EPISODE-1-MOTOGP 2024 SEASON-QATAR OPENING ROUND

The Rookie Fans MotoGP Podcast discusses the start of the season and highlights the performances of Peco Bagnaia, Brad Binder, Jorge Martin, Mark Marquez, and Pedro Acosta. Bagnaia's aggressive start and dominant performance show his potential as a top rider. Acosta's impressive performance as a rookie, despite burning his rear tire, proves his potential as a future world champion. Marquez's fourth-place finish on a Ducati is noteworthy, considering his past struggles at the Qatar track. Overall, Acosta and Marquez are expected to be the standout riders of the season. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Rookie Fans MotoGP Podcast. This is the Monday after the start of the season. I was going to record last night but it was a late night. I watched the race real late with a bunch of my friends and family. Everybody was super excited to kick off the season and I will say none of us were let down. It was pretty amazing. I want to kick it off here with just given the podium Peco Bania was in first, Brad Bender was in second, my bad, and Jorge Martin was in third and I have to mention Mark Marquez who was in fourth and I also need to mention a ninth place position to Pedro Acosta. Those are going to be some of the main people we talked about today. Let me just kick it off by saying this Peco Bania, I've never seen him do a first lap like that. I don't remember I think it was like first it was from his starting position in sixth if I'm not mistaken all the way to second I think by the first turn and then shortly to first. He's normally a super laid-back rider and so seeing him a little more aggressive from you know from the gun start was impressive. It just it proves that he is still on top of it like we expected from all this preseason testing that he's been doing. I mean he's been kicking butt for preseason testing and here he is you know first race of the season when the most points are available for grabs and he goes out and gets them and then I think I think he he took first and then led the rest of the way. I don't remember seeing him fall back. He was kind of in a league of his own every time anybody was starting to come up on him he responded, put a couple extra laps out and or sorry put his lap time down and just grew the gap. Brad Bender was fast extremely fast but he just he didn't look like he had anything on Petco so the fact that right off the bat you know he had a good sprint Petco had an okay sprint but his you know right off the bat his main race was just back to next level back to the end of 2023 and spectacular. Unfortunately nobody cares about Petco winning the race really I mean that wasn't the most exciting thing that happened. Petco winning the race was almost expected in a different kind of way not really it not like that at least you know it was cool to see him do that but that's the least of anybody's worries. We got to go to the meat of what we saw last night in Qatar and everybody knows that Pedro Acosta was the star of the show. I can't believe what I was watching. I was jumping up in my chair swearing at the TV. I was so excited to see Pedro Acosta. I mean he made his way through the grid all the way up from eighth where he started up into fourth if I'm not mistaken passing Mark Marquez and yeah okay he ran out of rear tire he smoked he literally smoked the rear tire but he proved what he could do and we've been seeing him prove what he can do. This though is just next level. This is proof the proof is in the pudding you know if anybody had any doubts as to you know the future aspirations or the future possibilities of Pedro being a world champion this this put them to doubt. A rookie he's barely spent let's see it's like 20 days he's had maybe if that if that 20 days on this new bike a MotoGP bike at that and he's already fighting the best of the best. I honestly I'm not I wasn't really surprised to see him burn the rear tire like that. If I'm not mistaken most of the Moto2 riders the first thing that they think about or I should say the first thing they notice and talk about sometimes with the press is how good the Michelin tires are especially the wet tires but just in general how good the Michelin tires are and for a rookie especially one as fast as Pedro I could easily see how getting just just being able to have the grip and confidence in a tire like he had would just I mean he just wanted to go crazy and he did but in like I said saying in Moto2 I think they have I think it's is it Pirelli's I can't remember I need to be fact-checked on that but they have different tires I'm not sure if it's I don't I don't think it's Michelin but my point is is that he has no experience for race distance at all on these Michelin tires and you know him burning them up is the least of anybody's worries considering that the big worry was that you know he you can fall off of off of worn tires real bad that they're so slick comparatively they don't grip right and but he didn't that was the other thing that I thought was absolutely crazy