May 22, 2025 • 32 mins
Pit Talk is proudly sponsored by Shannons
MotoGP silly season is officially on fire! Contract talks, surprise moves, and paddock whispers are heating up as the grid prepares for a wild second half of the season.
Renita is on-site at Silverstone ahead of the iconic British Motorcycle Grand Prix to bring you the latest from the paddock – including insider chatter, weather watch, and who’s turning heads before the lights go out.
Don’t miss this episode as Matt Clayton and a jetlagged Renita Vermeulen preview the high-speed action at one of the fastest, most unpredictable tracks on the calendar.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Moto GP heads to Great Britain under the summer sunshine
here and I can say that because Matt, I'm actually
here in the UK ahead of this weekend's Silverstone Moto
Grand Prix and it is sunny. It surprisingly landed in
London it was rainy and now we are up near
Buckingham Shea for Silverstony and it is sunny.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
But Matt, welcome back to Pitt Talk.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I know you've been busy over on the F one
side of things, so welcome back to my favorite subject,
Moto GP.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
T talk about subject too. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We love that, we love that.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Let's go into silly season because I'm sure you guys
have been reading on Fox sports dot com do au
for Slash Motors for all of Matt's articles, and you
released one on Joorge Martin.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
There's something on Jack Miller. But the rumors at.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The moment are going crazy. I've heard stuff about Pekobanyaya.
Fill us in what's the latest with me GP Silly season.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm so looking forward for you and I to do
a podcast that'll have an audience of two, which will
be you and I after you've spent Thursday crashing around
the paddock trying to work out what's going on here.
But yeah, look, it felt like it was going to
be a pretty relaxedly season compared to last year. I
remember this time last year Migello came and then the
whole world got turned upside down and tipped upside down
in the space of about a week. But you know,
(01:23):
there are only four riders out of contract this year,
so he thought, okay, it's going to be pretty quiet.
A lot of these guys will probably sign on for
new teams. And then after the French Grand Prix, this
bombshell emerges that Jorge Martin's trying to get himself out
of the Aprillier contract that he signed at Migello last year. Crazily,
he's not completed a race at a Prillier yet, of course,
(01:45):
because he's only been present for one round this year,
and we know what happened in Katari had that horrendous
accident and got hit by Fabio to jan Antonio, so
he's still sidelined. But a couple of very prominent and
well connected Spanish journalists reported that Martin was in Lemon,
not at the tree, but at the town in the
lead up to the French GP to have a couple
of meetings with a prilliant management saying I don't want
(02:06):
to stay, I don't want to do this. And what
they're doing here is there's a clause and no one
quite knows what the clause says except for the people
that signed the contract. But the clause intimates something along
the lines of if he's not in amongst the top riders,
and I use that in air quotes because you don't
know where the top means, two, three, five, whatever, that is,
(02:28):
if he's not among the top riders at a particular
point of the season, he is then free to go elsewhere.
And if you're looking at this from a previous point
of view, it's like, well, how can you possibly be
one of the top riders in the World Championship this
season because you haven't been on the bike except for
one round and you didn't even finish that. So it
is calling a contract out to the letter of the law.
(02:49):
Is it is there a karmera at the Carmick element
to this look? Probably not, And I'm sure there will
be lawyers talking to other lawyers to try and resolve
this buttering thing for me, Roneda and a lot of
people don't know this. This is the second time Jorge
Martinez used some sort of fine print in a contract
to get what he wants when he wants it. And
(03:12):
I go back to the twenty twenty Motor GP season.
He was in Moto two still at that point, there
was a clause in the contract that he had that
he had a link to come up to Motor GP
in twenty twenty one with KTM, and there was some
fine print in that contract that there had to be
a KTM rider inside the top ten of the twenty
(03:33):
twenty World Championship by June for that contract to be binding. Now,
of course what happened in twenty twenty COVID there were
no races in twenty twenty until July. So the fact
that there were no KTM riders in the top ten
of the championship in June. Frankly, there were no riders
in anywhere in the top ten of the championship in June.
We hadn't had a race. They used that loophole to
extract him from KTM, which is what got him on
(03:55):
the grid with Pramak to Caddy back in twenty twenty one.
So you look at the paddock. I mean, you know this,
it's a small place, there's only five manufacturers, and you're thinking, well,
where could he go? He rage quit Ducati last year
after it was made very clear that Mark Marquez wasn't
going to accept going to Pramac and force his way
into the factory team, so he rage quit them to
sign with a Prillia on the post Mugillo test in
(04:19):
one day. That whole deal went down. Rewind a few
years and he's used some loophole to get out of katm.
There's only so many places you could annoy in this
paddock because there's only so many people you could actually
ride for. So to think that there could be some
situation here where they're using some sort of legal ease
and something buried deep in a clause in a contract
to get him out of a Prillier, it's one we
(04:41):
certainly didn't see coming because this relationship hasn't even had
a chance to be good or bad. It's just been
nothing because he hasn't ridden the bike. But then you
start to think to yourself, this is just me being cynical,
and you know, possibly a little sensible occasionally, but what
I'm thinking is okay, so where else would he go.
We're running out manufacturers here. The obvious one for me
(05:03):
is Honda, as in I nearly said repsol holder, at
which point you would have been forced to take it
a shot. But the factory Honda team Luca Marine's out
of contract at the end of this season. And it
was really interesting that after and you would have noticed
this after Lamon, when Joe and Zycho won that race,
he made it very clear that he would love to
step up to that main factory team. And yes, we
(05:24):
know he's getting a factory bike at else are, but
there's nothing like writing for the factory hon the team,
both now and then maybe in the future as we
look to twenty twenty seven rule reset, Honda has as
good of a chance as of anybody is getting this right.
I don't think it's much of a coincidence that one
day after Zako said, oh look, I'd really like to
get my backside on that factory Honda in the future.
(05:45):
This story breaks from some well connected Spanish journalists on
the Martin camp, because if Martin's going anywhere, it's pretty
clear that he will want to go to the factory
on the team. Maybe Hedgy's bets for twenty twenty seven
and so on. But I don't think that those two
stories were in isolation. I think they were very connected.
And to me, that's go on, keep going.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
No, No, I wanted to just say what I'm finding
really interesting, and you're talking about Honda here and Martin
and I'm trying to connect with Dodds and something that
I don't know if listeners know that you've pointed out, Matt,
is the fact that Pedro Costa and Jugem Martin are
managed by the same person. Those rumors, all those rumors
coming about with Pedro Costa potentially going to HRC Honda.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And then Tom Crack got thrown in there.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
So that's what I just thought. It was funny that
you were saying, Johem Martin could potentially go to Honda,
because what about Pedro a Costa.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Then it sounds very much like a Costa has his
heart set on trying to get on to do Catty
and the only one of those that's available at the
end of this season is at VR forty six with
Franco Morbidelli because he's out of contract at the end
of this season. Now, the Morbid Deli one's interesting for
me in that I think his stock was pretty low
last year after the Parmak experience. Obviously, is hugely injured
(06:57):
at the beginning of last year, didn't really get a
great run at and then even when he got back
wasn't particularly good. Of course, you have to remember his
teammate won the World Championship last year and Morbidelli had
one podium, so there's a huge gap between those two. Now,
theoretically there's a VR forty sixty catty available for twenty
twenty six. That would mean that Valentino Rossi would have
to wave goodbye to a writer who is a protege,
(07:21):
a member of the academy who he's brought through, assuming
that Costa can worm his way out of a contract
with KTM, because he's contracted with KTM for twenty twenty six,
just as Martinez contracted for Prilier in twenty twenty six.
So I wrote earlier this week that these contracts seem
to be you know, they're basically a marriage of convenience
until they're not, and you know there'll be one party
(07:43):
or another that wants to get themselves out of it.
