like the Diogo Morrera thing
to Honda is happening because both Yamaha and Honda wanted Marrera.
It looks like Honda have offered more years and full
factory status, which makes sense. And right now, if you're Marrera,
(21:41):
you're sitting there, you're thinking, I get to choose between
a Honda and a Yamaha. I reckon twelve months ago
that was a bit of a toss of the coin. Now,
I think Honda's shown more progress to me this year
than Yamaha has, and with the uncertainty of this whole
Yamaha V four thing, do you go with Honda, Yeah,
you probably do. That's a that we know is going
to fall. And then I think, I don't think Jack
(22:03):
keeps his seat at Pramac by default, necessarily because I
I've written this in the last couple of weeks. There's
a very sort of specific job requirement that he fills
because they are fast tracking this V four. You look
at the other riders in the Yamaha stable for next year.
Fabio Couaturero has never ridden a V four in his life,
Alex Ridds has done one or half of a season
(22:26):
when he got injured at Honda in twenty twenty three
and then left to go and right at Yamaha, and
Top Brack has never ridden a moor GP bike other
than a test at a race weekend. Yet, so three
quarters of your rider lineup have a grand total of
seven races on a V four between them, and you're
trying to bring this new bike in. Who's Jack Miller
written for? He is written for Honda V four, written
for Dacadi V four, written for KTM V four. Vastly
(22:49):
experienced knows how these engines work. The fact they could
have gone into next year with two rookies at Pramac
Alex Ridds has done half a dozen races on a
V four and Coaturo's ridden one that to me doesn't
align with trying to bring the V four project along
to make it your preferred engine of choice. So it's
a really specific job description if you like, like if
(23:10):
you're applying for a job through some website or what
have you. Jack has more of the boxes ticked on
that job description than a lot of other guys. And
you think, okay, Miguel Olivera's written some V fours as well,
which he has, but then you look at the points
table and it's been absolutely one way traffic this year. Yes,
Olivera's had some injury issues even when he's been fit.
I think he's out qualified Jack once all season. I
(23:31):
think it's fifty two to ten in the points all season.
So it's pretty clear which of those two writers should
be retained. So no, we don't have the announcement yet,
frustratingly because we all want it. I'm sure Jack wants
it as well, but I'll be really keen to see
what he's like in his pre event press availability at
Cassialounia on Thursday night, Australian time, because in Hungary he
was annoyed. He was really angsty about everything. I think
(23:53):
there would have been some conversations behind the scenes there,
just like look, just chill out here, we've got you,
this is fine. I think he's demeanor will be really
interesting in his press debriefs at CATALOONYA. What wouldn't surprise
me at all is if he gets on the front
foot with this this weekend, instead of waiting for the
inevitable question to be asked by one of the press pack,
he'll sit down and he'll go, yeah, look, no news
(24:15):
on the contract yet, but I've been told it's all
heading in the right direction. So when I have some yews,
I'll let you guys know. And they just put that
thing to bed instead of answering four or five questions
about it and getting increasingly agitated like he did in
Hungary last time out. There's an art to winning the
press conference if you like. I reckon that he will
go in there and be quite on the front foot
(24:35):
about this and just put that thing to bed. We
have the race weekend, then maybe we get to Masato
teams home race or sorted and everyone just gets on
with life. But yeah, that's a story. I thought I
would have written this week already, but apparently not.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I saw a video once again that Moto GP posted,
and they asked Jack, oh, is there a question that
you were just over being asked like you just want
to be put to bed? And he goes, what am
I doing next year? I answered that question, and then
they said to him, do you remember that viral video
last year where they found Jack had his blindfold on
and he put his hands in a box and there
(25:08):
was nothing there, and he goes, oh, is this my
contracts for twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
It's so funny. And this is where this is where
we love Jack from a media point of view, in
that he's this whole one year things not unusual to him.
If I'm remembering rightly, I think he only ever had
one multi year contract that was with KATM and one
sees it into that contract he was being asked when
he was getting booted for Pedro Acosta, which we as
we know that ended up happening, So this is not
unfamiliar territory for him. But this is where Jack's such
(25:34):
an asset to Motor GP in that Jack never ducks
a question and sometimes I can imagine if you're working
in the press department for his team, you'd have your
head in your hands. And some of these questions because
Jack only has the truth filter. There's no other filter.
