2018 FIM Moto GP World Championship

[etusch]

[J.A.W.]

It was a tense, technical race.. kudos to Zarco/Rossi for making the pace running/contesting the lead,
but in the wash-up, what came to pass in the finale - was yet another gripping Dovi versus M.M. showdown..

About Dovi/Ducati aero - well to be fair, last season - he declined to utilize the package that Lorenzo chose..
( & WTF really happened to 'Curious George', anyhow - root cause analysis-wise?).

Honda had a typically subtle appearing, yet sophisticated - aero set-up on M.M.'s machine, too though..

[johnny comelately]

It was a tense, technical race.. kudos to Zarco/Rossi for making the pace running/contesting the lead,
but in the wash-up, what came to pass in the finale - was yet another gripping Dovi versus M.M. showdown..

About Dovi/Ducati aero - well to be fair, last season - he declined to utilize the package that Lorenzo chose..
( & WTF really happened to 'Curious George', anyhow - root cause analysis-wise?).

Honda had a typically subtle appearing, yet sophisticated - aero set-up on M.M.'s machine, too though..

The answer for Jorge is in the Freddie Spencer video link i posted above there somewhere.
It is over an hour but really worth a look JAW.
And I think Zarco ran out of tyres, so maybe the semi works set up if all things were equal may not be so far ahead?? MM went for the hard front because of his style.

[tcooper27]

Like Johnny said, tuning a chassis at that level is more voodoo than science. It’s an old “formula” too so there’s not a lot of room for obvious improvement, it’s all tiny trial and error stuff at this point.

It also doesn’t help that the “perfect bike” is a moving target. If the tires change from year to year or even mid season they have to rethink geometry and suspension and electronic control settings to compensate.

[johnny comelately]

It was a tense, technical race.. kudos to Zarco/Rossi for making the pace running/contesting the lead,
but in the wash-up, what came to pass in the finale - was yet another gripping Dovi versus M.M. showdown..

About Dovi/Ducati aero - well to be fair, last season - he declined to utilize the package that Lorenzo chose..
( & WTF really happened to 'Curious George', anyhow - root cause analysis-wise?).

Honda had a typically subtle appearing, yet sophisticated - aero set-up on M.M.'s machine, too though..

Update re Jorge - "Lorenzo: I had no brakes, luckily it was a slow corner
Jorge explains: "The bike came back to the garage with only one pad. I chose to fall so I wouldn't end up against the wall, we still don't know the cause"

[J.A.W.]

Ta for that Johnny, a sadly 1/2-arsed ( on face value) answer.. perhaps semi-expected from Italiano teams..

( & Ol' man Surtees might well be.. spitting in his grave.. 'so to speak', 'bout it.)

[johnny comelately]

Ta for that Johnny, a sadly 1/2-arsed ( on face value) answer.. perhaps semi-expected from Italiano teams..

( & Ol' man Surtees might well be.. spitting in his grave.. 'so to speak', 'bout it.)

I got shot last dawn for racial profiling (it was no such thing, more placating the you know who's)

[Andres125sx]

Not that exciting race, but the final part was

Man I love Marquez approach to racing, give it all even if it does look imposible!

But Dovi is on fire, yet, congratulations

[johnny comelately]

Not that exciting race, but the final part was

Man I love Marquez approach to racing, give it all even if it does look imposible!

But Dovi is on fire, yet, congratulations

Dovi calculates the whole race, Mr. Marquez calculates that corner..and maybe the next one. It is fantastic how the different approaches produce good racing, even if it is in the last 8 laps.

[Andres125sx]

It brings up the old question, (in races) : in the troglodyte years Cars were 80% car and 20% driver with bikes being the opposite, what are the percentages now? Cars = 90% car 10% driver; Bikes 40% bike and 60% rider

What I find odd in recent years is riders using 2016 chassis with a 2017 swingarm and 2018 forks. How do these top manufacturers not progress every year. Imagine Mercedes using 2017 suspension and 2016 aero on the 2018 chassis. Its insane to think that would happen in F1, but it happens all the time in motogp.
So yes the riders have a larger impact than drivers in f1, but when you see the mixture of chassis, swingarms ect it helps on certain tracks for different pecking orders when teams/riders make the wrong choices

The answer IMHO is easy, riding a bike is completely different to driving a car because of several factors:

1- Riding a bike you change weight distribution while moving around, wich means difference between riding styles can be dramatic from one to another, specially when compared to F1 and drivers
2- Rider weight is a huge percentage of total weight, so the difference between a small and light rider to a big and heavy one is dramatic too.

So basically in MotoGP there´s no perfect chassis, perfect for who? A light and smooth rider like Pedrosa has completely different chassis requirements to any other heavier, more aggressive, or even taller rider who can modify weight distribution easier when compared to Dani..... or keep static and not modify it. It´s all up to the rider, wich is dramatically different to F1 where drivers can´t modify weight distribution, and their weight and height is almost irrelevant for the chassis design

[Andres125sx]

Riders

I don´t think Rossi and Viñales are any slower to Zarco sincerely, do you?

[johnny comelately]

Riders

I don´t think Rossi and Viñales are any slower to Zarco sincerely, do you?

Not an easy question, and I see what you mean.
It is now how well you can set up the electronics and they all strive hard for that each race , Poncharal's management seemed to have found the guru for that.
And of course the psyche, which Vinales is struggling with but Rossi and Zarco are not.
This last race Zarco is saying Michelin told him there was a problem with his tyres (after).
But with everything together and for many races now Zarco has been quicker.
IMHO.

[J.A.W.]

Zarco is def' coming on, progress-wise & telemetry/lap-times must show this..

Some of the most accurate/nth degree riders take their time to get a whole race situation mentally analysed,
such as Casey Stoner, but once they get 'keyed in', they can really show their stuff.. we'll see how he goes..

[NathanOlder]

I think Zarco is an awesome rider, I feel Valentino is definitely not as good as when he was 30, and Maverick for some reason is way off the pace since about midway through 2017. Mav needs to sort it out ASAP otherwise Yamaha may have to get him out of his current contract to make sure Honda dont steal Zarco from under their noses.

Weight is definitely a big thing, but its certainly not decisive, as little tiny Dani is useless when it comes to winning a title, he's only a fraction better than Kimi in F1. Rossi, probably the best ever is 6ft tall, So it maybe better to have longer levers to help position the bike.

[sriraj1031]

Well Motogp was like Moto3 ... atleast 7 riders for first 17 laps were inside 1 sec ... it was really awesome and what a 39 year old can do ... mind blowing