After an eventful, in every possible meaning of that word, weekend at Montmelo, Adam Wheelerand David Emmett sit around Neil Morrison’s dinner table in his apartment in Barcelona to look back at a race which was full of surprises.
There was plenty to talk about. We discuss Fabio Quartararo’s win, and how he seems to be unbeatable at the moment, even when his rivals aren’t taken out.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has extended its contract with Dorna for another five years.
However, like the contract signed last year with the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, the contract does not guarantee a round of MotoGP for every year of the contract.
Instead, both Barcelona and Valencia have signed up to host three races between 2022 and 2026.
Tom Sykes will remain in the Hospital General de Catalunya in Barcelona, for further examination, after his Race 2 crash at the WorldSBK round this past weekend.
The BMW Motorrad rider was involved in a Turn 1 crash on the second lap of Race 2 at Catalunya, where he lost consciousness and suffered a severe concussion.
Accordingly, the doctors at the Hospital General de Catalunya are keeping Sykes for observation, and he is expected to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. Sykes is unlikely to race this coming weekend at Jerez.
Episode 214 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is our Moto2 and Moto3 follow-up to Episode 213, which focused on the MotoGP action from the Catalan GP at Barcelona.
Episode 213 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this show covers the MotoGP action from the Catalan GP at Barcelona.
On the mics, we have Steve English, David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as the quartet covers an eventful and surprising weekend in Catalunya.
Fabio Quartararo has been hand a three-second penalty after the conclusion of the Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona, for riding with his leathers open.
The Frenchman’s leathers came open in the first half of Lap 21, after which he discarded his chest protector, and he went on to finish the remaining laps with the leathers completely open, the wind having forced the zip open completely.
Saturday at Montmelo made several things crystal clear in MotoGP. We saw one rider emerge as the clear favorite for the win on Sunday. We saw just how critical tire choice and tire management is going to be at Barcelona.
And we saw just how much pressure riders are under, whether it be seeking a tow to get through to Q2, celebrating a quick time in FP3 like a victory, or crashing out twice in an attempt to save a seat for next year.
Above all, we saw just how fast Fabio Quartararo is in Barcelona. The fact that the Frenchman was the only rider to get into the 1’39s in FP4 was not that much of a surprise; the Monster Energy Yamaha rider has been quick all weekend after all.
What was a little more surprising is that nobody else managed it, Maverick Viñales getting closest, but still over four tenths behind his teammate.
What should be more worrying is the fact the vast majority of Quartararo’s laps in FP4 were 1’39s: 8 of his 12 flying laps were 1’39s.
His 9th fastest lap was quick enough to have secured fourth place, his 1’40.278 faster than Johann Zarco’s best lap of 1’40.286. Quartararo’s 10th fastest lap was a 1’40.290, just 0.004 slower than Zarco’s best time.
Once upon a time, Barcelona was regarded as one of the great motorcycling tracks, all sweeping corners demanding the utmost concentration and skill.
So much of a motorcycling track was it that a couple of sections had to be put into it to make it a better track for cars, and especially for F1.
The grand sweep of La Caixa had a hairpin inserted, to give the cars somewhere to brake. And Turn 13 had a tight little chicane added on the inside, to slow the cars down before they got onto the straight.
Four fat tires meant they were at risk of going through the final corner so fast that would be within spitting distance of the sound barrier by the end of the straight.
Another week, another race track. We are a third of the way into the 2021 MotoGP season (probably, possibly, pandemic permitting), and things are starting to move fast. A third of the way now, and in three weeks’ time, we will be at the halfway mark.
It is hard to overstate how important this part of the season is. Jerez, Le Mans, Mugello, Barcelona, and Assen are the guts of the season, the foundations on which championships are built.
By the time we pack up for the summer break – a long one this time, five weeks between Assen and Austria, with Sachsenring taking place before Assen instead of after, its usual slot – we should have a very good idea of who is in the driving seat for this year.
What makes the triumvirate of Mugello, Barcelona, and Assen key? They are fast, punishing tracks that test man and machine.
They are riders’ tracks, where a fast rider can make the difference, but they also need a bike to be set up well in pursuit of a good result. There are no shortcuts at those three circuits, no relying on one aspect of the machine to get you out of trouble.
The bike has to do a lot of things well, from braking to turning to accelerating. That needs a good crew chief to analyze strengths and weaknesses, a competent team to find the right balance between them, and a good rider to use that bike between them.
If motorcycle racing is about finding the best compromise between braking, acceleration, turning, speed, the Mugello-Barcelona-Assen is the ultimate test of that.
Episode 165 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees David Emmett, Steve English, and Neil Morrison on the mics, as the trio looks at the Catalunya GP in Spain.
The ninth MotoGP round of the year thus far, we end three weekends in a row in Spain with the Catalunya round, and so the guys look back not only this weekend’s racing, but where we are in the championship thus far.
Taking a number of questions from our listeners, the guys examine some of the top names in the paddock right now, but give particular attention to performance of Maverick Viñales, who had another forgettable race result.
What did we learn from qualifying for the Grand Prix of Catalonia on Saturday? We learned that qualifying is extremely deceptive.
The front of the grid is a mixture of riders who are genuinely fast on race pace, and riders who are only quick over a single lap.
But what we also learned is that the track at Montmelo, outside Barcelona, is so hard on tires that qualifying is only a very small part of the story. It is uncertain whether where you qualify will have any bearing on the outcome of the race.
The problem at Barcelona is that the track is punishing on tires. You do not get to the end of the race with tire to spare. Indeed, you may not make it to the end of the race at all.