MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

There are two schools of thought about the British GP. There are the old school fans who went to Donington Park and sat on the grass slopes overlooking Craner Curves and loved the experience. And there are the fans who love the fast, flowing layout of Silverstone, and the close racing it brings.

I am firmly in the Silverstone camp. Donington is fantastic for spectators, and for the ease of getting close to the track. But it is too small and too tight for MotoGP. The 800cc bikes were already struggling around the track, and the current generation of MotoGP machinery would get nowhere near their potential at the circuit. And unlike the Sachsenring, another track that is too small for MotoGP, it has nothing to keep the bikes bunched up, as we saw with the way the WorldSBK field was spread out when they visited a few weeks ago.

Silverstone, though, is a proper MotoGP track. Big, fast, wide, flowing, a place where the bikes can be given their druthers, where when the throttle is opened in sixth gear, the electronics are not trying to hold the bikes back. It is not quite Phillip Island or Mugello, but it is on a par with Assen. And because of the layout, where rider skill plays a bigger role than just pure bike performance, the racing tends to be closer.

High and flat

It has been a slow start to the return of MotoGP after the summer break. We had been expecting a flurry of announcements before Silverstone, but all we got in the end was the news that Alex Rins had extended his deal with Yamaha. And even that came about at the last minute.

Talks had been going on with Yamaha since before Rins crashed at Assen and broke his wrist and ankle, but the paperwork was only done before Silverstone. "My signature on the paper was this morning! So immediately after we received the paper from Japan. We did it the here in the hospitality with all the staff," Rins admitted.

There had been rumors that Rins would retire, the shattered leg he suffered in his huge crash in Mugello last year still causing him issues off the bike. But the Spaniard denied that was ever a consideration. "Honestly, no," he responded when asked about that. "My mentality, my mind is clear. Still I'm competitive. Still I have a lot of performance on the bike to understand things when I try to compete against others. So now we are just improving the bike."

We are back to work after a three-week break, and up to speed straight away. On the first day of practice, Jorge Martin is already within two tenths of the outright lap record. You feel that tomorrow, the Silverstone pole record is going to be destroyed. As has been the case at most circuits so far this year.

Did the riders feel sharp on the bike after a long break? "In my case yes," Pecco Bagnaia responded. "I don't know the others, but honestly I didn't feel that I disconnected from the first part."

Bagnaia pointed out that they had already done this once this season. "It's also true that we had three weeks from before the last two races [Assen and Sachsenring - DE]. Also because maybe I had too many things to to, so I didn't disconnect too much. But I feel the same." It was, he said, "like I was riding last week."

It really seems like nobody wants to win a championship any more. The trend started in 2020, with Joan Mir beating Franco Morbidelli despite the pair crashing out of three of fourteen races. 2021 was a little better, Fabio Quartararo and Pecco Bagnaia dominating for most of the year, before giving the how-can-I-find-a-way-to-lose-this approach a proper go in 2022. Bagnaia fell off in the first half of the year, Quartararo fell off in the second, and the factory Ducati rider emerged triumphant with a slim 17-point margin over the Frenchman.

But the new approach to championships - trying to fall off slightly less often than your rival - really stepped up a gear in 2023. Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia fought a thrilling battle all season long, rode some fantastic races, but kept throwing away points like disposable cutlery. Martin ended the season with four no scores, Bagnaia with seven. But Bagnaia was smart enough to crash out of sprint races, while Martin was scoring zeroes in the much more lucrative full-length grand prix races.

At the event Dorna had chosen to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the FIM Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing World Championship (that's MotoGP to you), MotoGP put on a show. Leaving aside the arithmetical arguments (2024 is the 76th season, but Silverstone was the 75th British Grand Prix, so debate naturally subsided), the event was a proper celebration of the sport.

There was a nod to history - Les Graham's AJS Porcupine, the bike which won the first ever GP world championship back in 1949, took pride of place on the grid. And the bikes were all decked out in retro liveries, paying homage to the past of the manufacturers, teams, and riders in the sport. Some going back further than others, perhaps, but that, too, is a reflection of the sport.

We were all loving the liveries until the start of the race. All of a sudden, we were cruelly reminded of just how much we rely on our visual memories when trying to figure out who is who. So when Brad Binder had a problem with a badly slipping clutch off at the start, holding his hand up to warn those behind him, we were suddenly cast into confusion.

