MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

What we should be talking about tonight is the return of MotoGP to the place that houses its soul, and the explosion of passion and racing that emerged from the Circuito de Jerez. But despite a tense race with a scintillating last lap that played out in front of the largest crowd to pack the Jerez track for perhaps a decade, the main topic of conversation is the level of stewarding. MotoGP at Jerez looked like the pinnacle of motorcycle, surrounded by adoring fans, and overseen by a bunch of amateurs.

The circuit was a cauldron of emotion from the crack of dawn. I walked down to Turn 10 to watch the warm up, to get a sense of who had drive out of that crucial corner, but to be honest I was captivated by the crowds. There was an intensity that has been rare in MotoGP since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, only seen at Le Mans, the Sachsenring, Assen. It felt like the old days.

With the field in MotoGP being so incredibly tight, the value of testing has increased exponentially. The more equal the bikes and manufacturers are, the more important testing has become. Smaller and smaller gains are making a bigger and bigger difference.

But as part of Dorna and the FIM's attempt to control costs in MotoGP, testing has been reduced to the bare minimum. Beyond the bare minimum, perhaps; there will be two days of post-race testing in 2023, but next year, that number has been bumped back up to three days.

Post-race tests are a fantastic opportunity to try new things at a circuit where the teams have a whole weekend's worth of data. The downside is that the circuit is also covered in Michelin rubber, meaning the grip is spectacular, which can hide all sorts of problems. And in 2023, the two post-race tests are taking place at Jerez and Misano, useful circuits for sure, but not great places for trying new aerodynamics, as the top speed is limited, and there are few corners where you are accelerating from very low speeds.

On the third lap of the opening grand prix of the 2023 MotoGP season, Marc Marquez locked the front wheel of his Honda RC213V while braking for Turn 3, trying to close the gap to Jorge Martin and Miguel Oliveira. As he did so, he clipped the Ducati of Martin, lost control, and barreled into the RNF Aprilia of Miguel Oliveira.

For that incident, Marc Marquez was handed a Double Long Lap Penalty, to be served at the Argentina GP the following week. But two days after the penalty notice was issued, the FIM Stewards issued a revised penalty, stating that Marquez was to serve the Double Long Lap Penalty at "the next MotoGP Race in which the rider will be able to participate".

That revised penalty has kicked off a controversial process which has gone on so long that the case has exceeded the term set for a hearing by the MotoGP Court of Appeal. As such, the penalty for Marc Marquez is no longer valid.

The FIM regulations set out very clearly that the MotoGP Court of Appeal must hear an appeal and issue a judgment within four weeks of the brief of appeal (basically, the letter from the appellant setting out their case) being received by the court. Section 3.4.4 of the FIM Grand Prix World Championship Regulations states the following:

3.4.4 Time limits to be observed for appeal hearings

The FIM Appeal Stewards must be convened to examine an appeal immediately after the brief of appeal is received.

The Grand Prix Motorcycling World Championship hits its 1000th event at Le Mans. The grand prix paddock assembles for the 1000th time in France. The fact that it is tempting to say that this will be the 1000th round of MotoGP is both ahistorical and a fascinating glimpse into just how much MotoGP has changed over the years.

In 1949, the first year of the official Grand Prix world championship, the series consisted of a number of separate events, all of which long predated the new FIM sanctioned championship. Big international races had existed almost since the dawn of motorcycling. The Isle of Man TT, which was home to the very first GP in 1949, held its very first race in 1907. The Dutch TT at Assen – held on Saturday, July 9th in 1949 – had been in existence since 1926, after the original race had moved from further east in 1925.

The winners of those first races? Freddie Frith was the very first winner of a motorcycle grand prix, winning the 350cc Junior TT on a Velocette single. Harold Daniell won the 500cc race, the Senior TT, aboard a Norton, another four-stroke single.

Flirting with death

It has been a busy day at Le Mans. Not just for the riders, trying to handle the new MotoGP schedule. But also for the marshals and corner workers, having to deal with the usual crashfest at Le Mans. And consequently, for the mechanics, who are seeing their handiwork returned to the garage with a variety of pieces missing, crushed, or broken.

It is ever thus. There were 36 fallers in Le Mans on Friday, down a little from last year, when there were 38. And there were a bunch of riders who went for the double: Marc Marquez, Diogo Moreira, and Ivan Ortola crashed in both the morning and the afternoon, in MotoGP and Moto3 respectively. In Moto2, crashing twice in the same session was all the rage. Rory Skinner, Sean Dylan Kelly, and Sam Lowes all hit the gravel in Practice 1, Aron Canet repeated that feat in Practice 2.

