I have to disagree with Giacomo Agostini. What's he know anyway
We had the Doohan years, then the Rossi years and latterly Marquez.
While they were superb riders, the racing became predictable.
In the late 90s during Doohans' dominance, there were 17,000 at Donny for MotoGP. Was like a ghost town.
While there were 125,000 at Brands for WSB.
IMHO the last few years have been great as difficult to foresee the winner.
I read the same article and thought just the same as you. I cannot see how virtually knowing in advance who will win the race/championship improves the spectacle, unless of course you're a rabid fan of whoever is dominating the racing. The last few years, since Marquez high-sided himself out of contention, have been great. Championships going down to the wire, close racing and multiple winners in a season have combined to make MotoGP interesting again. I absolutely wouldn't have wished Marc's accidents and injuries on him, but the fact that they happened has opened up the racing enormously.
I just reckon that Ago's getting misty-eyed for his glory days when he had the fastest bike by miles and could accumulate race wins and championships without breaking into a sweat.
I wonder if the discussion is "we need a superhero to up everyone to the next level" ?
But even then, the next level doesn't really exist as they're all there now really. You can't get to a higher plane than exceptional. I think in reality there's so little between the riders now, the sprint races may show that as the riders who can't keep tyres for 25 laps, can keep them for 10-12 and it'll fly along.
For the 'show' yes the series does need a superhero, the next Rossi, the next MM etc, another GOAT that'll sell tickets, viewing packages and merch, it needs that big name to get folk to take a peek behind the paywall.
If it were about the racing and or still be free to view, then no they don't need the one big name winner day in day out, they need close unpredictable racing.
For people like me (and I suspect a lot on here) we want to see close, unpredictable, exciting racing. But Dorna is trying to get new bums on seats and for that you need big bankable, marketable names. Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia are top level talents, but I don't see them getting the same following as Rossi or Marquez. The last 2 or 3 years have had a degree of chaos about them in terms of racing and I for one love that, but I imagine Dorna want to go back to a more ordered and structured state of affairs, with a big name they can get behind and market as the face of MotoGP.
KungFooBob wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 5:16 pm
Can't remember the last MotoGP race I watched.
WSBK is where it's at.
I can see Toprak being a Super Hero.
Damn right.
MotoGP at the moment is boring as fuck, pish racing. When there’s a stat showing that there was one overtake on the last lap in like 14 races or whatever it was, I mean that just proves it’s pish.
MotoGP should never have gone down the same ECU, single tyre manufacturer, or aero route. That would have meant it was pure prototype racing, and if they'd put a cost cap on spending, including salaries (so Honda/Ducati can't poach the best brains by offering silly money), we'd have great racing.
However they haven't, will not, and we have to put up, or not.
I don't watch WSB - went off it after the Bayliss years. BSB is great, and the MotoGP experience is great (Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP), but I don't get excited about WSB anymore.
westers151 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 10:32 pm
MotoGP should never have gone down the same ECU, single tyre manufacturer, or aero route. That would have meant it was pure prototype racing, and if they'd put a cost cap on spending, including salaries (so Honda/Ducati can't poach the best brains by offering silly money), we'd have great racing.
I'm not so sure about that. If Dorna hadn't enforced a standard ECU we'd have had programmer wars rather than the best bike/rider combo winning a WC. The WC would have been decided by which manufacturer had the best and most creative programmers. Would you really want that? They should have had the foresight (and bottle) to put a stop to aero development at the start, but now the genie is out of the bottle. As for a single tyre manufacturer, I'm not sure whether Michelin and Bridgestone would have wanted a (very expensive) tyre war. And I wouldn't want to see a particular make of tyre deciding the WC. I think control tyres are, on balance, a Good Thing.
westers151 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 15, 2023 10:32 pm
However they haven't, will not, and we have to put up, or not.
I don't watch WSB - went off it after the Bayliss years. BSB is great, and the MotoGP experience is great (Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP), but I don't get excited about WSB anymore.
WSBK is OK, but no way is it more exciting than MotoGP. In WSBK you currently have only 3 riders/teams that are genuinely in contention, and even then a lightweight, diminutive rider on the fastest bike can make it virtually impossible for anyone else to challenge over a full season. Where's the contest in that?
Yorick wrote: ↑Mon Jan 16, 2023 11:18 am
I don't see any problem with wings. But hate the stupid ride height devices. They'll never see the light of day on road bikes.
Marc Marquez spoke out against aero devices as he reckoned that it is already making it harder to follow other bikes closely, as in F1. It also seems to be implicated in causing front tyres to overheat when closely following other riders. But I suspect we're already too far down that road to stop it now. Agree about ride height devices. If they fail, the bike instantly becomes unstable. The same (but to a lesser extent) is also true if aero devices get damaged, especially if it's only on one side.
