MotoGP Race Results from the Czech GP at Brno, Czech Republic:

Source: MotoGP; Photo: © 2018 Tony Goldsmith / www.tonygoldsmith.net – All Rights Reserved

Normally, I would start my Saturday round up talking about how pole position was won, whether it was expected or a surprise, and taking glance at race pace among the main contenders for victory on Sunday.

But that would be to ignore the elephant in the room. Sure, Andrea Dovizioso’s pole was impressive, and a little unexpected given just how quick Marc Márquez has been all weekend. But, that’s not the big news from Brno.

The big story in MotoGP is in the final place on the fourth row of the grid, and how he ended up there.

Brno is the place the bomb finally burst between Maverick Viñales and crew chief Ramon Forcada. The tension has been building between the two for months, with rumors that Viñales has wanted to replace Forcada since the beginning of the year.

Viñales has complained that Forcada will not make the radical changes that the young Spaniard requested in search of a solution to the traction problems. Forcada has wanted to stick to the plan, and work through issues methodically, so as not to lose sight of the bigger picture.

For the past few weeks, it has been an open secret that Viñales will be getting a new crew chief in 2019 (Esteban Garcia, currently crew chief for Bradley Smith at KTM).

But Forcada and Viñales have soldiered along, their disagreements only occasionally seeping out into the public, such as at the Le Mans race, where Viñales told the media he had tried to crash in every corner because he felt it was the only way to demonstrate to his team that the bike would go no faster.

Sarcasm Alert

But it all came to a head on Saturday, and it was tire strategy in FP3 that caused Viñales to reveal the depth of the rupture. It was only the smallest of motions which betrayed him.

As Viñales climbed off his bike at the end of FP3, having come up just three hundredths of a second short of making it straight through to Q2, and all the problems which would ensue, the Spaniard clapped as he walked back into the garage.

Three times, by my count, but it was enough. That sparked a backlash by Forcada in an interview with Spanish broadcaster Movistar. Which caused the situation to spiral out of control, ending in a Yamaha press officer telling the assembled media before Maverick Viñales’ media debrief that we could only ask questions related to what happened on track on Saturday.

Entirely predictably, that prohibition had precisely the opposite effect than Yamaha had hoped. On Saturday night, the media has been full of stories on the split between Viñales and Forcada, with Valentino Rossi’s valiant effort to get onto the front row of the grid going largely unnoticed.

The history of such bans being ineffective is long and rich. When the BBC banned 1980s pop band Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s single ‘Relax’, the song went to number one in the charts, and stayed there for weeks.

Why anyone would expect an attempt to restrict knowledge that has already leaked into the public domain to be successful is something of a mystery.

Contrast Saturday’s performance with the way Valentino Rossi handled his split with Jeremy Burgess at Valencia in 2013, in which the two held a joint press conference, and both explained their positions.

That was a perfect example of how to handle such a situation. The Viñales situation on Saturday at Brno was the opposite.

Strategic Error

Where did it all start? With the tire strategy for FP3. Maverick Viñales, it is said, wanted to keep two soft rear tires for the final fifteen minutes of the session, to have a couple of goes at getting straight through to Q2.

Ramon Forcada and the crew, according to well-informed members of the paddock, had based their strategy on Valentino Rossi’s, which was to go out for just one run on soft rear tires.

But when Rossi could not set a quick time on his first soft rear tire, he dived back into the pits and swapped his rear tire for another new soft rear. With that tire, he took seven tenths off his previous best lap, and ended FP3 as fastest. Rossi and his crew had a backup plan.

Viñales did not have such a plan. He went out on a new soft rear, and came up just shy of Andrea Dovizioso, finishing in eleventh place and forced to go through to Q1.

In Q1, he used up all the medium front tires to set his fastest lap, forcing him to use the hard front slick in Q2, with which he was slower than he had been in Q1.

“I think in FP3 we should have used two soft tires, but finally we only used one,” Viñales said, speaking carefully after having spent 20 minutes in Yamaha Managing Director Lin Jarvis’ office, being instructed in what he could say.

“But anyway, it was not in the plan to use two soft tires, so finally, the second tire was not there. And I think that was the mistake, because in Q1 I felt really good with the medium front tire, but as soon as I changed to the hard, because I didn’t have any more new medium front tires, I could not turn.”

“So for me, the biggest issue was the hard front tire, I was not able to make it work.”

The Straw and the Camel’s Back

That was why Maverick Viñales gave a sarcastic little clap when he came back into the pits. That’s not what he told Spanish media, of course, claiming he was “applauding myself for not letting myself do what my head wanted to do.”

After he came back into the pits, he sat in his chair, put his sunglasses on, and stared at the TV screens in the garage. He made no attempt to engage in a debrief with Ramon Forcada, or discuss how the session had gone.

I stood watching for at least a minute, and saw Viñales stare determinedly at the screen, while Forcada scribbled notes and waited.

That must have angered Forcada, for later, when he was interviewed by Spanish broadcaster Movistar, the veteran crew chief expressed himself perhaps more bluntly than he meant to. Yamaha had told him he would not be working with Viñales next year, Forcada said.

But Viñales had said nothing to him about it. What’s more, he was not even sure whether he would be working with Viñales until the end of the year.

“I will try to make a bike to win until my last race with him”, Forcada said. “I’m not sure when this will be, because as things stand I do not know.”

