Marc Marquez’s 2024 MotoGP Challenger Revealed | OMG MotoGP Podcast

Our first pod of the year! Harry, Keith and Pete pay tribute to Anthony Gobert, react to the Gresini and Ducati 2024 launches, debate AI and tyre pressures and we open the mailbox to answer some of your questions!

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0:00 OMG MotoGP Podcast
1:30 Remembering Anthony Gobert
5:15 Gresini and Ducati Team Launches
15:00 The Impact of Concessions on Ducati
21:00 The Role of AI in Motorsports
24:30 The Future of MotoGP Contracts
30:00 Other Listener Questions

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Video Showreel

Happy New Year we are back for a special January show do you like the new look let us know in the comments if you don’t like it well um don’t say anything because we’ve gone fully down this road now with the new branding so just suck

It and see uh my name is Harry Benjamin and this is the OMG Moto GP podcast and we Kickstart the year with my two trusty Moto GP experts former Grand Prix Rider and British champion Keith huin and crash. Net’s Moto GP editor Pete McLaren uh nice to see you both gents and well

If you’re not watching on YouTube you can’t see anybody uh but it’s nice to hear your vocal tones too Keith good good off season good Christmas New Year yeah probably you’re better off not looking at me so don’t go to YouTube If you fancy it and Pete a much better than

I am he’s just younger but at the end of the day yeah it’s been a good Christmas I’ve spent in the UK which is unusual normally we’re we’re away um we’ve always stayed in Southeast Asia obviously off the back of the Macau arm PRI as was used to be um we would stay

Out in anywhere down that that end of the world um it’s warmer it’s nicer and it’s easier to get um a suntown as you can see from me if you are watching on YouTube I haven’t had one this year well I have it’s just rust and Pete Where Have You Been

Where’s your tan from I’ve been riding motorbike so yeah I’ve been having a good time over Christmas New Year um injur riding in Thailand so yeah and then onto saang well next week so and then it all starts again so yes it’s the offseason is

Really com to an end now yeah as we gear up for the uh longest season ever in Moto GP history but before we dive into all the latest happenings uh we do have to start with um some sad news from the last week uh the eight time world

Superbite race winner Anthony gobert has died at 48 years old Keith clearly a great Rider but one who sadly struggled quite publicly with with alcohol and drug issues had do you look back on Anthony and his life and career well it turned into a terrible mess didn’t it

But you know at one point everyone was hailing this kid as going to be the next World Champion going to be the next great thing and he really was some a bit special and you I mean Pete and I were talking a bit earlier on about the

Amount of press the amount of time that has been spent and the amount of hits that any story to do with Gober has had on crash.net and on the rest um has been huge it’s been a huge story because I think motorcycle fans get behind a mavi get behind a personality someone like

Goot was I’m not going to say how he was just before he died because he turned into a you know a bit of a monster to be honest I mean he mugged an old lady mugged an old bloat um got himself in a right old mess got himself in a bar braw

Which in the end very took his life they came around and beat him up with bats until he was to within an inch of um he was in a mess in the end but if we try to just if we can not forget that bit

But just move that bit to to the side and talk about him as a motorcycle racer he had what the fans love he had that personality as well as the performance on track he was an unusual Maverick don’t give a OD type of of of guy and he

Amused the hell out of people he got that sort of Australian Maverick way about him as well um but clearly all was not well in the back of his head and he ended his life in the way that he did which is is I think it’s very sad I mean

There’ll be those out there that are harsh and don’t know the circumstances perhaps behind goet that would say that he got what he deserved um I don’t think anybody deserved to end up in that mental state that he ended up in um and I’ve never been near drug so I don’t

Know I’ve been near him but I’ve never had him so I don’t know how it affects you as a person how it changes you as a person and clearly it changed him in such a way that he couldn’t survive without you hear all the story stories

About drug addicts and the like and the alcohol you know having the effect it has on people and the things that you will go to go through just to get that and that unfortunately was where he was in the end and it um it did for him in the end

Um but I I’d like to remember him just as a great monite racer and one that could have gone far the sad thing is for me the biggest sad thing is that he was going to be a great Mony racer and it all fell apart because of drugs he got

Drug tested kicked out you know excluded and that was the end yeah I was going to say I think you know all the tributes and sort of comments that have come out the one by KL fogy sort of stood out you know he said he was the most naturally talented Rider

