“A.I. Takeover? Marquez Brothers Dominate While Ai Ogura Shocks the Grid!”

The 2025 MotoGP season kicked off in spectacular fashion at the Thai Grand Prix, delivering drama, dominance, and unexpected performances right from the first race of the year.

Marc Marquez proved once again why he’s one of the greatest riders of all time, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing. After leading early, he was forced to give up the top spot on Lap 8 due to front tire pressure issues, momentarily putting his victory in doubt. But in classic Marquez fashion, he bided his time, reclaimed the lead with three laps to go, and then streaked away by over two seconds, leaving no question about his strength on the Ducati. With Alex Marquez securing P2, the Marquez brothers locked out a historic 1-2 finish, sending a loud warning to their championship rivals.

Meanwhile, Ai Ogura delivered a statement-making debut, finishing P4 in the Sprint Race and P5 in the Main Race. While he didn’t quite reach the podium, his impressive pace and racecraft proved he belongs at the front of the MotoGP grid. Is this the beginning of an A.I. era in MotoGP?

For Pecco Bagnaia, the weekend was a humbling experience. Despite securing two P3 finishes in both the Sprint and Main Race, Pecco struggled to match the relentless pace of the Marquez brothers. Tire degradation issues once again plagued him, a worrying sign as the season progresses. With Argentina and COTA up next—two of Marc’s strongest tracks—does Pecco have an answer before the championship momentum shifts completely away from him?

Now, all eyes turn to COTA, a Marquez fortress where he has been nearly unbeatable in the past. Can Pecco, Martin, or even Ogura disrupt his dominance, or is Ducati’s latest weapon about to make Marc even more untouchable?

Join us for in-depth race analysis, bold predictions, and all the behind-the-scenes drama from the season-opening Thai GP as we look ahead to Argentina and COTA. Subscribe, share, and leave a review! 🎧🏍️🔥

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to the Grand Pre-Project Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
All right, all right.
Welcome once again to the GrandPrix Project Me, your host
Andre and the big bro.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thanos876.
What's up, what's up, what's up?
Good.
Season's finally season finallykicked off yeah, but it was
kind of boring, no lie, it'skind of.
It's kind of boring, to behonest it was a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Um, I'm not talking about across the board.
It was a.
It was a great weekend acrossthe board.
It was a great weekend acrossthe board in terms of just how
things played out.
Puzo, things played out true tofarm.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, I don't think there was any surprise going
into the race weekend thatMarquez was probably going to be
the one to beat, because, Idon't know, pekka seems to be.
Just, you know, since the lasttest they had at this very same
track, it wasn't that impressiveand the forum carried over into

(01:32):
the weekend again.
So you know, I think where youfinish was pretty much where you
finish because, funny enough,remember, we had the predictions
of what the race is gonna, whatthe was going to be for this
race.
But you know, I got mine right,but I got the.
You got the podium right.

(01:53):
I got the podium right, but thefinishing order is wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
We both got the podium right.
I went conservative, I wentwith Alex for the win, right,
but I got the podium rightbecause I end up getting yeah,
it's the same thing we.
I was just solid with Peko onmines, though yeah, because I
went.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
I think I went, peko, mark and Alex and I went Alex
Mark Peko so only you got oneplace in right.
Yeah, because Peko finishedthird.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
The thing is in my heart I actually went with mark
what I'm like nah, let's, let'skeep it, let's, let's see if
something, something couldhappen.
But yeah, um, it was a greatweekend.
But yeah, let's look at, um,just how weekend started for
peko.
Like it started.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
It was tough yeah, I think, listen, listening,
listening to him yesterday afterum the qualifying session, I
think his problem was more tirerelated rather than the bike
performance itself, because inthe interview, one of the
interviews he said that hecouldn't get to use the tire

(03:02):
that he likes his favorite tiretyre, so he's basically going to
have to go with the one he'susing.
And you can see the wholeweekend from FP1, mark and Alex
were just pretty much ahead ofeverybody, mars ahead of
everybody and Peke was just, hewas you know FP1.

(03:24):
He finished what?
Something like 11th.
He finished in fp1 nowhere tobe seen.
I think he was like half asecond off mark and that's just
not typical pekka.
I know mark's good, but markisn't half a second faster than
pekka.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
But you know we don't know that yet, because you got
to think about it.
Right, it's the same tune,though it was the same thing
last year.
Tires ultimately comes down tothis, right, you don't know, the
greats are going to drive rightand drive around the issues,
certain issues, right.

(04:01):
And it's the same thing forpeko.
It's a common thing for peko.
So, yeah, it's coming to looklike whenever the tire isn't
sweet, sweet enough for him, hestruggles and ultimately you got
to figure that part out.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, but at the same time, you have to remember, you
know, the the only thing theyhave uncommon with across the
whole entire grid is the ties.
Yeah, but if you think about it, whilst they're all on the same
bike, if the tie is not workingfor him, there's not much he
can do.
You know, and it would be thesame with Mark.
If Mark, if Mark, can't get thetires to work, he's not going

(04:41):
to perform how he's meant toperform yeah, that's true, but
it's common.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
That's what I'm saying.
It's a common theme for peko.
Every year it's the same thinggo back and check his track
record there's always somethinggoing on with tires and you'll
be like really yeah becausetires?

Speaker 1 (04:56):
because that's what the limiting factor is for him
the tires.
It's not the bike.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
The bike performs well, but if you've seen last,
so at what point you startlooking at the rider?

Speaker 1 (05:07):
well, unless when you can provide evidence that the
tires aren't causing a problembut we haven't seen any evidence
that the tires are causing aproblem uh, we saw that last
year.
We saw that last year and Ithink we might have seen it in
this race as well.
But the more we get on into thepodcast, we might, you know, we
bring that reason why I doubtit right.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
It seems to always be pekka with this common tire
issue when he's not performingwell it's yes you can say that
yes so.
So at that point, at that pointyou got to start looking at the
rider fair enough, but I don'tthink I'm just going off his
history.
I'm not being tough on him, I'mjust going off his history.
He's always got a problem withtires right and ultimately, it's

(05:53):
it's one and one's issue thathe's gonna have to fix, as we
said, even though it's the onlything they have in common.
Hey man, we we know what thegreats do they figure it out
yeah, yeah, eventually I couldsee one off I could see one off,
but it's a common thing forpeko.
That's my issue.
I could see a one after theseason or twice, but it's a

(06:14):
common.
If you check peko's trackrecord, it's a common issue,
right?

Speaker 1 (06:18):
but yeah, um, yeah, as I said, yes, definitely, he
definitely has to figure thatout, especially with mark being
his teammate now.
You know, last year he hadsimilar problems but he
eventually figured it out.
He did affect him in a coupleof races but over the whole
entire season it wasn't thelimiting factor for him Because,
again, he won what 11 featureraces?

(06:41):
And I think he only won two ofsprint races or something like
that he won.
So you know he, he will figureit out, but I think mark was
just on it today, on it sincethe last test and since I'm
practicing spree season yeah,that's that so because just hold

(07:03):
, he eat this one and just goback to the drawing board and
try and figure out what wentwrong.
And him and his side of thegarage just needs to get it
right, because I think the waythe calendar sets, um, they've
set up the calendar.
Mark's favorites type ofcircuits are early in the
calendar.
Yeah, anti-clock, clockwisecircuit.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
We're going to come to that because we're going to
get to mark and and hisperformance over the week, right
, um.
So yeah, that's peko frompractice qualifying coming up
through the race, coming upthrough the um, coming through.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
So we're going to move on to um man ayagur but
hold up, but hold up, but wedidn't, we didn't even, you know
.
Just to show you how hisweekend pretty much kind of like
just what just was, not it?
The whole incident with frankiein fp2 which basically forced
him to come through umqualifying one to get into the

(08:05):
final round of qualifying, it'skind of like.
It's just like when thingsdon't go right for Pekka,
everything just goes wrong.
Yeah, but it's not just a onething, it just it seems to
cascade down for him.
You can't just let a bad thinghappen and it just, you know,
disappear.
Something bad happened.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
It pretty much ruins his entire weekend and because I
wouldn't, I wouldn't, Iwouldn't, I would disagree
somewhat on that because he madeit right, because when he went
through to q1, he went throughq1 to q2, he saved the tire.
So he ended up in q2 like hedidn't even go through Q1
because he didn't use that extratire.