For more extensive quotes on what Forcada said during his TV interview, and what Viñales told the Spanish press, read this story over on Crash.net.

Run Rampant

The picture that emerges from Saturday is of a situation that Yamaha has allowed to run completely out of control. Ramon Forcada is one of the most respected crew chiefs in the paddock, and is widely regarded as one of the best in the business.

He is a passionate and fiery personality, as those who follow his Twitter feed will know. After his first year working with Jorge Lorenzo – also something of a hothead in the garage – Lin Jarvis brought in Wilco Zeelenberg to be a neutral third party, and help to diffuse any problems before they got out of hand.

That worked very well, the trio winning three MotoGP titles together.

Zeelenberg has not had the same role with Viñales, at least not to the eyes of this neutral observer. Viñales and Forcada have dealt with each other more directly, with – to my mind – less involvement from Zeelenberg.

That has not worked out very well. Viñales leads an existence that is almost monastic in its dedication, surrounded by a very small number of people, his entire life focused entirely on winning a MotoGP championship.

The pressure he has placed upon himself leaves him poorly equipped to handle setbacks, bad luck, and mistakes by Yamaha or the team.

It is hard to escape the impression that he has put himself under so much pressure that he cannot see the woods for the trees, pushing for solutions for an immediate problem, rather than focusing on getting things fixed in the long term.

Then again, he is only 23 years old, has not yet won a title, and consequently suffers from a chronic lack of perspective.

Alternative Strategies

The Movistar Yamaha team was dealt a bad hand with the tensions that have grown between Maverick Viñales and Ramon Forcada. But it was a hand that, if played skillfully and with foresight, they could have used to mitigate the situation.

If they had allowed Viñales to speak more freely, made public Viñales’ demands to have Forcada replaced, and publicly discussed who would come in his place, they could perhaps got ahead of the story and led it in a more manageable (and less damaging) direction.

If they had held a press conference with both Viñales and Forcada present, allowing each party to tell their side of the story, the issue would have peaked early and subsided.

If they had spun it, to put it down to an incompatibility of personalities (which, I suspect, is the real truth behind it all), then Forcada and Viñales would both have emerged looking sympathetic, the blame spread around between the two.

Yamaha would have looked like they were in control, trying to effect a reconciliation, but then taking the necessary steps to allow both Forcada and Viñales to step away from each other and succeed.

Instead, they tried to contain it, and ended up watching it spiral out of control. Which is what always happens in situations like these. Better to get out in front of a story and try to spin it, rather than be left trying to catch up, and look powerless.

Fast, New, And Used

There was a qualifying session as well. Andrea Dovizioso took pole with a remarkable lap, and with Jorge Lorenzo heading up the second row, the Ducatis look very strong at Brno, a track they haven’t won at since 2007.

Valentino Rossi took second, with a brilliant lap but concerns over his overall pace. Marc Márquez qualified third, with the opposite problem – outstanding pace, but not able to chase a really quick lap, in part because his team didn’t make (or didn’t bother to make) the right adjustments to the bike to set it up for qualifying.

“I’m happy because the main target was the front row,” Márquez said. “I already know before the qualifying that it will be difficult because with the new tires, also the electronics, the base setup is related to the race setup, and we didn’t make any special modification.”

“Maybe with the soft tire we need something more in a few places, but apart from that we did a great job, especially in FP4. I felt good. This morning also I felt strong on the pace, so this is the most important.”

“We are there. It’s a circuit that normally we suffer a little bit, but even like this we are close to the fastest guy that for me is Dovi.”

The closeness of pace is apparent from the times in FP4, though they require close reading. Márquez appears comfortably fastest, banging out a sequence of laps in the low 1’56s. Dovizioso, meanwhile, did a best time of 1’57.137, and didn’t set a single lap in the 1’56s.

But Márquez did his best times on new tires. Dovizioso’s best time was with a rear tire with 23 laps on it, one more than race distance. The drop of the tires over race distance is expected to be roughly a second.

If Dovizioso can match Márquez’s early speed, then he could well hold the strongest cards at the end of the day.

Softer May Be Better

Early speed is what Valentino Rossi (and Maverick Viñales) is banking on. The Yamaha riders switched to soft tires for FP4, and it looks like this will be the tire they choose to race.

A surprising choice, given the race, but Michelin boss Piero Taramasso explained to me that tire wear is not much of an issue at Brno in the heat, the problem is more that the carcass of the softer tire starts to move much more when it gets hotter, after six or seven laps.

If Rossi can get off the line quickly, he may have a chance. But if he is not leading, he could be in trouble.

The problem Rossi faces is that he did not try the hard rear on Friday, and so cannot be sure how it will behave over the duration of the race.

“For me, it was a mistake to not try the hard yesterday, because maybe with more laps we can understand better. But anyway, today I try this morning, I try this afternoon. The problem is that I’m not very fast.”

“Gamble, usually I’m not very happy about the gamble. Yes, if you go with the soft you are faster at the beginning, but for me difficult arrive at the end. But we have to see, especially about the temperature because if we have less temperature maybe is more easy.”

The weather may yet help Rossi. After two days of scorching sunshine, Sunday is expected to be overcast, though just as hot.

Hot temperatures with cloud cover should drop track temperatures to the more manageable mid-40s °C, rather than the low 50s °C we saw on Friday and Saturday. That would make the soft tire a much more viable option, and made some of the other riders consider running the medium rear.