To my mind, Renda, there's a huge thing here in
that I don't expect that the balance of power to
shift too much in motor GP for the rest of
this year and next year while we've got this rule set,
it's a Ducati Championship and you need to be on
a Ducadi twenty twenty seven. Is this really enticing? Hard
(08:04):
reset new engines, less arrow, new tire supply. There's so
much changing for twenty twenty seven, and so being on
the right bike at the right time at the start
of a rule set. There's a lot of educated guess
work going on here. Everyone's trying to maneuver themselves into
the correct position. I thought next year's rider market would
(08:25):
be nuts and this years would be quiet. But to
have the reigning world champion who has not scored a
point decide that he wants out of a Prilier six
races into a World Championship, which just shows you that
the silly season only ever gets silly. I just will
be expected to be a bit more sensible than something
like this comes up.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, let's look about the silly, silly, silly season.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Because I went on social media briefly on my journey
over and then someone's made a post about heko Bernaya
potentially going to factory Yamaha.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, I think there's probably people are adding two and
two together and coming up with five on that one.
That sounds a littill a bit unlikely to me. We
know that it's not been the greatest season for Peco.
I think I'm not surprised that Mark Marquez has got
into that team and done what he has done, but
Peco has not been himself this season. We also know
the way Peco works in that he's not someone who
(09:15):
jumps at shadows. He's pretty methodical in the way that
he chips away at these things, and so I can't
imagine yet. I mean, you never say never with these things,
but I think that's probably a bridge too far yet.
I think the interesting part, just slightly backtracking to the
Martin thing, is that most people seem to think that
he's trying to get himself to Honda as opposed to Yamaha. Now,
(09:37):
of course Pramak, who ran his World championship team a
Ducati a running that secondary Yamaha team these days. I
don't think Yamaha is looking for a juge Martin because
they have a guy who, all things being equal, is
one of the best spots two or three guys on
the grid and Fabio Couaateuro. We've seen that these past
couple of Grand Prix at Herreath and at Lamont, that
Quauro doesn't have a bike to fight for a World
(10:00):
championship yet. But what these last couple of rounds have
said to me, and I'm sure you're in agreement here
if Yamaha ever come up with a bike that can
fight decatty, but now are in twenty twenty seven, they've
already got the rider. He is so so good. I
don't think his talent has dipped one bit. And we've
seen what happens if he has the best bike on
the grid or nearly the best bike on the grid.
(10:20):
We know what happens. He wonted world championship doing this
in twenty twenty one, and I don't think he's got
any worse since sin So Yamaha's got their kingpin, They've
got their shining light, and everyone else needs to sit
in line behind them. I'm not sure Yamaha would really
want a Martine type, but Honda right now are crying
out for like that super A list rider, and you know,
(10:41):
the Acosta stuff is cooled with them. As you mentioned before,
they're to me the one factory that doesn't have that
genuine a lister right now that they could do that
in the future. So look twenty seven. To me, I
think every decision that happens between now and twenty seven
needs to be considered with what happens when the rules change.
But man, I did not expect to be having a
(11:01):
ju Hey Brtsine contract conversation. Part of me is like,
could you just finish a race first, please, and then
well you can actually discuss this because he hasn't done
that yet.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, when like it first got announced, I was totally
mind blowing, as everybody else was.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
When you're hear in these rumors of him.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Potentially having tortill of teens and whatnot, and then you
look at what happened last year with Pramak, Like you said,
his trust also in Elisia Spargrou, I think had helped
him meet possibly make that decision. I don't know the
ins and outs. I'm just assuming here, but you saw
that whole situation go out. Then also Alisia Sparger jumping
(11:37):
to Honda as their test writer. Is it like the
mouse following the cat once again?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Or the caple in the mouse possibly. I mean it
was funny with the espigro thing, like we were talking
about that at the time. I remember him because he
was like, he was a Prillians captain, he was the
leader of the ship, he was the guy. And then
he announced that catalog you look, this season will be
my last. And I think most people thought, well, he'll
probably just be a test writer for a Prillier then,
because he's a cat and he's the guy that's been
steering this shit for so long. And then a few
(12:03):
weeks later, I'll be a test writer for HRC. Now, okay,
hsc's probably got a bigger budget for a test rider
than a prillierdo. But part of me is like, that's
a bit weird because after you've done all you can
do to effectively get someone like Jujgey Martine is in
as your successor, and for people that don't know, there's
almost like a there's like a big brother little brother
(12:23):
relationship with Elashan and Jorge and that Elishi's fiercely protective
of and has always tried to guide. Hey, they've been
very close for a long long while. It's almost like
they've related their siblings in that sense, so he you know,
obviously what happened at Magello last year, Martine realized he
wasn't going to be in the factory Dakati team Espago
(12:43):
was hugely influential and getting that a Prillier deal over
the line at full stop, but getting it over the
line so quickly. You might remember, that deal was announced
on the Monday of the test, before Mark Marquez had
even been confirmed at the factory da Catti team. They
actually stole their thunder. They jumped the gun on that one.
And so the fact that Aleish then turned around fairly
(13:04):
soon after that and said, oh, by the way, I'm
going to be a test writer for HRC next year,
that was interesting. That was a little bit of a
bread crumb for me in that if he's got jes ear,
which I'm sure he does, he's probably saying, hey, look
like there's some good stuff happening here. You might want
to see if you can get yourself on this. And
I mean, we're again, we're sort of stitching unrelated stories
(13:26):
together here to come up with a potential outcome. But
that would not surprise me in the slightest if he's
been given the heads up as to like, look, this
Honda thing's really starting to gain momentum, and we've seen
it this year. I mean the fact that Honda won
that race at Lamon and they're not just cast a
drift at the back in this sort of category sad
category of one anymore. That's not where they are. They're
clearly getting better, probably not to the extent of yamahat yet,
(13:49):
but yet it's the keyword, like it really feels a
lot Honda's coming and they have such resource and this
history of getting things right with big rule changes that
if you were going to put your money on someone,
all things being equal, for twenty twenty seven of the
non docaddy teams to get it right, I'd be putting
my money in possibly some of yours, on Honda for
(14:10):
twenty twenty seven because they just have the pedigree with
this sort of stuff, don't they.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh for sure?
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Like you said, Honda, when you think of Moto GP,
thinking back into the nineties, we're doing and Career and
all those guys is such a staple.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
In Moto GP history.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
But also is Yamaha, right, So it sucks to see
those Japanese manufacturers down. But this season it's been so
much better having Honda winning La morn. We've had Fabio
fighting for the podiums, but it's only just like one
writer here or one writer there. It's not the whole
manufacturers constantly up the front. That's what I think we
need to see more of. So what you said about
(14:48):
having that alien for HRC Honda, I think is what
they need, because obviously that's what Marquez was for them,
and that's kind of what they've always had, is that
one writer who's taken the whole team them, apart from
when it was Danny Pidrosi who was constantly there in
the second place. But let's go to Yamaha really quickly,
because you wrote an interesting piece on Jack Miller. We
(15:10):
know that Jack has only got a one year contract
that is up at the end, and it seems like
he's kind of been the star of the show for
Pramaha because Miguela Lavera once again got caught in an
incident that wasn't his fault out with injuries only just
starting to come back. But Jack, as we've said so
many times, he shows those glimpses, those flashes of brilliance.