(08:45):
Yeah, but and sometimes it'sproven that going through Q1 to
Q2 sometimes could work out wellfor you.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, true, but the thing is it's the added pressure
that puts on you.
You know what I mean, becausehe goes into that Q1 session
knowing that, yo, I can't make amistake, because if I make a
mistake and I don't make itthrough, I'm starting 10 places
behind my teammate.
You can't have that.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
so that added pressure, you know, was in play
as well but the thing is, thoseadded pressures, right, it comes
back to what I'm going to say,and I say I'm not beating none
of the guys, I just expect, onceyou're a double world champion.
There's certain things that arecertain excuses that I don't
give anymore, like pressure,like pressure is on you, like
you're not a rookie here, you'renot in your second year, you're
two times world champion,runner up last year.

(09:32):
So I'm not even going to giveyou the pressure excuse, because
you know what the pressure, themost pressure is fine for a
championship.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, but the difference here is I think the
difference here is I think thedifference here is the.
This level of pressure isdifferent to previous levels of
pressure because of who histeammate is.
You know, I mean, if it was umenea as his teammate, he
wouldn't feel that level ofpressure.
He could afford to, like drop,have these bad moments.

(10:03):
But you're going up againstmark.
Mark is one of the all-timealiens, you know.
I mean, so you can't have badweekends because mark really has
bad weekends, because no, mark,what picked up 37 points,
maximum points, what?
Uh?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
it's 14 points um, or is it?

Speaker 1 (10:22):
15 because 16 and he got what?
Um, I think it's 14 pointsahead.
Or is it 15 because 16 and hegot what I?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
think it's 14 points ahead no, are you sure?

Speaker 1 (10:32):
because 16 was for third and the sprint races.
It was what?
12, 9 and 7.
So you're right, you're right.
So it's 20.
It's 23 to 37, so it's 14points ahead.
You don't want to give Markthat sort of head start.
What?

Speaker 2 (10:48):
did I say in You're right.
So it's 23 to 37.
So it's 14 points ahead.
You don't want to give Markthat sort of head start.
What did I say in the last part?
Remember when I said the lastthing you want to do is give
Mark an advantage.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, which is why I said you know the level of
pressure he has to deal withthis time around.
It's different.
It's different, it's absolutelydifferent, because he knows
mark is hungry, mark wantsanother championship, he's
hungry and if he's on a bikelike that, well, he is on the

(11:15):
bike, the best bike on the bike,the best bike in history you're
not.
He's not going to give you aninch.
Yeah.
So, it's your responsibility nowto make sure you don't give him
even a half, an inch, a tenth.
You're not giving him anything,because if you give him, if he
sees that one chink in yourarmor, he's going to exploit

(11:37):
that and you're dead.
You're getting nothing from it.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
He's quite the opportunist, put it that way.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
He's not just the opportunist.
Put it that way.
Right, he's not just theopportunist, he also makes his
own opportunities.
Yeah, you guys I mean so.
So he'll prey on your mishapsand whatever whatnot, but at the
same time, he's gonna force youinto those uh mishaps as well.
So he's gonna create his ownopportunities so we're gonna

(12:03):
come to mark right.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Well, let's just go through the weekend.
So I agree, I agree.
Oh man, I knew it was goodbecause we put firming right,
just.
But remember I said this in thelast part I had put firming
based on machine, not based onjust talent.
Putting based on machine, notbased on just talent.
Put him based on machineBecause I was thinking Ducati is

(12:27):
just going to be bolt on and goright.
Furman struggled.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
But Iagora Yowai.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Hats off to you, man.
That was some debut for hisfirst race.
Fourth in the sprint race.
Where did he finish in thefirst one?
Sixth or seventh?

Speaker 2 (12:49):
um no, he finished.
He finished fifth.
I can't remember fifth.
He's the top.
Nun ducati behind say morbid.
He said it was mark alex pekomorbidly aigura, morbidly yeah,
morbidly yeah Ayagura.
Moby Dick yeah, moby Dick yeahso I was just beaming with a,
with a smile.
I'm like, wow, it's been awhile since we had a Japanese

(13:11):
like look man but the thing is,ayagura is a safe pair of hands,
bro, and the thing that I likewith him is he he takes his time
.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Right, and he's a student of the sport in terms of
how he goes about his business.
Because you're talking aboutthis man turning an opportunity
to go to MotoGP.
Most people do that and neversee MotoGP.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
True, but he had an issue.
I mean he made the rightdecision, because where was he
going to go?
He was going to go under them,under us.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
But what I'm saying to you, a lot of times that
happens and you never getanother call up.
True, he said man, I need towin this Moto2 championship,
because he knew he should havewon that one the year before,
the one that um 22 22 um 23because he won last year yeah,
which was 24.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
so it was yeah so 20.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
oh, 22, the one that he fumbled no, he won last year,
so he fumbled 23.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
nah, man, he didn't.
It wasn't the who won it in 23.
Remember, augusta Fernandes wonit, and then I you sure it's
not 22 when he crashed out asecond in the ring, I think it
was at this very same shot.
I'm sure it was 22.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
I'll be right, because he was injured a lot in
23, right.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Yeah, it was 22.
I can double check um, and andjust to confirm who that, what
year it was, let's double checkthat, because I'm not missing a
year 2022 um was agustafernandez Agour finished second

(15:05):
in 2022.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
So we shouldn't okay.
So then he came in the 23injured.
Okay, yeah, you're correct,Because he came into 2023
injured, right, and he finishedninth.
Yeah, yeah, so it's 2022 whenhe fumbled it.
He came into 2023 with injuriesand that just didn't work out.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
And that's when he moved from Team Asia to Basque
Skira, to MTI MS.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
MTI, mtl, mit, I think.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
It says MTL Mit Last year, last year, and won it on
the Basque Skira.
And remember what I was sayingto you, right, that I like the
riders, that I like thenon-calix riders in Moto2.
Reason being usually, if youcould ride a non-calix, it means

(15:56):
you're good.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Because the thing is with the calix right, I think.
I guess now the basket score iscloser, but it was at some
point when you just needed to bein a calyx, you don't?

Speaker 1 (16:09):
you could be average yeah, because I mean, let's be
honest, the um pedro acosta wonthe 20 last the 2023
championship 2023, yeah so itwas 2022 agor, because I because
I remember Aguara.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, he's just he needed.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
He was in second place in the race and I think it
was at this same track,thailand, and it was raining and
he crashed no it was?

Speaker 2 (16:35):
it was Malaysia.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Malaysia and he crashed out and he crashed out
and lost the championship.
So I mean, as you said, notmany people get that opportunity
again to even go back to try towin it after such a massive
mistake from his part.
But you look at the performanceover the weekend, you know, his
performance kind of made melook silly with my early season

(17:00):
prediction because I was sayingyo, that Apria didn't look good
at all, and I even said the samething about the KTM.
I pretty much said, like youknow, I think the KTM was worse
than the Honda.
But that wasn't the case thisweekend.
But at the same time I could beproven right going forward,
because this could just be ananomaly.

(17:23):
And that's the problem.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
And because during the crash, you you didn't, you
couldn't really get a a truefeel for it yeah, because the
the best um japanese finisherwas, it was jack miller, wasn't
it jack miller?
Jack miller, he was the bestjapanese bike finisher, and so
boy, boy, boy, shoving a bit ofumbilical pie down your throat.

(17:44):
But early seasons.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
No early season.
Jack's gonna beat Jack.
You know what I mean Becauselook what he did in the sprint
yesterday.
He crashed he crashed out ofthe sprint yesterday, didn't he?
So Jack is gonna do Jack Millerthings At some point in the
season, so I'm not even worriedabout Him Right now.
Because even worried about himright now because I just know
he's gonna do what he normallydoes and just fumbles and

(18:06):
crashes and all some madness.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
So yeah, yeah, so, yeah, so, um, yeah, still an
igra he.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
He carried the flag for for for a pretty on track
house this weekend not justexactly because you know, I mean
, and he's on a satellite bike,he's not even on the full
factory bike.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
I'm sitting here.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
I'm sitting here, sitting not not really surprised
, because I know he's got thetalent right but anyone that
says that they predicted he wasto be there is lying, of course
no one looked at that apria intesting or even practice and

(18:52):
said, yeah, they're going to beup there no, no, no, not that
prayer.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
People did look at it .
People looked at bezeki at thesecond test yeah, but remember
what they also said.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
You know, bezeki kind of likes this track and their
prayer tends to go well at thistrack.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
But so that's what I'm saying.
So, based on that, you'rethinking it was going to be
bezeki who was going to carrythat torch true, but he crashed
out.
He crashed out in the sprintfor sure, but man, I agree with

(19:31):
us came in on tour of the formbook yep right and, and I'm
enjoying it right, I'm enjoyingit.
Um, let me see who else.
It was just one of the oneswhere it was like Mark came out
the gate, hot.
Alex came out the gate, superhot.