You can't turn it off. And that's one of the
things you love about him. You ask him a direct question,
you get a direct answer, and then we all move on.
So yeah, sometimes the honesty is the best policy for
(25:56):
Jack ninety five percent of the time. But he does
get himself into a little hot water because he doesn't
know how to don't know how to big disorders with
these things.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
He doesn't. I love that he finished that video. Often
you guys can see it on the Moto GP socials
that he goes. Yeah, if you just need any viral content,
just put the camera on me. I'll give it to
you as it is.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
He's not wrong's wrong, He's not wrong.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Moving on too quickly to our other Aussie sener ags,
he is back this weekend after that massive crash that
we saw in Austria.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Austria.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, okay, yes, it feels like we know we're on
race four hundred of this season, so they're all starting
to blend in. But yes, Sena ags is back says
he's ready to go. So that's for Moto two. And
then obviously we have our Aussies in Moto three, jcob
Ralston and Joel Kelso. So once again we mentioned this earlier.
This is a track that the MotoGP writers have done
a lot of laps on, but also our Aussies because
(26:45):
they've been over in the Lower championships as well. It's
close to their home. They ride here a lot. There's
close by is Rocko's Ranch. I don't know mat if
you've ever been there, but it's a it's a flat
track place literally right next to the circuit, which is
really cool. A lot of the MotoGP riders and other
wealthy bike riders and everyone goes there and trains flat tracks.
So the boys are local to this circuit just as
(27:06):
much as they are for Philip Island.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah. Yeah, like all the Aussie guys would have done
more laps around Barcelona than they would have done Philip
Island for sure, and a lot of them when they
moved to When they move to Europe to compete in
the World Championship, they do go and live in Spain,
and it makes sense to go and live close to
this track because you can always get on it, so
they're practically locals, they'll know their way around here. Good
to see center back. That was a pretty scary accident. Yes,
(27:31):
you missed Grand Prix round, but that was one of
those ones when you saw it as it happened. Oh boy,
that's like that had potentially really really bad consequences. So
I'm glad that he's back and Moto three at this
track because of the nature of it is the last
five laps of Moto three, like you'll find yourself just
giggling most of the time because there's absolutely no analysis
being done here. It's like what on earth is going
(27:52):
to go along? So looking forward to that. But before
you get off the ifore we finish this podcast and
get off the Aussie seed, do we need to talk
about marquees matchpoint stats here? Because there is a chance,
and there is a chance that he could set himself
up to win the World Championship at Massano, and wouldn't
that be a story? He can win the world He
(28:14):
could win the World Championship Massado if things go well
this weekends. I've crunched the numbers. I just want to
let you know the numbers because I know you'll be
wondering and our listeners will be wondering too. So he
is one hundred and seventy five points in the league
right now. So to be world champion at Massano, he
needs to lead by two hundred and twenty two points.
Sounds like a lot. So he needs to outscore Alex
Marquez by forty seven points in the next two rounds.
(28:35):
That sounds like a lot. The last two rounds were
Austria and Hungary. Mark has outscored Alex by fifty five
points in the past two rounds, so it's absolutely doable.
At Massano. Mark's been amazing for the last seven rounds.
Alex has gone the other direction. He's had one Grand
Prix podium and two sprint podiums in the last five rounds,
(28:57):
so he's had of a potential ten podiums he had
free and you think at the start of the year
it was Mark Marquez first, Alex Marquez second in just
about every single time we went for a race. So
Mark's in the best four he's been in for eleven
years and Alex has dropped off and that's what's open
this possibility that he could potentially win the World Championship
at Massano, and as much as it would be kind
(29:20):
of cool for him to win the championship in Japan
because he's won championships in Japan in the past, and
it's almost like full circle moment, he decided in Japan
a couple of years ago that was time to leave
Honda after all the success they'd had. Imagine what social
media is going to be like if he wins the
World Championship in Valentino Rossi's backyard in Messado. Oh my god,
Like you may as well just sit back from your
chair right now, because it's going to be nuts in
your world.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
I I'm glad you bought it up because I wasn't
sure whether to or not, but I think we need
to talk about it. So obviously I do social media.