I’ve ever seen I mean there there’s your tribute isn’t it I mean coming from kyl fogy to say that about R shows the amount of ability he had but as Keith says just uh unfortunately couldn’t couldn’t keep on the straight and narrow and uh you know still a career despite

All of that you know eight World Super Bike wins uh you you know all those AMA wins as well and and and things like that it it was still a career that many people would have been quite rightly proud of but uh everyone knows that much more was surely possible with the amount

Of talent that He had so yeah very sad yeah really sad well our thoughts with uh Anthony and his family as well um let’s move on then to uh current uh Moto GP land news and it is starting to gear up a little bit um we’ve had two

Long laes so far Mr McLaren we’ve had grini and ducatti grini I think the big one that everybody was watching because they’ve got a little G Rider called Mark Marquez lining up for them this time um but I mean to to the the naked eye no massive change to that Livery it’s quite

A nice Livery though yeah exactly I mean that to be honest it’s pretty much identical to last year isn’t it and as you said there’s nothing wrong with that I mean they they’ve got the their sort of their own sort of brand and look with that light blue and red but I think

People expected that that sponsors would come in on the back of Mark Marquez he’s the biggest star on the MotoG GP grid right now there were all these sort of mockup liveries going around the internet weren’t there Red Bull and all these other things Red Bull having left

Honda it seems so it looked like oh well they’ll go over to grini or something but no the the sponsor list appears to be pretty much unchanged and uh they’ll be in as I say the the exact same Li really as last year so uh no title

Sponsor for grini um I I guess you could say well that that kind of opens the door if they want to do some special liveries they’ll have a a clean slate you know they do want at misano every year don’t they F their grini sort of

Tribute maybe they could do a few more of those kind of oneoff liveries but uh yeah bit surprising really when you’ve got Mark Marquez on board that you don’t have a title SW he don’t look quite right does he in the grini Leathers I mean you know I’m a

I love that pale blue but Mark Marquez he doesn’t look quite like the animal that we know he is on a motorbike he almost looks a bit subdued sub dude a bit muted in that light blue he’s going to grow horns and come out fighting

There’s no doubt in my mind about that I I thought the graini launch was brilliant I like the graini launch I think they did a bloody good job with it and the ducatti launch today you know is all what it is but from a I don’t know

About you P but I get kind of a little bit bored with these because at the end of the day they they launch for PR and it is the big launch and it’s the big unveil but they’re unveiling something that’s going to be completely different by the time we get the katar anyway

Everything will have changed a little bit um and things kind of get jiggled about a bit so I’m never quite so interested in um in team launches as as the Press they seem to get it’s almost like it warms the pr side up and warms up the hospitality people and gets them

All you know trundling away trying to trying to get it back out there and get everything running again and I think at the moment I think you you touched on it Harry um fact of the matter is is I don’t think there’s that much money about in the world generally I think

That that I think that it is really really hard at the moment to land on another big sponsor another big deal deal um I was at the Belfast bike Awards the Adelaide um Belfast bike awards at the weekend and had quite a long conversation with Michael ly who was

There because Eugene lvy um he got a he was inducted I think into the Hall of Fame or whatever it was there was so much going on there and so much drink I can’t remember any of it but um the point being is is that mlav they’ve lost

Vision track this year um which was their big headline sponsor and they don’t have an immediate replacement now they you know the the big story is is that they will be all right but losing a big sponsor you know the the the cost of Finance at the moment is huge so your

Corporations that were geared perhaps to a slightly different rate of financing their their debt is is is critical um these things are and people hold back don’t they even big corporations they suddenly going do we need to spend a million quid on something that we’re not

Going to get a direct return on you know suddenly it it has that effect Vision track have obviously decided to consolidate their business in the way that they have which is excluded the you know the rather expansive team now of uh Michael lved the mlav team at

To that the fact that Mike trimby is no longer with us um and I want to talk about her if I can in a little while that Mike trim is no longer with us and Mike trimby was a a massive Ally when it came to maneuvering dorna as much as

They can be maneuvered into favoring a British team to try and make sure a British team was properly funded and there’s no doubt about Dorner have weighed in financially um to Michael lv’s team I thought I think that’s a a sort of an Open Secret if you like um as they have

Done it many other times you go back to Jeremy MC Williams if you like and Dorner weighed into the team that he was in to make sure that they had a British Rider on a motorcycle in the um in Grand Prix so I think that there there are not