(19:56):
Marbidelli messed up Peco's lap.
It was just a lot of thingsgoing on.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
I think the three standout people this weekend
were the front two and agor Ican't pronounce his name
properly iagor iagor.
Those are the three standoutpeople this weekend did you know
that this weekend, maverick?

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I didn't know that.
Coming into the weekend,maverick vinales at a 30th
Street direct Q2 appearance.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Yeah, but okay, you have that record and then what
you do on a Sunday?
You end up just going back tobeing typical Maverick Vinales
Disappointing, absolutelydisappointing.
He was.
I think he was the worst of allthe KTMs Absolute disappointing

(20:47):
.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
So you know Well, at least he stayed on it.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Well, true, but again , pedro Acosta obviously
referring to him, that's beenhis problem all along Can't stay
on the bike.
What was it?
He had 28 crashes last year, 28.
You can't do that and Iguarantee you, if he does that

(21:14):
this year on the factory bike,my man might lose his ride,
pedro.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Acosta.
Yeah, nah, come on, man, nahyou telling me they're going to
persist.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Pedro Acosta, yeah, nah come on man, nah you telling
me they're going to persistwith a guy who crashed 28 times
last year on a satellite bikeand then comes on the factory
bike and does the same thingagain, especially given their
financial situation?

Speaker 2 (21:36):
I don't think, I don't think he's going to lose
his ride.
Well, okay, mano loses his ride.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
But they're going to have to start to look at him
seriously and think is this guyready for this?
Because you can't keep crashingthat much.
When was it?
Not even who was it.
That must be a record for someone person crashing in an entire

(22:03):
year, 28 you ain't seen, youain't met jordan mirror yo, I
don't even think jordan maycrash that much yeah, you, sure
acosta's crashed 28 times.
28 times.
I'm watching the race thismorning and the guy um, I think
it was neil hudson who said ithe crashed 28 times last year.

(22:23):
How many races there were lastyear?
Uh, 25.
How many races that last year?
If we if we just race weekendsrace weekend.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
I think it was like, was it 20?

Speaker 1 (22:38):
all right.
So let me just let me, let mejust do the maths.
Hold on.
So hold on, let me just try andfind it, because I want to make
sure I'm not.
You know, I mean there was 20Grand Prixs last year right 20,

(23:01):
yeah, 20.
So 20 Grand Prix, a main raceand a sprint race.
That's what?
40, and he crashed out 28 Times.
That's more than 50% of theraces he crashed in.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
That's too much.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
That's too much.
That's too much and I guesshold on.
Just to caveat that not all ofthem were the actual like
feature race or the sprint raceover the whole weekend.
So forget how many raceswhether it was a sprint or

(23:43):
qualifying or whatever but justto have 28 crashes in a 20 race
season.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
So you're including practice crashes Overall Okay.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Because you only crashed four times last year in
actual feature races, but that'sstill a lot of crashes, though,
and when you look at where hecrashes from as well, he's
crashing from position wherehe's in good positions um, yeah,
for me, personally, I think Ithink what it is is he.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
he came in right with that allure is that a word,
allure?
Right, and he wanted to win.
So much because of thecomparisons because there's a
lot of comparisons about being anew mark, which I don't agree

(24:40):
with.
Um, everyone is their ownindividual.
No one is the new, anyone,right, true, but he came in with
all of that and he wants to winand, of course, showing in the
back of his mind, he's probablylooking at it like, yeah, I want
to be the best rookie to everdo it, but hey man, once you
didn't win your second race oryour first race, that boat

(25:03):
sailed for you.
But hey, man, once you didn'twin your second race or your
first race.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
that boat sailed for you, yeah, and the thing is he
had opportunities to win someraces last year.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
And because again you saw that youthful exuberance is
a term they use comes out andhe crashes out of good positions
, crashed out from podiumpositions, from the leader races
.
He crashed out.
It's like can't, that can'tkeep happening and if that
carries over into this year,you're gonna have to ask the

(25:33):
question is this guy really upfor it?

Speaker 2 (25:38):
yeah, I think it's early to even come to that.
It's early because you have tobear in mind it's his second
season yeah you have to give himsome slack, right?
It's his second season, solet's see how this season goes
for him.
I think he has the talent,right?
Um, I just think like you justneed to calm down a little bit
and just understand thatsometimes you're in certain

(25:59):
positions.
You just got to take thosepoints right because you don't,
you got to tally up them.
Points to, to, to to get yourplace at the end of the season
right before your championrunner up.
Third, he has to understandthese things exactly.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, but you'd think he'd he'd have known that,
given that he's a motor twochampion, that's how you win a
motor 2 championship, you know,I mean.
So I mean it was.
It was disappointing from foracosta today, absolutely
disappointing.
He basically, you know he wasthe best running ktm and then

(26:37):
just pinned it yeah, um, let'ssee how we progress through the
season.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
First race, you know, probably a bit of rust, let's
see.
Let's talk about your man,fabio Quattoraro.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
And again, I think if we go back to the testing, they
said that this wasn't a goodtrack for the Yamaha, so
finishing seventh yesterday inthe sprint was kind of like,
probably a bonus.
The good thing is he made itstraight through to the Q2
session, unlike in previousyears.
You know he had to go throughqualifying one to make it roll,

(27:25):
but the sprint race wasn't sobad.
But I thought I expected morefrom them in that over the whole
entire weekend.
What happened to him during therace to this morning I have no
idea, because that man felt likea stone.
I'm looking at the timingscreen and I just see him
falling down.

(27:46):
At one one point you couldn'teven see his name.
I'm like yo, is he still in therace?

Speaker 2 (27:51):
he's 19th yeah, I saw that too.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
That was crazy like where's where's fabio?
What's going on?
Don't tell me that what we sawin the Malaysia test was just
fool's.
Gold were being sold already.
He was lucky to even get apoint.
Yeah, I mean, the Hondas wereperforming better than the

(28:19):
frigging Yamahas.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
He was the third best Yamaha.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, Behind Jack Miller.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Rins Behind the Pramac team.
Basically.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, oh no, not Rins , Jack Miller and Oliveira,
because he finished behindOliveira.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah he finished ahead of Rins.
Rins was the last of theYamahas.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
He finished ahead of Oliveira, but at one point he
was behind both all of them.
At one point he was behind both, all of them At one point, he
was even behind rings At theshow.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
The screen.

Speaker 1 (28:51):
Fabio was fighting with.
What's the Thai kid's name?

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Chandra Sankiat.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
That's who Fabio was racing with.
That's how bad the Yamaha.
Was it a bike thing or was it atyre thing?
I've not seen anything come outyet to say what the problem was
.
But remember I said it to youyou know Yamaha could get all of

(29:21):
these concessions they want.
You have to remember how longit took Ducati, with these same
concessions, to even get toclose to where they could become
a team that could challengeRaven Podiums.
It took them years and, withthe pardon and with the regs
changing for 2027 yo, I'm nothopeful.