we literally were watching the smoke come off the back of his tire and we're thinking to him we're thinking to ourselves as he's getting backed up to I think it was Anaya and Fabio D'Antonio we're thinking oh he's gonna get passed by them and you know hopefully he doesn't fall off and I mean he did get passed but he stayed on the whole time he only lost one position that's the other crazy part is for I mean he stayed in the same position in the sprint and he only lost one position in the main race as a rookie I think the qualifying for the for the grid the start starting grid was all the it was like the the top 10 riders were um there wasn't three tenths of a second between any of them uh so from number one to number 10 there was only three tenths of a second between them all and he was up there in the number eight spot that's impressive no matter which way you cut it especially when you add the fact that he's a new rookie this is his first ever qualifying session automotive gp bike excuse me that being said I think everybody knows that he probably won't make the same mistake smoking the rear tire like he did this time he probably won't make that mistake again he's gonna race a little easier for the first few laps have more at the end same old same old that's what people do he'll learn he'll learn how to use the tires nobody's nobody's worried about that especially now that we've seen that he not only can he use the bike but he can use the bike to beat and pass some of the greatest riders on the grid at the moment and he did pass mark marquez which yeah he's on a new ducati himself but still you know it's it's what is he six-time moto gp world champion yeah passing him isn't an easy feat whether or not he's on a ducati or a crappy honda kudos so I could talk about him all day I'm looking forward to seeing more of him throughout the season that's going to be I I'm going to say it now hot take he is going to be the highlight of the season I I'm going to say it now maybe there's still a really good possibility that mark marquez is going to be the highlight of the season and that's actually a perfect transition and talking about him because we can't not talk about the fact that he's number four on he's number four he finished fourth I mean um in fact let me see here looking at the moto gp results and standings page he finished fourth yes he's he's fourth in the championship I mean I don't I think he finished fifth in the in the sprint but fourth in the championship it's the first race yeah whatever but he finished fourth in the race and mark marquez is not a fan or hasn't been a fan of qatar I think that's like a well-known opinion of his or fact whatever you want to call it he doesn't like qatar I think I actually saw an article the other day talking about how he used to think of qatar as a nightmare track for the season whenever he was riding the honda and he was saying something about like the ducati making it a nightmare track for the season and he was saying something about the ducati making it and he was saying something about like the ducati making it less such a night let's less a nightmare that that's that's kind of cool to hear um he's obviously noticing the differences in the bike well no crap he's mark marquez but his results prove it too um fourth place first race on a ducati with let's see how many how many is that goodness gracious I always forget one two three four five six six out of the top 10 riders are all on ducati um let's see here one two three four five six out of the top seven riders are ducati oh wow oh I didn't I didn't realize that so um number seven and up is all ducati except for brad bender who placed second uh everybody knows brad bender is the ducati killer he's always right there in the mix of them he's able to bring it to ducati every sunday it seems and we saw that last season we'll probably see it again this season if qatar is you know going to give us an example of what we're going to be looking at anyway mark marquez is up there with the best of them first race I you know I watched the sprint on saturday and he got fifth right I'll let me double check that make sure I'm not let's see I think he got fifth yeah he got fifth and he gets back to the paddock takes his helmet off and the smile on his face was absolutely beaming he was so happy he was exhilarated to finally be on a competitive bike I think he got on the podium last year in a sprint the honda I think last year feels so long ago I'm going to have to go back and probably get some spreadsheets and some stats from last year when I start talking about some of these future races but I know he didn't win a race last year and here he is knocking on the door already of the greats uh the ducati greats that is he is the great at the moment still even with his you know a couple years of being in the hole uh I think I think he still got I think he still has it in him and if pedro acosta isn't the star of the season this year I still I still think it's going to be mark marquez that's not a hot take because I'm pretty sure every moto