Such easy times coming for some of the teams that are a little lower than your headline guys so the the fact that you didn’t see brand spanking new big crash bang wallet sponsors all over the side of the grini bike doesn’t actually surprise me even with Mark Marquez on

Board bloody excited it’s gonna be he’s still he’s still wearing a red bull cap isn’t he they’re obviously a personal uh sponsor for for Mark and B but you never quite know what contractual obligations they’ve got to sort of Teeter around as well especially with such a big move

Just to say if there any sponsors watching you have a million quid and want to want to see it returned on a podcast we’re we’re always looking for for interest and you have no idea how expensive Pete McLaren is so we really do need that I think our editor is the one that

Needs all the money for the amount of [ __ ] UPS he has to work out from from me alone so just to edit out um I think I think the point as well is with grini is they’re on last year’s bike so they’re on the 24 bikes and the bikes for this

Year everybody seems to be very quietly enthusiastic over the step they’ve made with the ducatti for 2024 so the 2023 three bike we know it’s good we know it work well slightly disconcerting when you reading I think Pete you carried a story in Crash this week that just might have been today

Actually I might have read it today but the fact is is that you’re reporting as well exactly what we’re hearing is that B’s happy Gigi delinia he’s sort of nervously happy which is always a good sign um if you’re nervously happy it means that um you might be there or

Thereabouts it’s just a question of whether anyone else has made any I mean I if I was a factory team and and ducatti were were saying the kind of things or acting the kind of way they are at the moment I’d be scared to death if they made a step over what they’ve

Already got H so Valencia they tried the engine it seems I mean that because that’s the priority isn’t it if you’re jatti I mean now it’s a bit different because honor and Yamaha can change their engines but normally you’ve got to get the engine fixed because then you can’t change it

So they tried the new engine and and as you say it sounds like they were all impressed with it and he a small track it’s not really a track where you’re going to really notice a big engine Improvement are you there’s no there’s no massive straights there and yet

They’re already able to feel a benefit there so B was apparently very happy with the engine uh and then Gigi also teased that they’ve got something different coming with the arrow now obviously as you say as you say keep we didn’t see you know the what was rolled

Out at the launch was not the new Arrow I mean it was last year’s ER all of the teams will be like that then they’re going to keep it under wraps until basically the the sapang shake down when their test drivers go out on it and even

Then you know they’re doing their best to keep the meteor away from the Shakedown and and everything else to keep it under wraps as long as possible so there are other things coming there which all points to you know those parts they’ll be putting them on there to go

Faster won’t they so that is going to be a concern for the satellite bikes quite interesting that Mark at the graini launch he he mentioned that you know he was bigging up as you’d expect let’s say the his Rivals and sort of playing down his own chats is saying that that Baya

And Martin you know look at these guys they they’re super fast on this bike they’ve got all this experience and he said and they’re on the 24 bike and then he sort of checked himself now whether it was a slip of the tongue or not but you know that is potentially something

That that that’s going to be an issue this year isn’t it if if Mark is racing with these guys people are going to say yeah but he’s on the year old bike or has he got the latest start system what what are the differences between his bike and the factory bikes that’s not

Going to be a topic of conversation that ducatti you’re really going to want running throughout the season is it so anyway it was sort of slipped out there by Mark in the conversation but um yeah I mean we got to wait and see the other thing interesting actually that Mark

Said was he’s still unsure what style he’s going to have on this bike will he be aggressive like in the past he said he hasn’t really had the chance to you know he’s been careful at Valencia had won bike and they told him if you if you

Crash it that’s it test over you know he was used to having four Hondas in the pits normally at a Valen so it was a bit of a difference for him so yeah the Mark we saw at Valencia that very sort of subdued smooth but already fast you know

As he said his style will evolve over these next two tests and it’ll be exciting to see yeah what sort of marz is he still imagine if he can dive on people on the breaks as he could on the Honda and then benefit with the drive

Out of the corners with the jatti what what a perfect mix that would be but uh yeah I think first of all he’s you know he’s saying he’s still got a long way to go he’s got to adapt to the bike and yeah we’ll see what he and Frankie kedi

Can come up with at Big condition is as well is a Yamaha sorry that ducatti are under an a category for concessions which means that they’re going to run what they’ve run right away from the beginning at the end of the day it’s not quite as big a

Panic as it used to be for the likes of Hond and Yamaha when we get the katar because when we get the katar that’s when the homologation basically rules cut in and you couldn’t make any changes to Motors at all but we’ve got quite a big chunk of concessions to get over in

