[cycleworld.com] - Jerez MotoGP Report 2023

[Ninjette Newsbot]

MotoGP returns to Europe to a packed house at Jerez. After KTM and Brad Binder stole the limelight on Saturday in the sprint race, Pecco Bagnaia got revenge on Sunday.

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After leading the majority of the race, KTM’s Brad Binder (33), finally succumbed to the pressure of Francesco Bagnaia (1). Binder kept him honest until the last corner of the last lap. (MotoGP/)A new form is emerging from 2023?s sprint-race MotoGP format. KTM test rider veteran Dani Pedrosa, running as a wild-card entry, finished a distinguished seventh on Sunday, commented, “From first practice, these guys are going for pole position.

“You have to go for the lap time, but you never know what could cancel [it].”

He was referring first to the telescoping of the weekend by the addition of the sprint race, and second to the new importance of a steady stream of rider penalties for offenses detected by race stewards (the two that were received by Fabio Quartararo were much discussed).

Riders have become so upset at what many perceive as based more on who the rider is than on what he is accused of, and of inconsistency in the doling out of penalties. A meeting is set for the upcoming Le Mans event in France.

Pedrosa continued, “It’s only Friday so maybe you don’t have the right setup, the right tires, you don’t know the conditions…”


In 2023, getting out front is critical. Those not finding their way to the front early suffer with overheating tires. The KTMs of Brad Binder (33) and Jack Miller (43) dominated early in both the sprint and feature races. (MotoGP/)Once the riders have qualified, they face the newly magnified importance of the start and first laps, plus the prospect that the planned minimum-tire-pressures rule will notionally soon be applied, with further penalties for laps or race distance traversed with tire pressures below the minimums specified by Michelin, the manufacturer, of 1.9 bar front, 1.7 rear (28 psi front, 25 psi rear).

Those minimum pressures set the starting points for pressure increases caused by:

1. Track temperature
2. Tire heating during drafting in the hot wakes of one or more other bikes
3. Special conditions, such as exceptionally hard brake use or long fast corners that heat just one side of each tire.

The condition riders know they must avoid is the vicious circle in which pressure rise reduces footprint area, thereby reducing traction. Efforts to maintain competitive lap times in this condition quickly lead to brake locking or spin that further heat the tire, making it necessary to rest it for one or more laps.


If you want to fight for the podium, you have to get up front early. (MotoGP/)At this point you may reasonably object, “Yes, but somehow the leaders in this race—eventual winner Francesco Bagnaia (factory Ducati), Brad Binder (second on KTM), Jack Miller (third, KTM), and Jorge Martín (fourth, Pramac Ducati)—managed to avoid those issues. How did they do it?”

Miller has candidly spoken of offsetting his bike to avoid the slipstream, and Quartararo said, “…behind Di Giannantonio I had to keep at least one second of distance. That’s an issue we have had…so many times.”

On Saturday Bagnaia said, “In conditions like this track, where the braking is a lot, where you force the front end and the temperature is like today? It’s impossible to ride starting at the [pressure] limit that they’ve [set].”


After taking pole position for both the sprint and feature race, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaró got swallowed up off the start both days. (MotoGP/)These four bikes were all within the first two seconds, with early practice stand-out Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia, fifth) almost five seconds back, similar to what we used to see in World Superbike when it was two races in one—a fast race for factory teams and a not-so-fast race for “others.”

But isn’t Jorge Martín hailed as a one-lap specialist? What’s he doing up front at the finish? Martín himself said, “It is difficult to overtake so we try to get into a position where we can be in front at the first lap.”

Next he said something of equal importance: “When I am alone, I am super fast. But as soon as I get stuck? I cannot overtake.

“I struggle not only to overtake but to defend the position when I am in a group. I struggle a lot with the front temperature (the riders’ screens present their tire pressures).”


Jorge Martín (89) on his Pramac Ducati was in the podium mix on Saturday in the sprint and then again on Sunday, carding a pair of fourths. (MotoGP/)What the riders are saying is that the start and first two laps to a great extent determine where you will finish. Get away in clear air (as Quartararo did early last season) and you can go fast without front tire overheating, without conflict of line with other riders having contrasting riding styles.

Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) saw it a bit differently, saying, “The first four laps are very, very important. The first four corners are key for the race.”


Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi came into Jerez on top and exited in second place after only scoring a single point in the pair of races. (MotoGP/)This is relevant in the case of Quartararo’s two penalties. On the first lap, he found himself between Bezzecchi and Miguel Oliveira, and after contact fell, bringing down Oliveira (dislocated shoulder and now, it appears, a fracture as well).


Fabio Quartararo had a weekend that he and Yamaha would like to forget. After getting a controversial long-lap penalty on Sunday for a first-lap incident, he crossed the white line on the exit and had to serve a second long-lap penalty. He eventually fought back to 10th place. (MotoGP/)Or should he have braked to back out of that shrinking space, giving up the position he was seeking? Or should either of the other riders have shown restraint? Slow down and live, speed up and receive a penalty. The first lap is the largest throw of the dice, so it doesn’t pay to be shy.

