MotoGP Roundup – Change Comes Fast

It’s only four races into the 2016 MotoGP season but the talk is about next year: rule changes, team changes and how some things never change. The Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin was violent , and the race at Jerez in Spain was docile, but the big stories nearly all happened off track.

Down and Dirty

There are few things more difficult to watch than quarrels over nothing, it is listening to bystanders quarrelling over the quarrels over nothing. The vitriol and bitterness of the Rossi-Marquez-Loranzo feud from last year has, mercifully, died down on the track, but it continues to gain steam in the stands.

At Austin, Rossi fans booed and hissed during the awards ceremony when winner Marquez took up his trophy. It was an unseemly moment that would have ruined a fine race day if it hadn’t been for Marquez’ and Lorenzo’s implacable professionalism in the face of it. Both men smiled, waved at their supporters and refused to talk about it. By taking the high road, the better side of MotoGP fandom could breathe again.

Reality TV Meets MotoGP

The news dominating the headlines after Argentina and Austin was about musical chairs. Who was going to ride for whom in 2017? Dubbed “silly season” by the English language outlets, the only thing silly about it was that the talking heads were writing essays about next year only three races into this one.

In the wake of the Rossi-Marquez-Lorenzo thing (Grandstand will christen it the RoMaLo Incident from now on, for brevity), it was clear that Rossi and Lorenzo had cost Yamaha dearly, and that it was highly unlikely that the two would remain teammates beyond this year. Rossi had of course cemented his future with Yamaha late last year, so it would be Lorenzo who would leave. But where?

Ducati of course, was his only option. Honda would not entertain a rival to their great champion Marquez, who is planted deeply there, which left only one factory option. Suzuki is showing great promise, with both Aleix Espargaro and especially Maverick Viñales pushing the GSX-RR into contention with regularity. But it could be years before Suzuki has the complete package to challenge for world championships titles, and Lorenzo is not about to wait around.

The media went on and on about who must leave Ducati, why and when the deal would be announced. It spiralled into crazy town when Casey Stoner was suddenly an official Ducati test rider, and armchair speculators began drawing up fantasy football type teams, debating furiously over who would be faster, and writing hugely premature post-mortems on the future of various riders who had barely been out this year.

Lorenzo signed with Ducati, the end. Who among the current factory Ducati riders will stay? Who cares. There are 14 races to go in 2016 (fourteen...) and the only other seat worth looking at is at Suzuki. Meanwhile, Rossi called Lorenzo’s decision “a bold move”, which after the mechanical problems of Dovizioso and ongoing financial meltdown at Ducati parent company Volkswagen, may be a bit of an understantement.

On a Wing and a Prayer

Winglets, strakes and vortex generators (VG’s) have been in MotoGP in some form since Nicky Hayden first rocked them on his Ducati in 2007. In the lower classes, especially the old 125cc class, they were often ubiquitous along the belly pan. But 2016 is the year aerodynamic devices took off in the premiere class, with Yamaha and even Honda deploying them in a dizzying array of sizes and shapes.

Ducati, a longtime champion of VG’s as a means of reducing drag along the sides of the rider, went full formula one and debuted this year with a motorcycle that looks more like a world war one biplane than a svelte Italian racing bike. Visual merits of not, they have become the technological story of 2016 since both factory Ducatis have consistently demonstrated superior top speed (the limit of which is determined more by overcoming air pressure than anything else) and purportedly better front wheel edge grip.

Yamaha was quick to produce its own forward canard type winglets, which Jorge Lorenzo has used almost constantly since the season started. His teammate Valentino Rossi dismissed them after a few tepid tests as “inconclusive” and “ugly”, only to use them throughout his wildly successful weekend in Spain.

Honda has not raced them yet, but Marquez was out during the official test after Jerez with a triple winglet setup, while Suzuki had a series of VG’s along the leading edge of the GSX-RR’s side panels, presumably to add energy to the air and extend laminar flow past the trailing edge of the fairing.

