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Episode 264 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us taking a deeper dive into the “MotoGP Unlimited” docuseries that is about to premiere on Amazon Prime.

To discuss the series in greater depth, we have the usual crew of David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler on the mics, as they unpack the show’s debuts in Spain and France.

Episode 261 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us with a special guest on the microphones – Jason Thomas, from Fly Racing.

Joining him on the mics, we have the usual crew of Steve EnglishDavid Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they have a casual conversation about racing, the MotoGP paddock, and what it takes to compete at the top level of sport.

Not all team launches are the same. They vary in style, substance, length, medium. There are live presentations, long prerecorded presentations, and short videos.

Their length or content inevitably have no correlation to their information density. When you start, you never know what you are going to get.

The KTM MotoGP launch kicked off with a 4:35 video presentation that was all style and no substance, four minutes of spectacular images, dramatic electronic music, and empty cliches about racing.

After the launch, however, things got good. Really good. Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira gave a glimpse of where they felt the KTM RC16 was lacking in 2021, and what needed to improve. Interesting, but not earth-shattering.

Then newly appointed team manager Francesco Guidotti spoke, and a picture started to emerge of how KTM was trying to reshape itself, and address a fundamental weakness in their MotoGP project.

Guidotti spoke for 20 minutes in English and another 15 in Italian. And later in the day, the indefatigable Pit Beirer spoke to us for the best part of 45 minutes.

Episode 260 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a special show as we gear up for the 2022 MotoGP Championship season.

On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, and they are joined by a special guest, ex-MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci.

The Italian called into the show while driving, so we apologize for the connection, which drops in quality from time to time, but we think you will find what he has to say to be very interesting.

Episode 257 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us talking to the current MotoGP World Champion, Fabio Quartararo.

On the mics previewing the interview, we have Steve EnglishDavid Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they look back on the Frenchman’s 2021 season, and his path to becoming the first grand prix champion from France.

The guys start off the show going through the the top moments of the Frenchman’s season, from “Zippergate” to him buttoning up the season title with rounds to spare.

From there, we hear from the man himself, in a short interview with our very own Adam Wheeler. It’s all very interesting, and not to be missed.

Can Fabio defend the title in 2022? And will he continue his career with Yamaha going forward? The guys discuss this issues and more. As always, the conversation is insightful and lively, and adds another dimension to what goes on in the paddock.

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Source: SoundCloud

After a prolonged absence, Casey Stoner returned to the paddock at Portimão, where he gave an extensive press conference to the media present on site and via zoom.

Just as when he was still racing, his observations were well worth listening to, and without the pressure of race weekend and an endless string of media commitments, was even more thoughtful and insightful than usual.

One subject which he was particularly interesting on was the question of competition, why people race, and what drives them, and especially, what drove him.

Casey Stoner has made a return to the paddock. He turned up at the Algarve round of MotoGP for a number of media appointments, which included a press conference in which he discussed several fascinating subjects at length.

Although I will be posting the entire transcript at a later date, I want to highlight one or two of his statements to discuss.

Despite the fact that he hated talking to the media – we did not help him go any faster, so we were wasting his time – Stoner was always one of the best people to ask about technical aspects of riding, or machinery.

He had both a deep understanding of bikes and riding, and the eloquence and clarity of thought to be able to explain it deeply. It helped that English is his first language, of course (at least for those of us with the same mother tongue).

So it is worth highlighting some of the things Stoner talked about, and examining it a little closer. First up is something he said about adapting to the bike, rather than adapting the bike to you.

There has been a lot of talk of tires in 2021. Tires are always a key part of the performance package in motorcycle racing, but they seem to have played an even more important role in 2021.

At Silverstone, Pecco Bagnaia complained of a bad rear tire, while Joan Mir said his front tire was off.

Two weeks later, it was the turn of Fabio Quartararo to complain of his rear tire, and there have been a litany of complaints from riders throughout this season. 

Are these complaints justified? From outside, it is hard to tell.

With grids commonly separated by a second, and grid rows separated by a tenth or less, the differences between being perfect and being just slightly off in terms of setup, tire pressure, bike balance have grown massively in importance.

This is not made any easier by the fact that the Michelins have a relatively narrow operating window in terms of temperature.

Go just outside that temperature range, and performance drops off dramatically. The devil is increasingly in the detail, and tires are the biggest detail of all.