Episode 227 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is our Moto2 and Moto3 follow-up to Episode 226, which focused on the MotoGP action from the Styria GP at the Red Bull Ring.
On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they walk us through the on-track action in the intermediate classes, along with special insights from ex-racer Michael Laverty.
Episode 226 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this show covers the MotoGP action from the Styria GP at the Red Bull Ring.
On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they cover what turned out to be a very eventful weekend in Austria.
In an ideal world, MotoGP teams can use practice to prepare for the race on Sunday. Test tires in FP1, make setup changes in FP2, finalize the setting in FP3 and FP4, then into qualifying to be ready for the race.
In an ideal world, conditions are comparable enough through all practice sessions on Friday and Saturday to find the optimal setup choices for Sunday.
But we don’t live in an ideal world, of course. Temperature differences and changing conditions leave a lot to a mixture of experience and guesswork. Even then, as long as you have dry weather, you can get pretty close.
It was an odd day today. The moment we heard that there would be an extra press conference to be held by Valentino Rossi, the work of a journalist goes into overdrive.
Preparing a story for if he announced his retirement, worrying whether to write an alternative story, for if he had announced he would be switching to Ducati and racing in his own team, putting out feelers to see what people thought the announcement would be.
Weighing rumors that he would be doing one thing or another.
The most remarkable thing about today’s announcement was that nobody knew which way it was going to go.
Normally, decisions of such import leak out; there were rumors that Jorge Lorenzo was going to retire for weeks before hand, Casey Stoner’s retirement had been credibly reported at least three weeks before the announcement, and Dani Pedrosa’s retirement had been telegraphed for a long time.
Even Rossi’s decision to drop long-time crew chief Jeremy Burgess had been leaked to the press a week beforehand.
And in truth, the leak probably forced Rossi’s hand, and into making an announcement before the Valencia race, instead of after it. Rossi got his revenge later, however, planting a false story with the same journalist a year or so later.
Valentino Rossi has announced that he is to retire from MotoGP racing at the end of the 2021 season. The legendary Italian has decided to call it a day after 26 seasons in Grand Prix racing, as results were becoming more difficult to come by.
If it’s scenery you’re after, the Red Bull Ring, or Spielberg, or Zeltweg – choose your favorite name for the Austrian circuit – is hard to beat.
Mugello maybe? The Italian track sits in a valley, rather than being set up against the lower slopes of a mountain, but Spielberg wins on the mountain backdrop behind it.
Phillip Island, perhaps? The Bass Strait makes for a stunning setting, but is it more dramatic than the Austrian Alps which frame the Red Bull Ring?
Episode 225 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one welcomes back the MotoGP Championship from its long summer break, as we preview the Styria GP in Austria.
On the mics, we have David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they discuss the headlines from the summer break, and what we can expect to see at the fast Spielberg track.
The first race after the summer break will see retired racers returning to the MotoGP grid.
After Dani Pedrosa was confirmed as a wildcard at the Styria GP at Spielberg, Cal Crutchlow has now officially been confirmed as replacing Franco Morbidelli at both races in Austria and at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The Kymiring will have to wait. Today, the FIM announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the complications posed by travel, the Finnish Grand Prix at the Kymiring has been canceled for 2021.
But in compensation, the circuit in Finland is to get a five-year contract to host MotoGP for the years 2022 to 2026.
Yamaha has withdrawn its request to unseal the engines to replace internal components which they believe caused issues for Maverick Viñales, Valentino Rossi, and Franco Morbidelli at Jerez.
Yamaha had made a formal request to the MSMA, the MotoGP manufacturers’ association, to open the engines and swap out defective parts.
Qualifying at the Red Bull Ring proved as exhilarating a spectacle as ever, but like Banquo’s ghost at Macbeth’s banquet, an absent specter took some of the attention away from a celebration of racing.
A little over an hour after qualifying finished – delayed because Jaume Masia tore the fairing from his Leopard Honda Moto3 bike after crashing in Q1, then rode back to the pits dumping oil and water all over the track – a press release from the Repsol Honda team reminded us of the absentee champion.
Marc Márquez, the press release announced, would be out for another two to three months, to allow him to recover fully from the broken humerus he suffered at the first round of MotoGP on July 19th.