Alex Marquez to be the #2 to his brother at Repsol Honda.
Alex Marquez to be the #2 to his brother at Repsol Honda.
I mean, blackmail worked. We all knew it beforehand.
Interesting even if it was expected.
Clearly they will work together as teammates, which can be a positive, but I dont think Alex will push Marc that much.
I said the same thing about Lorenzo
What's interesting to me, is that ever since Pedrosa left (maybe before), I think Honda has designed a bike that is basically unridable by anyone but Marc. So it will be interesting to see if Alex can handle the bike.
It’s possibly more nuanced than that.
They will always design a bike to suit whoever has the greatest chance of winning.
It just so happens that Marquez’s riding style is much more extreme than everyone else’s. There has been a lineage beginning in the 800cc era from Stoner to Marquez where the riding style is very loose but precise, like a controlled hand grenade. They can extract speed by being on-edge all the time, while riders who prefer smooth pin-sharp accuracy like Lorenzo have no chance.
Back in the Doohan-Rossi era, they were able to develop a bike (both 500cc NSR and 990cc RC211V) that anyone could win on. It was extremely versatile, which was why riders like Criville, Barros, Gibernau, Biaggi, Pedrosa and Hayden were able to have some success.
When Rossi moved to Yamaha, he and the team fed information back to the manufacturer and they built a bike to beat Honda almost overnight using a similar philosophy. Rossi remains the only rider to win two titles back-to-back on different machinery. Then Lorenzo came along and joined Rossi, and found himself riding a pre-made bike that suited him so much that straight away he was almost unbeatable.
Move Lorenzo, a proven alien, from a Rossi-developed bike to a Marquez-developed bike, and you can see where the different priorities lie, and it tells you a lot about the riding style of the day’s prevailing champion. Rossi just happens to have a style that fits with a lot of different riders, while Marquez doesn’t. They are fast in their own unique ways.
Totally agree...
Stoner and Marquez are much further ahead of where their teammates were on the same bike (Stoner on the Ducati more so than the Honda)
In Stoners case it seemed more of him taming a fast but hard to ride bike. Marquez, its a bike that has evolved in a direction for his style.
Well so much for the start of the season...
Qatar MotoGP race is cancelled due to the travel restrictions from Italy due to COVID19.
I guess too many teams/riders are based in Italy.
But by a lucky twist, Moto2 and Moto3 can happen as the teams had been in Qatar doing testing.
I hope they get the Italian based people to move somewhere else for the next few months, the restriction is typically "been in Italy in the last 14 days". So need to get them somewhere that will take them asap. Otherwise its going to be a messed up season.
With a few of the teams the bikes and parts are made in Japan but the team is based in Italy. Most of the personnel are in Spain though, but if Ducati teams and Yamaha can’t take part then it’s only fair that none should take part.
Once they clear the two-week quarantine they’ll be ok, but the real problem is having to go back to base after each round to prepare for the next one.