It might even rain. And if it rains, all bets are off. “You’re going to see a messy race I think,” Cal Crutchlow said, when asked about the possibility of a wet race. With this heat, and a track which dries at very high speed, a race which starts wet could be extremely eventful.

But it would also play to the strengths of Marc Márquez, who is clearly superior in mixed conditions. A flag-to-flag race might be fun, for a change, but it might just end up extremely predictable.

Photo: © 2018 Tony Goldsmith / www.tonygoldsmith.net – All Rights Reserved

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

Photos: © 2018 Tony Goldsmith / www.tonygoldsmith.net – All Rights Reserved

Tony Goldsmith is an Isle of Man based freelance motorcycle racing photographer specializing in MotoGP and the Isle of Man TT races. His website can be found at www.tonygoldsmith.net. He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

It is hot at Brno. It was hot at Assen, it was hot at the Sachsenring, and it is positively scorching at Brno. Air temperatures are at a relatively bearable 34°C, but the asphalt tentatively broke the 50°C during FP2.

That is officially what is known colloquially as a scorcher, testing riders, teams, and above all, tires on the first day of practice at Brno. Where last year, the riders concentrated on the soft and the medium Michelins, on Friday, the MotoGP riders spent their time assessing the medium and the hard.

The downside of forcing Michelin to choose tires for the entire season back in February is that sometimes, their crystal ball fails them, and the weather deviates wildly from what might reasonably be expected. The heatwave which has Europe in a vice-like grip is just such a case.

There are upsides to the heat, though they are perhaps unexpected. There were just four fallers at Brno on Friday across all three classes, less than half the number from last year, a third of the number in 2016, and a massive five and a half times fewer than the 22 crashers in 2015. It’s hot and dry, so the tires will definitely grip.

Sometimes a little too much, as Jorge Martin found to his dismay in Moto3 FP1.

The Spaniard managed to highside his Del Conca Gresini Honda Moto3 bike and break the radius bone in his left wrist, ruling him out of action for Sunday’s race, and making him doubtful for next week’s Austrian round at the Red Bull Ring.

Martin had steadily built up a lead over Marco Bezzecchi in the Moto3 championship in the last two races, only to throw it away with a huge mistake at Brno. There may only have been four crashes on Friday, but one of them was very costly indeed.

In the MotoGP class, the timesheets tell a rather deceptive tale. Dani Pedrosa finished the day faster, and digging into the timesheets, he looks quick on old tires and in race trim. Danilo Petrucci was second quickest overall, and also showed solid pace.

But the Pramac Ducati rider was convinced that the riders with real race pace were behind him, Andrea Dovizioso in fifth, and Marc Márquez in tenth. Not where you might necessarily expect to find the fastest riders on the day.

The Luxury of Strategy

“For sure they are hidden, but I think that’s a working method, a little bit different,” Petrucci explained. “Because I think they are a little bit faster than everyone, and they can take this risk to work more on the bike when the tire is used, because tomorrow morning, they know that with one lap they are in front.”

“So fortunately for them, they can work on the bike for one or two runs more than our situation. Because tomorrow is a qualifying, more or less. Today you spend the last run on the new tire, so they can see, they can collect data, they can ride the bike with used tires, so they will have more experience.”

Marc Márquez acknowledged that this was exactly what he was doing, though it went against his natural instinct. “Of course I’d like to go to sleep tonight with the fastest lap time or try to be on the top, but I have understood this,” the Repsol Honda rider told us.

“Especially last year, as it was the strategy for Dovizioso last year. Prepare for the race, and tomorrow we will try to be in the top 10.”

That strategy does not come without risk. “You have one chance,” Márquez said. “For this reason sometimes it is more risky like it happened to me in Mugello that I went into Q1, or Montmelo. But it is the way to understand how to work otherwise it is impossible to understand what you need.”

Chicken and Egg

Andrea Dovizioso agreed with Márquez, as you might expect given that Márquez had taken the strategy from Dovizioso. “The problem is that you are only able to do that when you are fast,” the factory Ducati rider explained.

“Because if you are not fast enough and you are out of the top ten, you never know if you are ready for the next practice. So everybody puts the soft tire at the end of practice, because everybody wants to be in the top ten.”

“If you are able to be fast when you try the pace, you can do that. That’s the reason why most of the riders don’t do that.”

Dovizioso was confident he had the speed, however. “It was really good, even better than what we expected,” he said. “Our speed is really good, and that is the best you can have on the first day, because it gives you the chance to make more laps on the tires, and you are able to work a lot for the race.”

“We didn’t put the soft tire at the end, like Marc, and we are in the top ten, which is very important and positive. We showed really good speed, with used tires, with a new tire, so really happy.”

“That doesn’t mean this will be enough, because the consumption of the tire is the biggest point, so we are working a lot on that. It’s not easy, but I’m really happy about the first day.”

Where’s the Beef?

Why risk dropping out of the top ten on Friday, and gamble on the weather being good enough on Saturday morning to take a shot at trying to get straight through to Q2 in FP3? Because by not worrying about qualifying on Friday, you effectively buy yourself another 30 minutes of practice to work on race setup.

Most riders spend the first half an hour of FP1 and FP2 working on the race, before switching to new tires and a more powerful engine setting to try to secure passage to Q2.