(29:42):
I was hopeful that they'veprobably turned the corner.
2027 yo, I'm not hopeful.
I was hopeful that you knowthey've probably turned the
corner and you might seesomething for them going forward
, because you know, after theSid Pang test they were the next
best buy after Ducati's.
And for them to turn up thisweekend and be that bad, it's

(30:03):
like, yeah, lynn Jarvis isn'tthere anymore.
Yeah, he's left, should haveleft years ago Because he's the
reason for their downfall.
But Yama can't do this andFabio Right now will probably be
looking at this and probablystart kicking himself if this

(30:25):
year turns out to be as bad aslast year, because he had the
opportunity to jump off thatYamaha and probably jump on a
Ducati, but you know the moneyhe got paid.
He got paid to stay on thatYamaha, though.
Yeah, what am I chalking it upto right?
You know the money he got paid,he got paid to stay on that
Yamaha though.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, what am I chalking up to?
Right, I'm going to bring thefirst.
I'm going to the first race ofthe season.
Right, a lot of people aregoing to outshine themselves.
A lot of people are going tounderwhelm right, let's see
moving forward.
So I'm not taking too much fromit currently, let's just see,

(31:05):
because I see a lot of rust.
Um, so I'm giving it, like nextrace quota for people to really
settle in, and then I thinkyou'll start seeing the pecking
order at that point I think wepretty much know what the
pecking order is right, I meanthroughout the field yeah, okay,
throughout the field.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
It's pretty much Mark , mark and Pekka, the front two,
alex.
I'm going to put Alex behindthem.
After that, everybody has falls.
Nobody knows.
Yeah, but we're touching himbriefly.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
Let's touch on him again, because we didn't say
much.
Jack Miller, nobody knows, yeah, but we're touching him briefly
, let's touch on him again.
He didn't say much, jack Miller, he did.
He had a solid weekend, I thinkhe.
I think he gelled with theYamaha better than I thought and
faster than I thought he wasgoing to.
Well, right, so I have to givehim that.

(32:06):
He did say in testing that helikes the front of the Yamaha.
It's got a solid front Right.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
So I have to give him that he's not slow on it.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Right, but what does jack miller do?
Oh, what always happens to jackin races crashes that's number
one.
What's the second thing thatalways happens to him?

Speaker 2 (32:36):
run out of tires, what?

Speaker 1 (32:39):
do you think happened to him today?

Speaker 2 (32:41):
yeah, as I said, the jack miller things.
But let's see.
Let's see how how this, how theseason progresses yeah, he went
hard.
He went hard at the beginningand eventually just ran out of
that's what I think with me,with me and jack, you're right
um all these years in motor gpand he still doesn't know to

(33:03):
manage his ties to a racistCrazy Right.
That's crazy to me.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
And this.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Well, I'm still going to say it, right, but I think I
already have the answer to myown thingy, answers to what.
That's why they're categories.
Right, each category, you learnsomething different, right?
So you have motor three.
Um, the terror group, you knowof motor three, you do, you cut

(33:33):
your teeth in that.
You go to motor two, which iscloser to motor gp, you learn
more things, whether that beriding a slightly bigger bike,
tire management, all that stuff.
Jack Miller jumped that whole.
Jack Miller went straight frompreschool to college and

(33:54):
sometimes missing out on thatteaching, that level of
education, sometimes that willhaunt you throughout your whole
career.
There you go.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
But look.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
However, you would think that, let's be honest.
However, you would think thatwell, he did all of that.
He jumped from preschool tocollege, as in jumping from
motor three all the way to motorGP.
But you think with experiencein class all these years, he
would have solved that issue,true.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Because what we can't say is the jump from Moto3 to
MotoGP was a disaster, becausehe has won races, he's been on
the podium, he's been on pole.
You know he's ridden for FactorBike, so you can say it was
somewhat of a success.
But you'd have expected morefrom him, given that he has
ridden a factory Ducati.
He was on a factory Honda aswell.

(34:57):
Yeah, so most of the bikes he'sridden have been factory spec
bikes, full factory bikes.
You'd have expected more fromhim, but you.
He hasn't really lived up tothe hype that he got when he
came into the category.
No, he hasn't.
So whilst today was a goodsomewhat good results for him,

(35:20):
I'm still not confident thatgoing forward, you know the next
couple of races we'll see thesame thing from him.
If that happens, then I'llhappily eat my umber pie, but no
, so where do you think hefinished?

Speaker 2 (35:36):
where do you think he finishes out of the four
yamahas by season's end?
By season's end probably be athird third, so you're putting
him above just Rins.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
I kind of figure you're putting him above Rins,
because I think, yeah, I'm justgoing to put him above Rins
because I think Oliveira is abetter rider than he is.
Got you, and we all expect Fabioto, you know, get his act
together and he's going to bethe top.
Fabio to, you know, get his acttogether and he's gonna be the
top.
Yamaha, but you know havingthem.
But it's good for yamaha,though, that they have two more

(36:13):
bikes on the grid, becausethat's more information for them
that they can work with andwith the um to move them further
up the grid, improve the bike.
But how long it's going to take?
For me it's going to come down.
It's not going to happen nextyear, it's when they do the

(36:33):
whole reset in 2027 is when theycan somewhat try and get back
to the front of the grid,because I feel like if these
regs were to carry on foranother two, three years
probably, that's how long itwould take them to get anywhere
close to the Ducatis up front,said both of them had farm in
preseason um.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
I also said on the last part that alex marcus is
underrated right because mostpeople think he's only in the

(37:15):
sport because of his brother.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
But at the same time, you're talking about a dude
that won chips before he gotinto MotoGP.
So he won Moto2, he won thechampionship, so you know and he
won Moto3 too yeah, so you knowhe's no mug.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
You don't win those championships and the guys that
they beat in Moto3 are some oftheir favorites on the grid like
who.
Isaac Arnault, alex Rins waspart of that, jack Miller was
part of that.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Wasn't the Espargar brothers one of them in there as
well?

Speaker 2 (37:50):
No.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Okay cool.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
No one of the Espargaras Aleix.
He was before Mark and thenMark and Paul was in the same
time, right.
So you have to understand that.
The guy's got pedigree Right.
And for me, I always I'm a fan,I've always been a fan.
I just always say you know what?

(38:17):
You have some riders who arequick out the gate and a lot of
times you have riders who arequick out the gate and they
don't even last.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yeah, Right, it was a lot of times your riders were
quick out of the gate and theydon't even last.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, all right, it was a case of giving time.
Yeah, he's one of them riders.
It takes him a little time toget up to speed, right,
machinery underneath him, right,and if you look at him this
weekend, even over the the fullrace he ran out of time, closer
than, but Pekka still didn'tcatch him and he still managed
well.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yeah, Right, Because I think again the whole Pekka
thing couldn't part beat him wasbecause Pekka was just
generally struggling and if youlisten to him.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
After the sprint races he said you know it was
pretty dangerous for him to pushany harder than he did.
No, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
I'm not saying that, pecker, no, no, I'm agreeing
with you, I'm just saying youknow.
So, even even even if peckerdidn't have his problems, I
think that big of a problem Ithink he'd probably still
struggle to beat mark.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Um, alex, I mean because the thing is that I like
from Alex as I said, I'mwaiting to see the season kind
of settles, but Alex has beenshowing form on that Ducati
throughout all the preseason,which is good, and the thing I
was looking for in this race wasto see if he was gonna at least
go the full distance and seehow his tires went.

(39:43):
I think he did well of coursehe did.
I mean, he finished second inboth races yeah, so I'm happy
that now I could see him overrace distance and it looks like
he knows how to he's.
He's better at his tiremanagement and maybe this, this
motorcycle, is also better atthat too.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
I mean it's it's the full spec 24 bike.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
So boy's up there, he's doing his thing it's the
full spec 24 bike.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
The only difference between this one and the one
that mark has apparently it'sjust the electronics and
probably the era package issomething slightly different,
but it's pretty much the exactsame bike and, like what I said,
it's it's a situation of nowhe's on that bike.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
You remember what I said to you, that a lot of these
guys are a lot of quote unquotepros favorite.
Frankie Morbidelli is one ofthose riders.
That's one of their favoritesright, and he's on the same bike
as Alex Right and Alex is doingthe thing the guy that they

(40:48):
underrate the most.
You know he's doing his thingand he's been showing consistent
pace ever since he went on thatbike, so I'm happy for him.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
I hope he could be consistent throughout the whole
season and we're in for a rideyeah, but like you said, you
know it's only one race, so fornow, let's just put it down to
that one race and see whathappens in.
Was it two weeks time?
Within two weeks time?
Is it argentina?
And then quota um again, that'sanother one.

