Hey folks, Dre here with another edition of the Race Review series and after three weeks of holidays (again, thanks Kazakhstan), MotoGP is back with the British Grand Prix, and even more importantly, the 75th Anniversary race of Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing as a whole. And with it, a throwback weekend, with all 11 teams bringing special liveries and presentational touches to their bikes.
Now, as I like to do every once in a while, this is a running diary format for this edition of the DRR, mostly because I found elements across the weekend interesting, so I’ll be writing about the weekend, as it plays out. Cool? Cool. Let’s get into the Thursday action first, and the throwbacks as a whole.
Ranking The Throwback Liveries
This is a waste of what should be an SEO special, but I don’t follow journalistic rules. Trust me, if I did, you’d never actually read my shit. Simply put, I rank all 11 MotoGP Throwback Liveries on the grid revealed on Thursday. I’m ranking these on Style, Control, Damage and Aggression how good they look, the previous inspiration, and general vibes. Let’s go.
11 – GasGas: I get it. They didn’t have a whole lot of “history” to work with on this one but given other teams still had creative ideas, just being negative of the original Gasgas colours and flipping it to a white base livery just felt kinda “meh” to me. It’s not horrible, and bonus points for the nice fading leathers, but this just didn’t do it for me.
10 – VR46: Again, relatively new team. But serious style points were lost here because they could have done SO MUCH with Valentino Rossi’s license and branding and they chose a helmet design from a down year for Rossi (2018), and if anything, just made me wish it was the old Gaulosies Yamaha of the 4-Stroke era. The giant 46 in front of the rider’s numbers didn’t work for me either.
9 – LCR Honda: Not bad. Points for effort for having two different throwback liveries, but both are only… okay. Taka’s bike as a Hailwood tribute is fine and so is Zarco’s alternate Castrol livery. Bonus points for the yellow discs and the black numbers, when they used to be mandatory in the series. But the standard Castrol livery for Zarco’s bike for me, just looks nicer than the throwback version, even with the older logo. Again, solid, but didn’t blow me away.
8 – KTM: On the one hand, I’m a sucker for white liveries. I just think they look clean. But we’ve got three of them on this throwback grid and to me, this one’s the weakest. It’s a nice tribute to Wolfgang Felber in 1988, but it’s the giant Red Bull sponsorship across the fairing that takes the edge off of it for me. It’s a constantly irritating part of their branding strategy that extends to F1 and their drivers’ helmet designs there too, and it’s carried on here. It’s not the only livery where this is an issue, but this is by far the most distracting to me.
7 – Pramac: Pramac went with a tribute to Angel Nieto and his 12+1 World Titles. And again, I think it looked… fine. As a tribute it works, the colours are nice, as are the throwback numbers, it all works nicely. Again, just didn’t blow me away overall. (And look, okay for a special livery is still pretty good overall.)
6 – Trackhouse: Again, not a lot of history for them to lean on, but as I’ve said before, these guys are clever, and paying tribute to all the former American MotoGP winners like Spencer, Kocinski, the Roberts family and Mamola was very cool and big points for creativity there. I couldn’t go much higher because it’s hard to make faces on a vehicle look good but I was still a big fan of this one, and it’s a neat way of promoting their new livery as a whole. Props to Sean Bull, who did a good job, and I like the silver over the previous Star Spangled livery.
5 – Ducati: Why. Wasn’t. This. Silver?! Everyone and their mother was begging for this to be a Silver design to lay out their racing past, but they didn’t go for it. And that made me sad. Instead they went for a throwback to their MotoGP return in 2003 and the GP3. It looks really good, but for me, it’s a bit too much like their standard livery and the black Lenovo box is a little jarring, HiyaLyla’s white version would have probably bumped this up another spot.
4 – Yamaha: It’s almost impossible to fuck up the Yamaha white/red classic colours and this was no exception. A superb throwback to 1970 and the Agostini era, and again, I’m a sucker for the black-and-yellow numbering scheme. But a small amount of points off for the Monster branding is a little too invasive for me. Did we need two more Monster logos on the front of the fairing?
3 – Gresini: This was clean. The throwback was an obvious one, late Fausto Gresini’s 125cc Championship winning colours of 1987, and it is a near carbon copy, from the Italian flag down the fairing to the black and white numbers, the sponsor placement, even the silver fuel tank. I love it. It just lacked a little bit of the wow factor because they’ve run a very similar livery before in 2022 when Enea Bastianini was there so it took a little “buzz” taken out of it. But still, excellent work here.
2 – Honda: I had to go back and forth between this and the Number 1 spot, but I loved this Honda livery. A throwback to 1983 and Freddie Spencer’s World Championship, and everything on this just works. The blue, white and red. The numbering, the throwback Repsol logo from their 2008 throwback with Hayden and Pedrosa. The branding isn’t overpowering. This is a wonderful livery.