The first half of the year that should bring Yamaha and Hond Hond at least into play I haven’t seen anything great from Yamaha yet so it’s going to be a really interesting start to the year and you’re right no one shows anything at this stage that’s why these press launches are never

Anything like that interesting because they’re running they’re showing all the old stuff they might as well bring them in there in black or something it’s uh it’s just a color scheme type thing we’ve gone for a new launch we have we could had a big press J one when when we

Get the million pound sponsor we will um so you know we will do the big the big press Mark Marquez the beginning of the year of course you you you you’ve got the dat that bike’s got it’s full of data they’ve got everything they need to

Start the season in in the best possible way that that Mark can start it in and he can he can make those tiny adjustments from that particular point where it all starts to move on is when the 24 bike comes into its own and they’ve got used to how to use the new

Data the new stuff that they’re they’re they’re cating um from the new 24 motorcycle so we’ll wait and see but you know ducatti look as if they’re in a really good place at the moment I’m quite happy to see the concessions being what they are Monday next week is the

Big meeting with Mitchell because I’ve been banging this drum you know since this disqualification rule comes in for next year if your tire presses is is uh drops below a certain point for a certain amount of the race you are disqualified from next year and if you look it’s funny enough I was

Doing research before we came on a cheat you know shock and until until it was Buddy um amended there was a 14o gap between vagn and Martin when the the first set of sheets came out and the second set of sheets came out the revised ones there’s a 39 point gap

Between them because it had all been adjusted by the time we’d had disqualifications we’ve had adjustments regarding tire pressures and the life next year you’re immediately disqualified so you’re in big trouble well this year well and what’s going to happen is is that yes what I meant this

Year um actually I keep thinking of next year as in next season this season um I apologize for that if I confuse everybody but it’s they’ve got a meeting with mellin and they’re hoping that the parameter might open a little bit because there’s no way that Dorner or

Anyone else want this to be a situation where we’re getting Riders disqualified at the end of the race you’ve got three guys up on the podium and then suddenly it’s not those three guys it’s the three guys that were behind them that should have been on the podium it will be a

Fast it will be formula 1es and we really really don’t want to be going there with that yeah do you remember the the formula one thing where you got 354 grid penalties for for a gearbox or something and you added all these technical things up and and it just it

Just you know that in theory it was right they had to get them penalties but they just became so ridiculous everyone Switched Off from them and I wouldn’t want to see that happen in in M GP and the point is is that Mitchell in need to

Meet the teams halfway with this I think this safety cut off this 1.8 bar or whatever it is as the lowest level it can go for half the race um isn’t going to work and the reason for that is is because in a pack you can’t judge where

That tire temperature is going to go it’s it’s a it’s a nightmare scenario and if they’ve not if nobody’s come up with some way within the rules of regulating that tire pressure to within the the parameters that Mitchell in set and I haven’t heard anybody that has yet

I’m surprised that not we’ve not seen anything or heard anything um but there’s a meeting on Monday teams mellin era going to be discussing it again what do you think well well that’s quien you down when you look at the list of warnings it’s pretty scary is there what were

There there was like 24 warnings or something over and it was this is only half a season of course that that effectively wasn’t it that the actual warnings came in the first half of the season they didn’t exist so obviously if you extrapolate that you go well

There’ll be double the warnings and and now there’s no warning so everyone will be disqualified I don’t think it’s going to be quite as bad as that because of course the warning system meant that by the end of the year a lot of teams were actually looking to use up the warning

Weren’t they and I mean that I think the last three rounds saw something like 18 warnings and that’s no coincidence that you know the previous three rounds had seen about four so s of exaggerated it I think the warning system but I absolutely agree with Kei I think that

The issue is that you can’t expect the teams to to magically know where their Rider is going to be on the first lap of the race the middle of the race the end of the race whether they’re going to be in a pack where they’re going to be

Leading I mean it’s out of their control isn’t it and I think that’s where it’s almost it’s unfair to put them under the teams under the technicians especially the satellite team that doesn’t have all the resources of the to put them let me ask you something let me ask you

Something Pete let me ask you something Pete if I may I mean we’re in the realm of artificial intelligence now you know I’ve never had any intelligence so this is not a good place for me to be but the point is is artificial intelligence is getting greater exponentially it’s it’s