That means you have to focus on one bike for your race setup, while the mechanics get the second bike ready for a pre-qualifying dash in the final fifteen minutes. Time spent on qualifying is time lost to race setup, a lack which only becomes apparent on Sunday afternoon.

Danilo Petrucci explains: “Here, we have to prepare one bike for the fast lap, for the qualifying, and one bike to make all of the race.”

“The bikes are very different comparing between the race pace tire and the qualifying tire, so you have to deal with the electronics, with the setup, you have to understand a lot of things. For sure the bike changes a lot during lap by lap. And you have to care very, very much about the pace of the race with a used tire.”

A quick look at race pace shows that Márquez is indeed quick, with Dovizioso not a million miles behind. Dani Pedrosa is running low 1’57s consistently, and Andrea Iannone is pretty consistent as well, despite having missed out on Q2 by ending the day in eleventh.

Marc Márquez’ assessment was broadly similar, though he played down his own strength. “At the moment I think the fastest guy on the track is Dovizioso,” he said, “but then it is Dani, me and two or three more riders with a very similar pace.”

Tire Wear

The big issue for everyone is the consumption of the rear tire, especially in the heat at Brno. Tires coming back into the pits looked very well used, beyond what you might expect in cooler temperatures.

That made it imperative to focus on race pace, and not worry too much about qualifying. But that was a luxury only Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Márquez could afford, while others struggled to keep pace.

“For sure it was a difficult day,” Valentino Rossi said on Friday afternoon. “The conditions are at the limit with more than 50 degrees on the asphalt. It’s difficult to manage.”

“It’s also difficult to ride the bike at the maximum because it looks like the track have quite a lot of bumps, like a little worse compared to last year. So it’s not easy. I don’t have a fantastic feeling, especially in the front. We still have to work.”

That wasn’t his main concern, however. “For me the main issue, the biggest problem will be the rear tire degradation. Here the rear tire drop a lot. After three or four laps you lose a lot of grip and you have a lot of spin so it’s difficult to keep the right pace.

So we have to work a lot on this point, in this area. It looks like the situation is not very clear still because a lot of top riders try different tire options front and rear. I don’t try the harder option but a lot of riders like it. Tomorrow I will try. Maybe tomorrow we can understand in a better way our level.”

Tire degradation was not peculiar to Yamaha, however. “I think everybody suffers,” Rossi said. “It depends who suffers less. When you put the new tire you have two laps where you are fast and it’s very easy to improve the lap time.”

“But for 21 laps I think the key for arrive on the podium is to try and suffer as less as possible. The rear degradation is a lot, so you lose a lot of performance, you lose a lot of time. The track is also long so the gap become bigger.”

A Hardware Problem, Not a Software Problem

Yamaha still haven’t brought a solution to their tire wear problem, something both Rossi and Viñales have been pushing very hard for throughout the season.

The issue, Yamaha’s MotoGP project leader Kouji Tsuya told a press conference of the technical leaders of the MotoGP manufacturers, was down to a fundamental design issue of the engine.

“We have to concentrate to improve the acceleration,” Tsuya-san said. “Also by electronics, and also by chassis, but unfortunately we cannot change the engine configuration.”

Tsuya-san did not elaborate further, but a conversation with MotoGP technical guru Neil Spaldingproved enlightening. Spalding believes that the issue is down to the crankshaft, which he labeled “probably the most important component after the tires.”

Like Suzuki last year, Yamaha got the mass of the crankshaft wrong, though they erred in making it too light, rather than too heavy. That is making it more difficult to control acceleration (and deceleration), which is making the rear tire spin, and causing it to degrade.

Yamaha will have to wait for 2019 to be able to fix that, however, as the technical regulations mean that engine design is frozen for the season at Qatar.

The way to fix this, of course, is to get the engine right in testing, something which both Suzuki and Honda have done this year.

Testing is the next big focus for Yamaha, the Japanese factory finally buckling and deciding to set up a European-based test team, much to the delight of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales.

“I push a lot for the [European test] team,” Valentino Rossi said. “I think it’s a great idea, because to work with the test team in Japan is a bit difficult because, first of all, the tracks in Japan are very different compared to Europe.”

“So I think it will be very important for Yamaha. And also the rider is very important, because to understand something you need a rider that is fast like me and Maverick or maybe just a little bit less.”

“I think we have some different names on the list. [Bradley] Smith is one, [Jonas] Folger is another, that already knows the bike. It’s important to a have a rider that is not too old and can go quite fast.”

Loopholes Exploited

At Ducati, Danilo Petrucci was playing the role of test mule, debuting the latest update of their aerodynamic fairing.

The fairing (shown in a tweet from the Alma Pramac Racing Team below) has two components, an upper mini-moustache-like loop similar to the parts used by Yamaha and Honda on the upper part of the fairing, and a reduced box duct on the lower side of the fairing, similar to the current fairing:

What Ducati appear to have attempted is to recreate the most successful iteration of their winged fairing, before the ban on unprotected winglets came into force. There is an upper winglet to provide anti-wheelie, and a side wing to add some stability, as pictured below.

Whatever they have done, it appears to have worked. Petrucci was certainly delighted with the new fairing, setting his fastest time with the new fairing and not finding any negatives with it.

“The biggest point is that the new fairing has no negative points,” Petrucci said. “So I mean there is not the difference between day and night. We don’t gain 10 km/h in the straight, I don’t know if we gain anything, because it’s like 1, 2, 3 km/h, but I’m not sure.”