1 – Aprilia: As said, this was a close running contest, but Aprilia just about won out for me. This livery is MEAN. The glossy, jet black, a throwback to the Chesterfield days and Max Biaggi in the 250cc class in the mid-90s. The same Number 4 he used, now resides in Espargaro’s 41. The classic Aprilia logo. This just works on every level for me. It’s glorious and better than their usual all-black livery. Fuck it, keep it for the rest of the season.
Also a special note to the lightbox. Now, I have to say, I’m a nerd for presentation when I watch sports broadcasts. I was that guy who used to watch the old Wrestlemania’s on VHS and I loved that back then, the headsets and microphones were gold, and the commentators dressed in sharp tuxedos. It was a nod to the audience that what they were watching was a little more special and commanded respect. Not every Dorna lightbox change (And let’s be frank, it’s a bit pinched from F1), has worked, but this version was immense. The throwback fonts, the old-looking studio, the halogens and the throwback liveries. The old TV sets and the remixed version of their theme music. I loved it, and little things like that deserve credit. Bravo.
Presenting the #MotoGP75 Opening Titles! 🚥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 2, 2024
A special twist for a historic weekend! 🏍️#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/bDsiHvP3ID
Towing Service
This subject refuses to go away. It was another hectic qualifying session on Saturday, where Aleix Espargaro ran by himself with about three minutes left and took pole position, and due to a crash at Turn 2 via his teammate Maverick Vinales, all 10 of the remaining runners had their final runs aborted due to yellow flags in that zone. This included Francesco Bagnaia, who lost one of his laps due to a freak incident where his advertising sticker blurred his vision on his helmet and had to be torn off.
In his post-qualifying interview with Jack Appleyard in Parc Ferme, Bagnaia went scorched earth, complaining that: “It’s ridiculous that 10 of the best riders in the world are looking for tows.”. It felt more like a thinly veiled jab at Marc Marquez, who’s been the biggest “offender” of this frowned-upon tactic. Marquez responded later in the afternoon that: “This is what racing is and this is what it always has been.”
The funny thing is, is that they’re both right. It is becoming a very silly thing for riders to do. We see them dawdling off the racing line, abandoning laps and riding on the borderline of recklessness to get behind someone fast, like a Bagnaia or a Martin. Hell, Enea Bastianini abandoned a lap where he was EXACTLY level with Espargaro’s pole lap through three splits but gave it up for another run that was ultimately chalked off.
The problem is, this is how MotoGP’s sausage got made. When the sport embraced the aero age nearly a decade ago, it rewarded close running due to the slipstream effect, even more than when the prototype era. It’s worth anywhere from 0.2-0.4 seconds a lap depending on the track layout, especially at Silverstone, which has several medium-long straights. And like with any sport, if you’re chasing every little edge for performance, why wouldn’t you chase the carrot of free performance? You’d be a fool not to. That’s not Marquez’s fault, that’s the sport’s fault.
And don’t give me Neil Hodgson’s lines about “The kids will follow this in Moto3”, because they were doing this FIRST, years before MotoGP started doing it more prominently. It took years of dancing around the problem before we started seeing 12-place grid penalties for dawdling in their sessions. It’s been drilled into this generation of riders for years and it won’t stop anytime soon.
Don't count out Il Capitano! 😮💨
— MotoGP on TNT Sports (@motogpontnt) August 3, 2024
Aleix Espargaro snatches pole position for this afternoon's Tissot Sprint race! 🙌🔥#MotoGP | #BritishGP | Live on TNT Sports and Discovery+ pic.twitter.com/FoHFMsDByL
So what can be done? I’ve heard suggestions of borrowing F1 and World Superbikes’ old Superpole/One-Lap Qualifying format. I hope it doesn’t come to that, because they tend to be boring to watch. Part of the drama of Qualifying is the frantic nature of getting changes in results quickly.
My solution is the same as Michael Laverty’s. You can’t run a qualifying time within 1.5 seconds of another bike. If you do, the lap time is deleted. It forces the field to spread out and find its patch of track like F1 does. Of course, the stewards can use their discretion, like if someone aborts a flying lap, or if there’s a mechanical breakdown in front of them. But it’s simple, it’s easy to implement given you have the checkpoints on track already, and it takes the slipstream out of the equation. Who says no?
Let’s see if Simon Crafar, the popular Dorna broadcaster and upcoming lead steward, actually tries to change the system. It’s easy to give it the big one when you have a mic in your hand, but its a lot more difficult when you’re directly involved in the politics of the sport. We’ll see what happens.
Bozo Gene 2: Bozo Harder
Does anyone want to win this Championship? Honestly? Someone, please tell me.
