Episode 223 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this show takes us back to the WorldSBK paddock, as the production series ramps back up its 2021 racing.
On the mics, we have Steve English and David Emmett, as they trade notes on an insider and outsider’s perspective on the World Superbike paddock, and what has been transpiring thus far in the championship.
Episode 177 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a WorldSBK show, which means that this one sees Steve English and Gordon Ritchie on the mics.
Joining our dynamic WorldSBK duo is Ducati Corse rider Scott Redding, who sat down with Steve for a one-on-one about his time in the World Superbike paddock, and what he’s looking for from the 2021 season.
Episode 192 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a special show with the Ducati Corse factory MotoGP team riders, Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia.
Joining the Ducati boys on the mics, we have Steve English, David Emmett, and Neil Morrison, and they provide some analysis to what Miller and Bagnaia have to say during their interviews.
2021 is going to be a decisive season for Valentino Rossi. Then again, we have been saying that for some time, as the 42-year-old Italian MotoGP legend continues his career well beyond what even the most experienced MotoGP hands ever expected.
Will he carry on racing? Has he still got what it takes to chase podiums and win races? Is a seventh MotoGP title and tenth Grand Prix title still a realistic possibility?
Those are big questions after Rossi’s worst ever season in Grand Prix racing. The Italian scored his lowest points total with 66 points from 12 races, his lowest points average at 5.5 points a race, and his worst finishing position in the championship with a 15th position.
He scored a single podium, matching his previous worst season tally in Grand Prix in 2011, when he also ended with just one podium during his disastrous first year at Ducati.
Franco Morbidelli was the surprise of the 2020 MotoGP season. The Petronas Yamaha SRT rider shocked the MotoGP world by finishing second in the championship, and comfortably the best Yamaha rider, on a year-old M1 machine.
But Morbidelli went into the 2020 with very little pressure on him. After a mediocre 2019, in which he had been overshadowed by his teammate Fabio Quartararo, expectations for him were low.
That was not how Franco Morbidelli saw it himself. Angry and frustrated at his performance in 2019, he massive stepped up his training and focus for 2020. That effort paid off handsomely, with three race wins and a second place in the MotoGP riders championship.
Morbidelli goes into 2021 in a very different position. Universally acknowledged as one of the favorites for the title, a great deal is expected of the Italian, despite once again being the only Yamaha rider on the older, 2019-spec M1.
He has a new teammate, Fabio Quartararo having departed for the factory team, while Morbidelli’s long-time friend and mentor Valentino Rossi steps down from the Monster Energy Yamaha squad to join him in the Petronas Yamaha SRT team.
After yesterday’s launch of the Petronas Yamaha SRT team, today the media got a chance to speak to Franco Morbidelli.
It was a fascinating interview, in which Morbidelli revealed himself to be part athlete, part poet, and part philosopher, and showed a remarkable sense of perspective.
Morbidelli spoke of his ambitions for 2021, his relationship and rivalry with Valentino Rossi, and the importance – or lack thereof – of racing.
For the first time since 2014, a rider prepares to defend the MotoGP title for the first time in their career.
But, the circumstances in which Joan Mir is preparing for the 2021 season are very different to who Marc Márquez prepared after he won his first MotoGP title back in 2013.
The Covid-19 pandemic means no mass celebrations, no jetting around the world to have his photo taken with sponsors, to fulfill the requirements in his contract. No going directly from the previous season into testing, with barely a break in between.
Joan Mir has had plenty of time at home, with media engagements few and far between, a necessary consequence of the pandemic. He has been in his home in Andorra, training, working to get ready for the coming season.
Earlier this week, he spoke to a group of journalists about the year ahead. And here, too, he reaped the benefits of the pandemic: he participated in a large-scale media event from comfort of his home.
No time wasted traveling, just change into a team shirt, sit down behind a laptop, and fire up the webcam.
He was as professional in the zoom debrief as he has been in every aspect of his career. And the zoom debrief was as well-organized and smoothly-run as we have come to expect from the Suzuki Ecstar team.
It’s hardly a surprise that Joan Mir won the 2020 MotoGP title.
Episode 182 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a break from our usual grand prix coverage, as we dive into the intermediate class, the Moto2 Championship.
On the mics, we have Neil Morrison, Steve English, and Adam Wheeler to talk about all the Moto2 happenings leading into the 2021 season, and they are joined in an interview with Triumph’s Chief Product Officer Steve Sargent.
In lieu of an episode from the Paddock Pass Podcast this week, the team instead posted a special show for just our Patreon listeners. In that show, Steve English sits down with six-time WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea.
This is a short clip from that interview, and in this segment we see JR talking about his options of moving into the MotoGP paddock throughout the year. It is a pretty frank and honest insight into the two series, which we think you will find interesting.
Episode 167 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a bit of a special show, as we are sharing with you one of our Patreon episodes.
In it, Ducati WorldSBK rider Scott Redding sits down for an interview, and then Steve English and Gordon Ritchie provide some insight and analysis to what Redding discussed.
It makes for an interesting listen, especially as we head into the final round of the 2020 WorldSBK Championship.
Five years ago, on July 5th, 2015, at the Motorland Aragon circuit, reigning Spanish Superbike champion Kenny Noyes was getting ready for that weekend’s round of the CEV Spanish Superbike championship.
The American, son of veteran US journalist Dennis Noyes, and former Moto2 rider, had work to do to cut his deficit in the standings to current leader Carmelo Morales.
Noyes would not get a chance to close the gap. During the Sunday morning warm up session, the Kawasaki rider crashed. It was a bad crash. Very bad. So bad, in fact, that Noyes was left in a coma, and taken to hospital with suspected severe brain trauma.
In hospital, his coma was assessed as being very bad. His score on the Glasgow Coma Scale was 3, the lowest possible score, and the most severe condition of unresponsiveness, which is only distinguished from death by basic functions of lung and heart.
After a long coma, and then a long period of what is called “minimal consciousness” which is basically a vegetative state, Noyes began moving up the scale.
Episode 149 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a special show that dives into everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about electronics and data as it pertains to motorcycle racing.
As such, this episode sees David Emmett hosting a special guest on the show, data engineer Peter Bom, who is a former crew chief and data recording engineer for the Moto2, Moto3, and WorldSBK classes, as well as an analyst and commentator for Dutch Eurosport
Admittedly, we had some technical difficulties with the recording, so it might be a bit rougher than you would normally expect from the Paddock Pass Podcast, but what Peter has to say is incredibly insightful and interesting, and certainly well worth the effort.