Increasing in its influence over things we must be getting close to a situation where this all these kind of problems and the models that they they can build with AI are getting to the point where we’re going to be able to get over a lot

Of this stuff just by using AI trying to work it out it’s going to be well we’ve got technicians trying to Crunch the numbers and trying to work it out almost by analog means I know it’s not but but by pen and pencil we’re suddenly moving

Into a phase in life but particular in racing and a Cutting Edge like this is where AI is going to start taking over these kind of problems and sorting out these kind of problems I mean this whole next few years we’re going to see so many changes in racing because of the

Technology that’s emerging and the way it’s emerging and the speed of what it’s emerging at I wonder what we’re going to have in the end we’re going to be racing hoverboards in like two years time or something it’s going to be like something out back to the bloody future

I I I I I kind of worry about where we’re going going we got a very thin rule book and I don’t think there’s any sections in it that says about AI or the the bits and pieces that are going to interfere with our rules moving

Forward well you know what they tried a few years ago something called um Robo race uh which was sort of Lucas deg Grassi was part of the Formula E Championship sort of spearheaded it and it was a car did basically without a driver right yeah they’re doing they’re

Doing well in California aren’t they for Google yeah well that’s the thing but it it was it’s that was supposed to sort of obviously uh highlight how great the the electronics of the car and how far we’ve come but also it was designed as a way of you know a mechanics and an

Engineer’s dream because he didn’t have the varied component of a driver in in in the driving seat but where where’s the interest like from a in a broad fan perspective you know when you watch motorport no matter what it is or any kind of sport it’s it’s it’s the it’s

The athlete it’s the person it’s it’s the backstory that makes it for you and I I you know AI is a worry and I think about it a lot as well but I don’t think that could ever quite I think what the point I was trying to make is is it’s where the

Technology leaps forward where suddenly within our rule structure um they managed to find um advantages in in places that that we humans haven’t yet really thought about is my point is is where where does it go when AI is advancing the you know the G Delino I

Mean you plug him into something and he’s like he’s like street lights ahead of of of most thinking um and maybe maybe it’s going to going to have a bigger effect than we think you know the likes of when I I mean I’ve always felt slightly sorry for Danny Aldridge and

And his team in that there’s one or two men that are the technical side of things and you know he’s got to police you know all of the manufacturers it’s like they sort of I know they all have to agree so that they have to find a

Level that they all agree on before they can make a move on it but the likes of Danny Aldridge and Co are trying to manage this and now and now we’ve not got my trim of the helm you know Danny Aldridge and Jeff Dixon have now basically taken the two top roles with

Inera um there is not going to be a figurehead as there was with Mike trimby Mike trimby is irreplaceable there was no no way that you could ever replace Mike trimby with iner um you’d have to train some CEO up from wherever so what they’ve done is they they they’ve made

It so that I think Jeff Dixon’s now senior general manager and Senior sporting manager is Danny Aldridge they’ve worked together for 30 years they know each other really well so there’s there’s a real symmetry between the two of them and they’ll work that forward and they’ve they’ve juggled uh

Quite a lot of the other team about as well Panet manager you know slightly different they brought on a fell called Charlie King who’s coming as as well to to to beef up the the action there but all of these guys are obviously thinking the same as we are where are we going

Where’s it all headed it’s it’s these rules and the like have got to be kept um within the Realms of of what’s possible now rather than what’s what’s going to happen if we we we start to change them we talk about tire pressures what about everything else I mean there

Must be so many things that if you’ve got big enough budget and enough brains and enough AI working on it you’re going to find other ways around certain rules as well um hopefully it’ll be for the betterment of the sport rather than uh just The Tech Guys I ramble again don’t

I I run off on one it’s a new year and I said I wouldn’t well no I I it didn’t work yeah no we’re back to where we were always um I I wonder Pete if there’s some way you know I I make the comparison of when you’re at University

Which I know not everybody might have gotten to but when you when you when you go to university and you have to submit now these days you know your your coursework or whatever is online they have this thing I think it’s called turn it in where it does a check of how much

It thinks your work has been plagiarized from the Internet or whatever it might be and now they do this thing where it searches for have you had AI assistance so I wonder Pete if there’s a way of sort of almost motly implementing something like that where it sort of has

A buffer being like well any new designs or whatever you’re allowed 10% AI flagged but no more than that I mean AI is already they’re already using it so the ducatti launched they’re sponsored by Lenovo and Lenovo quite open about they’re using AI because you imagine all of this data that’s that’s being