Francesco Bagnaia didn’t get one of his trademark brilliant starts and was shuffled back to fourth when the Sprint started, with Jorge Martin bullying his way to the front from Row 2. And just when Bagnaia was trying to hang onto the lead group of himself, Martin, Bastianini and Espargaro… he crashes at Village. It’s the fourth time this season he’s failed to score in a Sprint race this season. There’s an eighth place in there too which isn’t ideal.
Jorge Martin couldn’t quite take full advantage of the situation, settling for second as the inspired Bestia came through to take his first Sprint victory (Just the eighth man to win one). He rode brilliantly and was a nice reminder of what he can do when he doesn’t have to spend half the race fighting his way up the field. But for Martin, it’s nine points for free and he reduces Bagnaia’s Championship lead down to a single point.
And that’s the weird thing about this Championship. If you contrast the points breakdown on Sprints and Grand Prix, there’s a startling difference:
Sprint Standings: Jorge Martin – 84, Marc Marquez – 58, Pecco Bagnaia – 45
Grand Prix Standings: Pecco Bagnaia – 177, Jorge Martin – 128, Marc Marquez – 106
Pecco Bagnaia has won six MotoGP races this season, including five out of the last six and going into the British GP tomorrow, he ONLY has a lead of one. And it’s because he’s coughed up so many points in the Sprint. Love them or hate them, you play the format in this game and the reality is, he’s not been good enough on Saturdays to take command of this Championship. It’s been a weakness of Bagnaia since the format changed and he’s still not fully adapted to it yet. It’s making this championship a lot more interesting than the man himself would probably like. Anyway…
The Beast Awakens
Well, that was an interesting Grand Prix in the end. Turns out when you give Enea Bastianini a good start and a good grid spot to work from, he cooks.
Bagnaia got the holeshot like he so often does. He tried to get away early and get that half second bubble like he normally does. But what we didn’t know was that he was chewing his tires up just by holding the front of the race up. Jorge Martin eventually got back ahead as Bagnaia was starting to struggle on the rear tyre. Eventually, Enea Bastianini got him as well, and in a near carbon copy of the sprint, he gunned down Jorge Martin and passed him for the win when the latter went wide at Village. Enea was two seconds clear by race’s end and that was the end of the matter.
For Enea, it was his first double victory in a MotoGP weekend and a deserved maximum 37 points for a near perfect weekend. His tire preservation in races all season long has been exceptional, always coming back strong in the back half of races. It’s been the qualifying that’s let him down this season, but it was good to see he is still good enough to win outright when the circumstances work. And with him only 49 points back off the series lead, he’s back in the race, with some strong rounds for him still to come like two rounds at Misano and Aragon. One to watch.
Jorge Martin will take this weekend. A pair of second places, 13 points gained on Bagania in front of him and Bastianini wasn’t really a realistic target to beat, the Beast was comfortably the best guy here this weekend. Back in front of the Championship but Austria is up next and that’s Pecco-land. Back half of this Championship is going to be interesting alright…
The Lightning Round
Extra half point on the rating for the Alex Marquez vs Fabio Di Giannantonio fight early on, tremendous back and forth, proper racing all round there. Loved it.
Only 42,000 on race day. After the nice bump up to 55,000 last year, we’re right back to where we started again, even if more folks visited over the weekend overall. Not going to lie, it’s a concern that the big promotional push the track had last year has seemingly failed. And what concerns me even more is that this race is moving to May 25th in 2025. Dorna has put the British GP right in the firing line of Day of Classics, F1’s Monaco GP and the Indy 500. That’s a very crowded Motorsport space, the weather will almost certainly be worse, and the kids won’t be on holiday like they are now. I really don’t think this is a good idea. Still, at least the home fans who did show up got to watch a Jake Dixon Moto2 win at home. Nice.
Looks like Frankie Morbidelli got caught in the aerowash when braking for the first turn in the sprint race. Similar to Taka Nakagami’s horror crash in 2022. I’m bored of repeating myself constantly of the dangers of low tires pressures, cold tires and the downforce leading to the aero wash under braking, but the sport isn’t doing anything about it until 2027, so this is what you get.
Moto3 had the biking race of the year so far. That final fight between Veijer, Holgado, Ortola and Alonso was incredible. Go out of your way to see it.
And given I’ve been critical of TNT a fair amount over the years, it’s only fair I praise them where it’s due, go out of your way to see the Pedro Acosta documentary that aired multiple times during the weekend’s coverage. A great insight into the 20-year old phenom’s hometown and family, the workrate that goes into being a MotoGP rider and some reviews of the races that made him the rider he is today. He gets it. Great work from TNT and Gavin Emmett in particular.
Dre’s Race Rating: 6.5/10 – A bit of a dramatic race with a sad anti-climax when Martin ran wide with just three laps left. It never really got above “mild drama”, it’s still really hard to pass on these bikes and following is still a nightmare. The best man won, I just wish he had to have worked a little harder for it. See you in Austria.