At Silverstone it looked like the MotoGP Silly Season was pretty much over. We thought we knew who would be filling the seats still empty. Miguel Oliveira would be heading to Pramac Yamaha, where he would be joined by a rookie, either Sergio Garcia, Alonso Lopez, or Tony Arbolino. Ai Ogura would be off to Trackhouse Aprilia. And Takaaki Nakagami would have to wait and see whether Somkiat Chantra has decided to move up to MotoGP and take his place yet. Jack Miller looked to be out of a job, and off to World Superbikes.

But this year's Silly Season is living up to its name, with all of that going out of the window. Both Manuel Pecino and Ivo Schützbach at Speedweek, and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont reported last week that the second Pramac seat will not be going to a rookie after all. According to Puigdemont, Miller and his manager Aki Ajo had a meeting with Pramac boss Paolo Campinoti at Silverstone. A more significant attendee was Dorna's Chief Commercial Officer Dan Rossomondo.

Since the Red Bull Ring rejoined the MotoGP calendar in 2016, it has never been short of drama. The good kind - scintillating last corner battles for victory, between Marc Márquez and Andrea Dovizioso, between Miguel Oliveira, Pol Espargaro, and Jack Miller, Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso.

But also the bad kind: Maverick Viñales losing his brakes going into Turn 1 and destroying the air fence, Maverick Viñales revving the Yamaha M1 out in fifth in an attempt to break the engine out of sheer frustration, and Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori's massive crash on the exit of (then) Turn 3 when Pedrosa crashed and his bike was left on track to be hit by Savadori.

All that paled into insignificance in comparison with the horrific crash in 2020, when Johann Zarco clipped Franco Morbidelli's bike on the way up from Turn 1 through the fast kink of Turn 2, and the pair hit the gravel while their bikes kept moving, sailing over the heads of Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi as they exited Turn 3. Had either bike been a few centimeters lower, or to the left or the right, MotoGP would have known its darkest day since perhaps Monza 1973, when grand prix racing lost both Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini.

It's the least we could do

Another race weekend, another rider announcement, and another step closer to a full grid for 2025. The news that Ai Ogura is to make the step up to MotoGP with Trackhouse Aprilia brings the total number of riders with a contract for next year up to 18. Just four seats remain vacant, and of those four, only two are real unknowns. Or maybe just one. Or maybe we know the names of all 22 riders on the 2025 grid, and we are just waiting for the announcement.

Ogura made his first public appearance as a prospective MotoGP rider at the second press conference at the Red Bull Ring, and he was visibly nervous. Answering questions with the spotlight on him didn't come easy, and struggling in his second language Ogura's answers did not always make sense.

He expressed pleasure at joining Trackhouse on a competitive Aprilia, but then when asked whether he would have considered a spot in the LCR Honda team, and how he felt about not being part of the Honda family, he got flustered and confused. It would have been better for Ogura for someone to prepare him for the press conference, but everything was arranged at such short notice that there was no time. Plus, who should have prepared him, his Moto2 team MT Helmets MSI, or Trackhouse?

Should he stay or should he go?

It's only Friday, as everyone in the MotoGP paddock likes to say. That is a warning not to read too much into the timesheets, as riders work their way toward finding a setup that works. Things can change.

One thing the introduction of the sprint races last year have taught is that the saying "it's only Friday" doesn't carry quite as much weight as it used to. On Friday, entry into Q2 is decided. On Friday, riders and teams have to get a very good idea of the tire allocation, and what will work best for the on Saturday and Sunday.

So Friday means something now, much more than it used to. And the fact that Pecco Bagnaia is at the top of the timesheets, and set a new outright lap record around the Red Bull Ring, is significant. Because Bagnaia is not just fast over a single lap, but his race pace is also looking formidable. The Ducati Lenovo man was one of only two riders to punch out a 1'29.6 on very used tires.

Once upon a time, pretty much every race at the Red Bull Ring ended in a thrilling last lap, last corner battle. Two or three riders would make it to the final lap and then throw everything into gaining that last bit of advantage coming onto the straight and across the line.

Pecco Bagnaia put an end to that last year, stamping his authority on the Austrian GP. The factory Ducati rider won the sprint race by over 2 seconds, the main race by over 5 seconds. Bagnaia seemed to be able to bend the Red Bull Ring to his will, and leave the rest of the field for dead. It wasn't even close.

On the face of it, the 2024 sprint race looks very much the same. Pecco Bagnaia's advantage this year was even bigger - 4.6 seconds over Jorge Martin. But that is in no way the complete story. Bagnaia is in fantastic shape, and is very hard to even stay with, let alone beat in Austria. But his margin over Martin had much more to do with the Pramac Ducati rider than with Bagnaia himself.

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