He gets to the ceiling straight away. He's been constantly
(15:33):
there with Fabrio Corderraro. What's the latest with Jack? What's
the room is all? Where do you think he's going.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
To go for the next year.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I'm just crossing off Pramaha off my podcast being Go
Kard because you've managed to tick that one for me,
so thank you. Look the police that I wrote about
Jack this week was interesting in that in his so
he had that fantastic fifth place in Texas in the
Grand Prix. There he's brilliant, Like Pramak were just absolutely
joyous about that. Gino Bosaw was saying, like fifth for
(16:01):
us in this stage of a really really new projects,
like a victory, like it's an amazing result. Jack's not
scored a point since then. So two non scores in Qatar,
two non scores in Spain, two non scores in France.
Now some of these look the France Grand Prix. He
will absolutely be kicking himself even now when we get
to Silveston this week, because he was eleven seconds up
(16:24):
the road on the right tires, on the right strategy
from the guy who won the race at the time
when he went down, and that's one that's absolutely slipped
through his fingers probably should have won that race and
podium at a minimum. There's also been some seriously weird
things that have happened to Jack and this run of
six straight now zeros for him. Had that really weird
tire vibration thing in Qatar that every time we went
(16:44):
into a left hand corner it basically tried to throw
him off and eventually did it turn two like a
sort of pathetic slow speed crash at turned two. And
then the one that got me was remember what happened
to him at Harrath where a piece of the bike's
fairing came loose and actually sliced one of the wiring
cables on the bike, and all of a sudden and
it's like, oh, this thing's running on three cylinders and
going nowhere fast. So he's had some Only Jack Miller
(17:06):
could have these sorts of DNF retirements. But the thing
that I thought this week is that you know, this
time last year, we were going, oh, this Katim thing's
not going well. A cost as a star in the making.
He kind of felt like he was a dead man
walking last year, and he was in the end. But
it made me dig back through Jack's career this is
the So he's got nineteen points after the first six
(17:29):
rounds of a season. It's the worst six rounds of
a season he's had since twenty sixteen. That's how far
back it's been since Jack scored so few points in
the first six rounds of a season, because it crossed
the sprint in the Grand Prix. In these last three rounds,
he hasn't scored a point now. This time last year
he was scoring more than this, not a lot more,
but he was scoring some more. But we always felt that, look,
(17:49):
the kat V's thing's done, and it got to the
point where, I mean, he was on this podcast saying that,
you know, I thought it was over until the whole
Pramak Yamaha thing gave him a lifeline. He was the
twenty second and final guy signed for this year really
late in the day, and so it looked pretty tenuous
there for a while. I would actually suggest that despite
(18:10):
this run of form that he's been on, I actually
feel he's in a pretty good position to retain his
seat for next year, not necessarily for what he's doing
on the scoreboard. I think you mentioned that before about
him getting to the ceiling of a bike really fast,
we know he's done that. Yamaha have been nothing but
positive about the impact he's having behind the scenes with
(18:30):
the testing of new parts and really driving the project forward.
Because we forget with Jack because he acts like he's
eighteen a lot of the time he's thirty years old.
He's so experienced now because he's had time with Honda
and Ducati and KTM. He's always the perfect guy to
have when you've got a new project and you want
to know, as Yamaha, what the rest of them are
(18:50):
doing and what they're doing, Well, jack'st well, I've ridden
this bike, and I've ridden this bike, and I've ridden
this bike, and I've been in Motor GP for ten years.
He's a team player. He's a really good in that regard.
So there's that aspect to it. And then my thought
process on this is, if it's not Jack, then who
are you going to get that's going to do a
better job with that job description than what Jack is doing.
(19:14):
We know Pramac's got that Moto two team with Tony
Abellino and Nissan Guivara. They're not ready for Moto GP
yet possibly at all. Why on earth would you bring
them in for the final year of a rule set
that's going in the bin at the end of twenty six. Anyway,
there's absolutely no point doing that. We know Yabaha is
developing the V four behind the scenes. Jack's britten V
four's and his previous addresses. He's the perfect guy at
(19:37):
this time to try and bring that project forward. And yeah,
look the points Tally's not looking great at the moment,
and he said it himself after all the once. I
just need to start getting some points here because he's
not been slow. He's made some mistakes like France, he
was unlucky like he was in Spain. He does need
to score some points and Silverston's been a good track
for him in the past. But I think he's under
(19:58):
less threat this year year than he was last year.
I'd be super surprised if Premak Yamaha didn't sign him
for next year.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, we'll just have to keep our eyes in is
peeled because the silly season rumors are going.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
To continue NonStop.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
If anything like last year was to go off, I
think this year it's going to be like who's.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Going where with this person? This person says this.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
So once we had the official announcement of everything, we
will let you guys know asap. But you mentioned Silverstone.
Obviously that is the British Rumprix this weekend. Let's move
on to that because before we hit record, we were
talking about last year and how cool it was being
the seventy fifth anniversary of Moto GP retro round. Those
are the cool flashback of throwback memories. I'm trying to think.
(20:43):
The Yamaha one for me was just incredible color schemes.
But last year's winner, we were talking about this as well.
A name of Ashanini came out of nowhere. He won
the Sprint and the Grand Prix, right, yes he did.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
He's one of those I reckon he has. Certainly when
he was at Tocatti, you have three weekends a year
where you look at him and go, how's this guy
not won three World Championships like he looks like the
best writer in it by a mile. And there was
nothing about either of those wins that he had at
Silverston last year that was about luck or you know,
taking advantage of someone else's misfortune. He was just so
quick the entire weekend, and then and a being and
(21:19):
a who disappeared for a bit, and then he won
at me Massado and he disappeared for a bit, and
that's just the way that he tends to roll. But
the weirdest thing about that is that, so you dig
back through the history books with Silverston, this event makes
absolutely no sense simply because the last ten times we've
had a Grand Prix at Silveston, we've had ten different
(21:40):
winners in the past ten years, so no repeat winners
and ten guys have won one race each in the
past ten times that we've been to Silverston. So you'll
be doing well to remember some of these. But you
think back and go, my goodness, like, how have we
got to a point where this has become literally the
least predictable Grand Prix of the year, And you go
back and look at some of these. Elasiauspo won there
(22:00):
in twenty three, is one of the second win he
had for a Prilier quatro in his twenty twenty one
championship year. Alex Rinz being Mark Marques and that awesome
last lap by about half a wheel twenty nineteen, Mark
comes very close to winning here but doesn't. Maverick Vignalez's
first Motor GP win was here. Suzuki back in twenty
(22:21):
was at fifteen, I remembory. One of Rossi's last wins
was here. It's bizarre. So I'm just looking at this now.
The last time we had repeat winners at Silverston twenty
twelve twenty thirteen Jorge Lorenzo. Nobody's won consecutive races since,
and we've had ten different guys win Grand Prix, so
it's become this really unpredictable race. But I'm so glad
(22:42):
you started this podcast with the weather because I was
going to ask you for a weather update, which makes
terrible podcasting, but it's interesting for me now. It's not
summer yet in the UK. I know the English. The
English summer is one of those things that you need
to stick air quotes around, obviously, but this is the
earliest this race has ever been held. I actually duck
back through this because this is normally August or September, right,
(23:03):
so you've got half a chance of the weather actually
being halfway decent. So I looked at the forecast of
the weekend. I hope you've packed most of your wardrobe
because it seems like you're going to need it. It's
going to be all over the place.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
It's currently close to mid day here, and I reckon
it's about twelve degrees. And you know, a weeks ago
they were saying England had this heat wave go through
and it was like thirty degrees and whatnot, and now
it's twelve and freezing. But I also had a look
at the weather and I think we were in for
some wet weather track action, which I think is going
to be good because it'll even up the playing field
(23:36):
because Silverstone, as we know, vast circuit, the long straights
that it has, it's fast flowing, so automatically you think
Mark Marquez, right, But if we do have that wet weather,
we might be in for a bit more interesting qualifying
where hopefully we'll see a Fabio or a Jack or
a different manufacturer at the front and not just Mark
Marquez who could possibly break his whole street.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Shall we say?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
It's also super interesting is that it's pretty grim for
us back here in Australia because we've got a one
am Sunday boarding sprint. It's a four pm local time
sprint start at Silverstone. Now, given we're not in summer,
like I know, it's dark at five o'clock. But you
mentioned like twelve degrees, what's the track temp going to
be like, particularly if it's wet, that sprint could be absolute,
(24:21):
you know, survival of the fittest rather than the fastest.