Both sprint and final were stopped by red flags, and more names have gone on the injured list. Older persons will recall that in the GP racing era before 1980 it appeared that riders were regarded as consumables, like Kleenex in a sick room. Riders in the 1960s spoke of “steering with your elbows” to avoid the great trackside trees after falling at Spain’s Montjuic Park circuit. A major issue Kenny Roberts had with the FIM then was safety, and there is no doubt that much has been accomplished since that time.

If deemed useful for commercial purposes, should race management again regard rider injury as just a cost of doing business? This suggests a racing series fueled as was the ship in Verne’s novel, Around the World in 80 Days—by throwing its parts into its own fireboxes.


Bagnaia (1) struggled on Friday and missed a direct transfer to Q2, having to grab one of the two slots available in Q1. Ducati then was able to put a race-winning motorcycle underneath him by Sunday. (MotoGP/)Bagnaia described his own process in finding a setup quickly enough to be competitive early. He said early, “I am struggling with the front feeling of the bike.”

An answer came in two stages, soon enough to give the necessary confidence. But Aleix Espargaró put his Aprilia on pole.

Aleix Espargaró contrasted his style with that of certain newcomers who lean their bikes tremendously: “…my riding style…allowed me to accelerate with the bike at some degrees less [lean] than the others. I think in the central part of the tire there is more grip, more traction.”

Yes, that has been observed by top riders at least from 1956 when John Surtees, newly mounted on the factory MV Agusta four, discovered that by holding his bike more upright by himself staying lower down, he could accelerate without the spinning that occurred when the bike was leaned more.


Quartararo (20) had to fight through the pack with Augusto Fernández (37) and Raúl Fernández (25). (MotoGP/)“[Raúl Fernández] (RNF Aprilia) spins a lot,” Espargaró continues, “because he really leans a lot…

“…as soon as he touches the throttle he has a lot of spin, a lot of problems [with] the throttle.”

Franco Morbidelli (factory Yamaha) summed up well: “In my opinion a big reason for all these accidents is the tires. Each rider’s race depends on how many positions you gain at the start and where you find yourself after two laps, since [after that] the tire temperature rises and you can’t do anything more except cool them down and figure out how to stay upright.”


Franco Morbidelli’s poor qualifying and 16th and 11th place finishes illustrate how battling in the back of the pack with overheating tires is one of attrition. (MotoGP/)The leaders did actually do considerably more than stay upright, which is what many people are giving as their reason for welcoming the sprint-race format—desperate human intensity.

Morbidelli then walked back that bleak picture somewhat, saying, “…I believe that in the cooler races we won’t see the riders go crazy in the first two laps, and a weekend like Austin proves it.”

From what population should race stewards be chosen? From retired former greats of the sport? When someone suggested to Kenny Roberts, back when he was running his own race team, that his experience would greatly benefit his riders, he flatly denied it, saying that equipment, tires, and conditions change. That invalidates the “understanding” of old-timers. Should riders instead be judged by a panel of their peers—other active riders?

A great 1940 photo shows 19-year-old night fighter pilot John Cunningham, in a too-big baggy dress uniform with his cap sitting on his ears, being given a medal by the king of England. What could that king know of the radar battle above the darkened cities?


KTM’s Miller joined teammate Binder and Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia on the podium both Saturday and Sunday. KTM has truly arrived. (MotoGP/)The top four who happened to have workable setups and who got away at the start didn’t have it easy. Miller (third, KTM) said, “I was suffering a little bit…with the right-hand edge on the front, especially in the faster corners.

“…I wasn’t closing them down so I knew they were doing the same!”

Again and again I have been asked why the tire manufacturer doesn’t “just make a tire that will go the distance, no problem?” The answer is that such a tire would be slow and dangerous because it would be too hard to provide much grip. Tires of just this kind have been made to save money in commercial vehicle fleet operations.

When we look back in time, there is the late Geoff Duke, denied the 1950 500 championship he had in the bag when his overtemperature tires threw most of their tread. And in 1972, when the first 100 hp two-strokes showed up at Daytona, they were out with blistered or chunked tires.

After 1980, in the final days of bias-tire construction, championships were won by tire conservation—either by hanging back to wait for the others to burn up their grip, or by establishing a 10-to-15-second lead and then (as Mick Doohan put it 10 years into the radial era) “sliding around for the last 10 laps, just trying to stay upright.”

It will be interesting to see how these forces play out. The handing out of penalties requires the riders to be precise in observing rules, yet the new format, by making the early laps super important, also requires everyone to “just stick it in there.” Can the two be made compatible?

Will the upcoming Le Mans meeting between labor and management generate anything but a different kind of hot slipstream?


Miller celebrates with a big stoppie. (MotoGP/)
The top four both days included Binder (33), Bagnaia (1), Miller (43), and Martín (89), just not necessarily in that order. (MotoGP/)