It was a busy day at the Dexeus clinic in Barcelona, as both Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow went under the knife to fix injuries picked up at the opening round of the season at Jerez.
Marquez broke his right humerus in a fast crash at Turn 3 during the race, while Crutchlow fractured his left scaphoid in a crash during warm up. Surgery was successful for both riders, with no complications reported.
Marc Marquez has fractured his upper right arm in a highside during the Jerez race.
Episode 150 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a special show that dives into a very hot and debatable subject: who are the best grand prix riders of all time?
As such, this episode sees David Emmett and Steve English comparing and contrasting their Top 5 picks for the riders that will go down in history as the GOAT.
The rumors had been doing the rounds for some time, but last night, things came to a head. Multiple media outlets were reporting that Pol Espargaro has signed a deal to ride for Repsol Honda in 2021.
The most interesting facet of this was that several outlets had independent sourcing, making this look highly credible. Information I have seen also confirms this.
Though an agreement seems to have been reached, there are still some hoops to jump through. Speaking to Spanish daily AS.com, Espargaro’s manager Homer Bosch said negotiations with Honda, KTM, and Ducati were still going on.
For the past 24 hours, the internet has been blowing up over multiple reports that HRC is about to drop Alex Marquez from its factory MotoGP team, and replace him with Pol Espargaro in the Repsol Honda squad.
The news has been covered by Sky Sport Italia, Autosport, Motorsport, and The Race, and those reports have led to an interesting rebuke (of sorts) on by HRC’s Alberto Puig on the MotoGP.com website.
Episode 143 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one takes us on another trip down memory lane, as we look at the 2015 MotoGP Championship.
Of note, this is our second part, to this two-part series on the 2015 season, and it focuses on the latter half of the championship schedule. You can catch Part 1 of the series, here.
As such, this show sees David Emmett, Steve English, and Neil Morrison on the microphones talking about this epic season.
We take a break from today’s chicanery to bring you a quick distraction: Marc Marquez riding the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP around the Catalunya track, in a 360° video format.
The video comes from Honda’s initial photo and video shoot for the unveiling of the new CBR1000RR-R, but that doesn’t make it any less cool.
For the maximum experience, watch the video on your phone. The IMU on your smartphone should pick up your movements, and change your field of view as you “look” around the bike as its on track.
Marc Marquez has signed an almost unprecedented new contract extension with HRC, which will see him remain in the factory Honda team for four more years after his current contract expires at the end of the 2020 season. That means Marquez will be a factory Honda rider until the end of 2024.
Marquez’s contract renewal had been widely anticipated, although the length of it is unexpected. It is a sign of the commitment of Marquez and Honda have to each other, and a clear indication of the reigning world champion’s objectives and intentions. Marquez races to win, individual races, but especially titles. He clearly sees Honda as his best bet for achieving that.
You have to give credit to the factory Honda MotoGP team, they are true pillars of consistency, and have shown a strong commitment to using the same livery over, over, and over again each year.
Now, there is nothing wrong with this…per se. Good branding scholars will tell you the value of an iconic and unchanged marque, and having the same design on their race bikes certainly makes it easy on fans.
However, when it comes to launching your team for the next season, it creates the problem of people asking, “why should we care?”
For the second winter in succession, Marc Márquez is recovering from shoulder surgery to fix a problem with dislocation.
It didn’t slow him down much in 2019, the Repsol Honda rider finishing the season opener at Qatar in second place, losing out to Andrea Dovizioso by just 0.023 seconds.
He went on to win the next race in Argentina by nearly ten seconds, and crashed out of the lead in Austin. It was to be the only time Márquez finished outside of the top two.
So when Márquez decided to have surgery on his right shoulder last November (in 2018, it was his left shoulder which was operated on), he was confident of a quick recovery.
As the world of motorcycle racing starts to get into the swing of things, activity is starting to ramp up.
The first of the MotoGP factory launches is due this week, Ducati to present their 2020 livery and (unchanged) rider line up in a 13th Century palace in the middle of Bologna.
That event happens on Thursday evening, January 23rd, and I will be attending to try to find out more about Ducati’s plans for the coming season.
The other factories will have to wait. The three Japanese factories will be launching their bikes just ahead of the Sepang test.