Because that's pretty late in the day obviously, you know
why it's at that time of the day to keep
the crowd there and so on and so forth. But
a four pm sprint, I remember when we talked about
this at Philip Island last year. You remember when the
race at Philip Island was always quite late in the afternoon,
the actual Grand Prix. You'd get deep into the race
and any of the right hand corners at Philip Island
(24:43):
and be like trying to turn on ice, like turn
four and turn ten because it's coursed to five in
the afternoon. The temperatures ten degrees cold are at the
end of the race, and it was at the start.
So that sprint being at four pm on whether that
we can't really trust. That's super sketchy for me. But
you mentioned Marquez high speed. Look, I totally agree with you.
I can't believe he's only ever won this race once.
(25:06):
But then we're saying that about katar Were a few
weeks ago, and well look what happened there. But one
to watch for me, and simply because of what they've
done the past couple of races. Yamaha tested that new
engine and a lot of new parts after her wrath,
and the engine is supposed to have some more straight
line grunt and this is a track that the Yamaha
has eaten up in the past. I quite watched Corotturero
(25:29):
fly this weekend if the weather is. If the weather is,
it's of dry and a bit more benign I suppose.
But we mentioned Jack Miller before, would not surprise me
in the slightest with that upgraded Yamaha with a bit
more top end, and particularly if the weather's sketchy. I
don't think he's going to let a second opportunity in
those sketchy conditions slip if we get one of them.
(25:52):
So it might be that he hasn't scored a bunch
of points for a while and then maybe on for
a big one at some point over the course of
the weekend. Because you look at that forecast and it's
not it's not Queensland weather. Shall we say it's.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Not Queensland weather? Says the Melbourne who says it's not Queensland.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Well, well, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
So yeah, Jack Miller. I agree.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I think if the weather's hit and miss like it
is planned to be, then I definitely think we'll see
Jack Miller out for redemption from the French Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
But another Aussie in the lower category who I know.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Is going to be very strong at this week and
that silverstone no matter the weather is Joel Kelso I
really believe that this circuit is going to suit him
to a tee And we know that Joel he's looking
to move up from Moto three to Moto two, make
that progression. What do you think for Joel going into
this weekend?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
You know we've talked about this in the past. It's like, ah,
if you could just get himself to the front of
a Grand Prix. He's always in the league group, but
he's always off the back of the league group, Like
it never really feels like he's going to be in
contention for a Grand Prix win. And then you look
at what he did in La mom for ninety eight
percent of that race was absolutely perfect. It feels to
me like there is a first win that's coming and
coming real soon, which is obviously going to help his
(27:01):
chances of being able to step up. But The thing
that I like about his season is that in the
past you'd say, Okay, this is great that he's up there,
but does he belog up there? I think we've got
that question answered now. Absolutely does Third in the championship
wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this is a
good race for him. It's a track that certainly suits
his style. But of course, the thing for me this
(27:22):
weekend is that with the way that the Sunday timetable is,
they've brought Motor GPS the middle race of the three
this weekend because they're trying to avoid a direct clash
with the Monaco F one GP, so Moto three is
basically in the bright lights headline spot to cap the
day's action at Silveston on Sunday. So if we got
to hear the Australian national anthem as the last anthem
(27:44):
that we hear on a Sunday, you'll be there for that.
You'll enjoy that.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I would love to see that.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Imagine if we can have a Ossie National anthem across
all three with hopefully for the ages also in motors through.
But we've got another Aussie, Jacob Rulstone, coming back from
his injury.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
We spoke about it the last one.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You know, Jacob, technically this is like what he's third
race for the season, so he's sunning his whole season
fresh this circuit, this track. Do you think this is
something where Jacob is going to feel a bit more
confident as he's progressing through or do you think because
it's that fast flowing nature, he might struggle a bit.
I'm kind of on the fence with Jacob at the moment.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Yeah, I'm a little bit the same because I thought
that there was some really good signs at her Eth
and then like Lamon was a bit disappointed, he was
disappointed with Lemon, So yeah, I'm not sure. Like it's
almost like you mentioned before, like he is so much
at the start of the season with the injury, we
almost like need more evidence to draw upon at the moment,
like either extreme is in play this weekend, But I'm
(28:41):
not really sure we've got a form line on where
he's at yet. I mean, the high points have been good,
but there's an inconsistency with what's going on at the moment,
which makes sense because he's kind of almost just come
out of a pre season after a pretty serious injury,
so it's almost like we need more data and more
evidence to base an opinion, you know, but look fingers crossed,
(29:02):
he goes, well, there the flowing nature of this track.
I find this is a track that the Aussies generally do
quite well at. It's like a bit of an old
school open track like and particularly for Moto three bikes,
Like there's a you know, there's some pretty amazing corners
around this track where they're just completely gassed up, So
super fun to watch Moto three here. Hopefully he can
(29:22):
I think comes down to Saturday, like if he can qualify,
get himself into Q two, have a decent starting spot
so he doesn't get left behind by the pack, and
then we know that there'll be a big pack there
because there always is, and hopefully he can be on
the back of that.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
All right, Matt, you know what we do every preview,
who's going to win? Who's your call for this weekend.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I'm going to go first, and I'm going to go
really out of the box here because I think it's
just that sort of circuit that I'm going to say
mark markers. But I know I've taken a real risk
with that one. But what's your call for this weekend
Moto GP? Who do you reckon for poll? Who do
you reckon for the win?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
It will be Fabio Couaaterero again because I think he
is capable of doing absolutely crazy things over one lap
that probably aren't repeatable over twenty as far as the
wind goes. I've got to I mentioned that Marquez gitar
stat from twenty fourteen, which is the last time. Twenty
fourteen was last time he won Silverston, the only time
he's won Silverstone. And you look at the points table
(30:22):
at the moment, the fact that he's twenty two points ahead,
it feels like it should be more, and we know
that he's had a couple of sort of self inflicted wounds.
What's weird about this season is it feels like a
season that Marquez has dominated. But the last four Grand
Prix have had four different winners. You think about it,
so Zarco and France, Alex Marquez in Spain, Mark won
the previous round in Qatar, and Pecovanhi one in Texas.
(30:45):
Because Mark has thrown it down the road. So I
think this is a weekend where Mark Stampsy's authority reminds
everyone who's really the boss of this thing. We know
that he's been unbeatable on Saturdays. I think that translates
into Sundays. It doesn't seem right to me that someone
of his talent can have an a eleven year gap between
winning it such a prestigious, notable circuit like Silverstone is.
(31:06):
I think he's back on the top step this weekend.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I see. I called it as well, Mark Marquez. Of course.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
We'll both be wrong or we'll both be right, so
at least we get out this right.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
We all know Monday when we come back on the pod.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
But Matt and all the listeners, I'm going to keep
you guys updated on socials because, as I said, I
am here on the ground at Silverstone all we can
so do keep up to date with me on the
socials at Fox Motorsport everywhere, or if you want to
read all the latest MotoGP news, you can read MAT's
articles on Fox sport dot com, dot au, Forward slash Motorsport. Matt,
(31:41):
thanks for putting up with my on the go audio
and the background here at my farm, say in the
middle of the country, England. But we'll catch up again
on Monday to talk about all the action from hopefully
a wet and wild Silverstone.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Looking forward to it, and very much looking forward to
you sneaking in the back of the press cover Surah
finding out what massive Messima rival has got to say
about Juge Martin. That is going to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I can't wait for that as well. Alright, guys, we'll
see you again soon for more Moto GP pit talk.