A detailed analysis of motorcycle aerodynamics is coming up in the next Insider, but suffice it to say, MotoGP has switched on to the amazing potential of advanced aerodynamics. Until next year, that is, when they will be banned. Dorna and the FIM have banned further development of these devices sighting the astronomical costs that an aerodynamics war would bring to teams. If formula one has taught the rest of the motorsport universe anything, it is that this is a formula for loss of competition and bad racing.

Enjoy the parade of winged motorcycles, friends. They, like the dustbin fairings of the 1960’s are doomed.

The New Rossi is the Old Rossi

A man on a mission is a dangerous man, because he brushes risk aside to pursue his ideological purpose. In motorcycle racing, those men are fun to watch, because they ride with fury and cause bikes to slide around while diving into impossible situations. Racers like Barry Sheene, Kevin Schwantz and most recently Andrea Iannone exemplify this breed. To many, they exhibit “heart”, while to others they are deeply flawed, irrational animals.

To Valentino Rossi, they are in the latter category.

Rossi has lots of heart (though we have not seen lots of it in recent years), but the characteristic that has most typified his style since entering grand prix motorcycle racing is remarkable control. The Rossi that has seen off a half dozen racing heroes, champions like Loris Capirossi, Max Biaggi, Sete Gibernau, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, and Jorge Lorenzo in the past to win his nine world titles did so by having total control of himself, his team and his motorcycle.

It has been a very rare thing to witness Rossi crash, make an unforced error on track or lose his temper.

Of course, last year saw him do all these things, but his miraculous performance at the Spanish grand prix in Jerez was like witnessing a rebirth, a return to the Rossi of ten years ago. So total was his domination throughout the weekend that it was as though the past ten years hadn’t happened. Fastest in free practice; fastest in qualifying; and leading the race almost from start to finish. From his body posture on the grid waiting for the green light, to his calm counter-attack on Jorge Lorenzo on lap 2, Rossi rode like it was 2005 again. Calm, controlled, and in charge.

Only two things stood out in his masterclass performance in Spain. One, was his grudging adoption of aerodynamic winglets on the front of his Yamaha M1. He declined to use them in the past partly because they offended his aesthetic sensibilities, but perhaps after witnessing his rivals using them to great effect, blowing past him in the straights and high-speed corners, he must have decided that they weren’t that bad after all.

But the second thing was far more important. In the immediate post-race interview, Lorenzo flashed angrily at his rear wheel and commented that he had been forced to keep the throttle only “80% open” due to rear wheel spin that was robbing him of grip. Moments later, a smiling Rossi told the same reporter that he too had experienced significant rear wheel spin, so rode with “half throttle”.

Both Rossi and Lorenzo ride the same bike, but Rossi comfortably lapped quicker, nearly half a second a lap when pressed, than his teammate. Could he really do that using less gas? Perhaps Rossi was playing post-race mind games with his rival, or else he was that much better at modulating his acceleration and controlling tire wear. Either way it was a demonstration of superior race craft, exactly of the kind that Rossi used to employ when battling Biaggi or Stoner in his heyday.

I Like the Cut of Your Gib!

Cal Crutchlow, in an amazing image make-over, found a barber and a razor prior to lining up on the grid at Jerez. Smiling (another shocker) at the camera, he looked trim and considerably less homeless than usual, a sign perhaps of a renewed man. He rode to a mid pack finish in eleventh place, which for him was an achievement. The LCR Honda remained tire-side-down and rolled into the pits at the end looking as pretty as he did. Evidently, grooming was the lucky charm Cal had been missing.

Its Bad Luck to be Superstitious

Andrea Dovizioso, perhaps the unluckiest rider in 2016, was taken out by his overzealous teammate in Argentina, then skulked away into obscurity in Spain after his Ducati engine blew up. Always a chipper and energetic man, it was clear from his conversation with Italian media that Dovizioso is unhappy. Perhaps Grandstand could offer one of our favourite underdogs this advice : find out who cut Cal Crutchlow’s hair. It worked for him…

With only three races down and fourteen more to go, 2016 is shaping up quite nicely.