“The positive point is that the handling is better, it’s not so heavy to change direction. And when you try something new and it has no negative points, it’s OK, because you can compare.”

“And especially we did a comparison, one bike with the old fairing, one bike with the new fairing, with identical bikes. And this is good, because it means the work done is better.”

Petrucci’s test work was welcomed in the factory Ducati team, where both Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo were encouraged by the results. They will likely use the fairing on Saturday, with an eye to using it in the race.

If the fairing is as good as Petrucci suggests, and improves the anti-wheelie function without making the bike more difficult to turn through the corners, they will have made a major step forward. Saturday will be the proof of the pudding.

Photo: © 2018 Tony Goldsmith / www.tonygoldsmith.net – All Rights Reserved

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

There are modern tracks on the MotoGP calendar, and there are old tracks. The modern tracks offer plenty of run off and nice wide tarmac, but are usually too tight and convoluted to give free rein to a MotoGP bike.

The old tracks are fast, flowing, offer plenty of overtaking opportunities, and are a real challenge, but they also tend to be narrow, and, frankly, dangerously lacking in run off. The riders find the new tracks irritating, but enjoy the safety, and they love the old tracks, but fear the consequences of a bad mistake.

The Automotodrom Brno seems like the perfect compromise. Fast and flowing, challenging, and big enough to give a MotoGP bike its legs. But also wide, with plenty of run off in most places, and plenty of grip from the track.

It has a stadium section, giving fans the chance to follow the action through a section of track. But it also flows up and down a hill, and through the woods, a ribbon of tarmac snaking through a beautiful natural setting, high on a hill above the city of Brno.

That location offers its own challenges. Up on the hill, it is usually a little cooler than down in the town. The woods exhale oxygen which gives the bikes a little power boost.

But they also hold moisture, the combination of high hills and thick woods raising the possibility of rain. Fortunately, the track retains its grip in the wet, though the rain can still shake up a race.

Every Type of Challenge

Riders and bikes face an entertaining range of challenges at Brno. Some hard braking sections, especially at Turn 1 and Turn 3, but more importantly, a flowing layout. The track is rife with combinations of corners, the perfect recipe for motorcycle racing.

You can pass another rider going into most corners, but if you do, you leave yourself open to counterattack as the track comes back on itself. Pass into Turn 4, and you leave yourself open through Turn 5.

Have a go at Turn 6, and the rider you passed has the entire stadium section to come back at you. Have a go up the hill at Turn 12, and they can come back at Turn 13. And of course there’s the final death-or-glory chicane before the finish line.

Above all, there is the hill, dubbed Horsepower Hill for its steepness. The TV footage does not do it justice, but seeing photographers struggling to get a scooter laden with cameras and lenses up the hill makes you realize just how tough that incline is.

If your bike is down on horsepower, you need to make sure you start the hill ahead of your rivals, so you can hold them off through the chicanes.

Fear the RC213V

The extra horsepower Honda have found for the RC213V does not bode well for anyone hoping to call a halt to Marc Márquez’s seemingly relentless march towards the 2018 MotoGP title.

More horsepower for the 2018 bike has made it a lot more manageable, taking away the need to risk it all in braking. More horsepower will also help haul the Honda up Horsepower Hill, and put the bike in a good position for the finish line.

Márquez won here last year, though more through a masterstroke of strategy, coming in after two laps to swap to slicks as the track started to dry, where the rest of the field stayed out much longer on wet tires, only to find that Márquez had already built up a huge lead.

The Honda was already strong at Brno. Honda have won six of the last seven races at the track, with Marc Márquez, Dani Pedrosa, Cal Crutchlow, and Casey Stoner all taking victory there.

Dani Pedrosa has been exceptionally strong at Brno, beating Jorge Lorenzo in a tight victory twice, and only losing out to his teammate by three tenths of a second in 2013.

It was Pedrosa who put an end to Márquez’s run of 10 straight wins at Brno in 2014 as well. If there is a track where Pedrosa can get his season back on track, and push for a win to keep his record of consecutive seasons with a victory intact.

Honda may have dominated at Brno recently, but the layout of the track suits Yamaha down to the ground. Fast changes of direction and places where corner speed is king play to the strengths of the M1, as witnessed by the strong results the factory has booked in the past.

Yamaha won three-straight races between 2008 and 2010, Valentino Rossi winning twice, Jorge Lorenzo winning in 2010, while Lorenzo won again in 2015.

Lorenzo finished just behind Dani Pedrosa in both 2012 and 2014, and Valentino Rossi has been a frequent podium visitor, despite not winning at the track since 2009.

Victory needed

Yamaha need a win. The Sachsenring made it 19 races without a win for Yamaha, their longest winless streak since 1998.

The issue has been tire wear, especially in the second half of the race, and both Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales have been very vocal about Yamaha lagging too far behind with the electronics of the M1.

Yamaha have brought what Rossi described as a “small step” to Brno, to be debuted at the test on Monday. “We have some small step in this period, I think, but they need time,” the Italian told the press conference.

“They need time to have something bigger, so they need more time. We speak about different areas but mainly it is electronics, yes.”

They face the additional challenge of fending off the Ducati. Horsepower has always been a strength of the Desmosedici, and Brno is a track where they can reap the benefits of the copious quantity of ponies housed within the cowling of Ducati’s machines.

Nothing will beat the Ducati up Horsepower Hill, but first they have to navigate the fast switchbacks which line the Brno track.