Moto GP heads to Great Britain under the summer sunshine
here and I can say that because Matt, I'm actually
here in the UK ahead of this weekend's Silverstone Moto
Grand Prix and it is sunny. It surprisingly landed in
London it was rainy and now we are up near
Buckingham Shea for Silverstony and it is sunny.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
But Matt, welcome back to Pitt Talk.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I know you've been busy over on the F one
side of things, so welcome back to my favorite subject,
Moto GP.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
T talk about subject too. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We love that, we love that.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Let's go into silly season because I'm sure you guys
have been reading on Fox sports dot com do au
for Slash Motors for all of Matt's articles, and you
released one on Joorge Martin.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
There's something on Jack Miller. But the rumors at.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The moment are going crazy. I've heard stuff about Pekobanyaya.
Fill us in what's the latest with me GP Silly season.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'm so looking forward for you and I to do
a podcast that'll have an audience of two, which will
be you and I after you've spent Thursday crashing around
the paddock trying to work out what's going on here.
But yeah, look, it felt like it was going to
be a pretty relaxedly season compared to last year. I
remember this time last year Migello came and then the
whole world got turned upside down and tipped upside down
in the space of about a week. But you know,
(01:23):
there are only four riders out of contract this year,
so he thought, okay, it's going to be pretty quiet.
A lot of these guys will probably sign on for
new teams. And then after the French Grand Prix, this
bombshell emerges that Jorge Martin's trying to get himself out
of the Aprillier contract that he signed at Migello last year. Crazily,
he's not completed a race at a Prillier yet, of course,
(01:45):
because he's only been present for one round this year,
and we know what happened in Katari had that horrendous
accident and got hit by Fabio to jan Antonio, so
he's still sidelined. But a couple of very prominent and
well connected Spanish journalists reported that Martin was in Lemon,
not at the tree, but at the town in the
lead up to the French GP to have a couple
of meetings with a prilliant management saying I don't want
(02:06):
to stay, I don't want to do this. And what
they're doing here is there's a clause and no one
quite knows what the clause says except for the people
that signed the contract. But the clause intimates something along
the lines of if he's not in amongst the top riders,
and I use that in air quotes because you don't
know where the top means, two, three, five, whatever, that is,
(02:28):
if he's not among the top riders at a particular
point of the season, he is then free to go elsewhere.
And if you're looking at this from a previous point
of view, it's like, well, how can you possibly be
one of the top riders in the World Championship this
season because you haven't been on the bike except for
one round and you didn't even finish that. So it
is calling a contract out to the letter of the law.
(02:49):
Is it is there a karmera at the Carmick element
to this look? Probably not, And I'm sure there will
be lawyers talking to other lawyers to try and resolve
this buttering thing for me, Roneda and a lot of
people don't know this. This is the second time Jorge
Martinez used some sort of fine print in a contract
to get what he wants when he wants it. And
(03:12):
I go back to the twenty twenty Motor GP season.
He was in Moto two still at that point, there
was a clause in the contract that he had that
he had a link to come up to Motor GP
in twenty twenty one with KTM, and there was some
fine print in that contract that there had to be
a KTM rider inside the top ten of the twenty
(03:33):
twenty World Championship by June for that contract to be binding. Now,
of course what happened in twenty twenty COVID there were
no races in twenty twenty until July. So the fact
that there were no KTM riders in the top ten
of the championship in June. Frankly, there were no riders
in anywhere in the top ten of the championship in June.
We hadn't had a race. They used that loophole to
extract him from KTM, which is what got him on
(03:55):
the grid with Pramak to Caddy back in twenty twenty one.
So you look at the paddock. I mean, you know this,
it's a small place, there's only five manufacturers, and you're thinking, well,
where could he go? He rage quit Ducati last year
after it was made very clear that Mark Marquez wasn't
going to accept going to Pramac and force his way
into the factory team, so he rage quit them to
sign with a Prillia on the post Mugillo test in
(04:19):
one day. That whole deal went down. Rewind a few
years and he's used some loophole to get out of katm.
There's only so many places you could annoy in this
paddock because there's only so many people you could actually
ride for. So to think that there could be some
situation here where they're using some sort of legal ease
and something buried deep in a clause in a contract
to get him out of a Prillier, it's one we
(04:41):
certainly didn't see coming because this relationship hasn't even had
a chance to be good or bad. It's just been
nothing because he hasn't ridden the bike. But then you
start to think to yourself, this is just me being cynical,
and you know, possibly a little sensible occasionally, but what
I'm thinking is okay, so where else would he go.
We're running out manufacturers here. The obvious one for me
(05:03):
is Honda, as in I nearly said repsol holder, at
which point you would have been forced to take it
a shot. But the factory Honda team Luca Marine's out
of contract at the end of this season. And it
was really interesting that after and you would have noticed
this after Lamon, when Joe and Zycho won that race,
he made it very clear that he would love to
step up to that main factory team. And yes, we
(05:24):
know he's getting a factory bike at else are, but
there's nothing like writing for the factory hon the team,
both now and then maybe in the future as we
look to twenty twenty seven rule reset, Honda has as
good of a chance as of anybody is getting this right.
I don't think it's much of a coincidence that one
day after Zako said, oh look, I'd really like to
get my backside on that factory Honda in the future.
(05:45):
This story breaks from some well connected Spanish journalists on
the Martin camp, because if Martin's going anywhere, it's pretty
clear that he will want to go to the factory
on the team. Maybe Hedgy's bets for twenty twenty seven
and so on. But I don't think that those two
stories were in isolation. I think they were very connected.
And to me, that's go on, keep going.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
No, No, I wanted to just say what I'm finding
really interesting, and you're talking about Honda here and Martin
and I'm trying to connect with Dodds and something that
I don't know if listeners know that you've pointed out, Matt,
is the fact that Pedro Costa and Jugem Martin are
managed by the same person. Those rumors, all those rumors
coming about with Pedro Costa potentially going to HRC Honda.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And then Tom Crack got thrown in there.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
So that's what I just thought. It was funny that
you were saying, Johem Martin could potentially go to Honda,
because what about Pedro a Costa.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Then it sounds very much like a Costa has his
heart set on trying to get on to do Catty
and the only one of those that's available at the
end of this season is at VR forty six with
Franco Morbidelli because he's out of contract at the end
of this season. Now, the Morbid Deli one's interesting for
me in that I think his stock was pretty low
last year after the Parmak experience. Obviously, is hugely injured
(06:57):
at the beginning of last year, didn't really get a
great run at and then even when he got back
wasn't particularly good. Of course, you have to remember his
teammate won the World Championship last year and Morbidelli had
one podium, so there's a huge gap between those two. Now,
theoretically there's a VR forty sixty catty available for twenty
twenty six. That would mean that Valentino Rossi would have
to wave goodbye to a writer who is a protege,
(07:21):
a member of the academy who he's brought through, assuming
that Costa can worm his way out of a contract
with KTM, because he's contracted with KTM for twenty twenty six,
just as Martinez contracted for Prilier in twenty twenty six.
So I wrote earlier this week that these contracts seem
to be you know, they're basically a marriage of convenience
until they're not, and you know there'll be one party
(07:43):
or another that wants to get themselves out of it.