For comparison, at Jerez, there were just 20 fallers on the Friday. And there were 50 crashes over the entire weekend. At Le Mans, we are nearly at that number and there are still two days to go.

Down you go

Perhaps the sprint races are starting to calm down a bit. Sure, there were only 17 finishers – Raul Fernandez withdrew on Friday because of his arm pump surgery, and Jack Miller, Augusto Fernandez, Jonas Folger, and Fabio Quartararo all crashed out – but there were no injuries, no riders taking each other out, no excessively enthusiastic attempts at a pass ending in collisions. It was hard, close, clean competition.

Surprising, then, that once again all of the drama is around the standard of stewarding. After the meeting the Stewards had on Friday with the riders, explaining how each contact would be punished and laying out the guidelines they use to assess which penalty to apply in which situation, they went on to apparently throw their own guidelines out of the window and – correctly – not penalize any of the several riders who touched other riders while making hard passes. This left half the riders furious, the other half delighted, and everyone dismissing the role of the Stewards as pointless. It felt like they span the great Wheel O' Penalties again, and we all got lucky when it came back saying "Free Pass".

Great occasions deserve great celebrations. Running a series like grand prix motorcycle racing, Dorna has a lot, but not everything in their control. What they did have in their control was the timing of the 1000th grand prix, and the choice of which circuit it would be held at. A massive number like 1000 needs a grand stage, so holding it at Le Mans, with its packed grandstands, seems like a good idea. If the Finnish Grand Prix at the KymiRing hadn't been canceled, then it would have been at Jerez. That would have worked too.

The stage was perfect. The 2023 French Grand Prix at Le Mans saw the largest ever attendance of the MotoGP era: a total of 278,805 spectators counted over four days. And on Sunday, the biggest ever crowd for a MotoGP event at Le Mans: 116,692 spectators packed the grandstands, the grounds, and every spare scrap of space.

Yesterday, I wrote about the stupendous crowds at Le Mans for the 1000th motorcycle grand prix. The circuit and event were the right place to celebrate such a memorable occasion. But the fans who packed the circuit at Le Mans got their money's worth in terms of racing too. The MotoGP race was spectacular and tense in equal measure.

It was also a very messy affair. Of the 21 riders who lined up at 2pm on Sunday – Raul Fernandez had tried to ride after arm pump surgery, but that had proved impossible – only 13 made it to the checkered flag. It was a war of attrition.

Why all the crashes? A lot of reasons. There's a lot of hard braking at Le Mans, and more right than left corners. Temperatures can be relatively cool, and tires can cool off quickly. And riders found themselves caught between choosing a softer front tire and suffering in braking, and going for the medium or hard front and nursing the left side of the tire through Musée and Chemin aux Boeufs.

If you had made your MotoGP fantasy picks for the Le Mans grand prix on Friday evening, as I did, you would have been all in on Jack Miller and KTM. The Australian was fastest in both the morning and afternoon sessions, and his pace looked good too. Teammate Brad Binder was third in the morning, seventh in the afternoon, and on pace for another strong result.

Or so it seemed. Qualifying went reasonably for Miller, the Red Bull KTM rider ending up in fourth, just behind polesitter Pecco Bagnaia. Brad Binder had a tougher time, struggling with the front tire locking, and ending up in tenth on the grid.

In the sprint race on Saturday, Binder made up for his poor qualifying by getting one of his trademark rocketship starts and steaming through to finish second, behind an unleashed Jorge Martin. Miller chose the medium front, on the advice of KTM and Michelin, and ended up losing the front at Musée, always a tricky spot when the left-hand side of the tire isn't quite up to temperature. But both riders had shown real potential.

What motivates a rider? Winning championships, winning races, and making money are three big factors that go into the decision-making process. The news that Toprak Razgatlioglu will leave Yamaha at the end of this season has left more questions than answers about what motivates the Turkish star.

The paddock rumour mill in Catalunya centred on a proposed move to BMW. It’s fairly sure that there will be more than a million reasons why he chose the German manufacturer. Toprak is a unique rider in many ways. His motivation has always been to be a Superbike star, and while he has recently flirted with the prospect of a move to the MotoGP class, the chances of that are limited.

His Yamaha MotoGP test didn’t go as well as he had hoped. Arriving to Jerez to find a bike that, rumour has it, didn’t quite fit his frame left him feeling that the chips were falling against a move to the premier class. That test could have proved crucial to Toprak deciding to leave Yamaha. Having seen that the Japanese manufacturer didn’t back him to the hilt he might have felt slighted. That’s the feeling that led him to leave Kawasaki in 2019 to switch to the blue bikes.

The Suzuka decision