Luckily, Ducati have a number of things going for them. First and foremost, perhaps, that Jorge Lorenzo is on a bike, and is much more competitive than last year.

The aerodynamic fairing debuted at this track last year transformed his fortunes, and added to the revised chassis and extra support from a reshaped tank pad, should put him in the mix from the start.

Lorenzo got a strong start in 2017, and if it hadn’t been for a botched bike swap in a flag-to-flag race – still one of his weakest points – he could have been in the mix.

Aerodynamics could be important for Lorenzo’s teammate at Brno, Andrea Dovizioso set to debut a new fairing some time this weekend.

Dovizioso was another rider who struggled during the bike swap last year, though he came back to finish sixth. Ducati have strength across the board too, with Jack Miller, Danilo Petrucci, and Alvaro Bautista also capable of mixing it up at the front.

Cal Crutchlow and Johann Zarco could also make an impression at Brno. Crutchlow won here in a wet race in 2016, and had a solid race to finish fifth in 2017.

The LCR Honda rider is concerned about the allocation of front tires, especially, as usual, worrying that the tire is not hard enough to cope with the stresses involved. The key to managing that, he believes, is to get out in front and get cool air on the front tire, to prevent it from overheating.

Fences Mended

As for Zarco, the Frenchman has effected something of a reconciliation with his now former manager Laurent Fellon. The friction between the two had been at least part of the cause of his drastic drop in performance in recent races, Zarco not being a shadow of the rider he was in the opening races of this season.

Zarco laid at least some of the blame on himself, he told the media at Brno. Who had he been speaking to during the all-too-brief summer break?

“First of all with myself,” the Monster Tech3 Yamaha rider said. “Then with Laurent when we were having some training with Supermoto. And now with the team. The first one I was speaking to was myself.”

Riding with Fellon again had been good, Zarco said. “With Laurent, the special thing is that when we are training, we are on the track alone with the motorbike, we have kind of special feelings together,” the Frenchman philosophized.

“I like it, and I want to still use it and work in this way. I feel it can make me still strong, even in the future. Because I am growing up, progressing with my career, a few things need to change, like a child growing up.”

“That’s why people think we are fighting or struggling together, but we are just changing a bit the way of managing but not how we are working on the track.” Fellon was still his coach, Zarco explained, but no longer his manager.

Could Suzuki mount a challenge at Brno? The bike has the agility and the corner speed to cope with the fast sweeping corners at the circuit. This year, it also has the horsepower to handle the hill, though it is still shy of the Ducati’s numbers.

The challenge will be for the riders, as neither Alex Rins nor Andrea Iannone have a spectacular record on the Suzuki. Iannone at least has performed well at the circuit, scoring strong results in previous years on the Ducati, but neither he nor Rins have managed to reproduce that on the Suzuki.

Bigger Breaks Please

The MotoGP riders return to the track on Friday, with just two weekends between Brno and the previous race at the Sachsenring. The briefness of that break was a bone of contention for most riders, though not all (most prominent dissenting voice: Andrea Dovizioso).

Having a long break was a necessity, most riders agreed, to allow time to get away from racing, and for tired bodies and minds to recover, and to allow any injuries picked up in the first half of the season to recover.

Some riders had not even had the two weekends off: the Ducati riders had obligations at the World Ducati Weekend at Misano, making it another working weekend for them, despite the fact that it is such a remarkable event which they enjoy attending.

Takaaki Nakagami had raced the Suzuka 8-Hours race last weekend, flying back from Japan to jump straight onto another bike at Brno.

Though Dorna’s hands are tied to some extent by promoters and circuits, they will not repeat that mistake again in 2019. Next year, there will be at least three free weekends between the German round of MotoGP – probably the Sachsenring, but that is no certainty – and Brno, at the end of the summer break.

That space will be created by running Assen and Germany back-to-back, something which many riders had pleaded for in the Safety Commission.

“We’ve already spoken a little bit about this and it is important on the summer break to increase it maybe by one week more,” Valentino Rossi said.

“It was a very short summer break because for us it was like one week and a half because you need to be fit for the start of the second part of the season with two races in a row. Every year we have more races but I know Dorna is working on the calendar because I think it will be important for everybody.”

Managing the Calendar

As the calendar expands – there will be at least 19 races next year, and perhaps even 20, despite the fact that MotoGP will not be going to Finland in 2019 – scheduling becomes more difficult, with little free time left with which to create free weekends.

Valencia, the final race of the year, cannot be pushed back any later. Thanks to the revised schedule at Qatar, with the MotoGP race run at 7pm instead of 9pm, the season opener could be run much earlier than it is now, perhaps as early as the first week of March, though officials involved in scheduling refuse point blank to answer any questions on the precise start and end date of the season.

An option preferred by the riders is to have more races in Europe run back to back. With travel time relatively limited, and no change in time zones, two or even three races could be run on consecutive weekends, opening up a hole in the schedule for a summer break.

That would suit the teams and riders, giving them time to rest, and perhaps even test in the middle of the break, and it may help with TV coverage, as late June and July often have major sporting events going on which interfere with coverage of MotoGP.

It could also help some circuits, who would not have to contend with fans being on vacation over the summer, rather than taking a break to attend a race.

The calendar of winter testing should be announced any day now, but the 2019 race calendar could take more time to assemble. There are still questions to be answered and choices to be made, but one thing is for certain: there will be some form of summer break next year.