To my mind, Renda, there's a huge thing here in
that I don't expect that the balance of power to
shift too much in motor GP for the rest of
this year and next year while we've got this rule set,
it's a Ducati Championship and you need to be on
a Ducadi twenty twenty seven. Is this really enticing? Hard
(08:04):
reset new engines, less arrow, new tire supply. There's so
much changing for twenty twenty seven, and so being on
the right bike at the right time at the start
of a rule set. There's a lot of educated guess
work going on here. Everyone's trying to maneuver themselves into
the correct position. I thought next year's rider market would
(08:25):
be nuts and this years would be quiet. But to
have the reigning world champion who has not scored a
point decide that he wants out of a Prilier six
races into a World Championship, which just shows you that
the silly season only ever gets silly. I just will
be expected to be a bit more sensible than something
like this comes up.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Well, let's look about the silly, silly, silly season.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Because I went on social media briefly on my journey
over and then someone's made a post about heko Bernaya
potentially going to factory Yamaha.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, I think there's probably people are adding two and
two together and coming up with five on that one.
That sounds a littill a bit unlikely to me. We
know that it's not been the greatest season for Peco.
I think I'm not surprised that Mark Marquez has got
into that team and done what he has done, but
Peco has not been himself this season. We also know
the way Peco works in that he's not someone who
(09:15):
jumps at shadows. He's pretty methodical in the way that
he chips away at these things, and so I can't
imagine yet. I mean, you never say never with these things,
but I think that's probably a bridge too far yet.
I think the interesting part, just slightly backtracking to the
Martin thing, is that most people seem to think that
he's trying to get himself to Honda as opposed to Yamaha. Now,
(09:37):
of course Pramak, who ran his World championship team a
Ducati a running that secondary Yamaha team these days. I
don't think Yamaha is looking for a juge Martin because
they have a guy who, all things being equal, is
one of the best spots two or three guys on
the grid and Fabio Couaateuro. We've seen that these past
couple of Grand Prix at Herreath and at Lamont, that
Quauro doesn't have a bike to fight for a World
(10:00):
championship yet. But what these last couple of rounds have
said to me, and I'm sure you're in agreement here
if Yamaha ever come up with a bike that can
fight decatty, but now are in twenty twenty seven, they've
already got the rider. He is so so good. I
don't think his talent has dipped one bit. And we've
seen what happens if he has the best bike on
the grid or nearly the best bike on the grid.
(10:20):
We know what happens. He wonted world championship doing this
in twenty twenty one, and I don't think he's got
any worse since sin So Yamaha's got their kingpin, They've
got their shining light, and everyone else needs to sit
in line behind them. I'm not sure Yamaha would really
want a Martine type, but Honda right now are crying
out for like that super A list rider, and you know,
(10:41):
the Acosta stuff is cooled with them. As you mentioned before,
they're to me the one factory that doesn't have that
genuine a lister right now that they could do that
in the future. So look twenty seven. To me, I
think every decision that happens between now and twenty seven
needs to be considered with what happens when the rules change.
But man, I did not expect to be having a
(11:01):
ju Hey Brtsine contract conversation. Part of me is like,
could you just finish a race first, please, and then
well you can actually discuss this because he hasn't done
that yet.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, when like it first got announced, I was totally
mind blowing, as everybody else was.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
When you're hear in these rumors of him.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Potentially having tortill of teens and whatnot, and then you
look at what happened last year with Pramak, Like you said,
his trust also in Elisia Spargrou, I think had helped
him meet possibly make that decision. I don't know the
ins and outs. I'm just assuming here, but you saw
that whole situation go out. Then also Alisia Sparger jumping
(11:37):
to Honda as their test writer. Is it like the
mouse following the cat once again?
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Or the caple in the mouse possibly. I mean it
was funny with the espigro thing, like we were talking
about that at the time. I remember him because he
was like, he was a Prillians captain, he was the
leader of the ship, he was the guy. And then
he announced that catalog you look, this season will be
my last. And I think most people thought, well, he'll
probably just be a test writer for a Prillier then,
because he's a cat and he's the guy that's been
steering this shit for so long. And then a few
(12:03):
weeks later, I'll be a test writer for HRC. Now, okay,
hsc's probably got a bigger budget for a test rider
than a prillierdo. But part of me is like, that's
a bit weird because after you've done all you can
do to effectively get someone like Jujgey Martine is in
as your successor, and for people that don't know, there's
almost like a there's like a big brother little brother
(12:23):
relationship with Elashan and Jorge and that Elishi's fiercely protective
of and has always tried to guide. Hey, they've been
very close for a long long while. It's almost like
they've related their siblings in that sense, so he you know,
obviously what happened at Magello last year, Martine realized he
wasn't going to be in the factory Dakati team Espago
(12:43):
was hugely influential and getting that a Prillier deal over
the line at full stop, but getting it over the
line so quickly. You might remember, that deal was announced
on the Monday of the test, before Mark Marquez had
even been confirmed at the factory da Catti team. They
actually stole their thunder. They jumped the gun on that one.
And so the fact that Aleish then turned around fairly
(13:04):
soon after that and said, oh, by the way, I'm
going to be a test writer for HRC next year,
that was interesting. That was a little bit of a
bread crumb for me in that if he's got jes ear,
which I'm sure he does, he's probably saying, hey, look
like there's some good stuff happening here. You might want
to see if you can get yourself on this. And
I mean, we're again, we're sort of stitching unrelated stories
(13:26):
together here to come up with a potential outcome. But
that would not surprise me in the slightest if he's
been given the heads up as to like, look, this
Honda thing's really starting to gain momentum, and we've seen
it this year. I mean the fact that Honda won
that race at Lamon and they're not just cast a
drift at the back in this sort of category sad
category of one anymore. That's not where they are. They're
clearly getting better, probably not to the extent of yamahat yet,
(13:49):
but yet it's the keyword, like it really feels a
lot Honda's coming and they have such resource and this
history of getting things right with big rule changes that
if you were going to put your money on someone,
all things being equal, for twenty twenty seven of the
non docaddy teams to get it right, I'd be putting
my money in possibly some of yours, on Honda for
(14:10):
twenty twenty seven because they just have the pedigree with
this sort of stuff, don't they.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh for sure?
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Like you said, Honda, when you think of Moto GP,
thinking back into the nineties, we're doing and Career and
all those guys is such a staple.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
In Moto GP history.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
But also is Yamaha, right, So it sucks to see
those Japanese manufacturers down. But this season it's been so
much better having Honda winning La morn. We've had Fabio
fighting for the podiums, but it's only just like one
writer here or one writer there. It's not the whole
manufacturers constantly up the front. That's what I think we
need to see more of. So what you said about
(14:48):
having that alien for HRC Honda, I think is what
they need, because obviously that's what Marquez was for them,
and that's kind of what they've always had, is that
one writer who's taken the whole team them, apart from
when it was Danny Pidrosi who was constantly there in
the second place. But let's go to Yamaha really quickly,
because you wrote an interesting piece on Jack Miller. We
(15:10):
know that Jack has only got a one year contract
that is up at the end, and it seems like
he's kind of been the star of the show for
Pramaha because Miguela Lavera once again got caught in an
incident that wasn't his fault out with injuries only just
starting to come back. But Jack, as we've said so
many times, he shows those glimpses, those flashes of brilliance.
He gets to the ceiling straight away. He's been constantly
(15:33):
there with Fabrio Corderraro. What's the latest with Jack? What's
the room is all? Where do you think he's going.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
To go for the next year.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I'm just crossing off Pramaha off my podcast being Go
Kard because you've managed to tick that one for me,
so thank you. Look the police that I wrote about
Jack this week was interesting in that in his so
he had that fantastic fifth place in Texas in the
Grand Prix. There he's brilliant, Like Pramak were just absolutely
joyous about that. Gino Bosaw was saying, like fifth for
(16:01):
us in this stage of a really really new projects,
like a victory, like it's an amazing result. Jack's not
scored a point since then. So two non scores in Qatar,
two non scores in Spain, two non scores in France.
