2015 Revisited: Barcelona - Stop crashing! (Round 7)
Added 2025-04-20 07:32:46 +0000 UTCIt’s a messy Barcelona race next up in MotoGP 2015 Revisited - though one rider kept themselves clear of all the mayhem.
Megan White, Val Khorounzhiy, Simon Patterson and Matt Beer try to figure out why the Catalan Grand Prix was so high attrition, and debate the significance of one particular crash on the entire season.
Suzuki’s outstanding qualifying turning to disaster immediately and Dani Pedrosa’s return to the podium (and whether it was actually a bit underwhelming) also feature.
Comments
It would be nice to have some more in depth context about the time and the racing in this year (even though I've watched it at the time, I can't remember most of it). So far this series got me to rewatch the races, which is nice (albeit Barcelona was truly a boring one), but the commentary does not add a lot of value for me :/ It might be better to record this in the off season when you can watch the races together, the current style is somehow more a "compare notes together" event.
JD
2025-04-21 18:37:16 +0000 UTCStu, I agree with most of what you wrote but you probably didn't need to write the sequel to War and Peace in the comment section (that's a joke!). In all seriousness, your comments are correct but to me the worst part of any of these recap podcasts is Megan White. She adds NOTHING to the conversation. I've never seen a Megan White byline at The Race. I have no idea who she is or why The Race thinks we want to hear her commentary on a podcast. But her comments on MM93 were absurd this week. This was just plain bad.
Tsundoku Sensei
2025-04-21 01:00:15 +0000 UTCEvening, I listened to this episode on my home from this morning. And to be honest I was bit miffed at the comments you made about a few of the riders in particular Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez. I found them disrespectful. To say Dani was a "meh" rider and Marc to be a "stupid, stupid man" does not take into context the race, the conditions, their current situation in the season or their career to date. You're clearly judging them on present day standards and not how the situation was 10 years ago. You were also contradictory in your hindsight analysis. With regards to Honda, you'd already mentioned that the bike wasn't very good. Yet, Dani Pedrosa who was recovering from injury, managed to not only stay on the bike, but got it around and on to the podium! I'm sorry, but how can you say in one comment the bike wasn't as good as the Yamaha's or Ducati's but then critise Dani for finishing 3rd? And compound that by saying his performance was a "meh" ride?? Either the bike was shite and he did well or the bike was good enough and Dani should have done better. At the end of the day Honda chose Dani to be the 2nd rider in that team and they did so for many years. That's not Dani's fault. Would anyone turn down a factory contract if offered? Dani had been a great rider and one of the best riders never to a world championship in the top class. And while Marquez was at Honda, Dani played his part as wingman extremely well, regularly taking points off of Marc's rivals. But he still managed to get his machine on the podium plenty of times (6 in total) in 2015, including 2 wins plus a pole. So how is he just a "meh" rider?? As for Marquez, yes it was an ugly crash, but you seem to forget he was 22 years old in 2015, he'd just won the championship in 2014 by a mile, he'd been on the best or near best bike in the paddock his confidence in himself would have been sky-high. These guys need to have cockyness and arrogance to do what they do week in week out, you must have near unbreakable resolve to crash at 150mph get up, shake yourself down and then jump straight back on a bike and race. And Marc at the start of 2015 was flying high. But, as it was pointed out on the podcast, that Honda, in 2015, wasn't the best. Lorenzo and Rossi where actually riding better and on better machinery. By Barcelona, it was now obvious to Marc that the Yamaha's were a real threat. So how does a 22 year old, who's had pretty much his own way for a long time react? He reacted like most racers do, by attacking. Marc said in numerous interviews, at that part of his career, that he's there to win not come second or run around in third and pick up points. So he tried to attack, to put Lorenzo under pressure. Jorge with a lead was almost unstoppable, so just like in this current season with Marquez, riders knew they had to pressure Lorenzo in those early laps, they had to disrupt his rythem and put him off. That's what Marquez was trying to do. The fact that he failed doesn't make him a "stupid stupid man" it just proved that Marquez's tactics didn't work. Then, the last contradiction, but I think it was mentioned at the end about the grip at Montmelo. Several riders crashed out that day because of the poor grip. I'm sure it was mentioned in several articles and discussions at the time, that Barcelona was favourite to be dropped from the calendar in favour of Finland or another Asia round, because the circuit needed resurfacing and the owners weren't in a position to do so. As mentioned, yes there were crashes, most were innocuous but rather that critise the track, you critised the riders, saying the race was boring as Lorenzo just sailed away with the win while the riders fell off. I just think the haphazard and blase these two riders and the other crashers were dismissed during the podcast was disappointing and showed a lack of understanding of their careers up until then or of racing in general at that time. Cheers, Stu
Stuart Edwards
2025-04-21 00:15:58 +0000 UTC