Everyone is glad to be back at a race track again. But with a long second half of the season ahead of us, their joy would have been greater if they had been given an extra week at home, to prepare them.

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

Yamaha have been at the center of the MotoGP news for a good part of this season. For good reasons and for bad reasons: the new Petronas SIC satellite team has been at the center of speculation over who would run the team, who would manage the team, and more importantly, who would ride for the team, with some top riders linked to the seats.

But Yamaha have also now gone for 19 races without a win, their longest streak without a victory since 1998. At the same time, Valentino Rossi is second in the championship, and Movistar Yamaha teammate Maverick Viñales is third, and both riders have been podium regulars throughout the first part of 2018.

After the Sachsenring, Yamaha announced that Monster Energy would be taking over as title sponsor from the 2019 season, replacing the departing Movistar, who are expected to lose the MotoGP broadcasting contract for Spain and are stepping back from the series.

On Thursday at Brno, Yamaha held a press conference with Monster Energy, giving the media their first chance to question Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis and Monster Energy Vice President Mitch Covington about the deal.

Once the press conference was over, a small group of journalists got a chance to question Jarvis about the challenges the factory Yamaha team has faced over the course of this year.

He spoke about dealing with the pressure of going for such a long time without a win, of handling rumors about dissatisfaction within the team, and some of the more fanciful rumors of discord between Valentino Rossi and himself, and about needing to expand their testing strategy.

Silverstone for Petronas SIC

But he started off talking about the Petronas SIC Yamaha team, a team which exists, but about which the formal details have yet to be announced. “My understanding is that they will probably announce, probably, at Silverstone,” Jarvis told us when asked about it.

The reason the decision was taking so long was because of the size of the various parties involved, Jarvis explained. There were a lot of large corporations taking part, some of whom are owned by the government, which means that a lot of meetings have to be held before the project is fully signed off on.

“I think [the delay is] because the Sepang International Circuit is part of a government-controlled operation and group,” Jarvis said. “And probably their possible sponsor is also part of a very large corporation.”

“Whenever you get involved in large corporations or government-funded activities there is a certain protocol that has to be followed before you can reach the point of an announcement. So that’s what I believe is going to be a factor.”

No decision had been made on what type of machinery Yamaha would supply to the Petronas SIC team, Jarvis said, but Yamaha had given them a choice of options. “Money talks!” he joked.

“The decision on the satellite bikes is dependent entirely upon the budget and the decision of the satellite team. We’ve given them different options. They have an ‘A’ option and a ‘B’ option. And they’ve placed their order. So you’ll see in January what they ordered.”

Franky and Fabio

Yamaha weren’t involved at all in the choice of the riders, Jarvis said. “It’s their choice, but obviously we have mutual interests,” he told us. Though the Yamaha boss did not name names, Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo are widely expected to be riding the bikes.

“I think their rider choice is done,” Jarvis said. “Whether they’ve signed their agreements yet or not is something only the team can tell you.”

The team had been left free to choose the riders, with Yamaha not having a veto over who they would supply bikes to, he said. The riders would not be signed to Yamaha but placed in the Petronas SIC team, Jarvis insisted. “This is a satellite project, so they will have individual contracts with the satellite team.”

Though Franco Morbidelli is a known quantity, the choice of Fabio Quartararo has raised eyebrows in a number of quarters.

After winning the FIM CEV Moto3 championship at the tender age of 15, the Grand Prix Commission changed the rules to allow the precocious Frenchman to move up to Moto3, despite being younger than the minimum age at the start of the 2015 season.

He got his career off to an astounding start, scoring a podium in just his second race, and two pole positions and another second place in his rookie season.

“You Don’t Lose Talent”

But up until this season, the Frenchman has struggled, going without a disappointing two years in Moto3 and Moto2, before finally finding some success again in Moto2 this season with the Speed Up team, taking his first Grand Prix victory at the Barcelona race, and following it up with a podium at Assen.

Many inside the paddock have questioned the wisdom of moving Quartararo up to MotoGP so quickly, so we were interested to hear Lin Jarvis’ thoughts on the French youngster.

“I think he’s a very talented young kid, who began sensationally in this environment when he was in Moto3 some years ago,” Jarvis told us. “Then I think he lost his way a little bit. But I think you can lose your way, but you don’t lose talent.”

“So in my opinion, he is a very good future candidate rider, but he needs to also have an environment where there’s not too much pressure on him to perform again instantly.”

“And it’s good to see he’s finally coming back into the zone this year, and seems to be finding himself again and feeling a bit more self confident.” Could Quartararo handle the pressure of MotoGP? “Why not?” Jarvis said.

The name of Wilco Zeelenberg has been linked to Petronas SIC as MotoGP team manager, and although Jarvis would not confirm Zeelenberg would be leaving Yamaha to manage the new team, he did concede that having Zeelenberg, a man with long ties to Yamaha, involved in the project would be a positive thing for the team.

“If Wilco decides to go there, he would go there with our blessing,” Jarvis said. “Because obviously if it’s a brand-new team then having people involved in the team that have a strong connection with Yamaha – experience with Yamaha, experience in the sport – is very important.”

“So if Wilco were to choose to take an opportunity in that way, we would certainly not hold him back and it would be an advantage for the team.”