Gathered at the racetrack would take a human if they were just working through a spreadsheet manually it would take them a lifetime to go through so they use ai ai is is already sort of shortcutting the sort of data analysis process and and and speeding things up

With to get through all these tons of data so it’s already part of the race team system and things like that using AI in in that respect um um and I think that’s the obvious use for it initially anyway as you say the sky is the liit

For where it will go but at the moment that that certainly it seems quite AA I think a couple of years now that ducatti have sort of been been taking advantage of that that technology to sort of crunch the numbers for them and not only crunch numbers who knows what else it

Maybe it does suggest things who knows I mean obviously we don’t know exactly how they use it but they are definitely using AI um and I think the difficulty with the tire pressure thing is that no matter how much used AI to tell you okay this is the pressure that you’ll

Need it will all depend on the start you get won’t it still and and they can’t look into the F it could tell you exactly the the starting pressure if you’re in 10th Place Ninth Place or wherever on the first lap but you don’t know and and that’s the great bit coming

Back to the human angle and uh what you were saying about the the car racing series that that didn’t have any humans I mean this is where the whole thing falls down because they can’t actually use those numers because they don’t know exactly where the ride will be on the first lap

And I think coming back to what Keith says in this meeting that’s hopefully where they’ll find something is that you know when the when the race begins tire pressure is out of control of the rider isn’t it I think we can all agree on that there’s nothing they can do you

Know you I wonder I I wonder Pete there is nothing they can do if they’re head down and Racing for it and unfortunately with the the way that our sprint races and our races go there’s very little time to be there’s no strategy in it it

Pretty much balls out from the from the lights out I I wonder if there’s a you know some of the teams have have managed a better management better better monitoring system for for a rider so that a rider maybe has to move out into the air or has to has to to move

Themselves around a little bit more on the racetrack I wonder if they’ve you know got some finesse coming um during the course of the Year this year I think they have warning lights don’t they so they know if they’re under for too long but I mean yeah it seems to VAR some

Riders say look there’s nothing you can do I mean I don’t know um I mean I guess if you are you know you could drop behind people we certainly saw riders that seem to be riding a little bit tactically and for example if you were concerned that you might be under the

Thing to do would be to follow another rider for more than half distance and then take the lead rather than trying to break away early which would then lead you vulnerable wouldn’t it if you took the lead on lap one and then LED all the

Way to the Finish you might run the risk of being under pressure whereas if you knew well hey I’m in second place here I got the speed to where it would take the lead but you know what I’ll just wait do it after half distance so I’ll run a

High tire pressure right behind this other bike then I’ll take the lead I mean if if you have that much control of the situation I suppose you could do it but um yeah they’re pretty hectic mot GP races so it’s it’s’ be quite difficult well uh AI who knows that

Would have been really handy for commentary actually ai ai commentary notes or it could replace us actually it could just completely replace us oh dear I’ve already been that’s not good news that is not good news oh God nobody wants that real real keep is down the

Pub it could be handy yeah I’ve always I’ve always thought of doing it down the down the pub commentary get everybody involved in fact actually it reminds me of the speedway if you remember a fellow called Gary habot B world champion British guy um up from the Northeast I

Mean Gary was is an absolute scream he’s just such good fun and um they decided on Sky to do this alternative commentary so you had you know us in our suits set in the in in the usual sort of thing and that and and they would do commentary

From just there the two main commentators would be there then they had Gary avalok in the stands but he slowly but surely got pissed with everyone around him and the next moment he’s slow he he he it was an alternative one you could switch to his commentary same same same production same same

Video same everything that was coming out from the track but it was Gary havlock and in the end he sat next to a blowup doll with a usual startled look on their face and and Gary’s commentating with these people these monsters all around him that would have been the better commentary I don’t

Think it was a great commentary from an amusement point of view but I don’t think Sky ever bothered to experiment with that again certainly Gary never did well maybe there’s room for for it on the on the OMG cycle next year I’ll buy you one of those you can do it

That you got something back in your in your garden I in the shed at the back of the garden no no oh gone um right before we tread down that road anymore uh we’re pretty much at the end of this little January special there is just enough

Time uh to have a little look through the uh the mailbox which I’m sorry to say is there’s quite a lot in there which we haven’t got to um but uh we’ve got a new uh well this is me going into the mailbox just there is there is a lot