Now some of these look the France Grand Prix. He
will absolutely be kicking himself even now when we get
to Silveston this week, because he was eleven seconds up
(16:24):
the road on the right tires, on the right strategy
from the guy who won the race at the time
when he went down, and that's one that's absolutely slipped
through his fingers probably should have won that race and
podium at a minimum. There's also been some seriously weird
things that have happened to Jack and this run of
six straight now zeros for him. Had that really weird
tire vibration thing in Qatar that every time we went
(16:44):
into a left hand corner it basically tried to throw
him off and eventually did it turn two like a
sort of pathetic slow speed crash at turned two. And
then the one that got me was remember what happened
to him at Harrath where a piece of the bike's
fairing came loose and actually sliced one of the wiring
cables on the bike, and all of a sudden and
it's like, oh, this thing's running on three cylinders and
going nowhere fast. So he's had some Only Jack Miller
(17:06):
could have these sorts of DNF retirements. But the thing
that I thought this week is that you know, this
time last year, we were going, oh, this Katim thing's
not going well. A cost as a star in the making.
He kind of felt like he was a dead man
walking last year, and he was in the end. But
it made me dig back through Jack's career this is
the So he's got nineteen points after the first six
(17:29):
rounds of a season. It's the worst six rounds of
a season he's had since twenty sixteen. That's how far
back it's been since Jack scored so few points in
the first six rounds of a season, because it crossed
the sprint in the Grand Prix. In these last three rounds,
he hasn't scored a point now. This time last year
he was scoring more than this, not a lot more,
but he was scoring some more. But we always felt that, look,
(17:49):
the kat V's thing's done, and it got to the
point where, I mean, he was on this podcast saying that,
you know, I thought it was over until the whole
Pramak Yamaha thing gave him a lifeline. He was the
twenty second and final guy signed for this year really
late in the day, and so it looked pretty tenuous
there for a while. I would actually suggest that despite
(18:10):
this run of form that he's been on, I actually
feel he's in a pretty good position to retain his
seat for next year, not necessarily for what he's doing
on the scoreboard. I think you mentioned that before about
him getting to the ceiling of a bike really fast,
we know he's done that. Yamaha have been nothing but
positive about the impact he's having behind the scenes with
(18:30):
the testing of new parts and really driving the project forward.
Because we forget with Jack because he acts like he's
eighteen a lot of the time he's thirty years old.
He's so experienced now because he's had time with Honda
and Ducati and KTM. He's always the perfect guy to
have when you've got a new project and you want
to know, as Yamaha, what the rest of them are
(18:50):
doing and what they're doing, Well, jack'st well, I've ridden
this bike, and I've ridden this bike, and I've ridden
this bike, and I've been in Motor GP for ten years.
He's a team player. He's a really good in that regard.
So there's that aspect to it. And then my thought
process on this is, if it's not Jack, then who
are you going to get that's going to do a
better job with that job description than what Jack is doing.
(19:14):
We know Pramac's got that Moto two team with Tony
Abellino and Nissan Guivara. They're not ready for Moto GP
yet possibly at all. Why on earth would you bring
them in for the final year of a rule set
that's going in the bin at the end of twenty six. Anyway,
there's absolutely no point doing that. We know Yabaha is
developing the V four behind the scenes. Jack's britten V
four's and his previous addresses. He's the perfect guy at
(19:37):
this time to try and bring that project forward. And yeah,
look the points Tally's not looking great at the moment,
and he said it himself after all the once. I
just need to start getting some points here because he's
not been slow. He's made some mistakes like France, he
was unlucky like he was in Spain. He does need
to score some points and Silverston's been a good track
for him in the past. But I think he's under
(19:58):
less threat this year year than he was last year.
I'd be super surprised if Premak Yamaha didn't sign him
for next year.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Well, we'll just have to keep our eyes in is
peeled because the silly season rumors are going.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
To continue NonStop.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
If anything like last year was to go off, I
think this year it's going to be like who's.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Going where with this person? This person says this.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
So once we had the official announcement of everything, we
will let you guys know asap. But you mentioned Silverstone.
Obviously that is the British Rumprix this weekend. Let's move
on to that because before we hit record, we were
talking about last year and how cool it was being
the seventy fifth anniversary of Moto GP retro round. Those
are the cool flashback of throwback memories. I'm trying to think.
(20:43):
The Yamaha one for me was just incredible color schemes.
But last year's winner, we were talking about this as well.
A name of Ashanini came out of nowhere. He won
the Sprint and the Grand Prix, right, yes he did.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
He's one of those I reckon he has. Certainly when
he was at Tocatti, you have three weekends a year
where you look at him and go, how's this guy
not won three World Championships like he looks like the
best writer in it by a mile. And there was
nothing about either of those wins that he had at
Silverston last year that was about luck or you know,
taking advantage of someone else's misfortune. He was just so
quick the entire weekend, and then and a being and
(21:19):
a who disappeared for a bit, and then he won
at me Massado and he disappeared for a bit, and
that's just the way that he tends to roll. But
the weirdest thing about that is that, so you dig
back through the history books with Silverston, this event makes
absolutely no sense simply because the last ten times we've
had a Grand Prix at Silveston, we've had ten different
(21:40):
winners in the past ten years, so no repeat winners
and ten guys have won one race each in the
past ten times that we've been to Silverston. So you'll
be doing well to remember some of these. But you
think back and go, my goodness, like, how have we
got to a point where this has become literally the
least predictable Grand Prix of the year, And you go
back and look at some of these. Elasiauspo won there
(22:00):
in twenty three, is one of the second win he
had for a Prilier quatro in his twenty twenty one
championship year. Alex Rinz being Mark Marques and that awesome
last lap by about half a wheel twenty nineteen, Mark
comes very close to winning here but doesn't. Maverick Vignalez's
first Motor GP win was here. Suzuki back in twenty
(22:21):
was at fifteen, I remembory. One of Rossi's last wins
was here. It's bizarre. So I'm just looking at this now.
The last time we had repeat winners at Silverston twenty
twelve twenty thirteen Jorge Lorenzo. Nobody's won consecutive races since,
and we've had ten different guys win Grand Prix, so
it's become this really unpredictable race. But I'm so glad
(22:42):
you started this podcast with the weather because I was
going to ask you for a weather update, which makes
terrible podcasting, but it's interesting for me now. It's not
summer yet in the UK. I know the English. The
English summer is one of those things that you need
to stick air quotes around, obviously, but this is the
earliest this race has ever been held. I actually duck
back through this because this is normally August or September, right,
(23:03):
so you've got half a chance of the weather actually
being halfway decent. So I looked at the forecast of
the weekend. I hope you've packed most of your wardrobe
because it seems like you're going to need it. It's
going to be all over the place.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
It's currently close to mid day here, and I reckon
it's about twelve degrees. And you know, a weeks ago
they were saying England had this heat wave go through
and it was like thirty degrees and whatnot, and now
it's twelve and freezing. But I also had a look
at the weather and I think we were in for
some wet weather track action, which I think is going
to be good because it'll even up the playing field
(23:36):
because Silverstone, as we know, vast circuit, the long straights
that it has, it's fast flowing, so automatically you think
Mark Marquez, right, But if we do have that wet weather,
we might be in for a bit more interesting qualifying
where hopefully we'll see a Fabio or a Jack or
a different manufacturer at the front and not just Mark
Marquez who could possibly break his whole street.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Shall we say?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
It's also super interesting is that it's pretty grim for
us back here in Australia because we've got a one
am Sunday boarding sprint. It's a four pm local time
sprint start at Silverstone. Now, given we're not in summer,
like I know, it's dark at five o'clock. But you
mentioned like twelve degrees, what's the track temp going to
be like, particularly if it's wet, that sprint could be absolute,
(24:21):
you know, survival of the fittest rather than the fastest.
