MotoGP 2015 News & Chat

Frank Bullitt

New electronics aren't getting great feedback at the minute.

Frank Bullitt

The new Honda also.

h3000

Gintonious wrote: »

New electronics aren't getting great feedback at the minute.

They were never going to be as good as factory own spec electronics though. Could make for a tighter field next year.

Frank Bullitt

h3000 wrote: »

They were never going to be as good as factory own spec electronics though. Could make for a tighter field next year.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/sport/motogp/2015/november/rossi-electronics-are-back-to-2008-levels/

Some reading on them.

h3000

Well holy god as Miley would say. Stoner to Ducati as test rider and maybe some wildcard appearances

https://m.motomatters.com/news/2015/11/11/casey_stoner_to_return_to_ducati_in_test.html

funkey_monkey

This is an interesting read:
http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/race/motogp-race/what-really-happened-in-valencia/

This bit really stood out to me as the reason for Rossi losing the plot:

I have a theory - entirely unsubstantiated - that Rossi's greatest wish was to win the world title so he could dedicate the crown to his late, greate friend Marco Simoncelli. If there's any truth in this then perhaps his emotions interfered with his normal thought process, which is always a disaster in racing.

CJhaughey

HRC has always said the rider isn't the most important thing, the engineering is the most important thing.
Rossi has said this was the reason that he left Honda, its always been the same with HRC, they can make great stuff but in the end its about the machine not the man.
Stoner has obviously come to the same conclusion and arrived at a point where he feels he needs to use his talent again.
The whole structure of Ducati Corse has changed since he left with Preziosi resigning and Dall'Igna coming in from Aprilia.
This may have smoothed the way for him to return and the GP15-onwards has been a pretty decent machine.
I'd love to see him back and maybe he found out the press stuff is nowhere near as bad as a test rider as a racer.

legrand

Assuming he can still compete at the pointy end of the grid it would be good to see how all that would play out given usual front runners over the last couple of years.

h3000

So Lorenzo was having a victory party in Majorca when is bike seems to have decided to burn him.

Article here but the translation is not super http://www.gpone.com/en/2015111218866/Lorenzo-ustionato-durante-le-celebrazioni.html?utm_campaign=gponedotcom&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_ERB-3-j-I

Frank Bullitt

...I didn't enjoy looking at that at all.

CJhaughey

Hotblack Desiato

Loris Bas posted this (drawn by a Charlie Hebdo cartoonist) and motogp.com put it on their front page.

http://www.motogp.com/en/instagram_update/2015/11/14/paris/190169

Pugzilla

Rossi and Lorenzo appeared together on stage at the Milan motorcycle show.

Gatling

Is that a bouncer in a high viz standing bedside Vale.

DaveD

For anyone interested, the off season Videopass on motogp.com is on sale until midnight tomorrow for 99c.

Link

Hotblack Desiato

Got that last year, worth it. Although I got the off-season for free this time by paying for next season, saving myself 99c

Edit: the off-season stuff in itself isn't much, but getting access to the archive of races going back to the 80s is nice to have

Scotty #

Casey Stoner with Ducati in 2016 (as test rider)

http://www.bbc.com/sport/motogp/34905846?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_sport&ns_source=facebook&ns_linkname=sport

CJhaughey

Eugene Laverty broke his radius in a crash in testing.
Get well soon Eugene, hope to see your results improve this year after that dog of a Honda.

Hotblack Desiato

Ah bollix.

Eugene's 2015 results weren't great but the bike he was on was hopeless. Embarrassing that Honda would put such a poor bike out under their name.

CJhaughey

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Ah bollix.

Eugene's 2015 results weren't great but the bike he was on was hopeless. Embarrassing that Honda would put such a poor bike out under their name.

The Factory machines were not great either, but the customer versions were really crap.
Looks like Honda are having the same problems in testing again. Marquez highsided midcorner on a stable throttle.
Peaky power and highsides, last time this happened we were talking about 2 stroke engines!
What is apparent is that Honda have not changed their colours, I don't mean red white and blue of the HRC logo, I mean in the sense that they don't value riders input as much as they should do.
HRC asks MM what do you need to improve the bike?
MM responds MORE POWER!
HRC builds a more powerful engine that spins the back tyre and has vicious on-off throttle characteristics.
Cue 2015 being the year of Marquez crashing a lot and not winning.
Of course Dani Pedrosa wasn't in the mix at that point having had arm surgery.
Safe to say Marquez can ride around most problems but when the bike is as crap as it was last season then its safe to say the bike is a bigger problem.
Hayden, Crutchlow, Laverty all of them complaining about the bike but HRC not paying much if any attention to them.
Contrast that to the Yamaha which seems to be able to suit nearly any rider.
Even the GP14 with all its faults seems to be better liked than the customer Honda.
This tune has been played by HRC for a long time now and I believe its the reason that Stoner walked away from the testing role.
No point in him giving information back that Marquez didn't like and then not listening to his input.
Then giving him a ****ty Fireblade with a gammy throttle for Suzuka.
I am sure his input into development at Ducati will be valued much more highly than with Honda.

Max Headroom

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Ah bollix.
Embarrassing that Honda would put such a poor bike out under their name.

They did it with Johnny Rea.............

CJhaughey

I heard that they pulled a load of engineers off MotoGP and put them into the Moto3 program to make that bike competitive.
Maybe they might find something between now and Qatar but looking at last years bike they have a lot to do.
Big changes like the Magneti Marelli software are a challenge on their own, but couple that with Michelins and anything could happen.

Hotblack Desiato

Major rule change makes the following season very unpredictable, Ducati took advantage of the move to 800s to win a title that they probably wouldn't have otherwise.

CJhaughey

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Major rule change makes the following season very unpredictable, Ducati took advantage of the move to 800s to win a title that they probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Thats for certain, I wonder will Lorenzo be able to utilise the Michelins as well as the Bridgestones?
Back grip suppose to be very good, front not so much. Same as they ever were.
The riders that have got used to the 'stones over the last few years have been using some of the best racing tyres ever.
The thing is Dorna want to control corner speed, the bikes are too fast for many of the tracks in terms of runoff, Phillip Island and many others are getting too small for the speeds the bikes are doing now.
Part of that is the corner speeds have been steadily increasing, especially during the 800 era.
Tyres control lap times, so if the Mich's are grippy but maybe not quite as grippy as the 'stones the corner speeds are reduced and they can keep on running the same tracks without having to resort to new and massive runoff areas.
Maybe the old end of race strategies will surface more again, with tyre performance falling off steeply towards the end and the riders who manage them best will reap the rewards.
Intermediates to return as well.
I don't think Michelin know just how far back they have fallen in terms of technology though since the tyre wars.