Here popcorn all all he does is sit and watch Telly all day long no it’s a mailbox letters upon letters upon I just can’t get th them or so many the pigeon where’s the pigeon they brought them well that pigeon noise anyway uh right let’s go here we go here’s one uh

Puppies and motorcycles asks are the two-year Rider contract deals gone for the most part as there are too many excellent Rider choices now who wants to tackle that one first well I can I can tell you that as we have clearly seen during the course of the year A two-year

Contract isn’t necessarily A two-year contract anymore um and that is because the Rider scene is looking so healthy from below the below the scenes I think that you know everybody if you’re unhappy in in any kind of contract sporting contract yeah why why would you

Stay in it if the team’s unhappy or if the rider’s unhappy and I think we’ve seen that that that can be can be changed um you know Digi was out of work found himself some and he deserved to so I’m quite pleased that it’s a bit more

Loose than perhaps it might be if you take just the legal side of it yeah I I think the these new contracts that we’ll see for this year and we should say there was nothing from B at the launch today was there there was always the possibility you know if

He followed the in the footsteps of his mentor Valentino Rossy Rossy always liked to get titles out the way before the season began get all that distraction put to one side nothing from ducatti today so Bai is clearly happy to wait a bit longer I suppose um but yeah

I think we’ll see two-year deals but again as Keith says whether they actually serve those two-year deals and all the Clauses and get out things that might be in them who knows but again and again as Kei says there’s no point keeping someone to a contract if they

Don’t want to race for you and vice versa so um yeah we we saw a mix didn’t we we saw rins who did have a clause to leave Honda so that was you know a clause that was in there and and he he activated it and then you had a

Situation like Mark Marquez where you know he had a contract and they actually had to Rel release him so there was a full range of things and yeah it just proved that look you know if you don’t want to be together there’s no point forcing people to to say

Together I do think that there ought to be a time schedule in there though like we have in some other sports where you’ve got a cut off point where deals have got to be done by a certain time um because it seems sometimes that it gets

A bit messy later on in the year and and Riders get dropped at a time that they can’t rescue a career I think that’s something like a deadline day yeah it’s a bit of a deadline day I think well it can work both ways that can that can be

A good thing or it can be a bad thing in the case of Digi if there was a deadline day Digi would be out of work now he would not not have a contract so I’m reeling myself back in from this one now because I’m so glad he has got a job

You were you were off the fence and now you sat back on it um but a good question there thank you very much uh Dave has asked uh have Moto GP ever considered mandatory mud guard for rain races to reduce the spray seems it would reduce some of the danger in

Those first laps when everyone is so close I think you got such a vacuum behind a bloody powerful motorbike that’s traveling a 200 mile hour that’s you’re going to have a bit of a job to get rid of the vacuum that sucks it off the ground um I think that uh mud guards

Are not really um aerodynamically I don’t think they’re going to really sort out that vacuum behind particularly now with wings and the like as well which are obviously having an effect on all of the arrow around a motorcycle um we’ve become a little bit like cars really

Haven’t we when it comes to the the arrow situation um I don’t think a mud guard system I mean again I was talking about Speedway a bit earlier on you remember when they they they came up with the dirt deflector didn’t they just a a thing that hangs down behind the

Rear tire to keep the dirt from rooster tailing right up in the face of whoever it is behind keeps the dirt on the floor but um Dirt has a bit more gravity attached to it than um spray and it really is just a Mist that comes out

From behind the bikes I mean it’s it’s it it is frighteningly difficult I mean and it has always been an issue even when you go back to the time before a arrow you know when you’re in a pack of motorcycles and and we never had lights

Or anything like that on the back of them like they have now um you were riding in you I can’t even imagine how the bloody hell we did it to be honest with you because it is actually Madness you are in a massive group and particularly back then there were even

More bikes on the track track than there are now and you cannot see side to side in front of you you know six foot if anything happens bu different back in your day well it was a bit slower but what the difference between 160 m hour

And 230 mph sounds like a lot but either way you wouldn’t want to get off not in those conditions especially thank you very much Dave for that and one more to round things off I hope we’re not too late with this one it’s coming uh from

I’ve lost it where’s it gone there you are Tom I’ve lost it oh God uh Tom there you are I’m planning a trip for me and my wife’s 20th wedding anniversary to Portugal over uh my wife’s spring break which lucky for me is the same weekend