And I was listening to an interview with Mark Marquez
and he said, I don't want to win in San Marino.
His words were because that would mean Alex has had
a bad run in bus. What I didn't read here
(30:03):
and what I'm reading through the subtext is I don't
want to win in Italy, literally next door to Valentino's
rossis because I will have to have security guards and
get flown out by the Spanish Army. Can you imagine
that the people probably knocking on his boator home.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
And the other part of this, of course, is that
this is something that hasn't been discussed enough. When's the
next in season test. It's the Monday after Massano because
we've been talking about it, because Yamaha's going to run
the V four and Crosserera and probably Jack Miller will
get a run at that. If you're Mark Marquees and
you're going to have the world's greatest party after winning
your seventh World Championship you've been waiting for since twenty nineteen,
(30:42):
do you think you're going to want to go and
test the next morning. I wouldn't have thought so. So Yeah,
there's a number of reasons why he'd probably like it
to be Japan. The security aspect of Massarto might be
one of them. But yeah, I'm not sure I'd be
up for a ten am pit laid open start on
the Monday after winning a World championship. I might call
him sick that day. I think I don't.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Blame you because he did say, you know, I'd rather
win in Japan or Indonesia, and I felt like that
was a very pr thing to say because of his
massive fan base in Asia. We know that, and then
how much the love motorcycles and obviously Mark Marquez. But yeah,
I'm thinking maybe it's just because of the VR forty
six army, because we saw what they did at Magello
(31:22):
and I was there on the ground, and yes, the booing,
the like. Even Mark said, you don't have to hate
my brother. He had nothing to do with it. But
you know, so could you I just keep saying, could
you imagine, just just picture it?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yes, I can imagine it would be that.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Would make world news for sure.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Yeah, I can imagine it. And there's there's probably a
part of it, part of it for Mark that he
probably secretly enjoy it as well, if only for the
fact that, you know, the only way he really gets
here is he needs to be excellent and Alex probably
needs to be a bit rubbish, which he's not been
great for the past five rounds. I think we need
to look at Alex Marquez's season and say, well, maybe
the first seven eight rounds were kind of the outlier
(32:02):
because he was so good at the start of the year,
But that's also not really in keeping with how his
career is beg to this point, like he was massively
outperforming his normal expectations. Mark's just doing what Mark does
when he give him the best bike and the gritty
makes everyone look a bit average. So yeah, look, the
main thing for Mark is he'll take a win wherever
because it's been so long since he won one. But yeah,
(32:23):
winning it at Masano with everything you talked about and
then the fact you have to do a test the
next day. Maybe not the greatest idea, maybe not.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
But I think that's going to make this weekend even
more exciting because listeners just see what's happening, Watch what
Mark is doing, figure out the tactics he's doing, because yeah,
like what if we do have a juge Martine, Marco Barzeki,
a stronger prillier weekend and we see Mark maybe not
pushing as hard as he normally does. Like I feel
like all that's going to come into play if he's
really really considering this, not winning at Mazano because he
(32:52):
keeps calling it impossible.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Nothing's impossible. This year for Marcus, we've seen who would
have thought we'd been talking about a guy winning fourteen consecutives. Yeah,
it's been one of those seasons. Anything is possible this season,
and yeah, the next two weekends as a back to
back is going to be super interesting.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Definitely is. But you guys can watch all of the
Catalan Grand Prix live and I Break Free on Fox
Sports and KO usually on channel five oh six on
Fox Sports, so make sure you're checking that out. If
you want to read more of Matt's articles and what
he has upcoming, you can do at Fox sports dot
com do AU forward Slash Motorsport. Plus you can keep
up to date with all of our information our insider
(33:30):
goss on our social channels at Fox Motorsport or Fox
Sports OZ everywhere, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, you name it, it
is there. And make sure you have subscribed to Pittalk
so you never miss an episode. But from Matt Clayton
and myself Ronita Vermullen, we're going to be back real
soon with more Moto GP Pit Talk
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com