(41:22):
Argentina is another one,anti-clockwise track Advantage
mark, and then he's Going toquarter, where he's.
He's only ever lost what?
Last year was the first time helost.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
No, he lost, he lost.
He lost quarter twice.
He crashed out of the two racesthat he he raced.
That he didn't win quarter Iswhen he crashed out.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
So he lost, crashed in 23 and crashed in 24.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
yeah, he crashed in 20 19.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
yeah, but he said the two that he didn't win.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
He crashed out of yeah, because you gotta remember
there's some quota race that hedidn't race when he was injured
ah, yeah, true, true, so thatwould have been um injured, ah,
yeah, true, true, so that wouldhave been.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Um, he crashed out last year.
So that means so that means heprobably missed 22, 23 to 23
race.
Then I don't know, I'm not, Idon't remember, but I'd have to
look that up.
But again, it's not.
They're going into his backyard.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Kota is his backyard yeah, so yeah, we're touching
Alex.
Great race, great weekend forhim, actually great pre-season,
great everything to this pointfor Alex.
Marcus kudos to him.
There's nothing, there's nobetter feeling than see an
underdog come to the fort yep,especially when they say you're

(42:43):
only there because of yourbrother which is crazy.
Come to the fort, yep,especially when they say you're
only there because of yourbrother, which is crazy to me,
but that's a whole other part,right.
So to his brother, yeah, whathappened this week, and, true to
form, as we mentioned at thetop of the pod, what was your
initial thoughts when he slowedup and lapped eight?

Speaker 1 (43:04):
I thought he had some .
I thought it was a mechanicalissue or he ran wide or ran off
the track or something like thathappened and he was having tire
issues or what.
That's what I was looking andyou know.
But then once you saw him likefile back in behind his um alex,
I watching and I'm pretty muchlike, yeah, he's just going to

(43:29):
tie with the field and as soonas he gets, as soon as he's
ready, he's just going to passhim at will and just clears off
into the distance, because thepace he had at the start of the
race was pretty much mindboggling.
He was the only one doing atthat point, doing 30s.
Everyone was doing 30 ones thething is right.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
when it happened and I looked, and when I saw him
slotting behind his brother,behind alex, I instantly said
tire pressure.
I put it in my notes tirepressure.
Yeah, right, yeah, and I'mlooking at it like so now he's
going to have to get thosepressures under control.
How long is it going to take?
The thing for me right, as youmentioned, is pace.

(44:16):
Yeah, if he didn't have thatissue, he would have walked that
race.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Of course, easy, because they were listening to
the commentary.
Where he was making most of histimes was what was it?
They said Sequencer corner,four, five and six, basically
all left-hand corners.
That's where he was making uplike three tenths on everybody.
It was a four Once he led intothe first corner.

(44:48):
That was it.
I think even if he had droppeddown to fifth or sixth, he would
have still won that race.
That's the sort of pace he had.
It wasn't, it wasn't.
And peko I granted pekoprobably didn't know why he fell
behind Alex.
He said he was pretty muchtoying with us and that's

(45:09):
literally what he was doing witheverybody.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
I don't like the word toying.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Because when you say, someone is toying with you,
right?

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Yeah, no, no.
I think when Pkka said like Isaid, pekka probably wasn't
aware of why he ended up.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Oh, you mean?
That's why he said oh, shethought he just literally gave
up a second and a half.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
Nah, no, yeah, but you know mark pretty much had
the pace to.
I don't know he could have wonthat race maybe by 10 seconds if
he wanted to.
I don't know he could have wonthat race Maybe by 10 seconds If
he wanted to, because once hepassed Alex he pulled a second
Within, but before the lap waseven over.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
And that's that's what I'm looking at.
Right Is To be able to Pullthat Type of pace On a Ducati
Against a A fielder that's gotsome great riders In Ducatis too
Is Kind of Eyebrow raising.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Yeah, true, but again , it's only one race.
Again, it's only one race.
I don't expect that to happenthe whole entire season.
There's going to be weekendswhere he has nothing for Pekka.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Definitely not.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
There's going to be weekends where Pekka is just
Pekka and Mark has nothingwhatsoever for him, and the only
thing Mark will have to use inhis arsenal is he's going to
have to rough up Pekka and tryand get him off his game.
And he has no qualms doing that.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Yeah, but Pekka he has no qualms in the world doing
that.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
But Pekka has shown he has no qualms in retaliating
either.
We saw that last year.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
How often do you think that's going to happen
this season?

Speaker 1 (47:01):
It depends on how quickly Pekka gets on top of
these issues, because I think ifPekka sorts his issues out he's
lightning quick over a lap,just as Mark is.
He's just as quick in a race.
So I don't know, we could findourselves in a ding-dong battle

(47:23):
between the two of them theremainder of the season.
But again, it depends on howPeco gets on top of these Issues
he's having with the tyres.
He had them last year and he'ssaying it again this year.
And I'm literally a bitconfused Because if I think
Someone mentioned that theyhaven't Changed the tyres, no,

(47:44):
they haven't changed the tiresno, they haven't.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
So it's the same tires, same motorcycle so then,
what's the issue?
You remember, at the top of thepart, what did I say?
When do you start looking atthe rider?
Fair enough right, because it'sthe same for everyone.
It's the same tires they did.
It's the same tires.
They did not.
They changed the tires cominginto last year, but they did not
change the tires this year.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
And he didn't.
And last year this race, hewasn't all that quick either,
even though he won.
Did he win the race last year?
He won the race last year,didn't he?
Yeah, but he didn't win thesprint race last year, but he
won the main race.
So you know what's going on andit's like you said.

(48:30):
Is it the electronics, becausethat's probably the only thing
new and the aerodynamic kit?

Speaker 2 (48:34):
I think they said there's a small change to that
one, but I'm sure he probablyhas enough cloud to use
electronic that he thinks worksbest for him and they probably
would oblige yeah, obviously,but because again it's a, it's
all that electronics cover,controls, the engine braking, um
mapping and all of these stuff.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
But I don't know peko , but I don't see a season where
mark is just gonna walk theseason like.
I don't want a season like that.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
I don't want a season like that, because the only
thing is when Peco used to havethe luxury of coming in these
weekends on his back foot andfix the issue by Sunday from
when they interviewed Tardazziyesterday and fix the issue by

(49:25):
Sunday.
From when they interviewedTardazzi yesterday, he said Peko
basically solved the issue,which is why he did his fastest
lap in warm-up, coming close tothe end.
So Tardazzi is saying that,yeah, peko is okay now, right,
and then in the race he finishesthird.
My whole thing with that isright.

(49:45):
That strategy it doesn't reallywork with the guy with the
number 93 on the other side ofthe garage.
You got to come in theseweekends on your front foot yeah
right, so he's got to.
He's got to fix these issuesbecause Mark's not going to give
him a.
Mark's not going to let up he'sup against a whole different

(50:07):
type of beast and I'm sure heknows that Mark's going to
punish him for any, any andevery mistake he makes.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
Mark is going to punish him, and he got punished
today because today it wouldhave been ideal if he had
finished second to Mark in bothraces third it's 14 points
already and look at this right,this is.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
This is the issue too , if alex continues to perform
where he keeps, slotting thatDucati between Mark and Pecco.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Yeah, I don't see that happening.
I don't see that.
I still think the factoryDucati is still better Than the
bike that Alex is on.
So again, for that to happen,it would come down to Pekka
having issues.
Because if there's no issueswith that bike, if Pekka doesn't

(51:10):
have the tyre issues he hadthis weekend and he comes in and
he's on form, I can't see Alexsplitting the two of them.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
So you're saying to me the machine that Alex is on.
You have to remember when Alexis on.
You have to remember when Alexis on form, he's on form.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Yeah, but the same for Peco.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
That's what I'm saying.
So you can't rule him outSlotting that back, even with
Mark, even with Peco winning.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
No, I don't see it.
I just don't see it.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Based on what?
Based on talent or what?

Speaker 1 (51:41):
Pure talent?
I don't see it.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
So you do not see Alex Marquez beating Peco.
If Peco is on form, no whenAlex is unsung.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
Because Alex's ceiling is still below Peco's
ceiling, talent-wise.
Let's be honest.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
I think on a weekend.
I think on a weekend, if Alexis really unsung.
Yeah, he could beat both ofthem.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
No, no.
It would require both Mark andPekka to be out full for that to
happen.
I don't believe so.
Let's be honest, the three bestriders on the grid right now
Mark Peko and Fabio Peko'sceiling talent ceiling is higher

(52:37):
than Alex.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
When you say on the grid now you mean?
What do you mean by that?