Would Jarvis advise Zeelenberg to take the job? “This may sound strange, but I always advise every person that works for me, if a better opportunity comes along, where you can grow your career, you can expand your let’s say professional activities, take it,” Jarvis said.

“Because that’s what you have to do in your life. The worst thing you can do is hold somebody back, restrict or prevent somebody from doing things. Because it doesn’t work. It might work for three months but it certainly doesn’t help you in the relationship with that person in the long term.”

“So if he feels it’s good for him to do that, then why not? It would be an interesting challenge for him. So if the team offers him that job then I think that’s something that he should definitely consider.”

Going Winless

Jarvis also addressed the pressure which the factory Yamaha team has been under after going for such a long time without winning a race. It has been 19 races since they last stood on the top step, had that created pressure between the Movistar Yamaha team and the factory back in Japan?

Jarvis’ assessment was honest and open. “We need to win,” he said. “That’s something that we’re here for. Our partners want to win, our fans want to win, Yamaha Motor wants to win. We won Suzuka last weekend and you could see how important getting a victory is.”

They were not that far away from winning again, Jarvis insisted. “We are very, very close. We have been close on several occasions. We still need to sort out a few more things.”

“I don’t want to go into any details because I don’t think it’s the time or place to do that. But anyway we’re working hard, we need to win again. Not once, but consistently win again. So that’s what we’re pushing for.”

The Rumor Mill

Jarvis dismissed stories which had appeared in some Spanish media outlets that Valentino Rossi was pushing for Jarvis to be sacked.

He pointed to the fact that just two days ago, he has been at Rossi’s dirt track Moto Ranch, talking to the students at the VR46 Master Camp held there last week. Jarvis was pictured in Rossi’s home, standing next to Rossi’s championship-winning Fiat Yamaha, talking to the students.

Yamaha Motor Racing’s Managing Director, Lin Jarvis, shares a story about the start of the Master Camp.#theMasterCamp | #theExperience pic.twitter.com/pV7LMuuWRe

— YamahaVR46MasterCamp (@TheMasterCamp) July 31, 2018

Jarvis acknowledged that such rumors, and the stories of disaffection in Yamaha, such as Maverick Viñales looking to replace crew chief Ramon Forcada with Bradley Smith’s crew chief Esteban Garcia, had had an effect on all involved.

“It’s always easier to work in a winning environment,” Jarvis said. “There’s no doubt about it. If you’re winning, everything is fine. Even the things that are bad are fine if you’re winning.”

But getting rid of him would not solve the problems Yamaha faced, Jarvis said. “Of course it puts pressure on the team, on the relationships, the riders are pushing the engineers to develop the bike.”

“I don’t design the bike, I don’t develop the bike, so you can fire me and it won’t change anything in terms of bike design. I think it’s just an expression of people, everybody feels the same thing, that we want to win, we want to be successful.”

Closer Than You Think

Jarvis emphasized that Yamaha are not as far from victory as some thought. “As I said, we’re very, very close,” Yamaha’s MD said. “We’re not in a disastrous situation, we’re second and third in the championship and at the last race we were second and third.”

“But to win, to beat Márquez, to beat the Honda, you’ve got to be right there, you’ve got to be right on it. And we’re not, we’re missing a few percent, and that’s why we owe to our riders to develop the bike and to get up to speed there.”

That was the challenge Yamaha faced, Jarvis said. “That’s what we have to do. But that takes some time. And if you try to speed it up – everybody has talked about this electronics problem, it’s not that simple.”

“It’s not only electronics, it’s electronics integrated with chassis design, but in order to make progress, you have to first make the progress, and then you have to test it. We have to test it and prove that whatever you’ve done works, AND is safe.”

“And that means you have to go through processes, and if you take a shortcut, this is not the way.”

How do you keep morale up while this development process was running its course? “With difficulty!” Jarvis half-joked.

One solution being explored is the setting up of a European test team, to augment the work being done in Japan, and though Jarvis would not confirm this would definitely happen, he was no longer denying it, as he had previously. It was now a real possibility, Jarvis acknowledged.

“Obviously we have our testing team, but that’s been based in Japan primarily, with Nakasuga,” he said. “Probably we need to put even more energy behind testing and to keep making progress. So it’s something we are definitely looking at for the future.”

He refused to be drawn on which riders might be involved, but he wasn’t worried about not being able to find someone to fill the role. “I think that what we need is a good plan, and I don’t think we will have a big problem to find candidate riders,” Jarvis said.

Not Surprised, Disappointed

Had he been surprised that Yamaha had gone for over a year without a win, or was he more surprised that Honda had won so many races in 2018? “I’ve been in the game too long to really be surprised, is the best answer I can give,” Jarvis said wrily.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t won for a year. So that’s a fact, because we are accustomed to winning more in the past, and we are a winning team.”

“And OK, our last championship was a couple of years ago, but we’ve won several world championships consistently over the years, so we know we have the capacity to win again, so I’m disappointed that we lost the way a little bit.”

“Am I surprised about Honda? I’m not really surprised about Márquez, because I think if you talk about Honda, you talk primarily about Márquez, and Márquez is an athlete that right at this moment, especially this year, seems to have married himself very, very well to the Honda package.”

“He’s in top form, he is a sensational rider, and when he is able to contain himself, then he’s very, very, very strong. So he’s an extremely tough competitor to beat. But our riders have the potential to beat him, we’ve done it in the past and we will do it again in the future.”

Photo: Yamaha Racing

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.