MotoGP World Championship

Right, question now from Stuart Coulter for you, Josh, the final question of this podcast.

Have any drivers expressed any reservations, publicly or privately, about going to Qatar and Abu Dhabi? Or have they been asked by Liberty Media and the FIA to tow the party line like the riders have in MotoGP? I think all the drivers trust the FIA's ability to make the right decision.

That's what I think.

Well, we've actually got a statement we can read off.

And I actually think that might eventually push the drivers to thinking, oh, we don't like being pushed down this path.

Almost you shoot yourself in the foot by making them more likely to push back.

And I haven't followed in detail what's been going on in MotoGP, but I think I'm right in saying the riders as a collective are the ones who have really, really pushed back now.

Well, yeah, you can't underestimate the power of the drivers or riders of MotoGP.

Hello, and welcome to the Red Sector GP podcast, where I talk about speedy motorbikes.

We have just completed the 18th round of the MotoGP Championship.

Not the 18th Grand Prix, as it turned out.

More on that in a moment.

But Phillip Island has been and gone for its final stint as it currently stands in the MotoGP calendar to be replaced by Adelaide in 2027 and beyond.

And it was a very fitting weekend, I feel, in a lot of ways for Phillip Island to tap out.

We saw Australian riders in all three categories doing their level best to kind of do justice to the local fans we saw a session red flagged by the local wildlife as is becoming tradition at this point and we saw the heavens just absolutely open up on sunday to pour water everywhere and douse the final farewells of the circuit and if that doesn't scream philip island to anyone listening Frankly, at this point, I don't know what does.

I'm joined this week by the lovely Elisa to discuss both everything that was and a number of things that weren't in the end in the Phillip Island Grand Prix.

So they've kept multiple options open and they'll leave it as late as they can to see if they can make it happen.

I know MotoGP are going to race first as well in Qatar.

So that's almost like a testbed for Formula One to see what goes on there.

And I think over the coming weeks, we'll then get a bit more clarity.

Ma cosa ci facevi là ad Austin?

È stato creato un evento da Liberty, eeeh, per mixare Formula 1 e MotoGP, è stata la prima volta, è statooo figo, molto figo.

Mhm, vivere il paddock della Formula 1 da dentro, noi eravamo in un altro paddock in realtà, però [segnale acustico di sottofondo] abbiamo avuto la fortuna di, di stare, eeh, e di vivere il paddock dentro con i piloti, con i team.

Siamo andati a disturbare i team [risata] come fanno tutti durante il weekend.

Ma com'è? È un ambiente molto [segnale acustico di sottofondo] differente da quello a cui noi siamo abituati?

Sì, ma p-per due motivi: primo perché è proprio diverso l-il lavoro che fai sul mezzo, sulla macchina e sulla moto, eeeh, c'è tantissima differenza.

Eee, e poi anche perché è vero che è arrivata Liberty, stanno cambiando tante cose in Formula 1, magari succederà anche in MotoGP, ma c'è proprio una gestione diversa.

Tutto tanto, tutto di più, quindi [risata] ha fatto effetto.

Yeah, so unfortunately, a heap of bikes is done and dusted, so we'll go through that shortly.

MotoGP is still ongoing.

As we speak today, it should have been the final race at PI, but I'm sure Jim and Rich will go into it, but... final race was cancelled due to the weather

and what weather it was jeez I've never it looked more like Glastonbury than Australia absolute torrential downpours mud everywhere but you know fair play to the fans sticking it out difficult track to get to

It's got that sort of semicircular duct on the bottom of the fairing as well.

If you can't beat them, join them.

That's what Ducati's done in MotoGP.

They've copied the aero on the Aprilia to great effect.

Abu Dhabi are cancelled.

But MotoGP now have done a vote with their drivers, which was kind of meant to be in secret as far as I believe, and then immediately got leaked.

There's 22 full-time MotoGP riders.

15 of them said they don't want to race in Qatar because Qatar, I believe, is meant to be, I think, next weekend.

So the same weekend as Brazil, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, so Qatar's meant to be on the same weekend as Brazil.

The four riders that voted for racing are Marco Buzzecchi, Jorge Martin, Ayagura, and... ralph fernandez now hilariously marco bosecki uh and jorge martin desperately needs to call points back in on mark marquez at the top of the championship and they both ride for aprilia ayagura and ralph fernandez also ride for aprilia on their satellite right so it's basically nobody wants to race apart from the two guys that need every point they can and the guys that are always going to vote in line for them unless they don't want to ride a motorbike anymore i guess until next year

Yes, that kind of says it all, doesn't it? It's not happening in MotoGP.

So you guys had like a shit ton of rain there and the race kept going.

Down here we had 36 mil of rain and they cancelled the MotoGP.

Are you for real? Is that right? So did they really call Phillip

Island? Yeah, but I suppose they're motorbikes.

But, yeah, I reckon I'll be back.

Yeah.

Well, I didn't even realise the MotoGP was on on the weekend, so that's how much I knew.

I

Yeah, Andretti was 78.

So John Soltis, who by the way, John Soltis is the only driver to ever win the world championship both in MotoGP and F1.

He did it in 1964.

Denny Holm in 1967.

No fairytale finish at Phillip Island.

The heavy rain cancelling the final MotoGP.

Ruining the last day at Phillip Island.

But we