As port and Mau we have never been to Portugal and was hoping for recommendations of what kind of ticket to get uh what a grandstand ticket gets where to stay uh and what to do or we leave the track what’s around there so General sort of insight into Port M we’d

Obviously do this for our Insider Sky when we actually get to the weekend off but I imagine you might want to know why before you book so so what have we got Keith what have you got and Pete actually because you’re going that’s one of the races you’re going to isn’t it so

Uh so we’ll come to you on that as well Portugal is great I mean it’s a great it’s it’s perfect atmosphere where it is is you know there’s there’s not a lot goes on around there but there’s there’s plenty enough to be spending your first week there I would imagine anyway but

Hotel recommendations I can’t do that I’m not really familiar with it I’ve only been there for one day at a time so it’s literally one of those ones that that I don’t have the expertise in the hotel Department um but as far as a track and spectating is concerned I mean

There are loads of places around there is it you know it’s quite often that preference is difficult isn’t it when it comes to where you sit you know some people they want to sit at the end of a straight when you pick up 200 whatever

It is miles an hour they want to see the braking area others want to be on a on a parts of the flip-flop or where someone’s got nice and sideways everywhere it’s it’s a real preference what what type of part of the racetrack you you want to sit and watch the ones

That I never understand and the ones that sit in the grand stand opposite opposite the pits you think what are you doing halfway down a straight looking across at garages I just don’t get that but anyway that’s just me they like to watch everyone at work don’t they it’s

It’s quite it’s like people watching almost but it’s slightly more interesting people watching but you’re there for racing not watching the bloody people Meandering about in the back of a garage yeah but that for some that’s for some that’s quite interesting like I said each to their own of course you

Formula One guys you like to watch nothing because that’s what happens most of the time right moving swiftly Pete you’re going to Port M aren’t you what what what Tales can you regil us what are you looking for I’ve only been once before but yeah um yeah I mean great great

Country that was my my first time that was actually last year so yeah you can get to the track you could fly into Lisbon or or Pharaoh that’s how you pronounce it apolog if it’s not which is the local airport both of them are within driving distance uh accommodation

Wise there’s a lot of I mean airbnbs I I would think hotels there there’s loads of choices because it’s it’s out of the holiday season it’s obviously by the coast by the seaside um so yeah I don’t think you have difficulty finding anything track is easy to get to parking

Fine uh you know real obviously you’ve seen on TV real up and down track fantastic to watch from I think was saying I don’t think you’d want to pick one place to watch I think you’d want to move around I mean yeah yeah when I got

Out and had a bit of a wander on one of the practice sessions yeah great place to spectate from and uh um yeah so so really just just move around and have a look um but but yeah I food food great and and and a very cheap place to go I

Would say as well I I I thought it would be quite an expensive place for some reason Portugal but no um very affordable and fantastic food yeah got a very good one to visit I would say and apparently a lot of golf clubs yes yes people I saw you’re into golf yeah yeah

Everyone else that or of a certain age that was in the restaurant that was all there on golfing holidays yeah that’s uh yeah you’re absolutely right there there you go Tom well if you if you like your golf Tom bring your clubs along I’m sure you can hire some and if the food’s

Cheap that means you can spend a bit more on the hotel I hear the Ritz is lovely in in that part of the world so I’m sure sure your wife will enjoy that for your 20th wedding anniversary uh thank you very much uh got to close the

Mailbox for today uh we will get through more as we go I aware there are questions that have not not been answered but we just we just run out of time every time um but they are on my list don’t you worry we’re not forgotten about you um we’re out of time though

For January’s special edition lots more launches to come uh in the next few weeks we’re going to be back in February for another one off and then we’re going to be up back and running uh to the usual uh beat from March onwards when the season begins and we’ve got some few

Surprises in store as well what we got down the pub and we got down the in between that uh which uh you can have a look on you can buy tickets for that we might even run a competition through our social medias if we can no promises but

We’ll talk about that off a um let’s wrap it up we’re out of time Pete McLaren thank you so much as always and to you Keith you I’ve been Harry Benjamin you can get in touch in all the usual ways At OMG Moto GP on our socials

Email us a question and add it to that mailbox it’s OMG MotoGP gmail.com actually if you want to skip the queue on questions voice note your question because you’ll go straight to the top of the queue that way if you voice note it uh and then we’ll play it out like on

The show uh subscribe download All That Jazz and we’ll be back in Feb see you Then