Speaker 1 (52:42):
Okay, I'm going to throw in Jorge Martin in that.
Okay, yeah, because I'mthinking like what I just said a
three because he didn't racethis weekend, so I'm just going
with what we saw today.
But if you're going in general,the best riders are on the grid
are Mark Peco Martin and Fabio.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
So you see Alex Marcus winning the race this
year.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
It would require again the fact your bike riders
not performing and he would haveto be on his absolute A game
that weekend to benefit fromthat.
So I don't so again, as I said,talent wise, if Peko is on form
and Alex is on form, peko stillbeats him, because Peko's

(53:32):
talent ceiling is that muchhigher.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
I see him sliding that bite between them a couple
times this year again.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
It will happen, yes, but what's going to be the
reasoning behind why it happens?

Speaker 2 (53:48):
I don't know.
I'm just waiting to see because, as I said, I, I personally
rate alex markers very high.
Most people don't.
So that's motor gp.
Um, yeah, mark dominated theweekend, right?
Um, the weekend came true totrue to form.
That that's how we end on themotor gp note.
We can.
Came true to form.
That's how we end on the MotoGPnote.
Weekend came true to form,except for Iagora's position,

(54:10):
except for Iagora's performance.
I should say, let's go down toMoto2 as well.
Moto2 came true to form.
Manuel Gonzalez he was fast inpreseason.
Um, so that came true to formas well.

(54:31):
Right, sergio garcia was absentdue to pre-season crash.
Yeah, he did.
Yeah, and the thing is back onmanuel gonzalez.
Right, I didn't realize he wasthat young how young is he?
he's's only 21.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Yeah, I mean that's pretty much standard for that
class, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (54:46):
No, I mean in terms of like.
It seems like he's been aroundforever, but this is only his
third season and he's progressedthroughout, so he's well.
As I said, he's the first race,but that came true to form.
Tony Arbelino was nowhere to befound.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
So to David Alonso Right.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
You know, he's kind of injured, right?
Who?
Alonso, yeah, from preseason.
Well, there you go, then he'skind of injured.
However, his teammate DanielGado boy showed up.
He was the Iagora in the motor2 race yeah, I think he had.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
He carried the flag for the rookies yep, he
definitely did.
I mean, he's a good rider,isn't he?
I mean we wouldn't, we wouldn'tdiscount him as as, how you say
, someone significant, but he'sone of them ones.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
If someone had said they believed he was going to
finish top 10, they would belying.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Yeah, Because again, he's a rookie and in most cases
you're not going to think youwouldn't think a rookie would
perform that well on a spec bikeagainst more and after rookies
people would more think Alonzobased on what he did, david
alonzo based on what he did inmotor yeah, but at the true.
But at the same time alonzodidn't really have a good test,

(56:12):
did he all right?

Speaker 2 (56:13):
so you know you can kind of I'm just based, enough,
based on form.
We're based on like, hey, who'scoming up with the pedigree
right?
Um, everyone have put theirmoney on alonzo.
Then he's on true, then he's,then he's on true.
Um struggled I.
I was surprised why.
I didn't expect that.
Huh, why?
Because I thought he was gonna,because he had a decent season

(56:36):
last year.
I thought it was up to speedand he was going to bring the
momentum over.
Um, he struggled, uh.
But let's see, as I said, I'mgonna.
We're chalking all of this upto those first race.
People are rusty, some peopleare just sharp.
Out the gate does this?
Let's see how it plays out.
Um center center ages boy had agreat race finished third again

(57:00):
on the strange with a long lappenalty thrown in what you
notice with the three, the topthree the top three, top three.
What's the?

Speaker 1 (57:12):
common denominator all on calyx they're all on
calyx bikes again, so is calyxgoing to come back to be like
they were when they just whenthey've switched over to these
um specifications?

Speaker 2 (57:30):
no, no, I doubt it.
Uh, really I doubt it.
I mean how?

Speaker 1 (57:35):
many, how many, how many calyxes are on the grid,
though?
Here's a few and there's acouple basket securities here
too yeah, but I think they'remore, probably more calyx than
anything else there's alwaysbeen more.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Calyx has always been the dominant chassis on the
motor to grid.
But people switch to basketskirt because I think mark vides
is on basket skirt now.
Um, obviously the mti mti, msiI think it's mti mti helmets
they're on basket skirt.
And I think there's anotherteam that switched to basket
scorer Right, so that camethrough.

(58:10):
The form.
Aaron Kennett, he kind of hegot a solid 20.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
He kind of locked up.
Yeah, it was lucky he didn'tget a penalty for that move.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Who Kennett?

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Yeah, he was lucky he didn't get a penalty for that
move.
Oh, kenneth, yeah, he was luckyhe didn't get a penalty.
So you know there goes that one.
But I thought for me he's stillthe favorite to win the
championship, but I feel like hemight throw it away.
It's actually MTL mate.
It's MTL mate, throw it away.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
It's actually empty element, empty element.
It's empty element um.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Janet is still the favorite, but I think he might
throw it away yeah, um, yeahit's.
I'm waiting to see what, becauseI said the fact that center
ages is a decent pair of hands,right so, which is why I'm
chalking up this first race, tojust be in the first race yeah,

(59:08):
we can't really, we can't reallyread too much into into what
happened this weekend and think,yeah, that's the well, probably
, with the exception of whathappened with with mark, I don't
think anything else is set instone.
It's too early for that.
I think we'll know more maybeafter the first three or four

(59:32):
races.
Then we kind of have a betterunderstanding of what the
pecking order is on the grid.
Well, obviously, as I said, weknow Mark is pretty much, you
know, at the top right now andprobably Mark and Pekka will be
the two at the front easily,because, again, the Ducati is
just that much better thaneverybody else's bike right now.

(59:53):
And I can't see and here's myconcern when they get that 25
bike sorted, when they get that25 bike sorted, they're just
going to run, they're just goingto stretch their legs even more
over everybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Yeah, cause I think they're bringing it back,
bringing the chassis back at thethe the Aragon test.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
When's the Aragon test?

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Not Aragon.
Um, is it Ereth?
Yeah, yeah, I think that's thetest they're going to bring it
back.
There's not.
Is it Ereth?
Yeah, ereth, yeah, I thinkthat's the test.
They're going to bring it back.
There's not an Aragon test, Ithink it's Ereth.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Okay, cool.
So you know I can't say that I.
It's very likely Ducati's runthe table this year.
They should, in theory, winevery single race this year.
Be it factory or satellite team, they should win every single
race.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Easy, but the thing that goes well, though, is
Martin is at home looking at theAprilia up here, but, as I said
, it could be first racesituation we don't know yet but
I'm sure Martin is feeling good,based on what you saw no, I

(01:01:12):
don't think he can feel good.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
To be honest, again, like you said, he hasn't really
ridden it properly as yet, so hedoesn't know the full handling
characteristics of it.
So as yet.
So he doesn't know the fullhandling characteristics of it,
so, as Bez and I performed well,he might end up struggling on
it.
And again, it's just one racewe've seen.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
No, I'm basing that base off a writer looking at a
Bible like well, at least it'snot at the back.
True, that's what I'm basing iton.
Hey, at least it's not at theback.
True, that's that's.
That's what I'm basing on.
Hey, at least it's not at back.
At least it's top 10, it's.
It's he's fifth, he, he's he'sfourth, because we're looking at
it like he's a guy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
You know what's his, what's his teammate again?
Um, oh god, what's his nameagain?
Um, uh, ralph fernandez.
Where did he finish?

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
he retired because I think he was suffering with the
heat issues from that prayerthere you go.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
So you said a problem .
So there you said that and Iremember last year it was
something that Maverick Mavericksaid as well said that the heat
dissipation of that bike isvery high and then you would ask
yourself how do you explainyour teammate Finishing Fourth
and fifth?
Well, probably because they candeal with the heat.
I don't know, mavericks can'tknow On any age.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
So and so, and you know who quietly snuck up In the
top ten, who In, I gotta run itback.
Go back to MotoGP real quick,henny.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Abastinini.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
He finished ninth.
Cool and I got to run it back.
Go back to MotoGP real quick,mm-hmm.
Ennio Bastianini.
He finished ninth On the KTM,starting from almost the back of
the grid.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
He's on the Tech 3 KTM, isn't he?
Tech 3 KTM, maverick?

