While the majority of the focus this MotoGp season has been on the phenomenal performances of Marc Marquez, poised to become the youngest ever world champion in the premier class and the first for 35 years to win in his rookie year, another story has been lumbering along in the background that became front page news last Sunday.
With his win in the Moto3 class at Motegi, Marc’s younger brother, Alex, becomes the first of only a handful of brothers to win a grand prix at the same time as his brother was also competing. There may have been other instances but I can’t think of them, perhaps you can add some detail? Alex, competing in Moto3, has finished on the podium 4 times up to Motegi and adds his first win in the class to that tally. He is, by all reports, blessed with the same speed and race craft as his elder brother but could be, according to nobody less than Marc himself, a better rider than the 20 year old phenom. There are others in the paddock who support this assessment. Given that possibility, Marc had better get a move on and win a few titles before he gets caught by lil bro!
Of course, we have another set of brothers doing well in grand prix racing as well. Pol Espargaro clinched the Moto2 championship at Motegi and it is already known that he will graduate to the Tech III team in 2014 to replace the departing Cal Crutchlow. And his brother, Aleix, competing in the CRT class in MotoGp, has consistently been the fastest and best placed of the lower class bikes all season. Next year he will be moving on as well, to Forward Racing (after the team paid a motza to buy him out of his Aspar contract), joining Colin Edwards on a “customer” Yamaha bike powered by this year’s Tech III engines (freshened up at the factory). So we will have two brothers both competing in the same class at the same time (again, I’m not sure when that happened last, if at all)
There is another duplicate name in the paddock at the moment but it isn’t quite the same. Moto3 hotshot, Maverick Vinales (who could still win the title if he wins this weekend coming) and namesake Isaac, are not brothers, but cousins, but the fact that we have three sets of relatives all competing at the same time, is pretty weird.
It also goes without saying that the six of them are all Spanish. Why so? Because, like them or loathe them (opinion is equally divided), the Spanish motorcycle federation have done what any nation’s governing body could have done and that is to set up an academy to train and develop young talent in motorcycle racing and it has been astoundingly successful. How successful? Well, 8 out of the 33 riders in Moto 3 are Spanish. 8 out of the 32 riders in Moto 2 are Spanish and 6 out of the 24 riders in MotoGp are Spanish. Regardless of the outcome of next Sunday’s races at Valencia, all three world champions will be Spanish (2 out of 3 were last year, too) And this in a country whose national obsession is soccer.
A couple of other interesting tit bits.
1. Cal Crutchlow. Has the bubble burst? Cal’s performances in the latter half of the season have been underwhelming to say the least. Has he hit the wall? Have we seen him as good as he will ever be? Has the weight of the British press’s expectations finally told on him? It is impossible to say, but, plainly, he is labouring. Rumours of him being denied the latest upgrades at Tech III since he signed for Ducati are circulating and the slightly better performances of his team mate seem to add weight to the theory. One thing is certain, Cal is doomed to a great deal more disappointment than what he is presently experiencing, in 2014.
2. Valentino Rossi. If any proof were needed that the great man is at the end of his career, his dismal showing at Motegi clinches it. Tasked with the job of keeping Marquez as far down the order as possible, Rossi performed the first part of the job brilliantly, jumping up to second place from a lowly qualifying position and blocking the two Hondas while Lorenzo bolted into the distance. But, just when he was needed most, Rossi cracked under the pressure with TWO uncharacteristic errors to not only let both the Hondas through but also drop himself to nearly the back of the pack. To his credit, champion rider that he is, he fought his way all the way back to sixth, but it can have been of little comfort to him or his team to see that.
3. Marques bashing. This is the new sport in MotoGp. We call it “tall poppy syndrome” here but it is the same thing. Now some fool has started a new controversy surrounding the fact that MM93, apparently, touched Jorge Lorenzo’s clutch lever when the bikes were parked side by side. Really, I kid you not. Next thing we will discover that he is also responsible for global warming and the deforestation of the Amazon basin. Some people really need to get a life and most journalists need to start doing some WORK instead of sitting in the air conditioned comfort of the press box, eating free food and guzzling free drinks. Get up off your fat backsides and bring us the REAL stories, gentlemen.
4. Ben Spies. As I predicted many months ago, Ben Spies will not be returning to MotoGp, having announced his retirement due to ongoing health issues. It is a disappointment to many but no surprise to some (myself included) who always thought that Ben was out of his depth in MotoGp. Riders, like water, find their own level and cannot be expected to flow uphill. Spies was an astonishing superbike riders but I always believed that he would be the American James Toseland, a rider who would find the step up in class from WSBK to MotoGp just a bit too steep. And so it has proven to be. I hope Ben sticks around till one of the media outlets (preferably the BBC) picks him up as part of thei MotoGp commentary team.
5. Ducati. Another year, another disappointment. In both major classes of world racing, Ducati has been a dismal failure. In WSBK the Panigale has been an albatross around Francis Batta’s neck so it is no surprise to read that the arrangement between his Alstare team and Ducati has been dissolved. Ducati will put the best spin they can on it, insisting that they are merely clearing the decks for a return of a full factory team in 2014. We realists will see it as Batta cutting his losses before his reputation as an astute judge of racing is further tarnished. And Ducati’s new riders for 2014, Giugliano and Davies, don’t inspire me with any confidence at all that 2014 will be any better than 2013. In MotoGp it is pretty much the same. Much is being made of the firing of the present team boss in favour of the present Aprilia guru, but it’s rearranging the cabins on the Titanic in my opinion.
Both the Moto3 and MotoGp titles will be decided next Sunday at Valencia. Only 5 points separates Rins, Salom and Vinales in Moto3 so it’s winner-takes-all there. In MotoGp, Marquez need only finish 4th to clinch the title even if Lorenzo wins. Will he ride for points or will he try to win to underscore his superiority? Who know, but it is shaping up as a nail-biter.
So many questions, so few answers!