Because that's pretty late in the day obviously, you know
why it's at that time of the day to keep
the crowd there and so on and so forth. But
a four pm sprint, I remember when we talked about
this at Philip Island last year. You remember when the
race at Philip Island was always quite late in the afternoon,
the actual Grand Prix. You'd get deep into the race
and any of the right hand corners at Philip Island
(24:43):
and be like trying to turn on ice, like turn
four and turn ten because it's coursed to five in
the afternoon. The temperatures ten degrees cold are at the
end of the race, and it was at the start.
So that sprint being at four pm on whether that
we can't really trust. That's super sketchy for me. But
you mentioned Marquez high speed. Look, I totally agree with you.
I can't believe he's only ever won this race once.
(25:06):
But then we're saying that about katar Were a few
weeks ago, and well look what happened there. But one
to watch for me, and simply because of what they've
done the past couple of races. Yamaha tested that new
engine and a lot of new parts after her wrath,
and the engine is supposed to have some more straight
line grunt and this is a track that the Yamaha
has eaten up in the past. I quite watched Corotturero
(25:29):
fly this weekend if the weather is. If the weather is,
it's of dry and a bit more benign I suppose.
But we mentioned Jack Miller before, would not surprise me
in the slightest with that upgraded Yamaha with a bit
more top end, and particularly if the weather's sketchy. I
don't think he's going to let a second opportunity in
those sketchy conditions slip if we get one of them.
(25:52):
So it might be that he hasn't scored a bunch
of points for a while and then maybe on for
a big one at some point over the course of
the weekend. Because you look at that forecast and it's
not it's not Queensland weather. Shall we say it's.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Not Queensland weather? Says the Melbourne who says it's not Queensland.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Well, well, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
So yeah, Jack Miller. I agree.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
I think if the weather's hit and miss like it
is planned to be, then I definitely think we'll see
Jack Miller out for redemption from the French Grand Prix.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
But another Aussie in the lower category who I know.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Is going to be very strong at this week and
that silverstone no matter the weather is Joel Kelso I
really believe that this circuit is going to suit him
to a tee And we know that Joel he's looking
to move up from Moto three to Moto two, make
that progression. What do you think for Joel going into
this weekend?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
You know we've talked about this in the past. It's like, ah,
if you could just get himself to the front of
a Grand Prix. He's always in the league group, but
he's always off the back of the league group, Like
it never really feels like he's going to be in
contention for a Grand Prix win. And then you look
at what he did in La mom for ninety eight
percent of that race was absolutely perfect. It feels to
me like there is a first win that's coming and
coming real soon, which is obviously going to help his
(27:01):
chances of being able to step up. But The thing
that I like about his season is that in the
past you'd say, Okay, this is great that he's up there,
but does he belog up there? I think we've got
that question answered now. Absolutely does Third in the championship
wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this is a
good race for him. It's a track that certainly suits
his style. But of course, the thing for me this
(27:22):
weekend is that with the way that the Sunday timetable is,
they've brought Motor GPS the middle race of the three
this weekend because they're trying to avoid a direct clash
with the Monaco F one GP, so Moto three is
basically in the bright lights headline spot to cap the
day's action at Silveston on Sunday. So if we got
to hear the Australian national anthem as the last anthem
(27:44):
that we hear on a Sunday, you'll be there for that.
You'll enjoy that.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I would love to see that.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Imagine if we can have a Ossie National anthem across
all three with hopefully for the ages also in motors through.
But we've got another Aussie, Jacob Rulstone, coming back from
his injury.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
We spoke about it the last one.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You know, Jacob, technically this is like what he's third
race for the season, so he's sunning his whole season
fresh this circuit, this track. Do you think this is
something where Jacob is going to feel a bit more
confident as he's progressing through or do you think because
it's that fast flowing nature, he might struggle a bit.
I'm kind of on the fence with Jacob at the moment.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Yeah, I'm a little bit the same because I thought
that there was some really good signs at her Eth
and then like Lamon was a bit disappointed, he was
disappointed with Lemon, So yeah, I'm not sure. Like it's
almost like you mentioned before, like he is so much
at the start of the season with the injury, we
almost like need more evidence to draw upon at the moment,
like either extreme is in play this weekend, But I'm
(28:41):
not really sure we've got a form line on where
he's at yet. I mean, the high points have been good,
but there's an inconsistency with what's going on at the moment,
which makes sense because he's kind of almost just come
out of a pre season after a pretty serious injury,
so it's almost like we need more data and more
evidence to base an opinion, you know, but look fingers crossed,
(29:02):
he goes, well, there the flowing nature of this track.
I find this is a track that the Aussies generally do
quite well at. It's like a bit of an old
school open track like and particularly for Moto three bikes,
Like there's a you know, there's some pretty amazing corners
around this track where they're just completely gassed up, So
super fun to watch Moto three here. Hopefully he can
(29:22):
I think comes down to Saturday, like if he can qualify,
get himself into Q two, have a decent starting spot
so he doesn't get left behind by the pack, and
then we know that there'll be a big pack there
because there always is, and hopefully he can be on
the back of that.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
All right, Matt, you know what we do every preview,
who's going to win? Who's your call for this weekend.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I'm going to go first, and I'm going to go
really out of the box here because I think it's
just that sort of circuit that I'm going to say
mark markers. But I know I've taken a real risk
with that one. But what's your call for this weekend
Moto GP? Who do you reckon for poll? Who do
you reckon for the win?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
It will be Fabio Couaaterero again because I think he
is capable of doing absolutely crazy things over one lap
that probably aren't repeatable over twenty as far as the
wind goes. I've got to I mentioned that Marquez gitar
stat from twenty fourteen, which is the last time. Twenty
fourteen was last time he won Silverston, the only time
he's won Silverstone. And you look at the points table
(30:22):
at the moment, the fact that he's twenty two points ahead,
it feels like it should be more, and we know
that he's had a couple of sort of self inflicted wounds.
What's weird about this season is it feels like a
season that Marquez has dominated. But the last four Grand
Prix have had four different winners. You think about it,
so Zarco and France, Alex Marquez in Spain, Mark won
the previous round in Qatar, and Pecovanhi one in Texas.
(30:45):
Because Mark has thrown it down the road. So I
think this is a weekend where Mark Stampsy's authority reminds
everyone who's really the boss of this thing. We know
that he's been unbeatable on Saturdays. I think that translates
into Sundays. It doesn't seem right to me that someone
of his talent can have an a eleven year gap between
winning it such a prestigious, notable circuit like Silverstone is.
(31:06):
I think he's back on the top step this weekend.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I see. I called it as well, Mark Marquez. Of course.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
We'll both be wrong or we'll both be right, so
at least we get out this right.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
We all know Monday when we come back on the pod.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
But Matt and all the listeners, I'm going to keep
you guys updated on socials because, as I said, I
am here on the ground at Silverstone all we can
so do keep up to date with me on the
socials at Fox Motorsport everywhere, or if you want to
read all the latest MotoGP news, you can read MAT's
articles on Fox sport dot com, dot au, Forward slash Motorsport. Matt,
(31:41):
thanks for putting up with my on the go audio
and the background here at my farm, say in the
middle of the country, England. But we'll catch up again
on Monday to talk about all the action from hopefully
a wet and wild Silverstone.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Looking forward to it, and very much looking forward to
you sneaking in the back of the press cover Surah
finding out what massive Messima rival has got to say
about Juge Martin. That is going to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I can't wait for that as well. Alright, guys, we'll
see you again soon for more Moto GP pit talk.
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