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
finished dead last?
I think no.
Maverick finished 16th behindFabio, fabio.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Brad binder was the best place ktm.
I agree he's looking good upthough.
Yeah, um yeah, I just want tosay that because I am busting in
it once again doing bustinginto things just snuck in there
real quick his problem hasalways been he cannot start well
, he doesn't start well, hedoesn't start well.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
But when it comes to the second half of the race,
he'll always be, he's alwaysthere or thereabouts.
So you know, good for him,because the best place KTM was
Binder.
I mean if you Shoot, good forhim, because, well, the best
place KTM was Binda, mm-hmm.
I mean if you Shoot.
Look at it this way, bro, this,the Hondas finish ahead of the

(01:03:59):
Yamahas as the best place.
Japanese bike with Zarko inseventh.
Yeah, that's just yeah, it's.
It's Honda looking at Yamahalooking at this weekend are
probably just going to pray thatthis was you know what a

(01:04:20):
one-off, because that's not goodenough and if you look at the
time and zarkov is even far off,bezeki and their period,
because bezeki finished a14.4967 seconds to 15.9 finish
15.225, that's not bad yeah15.225.

(01:04:43):
That's not bad, yeah, but whatit probably then tells you is
the the Honda seems to be goodon its tyres Because Jack Miller
fell like a stone, because histyres just went off.
But again, that's typical JackMiller.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
Yeah, jack, doing Jack things right and yeah, just
a few things.
Yeah, so that's motor tworeally.
Um, dig him.
I like that kid, dig him over,he's a terrorist who does he
write for?

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
he writes for um I think is's going to be some
surprise in that more to twoseason.
You know, as, like I said, Istill think it's Kanet to lose.
But knowing Kanet, you know,missed the second place, he
might definitely screw that up.
But I want to see what happenswhen alonzo is fully fit,

(01:05:48):
because I think he's on a goodbike, so he's he's in one of the
best teams, yeah.
So let's see what happens whenhe's, when he's fully fit yeah,
he's, he's got a learning curve,you know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Um, yeah, more than three, more than threes is an
open field because all the topriders I think the top, he's got
a little learning curve, youknow.
Um, yeah, motor three.
Motor threes is an open fieldbecause all the top riders, I
think the top four vacated tomotor two this year.
Um, a guy, piqueiros, um, hegot collected.
Um, the British kid, scottOgden, it was just bad for me on
the last corner he rode welland then got taken out at the

(01:06:24):
last corner.
Rueda, that was true to form aswell.
Rueda was, was the, was the guythat they had.
So the whole, everythingthroughout the weekend went true
to form, right from what we sawin preseason but, his teammate,
this young kid, alvaro Carpe.

(01:06:46):
I mean it was a one, two for theminute yeah, he looks, he looks
, he looks like, uh, he lookslike a talent, same thing as
that guido pini guy there's.
So there's a few.
Yeah, moto three is one to lookat because there's there's all
the big guys from last yearvacated.
So this is just just a, just anopen field.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Hold on why is Dennis Kodja in Moto3?

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
yeah, because he didn't make it in Moto2, so he
went back down.
Oh god, yeah, so that's justMoto3.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
He should have just moved over to Superbikes or
something like that.
Yeah, that's, he's never goingto get a MotoGP right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
So might as well just go to second best class in yeah
that's just Moto3 in a nutshell.
To be honest, I'm not evengoing to go too much into Moto3.
Just watch it.
That's where the terror groupsare.
These guys are roofless.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
Look where even david munia's finished.
He didn't even score a point.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
19th yeah, because because he, um, he crashed oh, I
missed that.
He, he crashed, he, he was on.
Yeah, he had some pace, but Idon't think, even if he stayed
on, he would have had an answerfor, um, for rueda, rueda pace
was just crazy, yeah.
But yeah, we're just gonna wrapthis one up.

(01:08:06):
That's a quick recap.
Um, yeah, uh, dovi was wasthere.
Dovi was in the commentaryboxes, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Yeah, because he's a ducati legend he's the
development writer for yamaha,yamaha, yeah yamaha yamaha
development writer team isserious, you know is Kyle
Crutchlow still there?
yeah, they have Dovey and theyhave Crutchlow.
There's somebody else, but Ican't remember who the third
person is it?
Um?
No, it's not Gwyn Tolley.
Is it Sylvan?

(01:08:34):
No, sylvan is the developmentrider for BMW in, um, well,
superbike, superbike, yeah so.
But there's somebody else inthat, yamaha stable that's part
of the development team withDovey and Cal, but I can't
remember who it is.
So they have a again, which tome, is kind of like how has the

(01:08:56):
bike not progressed, given thecalibers of rider that they have
in the development team?

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
Yeah, as I said, let's see.
Let's see how that comesthroughout the season yeah, so
yeah just dovey was there.
It's a quick recap.
Dovey, um, just gave histhoughts and it's always good to
hear from dovey.
Dovey's such a gentleman and,um, yeah, dovey is the guy that
actually bought.
Uh, bring ducati back to theforefront of racing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
So definitely a motor gp legend yeah, did he bring
them back to the forefront?

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
because, I mean, stoner won a championship with
them and then they went into aslump and then it was dovey who
actually brought them back to tocompete in yeah, that's when
this, that's when the the um,the concession second, that's
yeah and that's when.
The second, that's that doveyis the one that actually
actually brought back ducati tocompetitive racing, to

(01:09:46):
competitiveness.
Yep, you can't take that awayfrom him.
True, right and so yeah, justto recap, marks, mark, marcus
Lapid Mistry.
We then found out it was a tyrepressure.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Yo, I don't like that rule.
Honest to God, I don't likethat rule.
Yeah, I personally don't likeit, but it's there so we just
got to deal with it, right.
But what's again?
Make better tires?
It's kind of like this kind oflike the formula one issue just
make better tires, why?
Why are you forcing riders tolike oh crap, I have to make
sure my time?

(01:10:19):
And apparently the reason whyhe stayed that long behind alex
is because he had to have itdone for like 60% of the race.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Yeah, you have to.
And then the light on the thing.
He can't make the move into thelight.
Tell him it's okay.
Yeah, he can't say it's okay.
So if he had run off into thedistance and done another three,
four, five laps, he would havebeen disqualified from the race,
which is crazy Because hewouldn't have done 60 percent um
with it at that pressure andyou can imagine if, if it wasn't

(01:10:51):
alex, if it was, if it was peko, he was, he had to drop that,
drop behind, and then pekodecided he wanted to clear off
and then mark had to deal withthis tire pressure issue well,
the thing is, the thing isapparently with it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
If you're behind someone, it helps to bring the
pressures back up pressure,which is why he fell behind him.
Yeah, and he stayed close tohim because the closer you get
that hot gear off it, so it itcauses to go back up.
But I don't like the rule, yeahI think I don't like.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Anyone likes the rule .
They make better tires.
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
That's right it's a, it's a per earlier formula.
And the thing is smithshillianmakes good tires, but why are
you coming with this nonsense?

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
yeah, it's crazy, um, so yeah, um historic moment in
the marcus brothers doublepodium.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
That was a good thing to see because they've had
double podiums before, but neverin not never.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
First and second, it was second and third yeah, but
never in a feature race.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Yeah, so they finally have that in a feature race.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
They've had it in a sprint race, but not last year,
it was last year, germany, Ithink.
Yeah, I'd have to check lastyear I'd have to check that one.
And yeah and yeah, mark wins onhis Ducati debut, first since
Casey Stoner.
First Ducati debutant to win ona Ducati since Casey Stoner in

(01:12:14):
07.
There you go.
Right, shows you how good thatbike is he also equals Danny
Pedroza's 112 podiums.
I'm already touching Bastien inhis quiet butt-strong finishing
ninth.
He was a sleeper for Bastien,but he came in top ten.
You know, as I said, bastiendoing his thing, the thing that

(01:12:35):
I like for the weekend.
One of the things that actuallyput a smile on my face is the
little kid.
I think his name was Rashawanwho Rashawan the little kid.
I think his name was rasha, onewho rasha won the little kid.
He didn't see the kid that wasdressing for yeah, yeah yeah
because last year mark crashedin the race.
He cried his eyes out and umthis, this this weekend he was,
mark spent a lot of time atmarket, seemed like um.

(01:12:58):
He signed some stuff, gave himsome, some gifts and all that
stuff and he said, oh, trustyou're not gonna cry this year.
And he did.
And then, um, after the racethe kid was in park for me with
him.
They took some photos it wasgood, yeah, I liked it.
I like that motor.
Gp opened up to that.
Yeah, I mean, didn't?

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
uh, formula one did something similar when kimi
crashed out.
Of what race was it?
Was it in Spain or was it Italywhere he crashed out?
And they showed the kid in thestands crying.
But I think the following raceor the following year, they
allowed him into the paddock andhe met Kimi, and so on.
So I mean, formula 1 does thatas well.

(01:13:39):
But, yeah, it was a good lookbecause, again, they're the
upcoming generation.
They're, you know, they're thefuture fans of the sport, adult
fans of the sport.
So you have, if you can getthem engaged maybe future riders
too future world champions.
You never know.
You never know future worldchampions.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
So it's.
It's, as I said, season start.
I'm happy that the season startstarted.
Formula one is up next, butyeah, this weekend kind of went
through to form, except for Isaid Anamali, which is Ayagura,
and two and Daniel Gata in Moto2, yeah, right, and I think the
young kid in young kid what didI say his name was, again, young

(01:14:21):
kid in in Moto3.
Which one?
Rueda, not Rueda, rueda'steammate, alvaro Carpe.
Carpe yeah, so yeah, it's agood start to the season.
And then next up is Argentina,followed by Kota.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
And then Katia yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Kota.
Yeah, I'm looking to go to Kota.
I'm still working on that, okay, but yeah, how do you feel
overall?

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
today I'm a bit disappointed because you know my
guy, you know, you know I'mteam fabio, team el diablo.
But boy, I don't think I can doanother year or two years of
this ducati, this um, yamaha,disaster class man.
I mean, I did it for what?
Four years with mercedes, threeyears with mercedes?

(01:15:12):
I don't think I can do it withyamaha, man, this is too
stressful.
It's too stressful, man,because you, you just look at
this team and you're like yo,what's going on?
You know, but the Yamaha problemwas a cultural problem.
They got stuck in the past.
They didn't want to recognizewhat was going on, what Ducati

(01:15:33):
was doing.
You know, when Ducati wasputting all of these wings and
stuff on the bikes and peoplewere like, yo, what are you guys
doing?
You're mad, whatnot, whatnot.
And you see, look where theyare now, were like yo, what you
guys do?
You know, you're mad, whatnot,whatnot.
Do you see?
Look where they are now.
I know every bike is startingto look like a their own version
of an f1 car right now.
It's just crazy.
So you know, like I said,definitely looking forward to

(01:15:57):
the season because I think it'sgoing to be a blockbuster, I
think don't write off peko.
I don't think anybody shouldwrite off Peko.
I don't think anybody shouldwrite off Peko.
No, he'd be crazy doing that.
It's going to be an uphill taskfor him because again he's
going up against one of theultimate aliens and we're going
to see how much he can raise hisgame.
And if he's able to raise hisgame then, you know, I think

(01:16:24):
he's going to be able to giveMark a good run for his money,
because right now Mark isfavored for the championship
easily.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
You know what's crazy ?
The fact that Mark was testingnew parts.
That was wild.
That's how comfortable he was,that's how he knew he had his
pace.
He already said he was testingnew parts yeah, because, again,
it's from the testing right.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
He carried over from the test and he knew where his
performance, he knew where thebike was in testing, he was
happy with the bike.
So coming into the weekend, allhe had to do was just kind of
like refine what he already had.
Peko was struggling from thetest, so it was an easier
weekend for mark to deal withthan it was for pekka.
So you know, he did what wasbasic.

(01:17:10):
As you said, going back, basedon what we saw in the test, he
did exactly what he was meant todo and anything else would have
been a disappointmentabsolutely.
If he hadn't won both races then, yeah, it would have been a
failure.
Yeah, and at the same time,tipi had to pick up because he
did recover.
He did you know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
Pekka doing Pekka things right yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
He only finished third, but the way the weekend
started, you know, I thinkthat's good.
That's solid points for him.
He can work.
He can be happy with that, butat the same time disappointed he
has to start his weekendstronger.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
Yeah, the situation he's in now.
He cannot afford to be doingthe things that he was doing for
the past two years, coming inand then getting it right last
minute.
He's going to have to work onthat part, but yeah work on that
part, but yeah, I'm lookingforward to it.
I enjoyed the weekend.
I'm glad that MotoGP is backyou know here's a question.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
We're going to end the podcast on this question.
Mark won on his factory Ducatidebut.
Do you think Lewis can win onhis Ferrari debut in two weeks
time in Australia?

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
he's got the talent to.
He's just questioning if he'sgot the car no, I just we're not
gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
We just need a yes or no answer.
Yes, yeah, he can cool andthere we go.

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
Yes, he can, because the thing is, both of them are
going for the thing is thisseason.
This is why this season is sointeresting.
They're both going for thething is this season.
This is why this season is sointeresting.
They're both going for thething that they're just going.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
They're going for championship, but there's
something special about thesetwo championships yeah, because
if Mark wins this one, it willgive him the most MotoGP
championship right?
No, equal Valley how many did?
Valley win Seven, yeah, but howmuch Mark has Six, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
So and then.
So he's trying to Go for that,and it's not even the equal
Valley thing.
I think for him it's just amatter of he knows that what
happened in 2020, he's probablygoing to walk that championship
right and he just wants to getthat one.
After everything that he's beenthrough, I think it's the one

(01:19:32):
to say this is my scar, this isthe half arm that I got and this
is the thing that I got for it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
I've been to the brink and I've pulled myself
from the brink, and here I am toprove that yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
Right, and then for Lewis.
On the other hand, you give mewhat you take on Lewis's,
because these are specialchampionships.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
I don't think for Lewis, it's about proving
anything, because Lewis doesn'tneed to prove anything to
anybody.
I think it's a case of he'shungry and he wants to win.
He still has that driving himto win and he wants to win a
championship that we all knowwas stolen from him yeah, when I
say prove not, mark is provingit to himself, like what he's

(01:20:14):
been through.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
He's like, hey, because remember he said, he
said he took the grassini ridebecause he wants to see if he
could still win, if he's stillcompetitive, all those things.
So it's a personal thing forhim right now is how I feel.
Right, right, he wants to seeif he could still win, if he's
still competitive, all thosethings.
So it's a personal thing forhim right now is how I feel he
wants to win this championship,because I think if Mark wins
this championship and he neverwins another championship he'll
be happy, of course, but I thinkif he doesn't win another

(01:20:37):
championship, he won't be.
He said he would be happy withhimself because at least he knew
he was competitive after thathorrible injury, right?
So yeah, it's these twochampionships.
They're special championshipsin my eyes, very, very special.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Yeah, because one of them has more historical meaning
, historical context added to itthan the other, because, whilst
Mark would be tying Ross'srecord, lois would be separating
himself from the pack, which heshould have done on that
fateful day in 2021.
But we all know how that onegoes, so you know, yeah, but
let's see.
Let's see what happens in twoweeks time in Australia.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Yeah, so in two weeks time in Australia.
So thank you for listeningeveryone.
Once again appreciate everyonethat tuned in to the Grand Prix
project.
All the GPCs and opener wentthrough to form.
So we're just looking towards awonderful, long and competitive
season.
I hope it's competitive.

(01:21:46):
I want it to be competitive weall hope it is.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
Can't have a Marquez runaway train.

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
You know that would just be disaster yeah, so once
again, thank you everyone forwatching.
Just please follow us on onInstagram.
The GP Project Podcast on X.
The GP Project project podcastum on x.
Gp project pod right um.
Follow me on x at the gpproject dre and you big bro

(01:22:16):
follow me on x, formerly knownas twitter, where we see a fire.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
that's me causing havoc, as always At Thanos,
that's with a 7876.
You can find me over therecreating havoc.
Follow me at your peril.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
And, once again, thank you.
Thank everyone for listening,all the countries that tuned in,
all the cities.
We appreciate it.
Please just keep listening anddownloading Peace out.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Thank you for listening to theGrand Prix Project Podcast.
You Bye, thank you.