gp fan that is a little more than just a you know every now and then watch anybody who's a consistent watcher of moto gp knows that this this guy he he could really start putting a smack down on the grid um I what's funny is I I didn't I've never gotten to see him actually kick butt I did I've gotten to see him win a couple races he wanted this I actually have a picture of him in the saxon ring winning the 11th his 11th straight appearance at the saxon ring um that was cool that was cool I think it was 2022 and I think he won in kota that year as well but he's been on a long road after having to re-break his arm all that shebang and I started watching in 2020 and that was the year everything went down for him so I this has been something I've been looking forward to see since I started watching and hearing about him and you know everybody loves a killer on the racetrack you know uh love him or hate him for his personality or whatever you know what he what he did to Valentino or what Valentino did to him whatever he is a killer on the racetrack and it's awesome watching that kind of stuff happen the the skill and talent involved with how he rides is absolutely bonkers I'm looking forward to seeing it firsthand you know I don't think I don't think anything beats watching the races live or as they as they come out you know if I've gone back and watched a bunch of races from previous seasons and everything and it's cool but nothing is like the present especially when you're caught up with all the past and um another thing to kind of I guess that transitions into it also is uh I think this is a new era of MotoGP from all the study that I've done on previous seasons and previous quote-unquote eras it seems like 2020 was the beginning of a new era and all the talent coming in a little before but also just after in general and the people the rising stars from 2020 on they're the ones carrying the the banner if you will of MotoGP and it's not it's not who you would have thought it would have been for the past four years Mark Marquez has really been nowhere to be seen as far as the championship is concerned for for one for one reason or the next you know I'm not I'm not hating on the guy but it's the facts um DaVincioso Andre DaVincioso I think that's his name uh I'm pretty sure he was supposed to win 2020 but he didn't and if I'm not mistaken didn't um didn't Jorge Lorenzo drop out was it in 2019 was that his last year I I can't remember but if Jorge Lorenzo had probably stayed with uh I think it was Ducati I think it was Ducati he probably should have won the 2020 season as well there's so many people there's so many things that should have happened differently that year but it it didn't go down the way anybody thought it would it's completely different for a lot of reasons but 2020 was the championship of John Muir then it was 2021 he got Fabio Cotteraro then for 2022 and 2023 Petko Benyaya and history is being written as we speak we'll see what this year holds but these are some this is this is cool getting to watch these this world without aliens as it were and having one left in the grid though having one left in the paddock is exciting because I feel like it's this expectation or this um what was everybody everybody's expecting him to start going on a killing streak again you know he's going to start killing it on the grid 2019 was bonkers I didn't I didn't even watch that season watch that season as it happened but looking back on it I still just can't believe how bonkers how how catastrophic the nuke that Mark Marquez was to the rest of the grid and that's where he left off that was the last anybody really got to see of him and he was at his literal peak so if that was his peak and this is him people keep talking about oh well if he's only 95 better or you know if he's not 100% what he used to be if it was his peak to do what he did in 2019 which was mop the floor with the rest of the grid by huge point differences I'll have to look it up again to get an exact number but it was it was he had several races left in the bag I mean that tells us that honestly like a 75% there Mark Marquez can still challenge for the title and win it you know let alone him being anywhere close to that if he's if he's if this is not the end for him and his talent because of just whatever the reason is and he's still able to learn a perfect example though and this is something that now that I'm thinking about is a perfect example of a possibility that could be you know similar lines between Mark Marquez, Alaysius Bargro, he keeps getting better as he's older and he's not that you know he's don't get me wrong he's a very talented rider but he's not the talent that Mark Marquez is so if if you could look at the two guys and think about their paths in MotoGP possibly Mark Marquez could do something like that too as far as getting better with what he's learned and everything he's everybody knows he's smart enough to get better I mean he is learning the Ducati that means he is getting better that that's cool so if he starts scraping the ceiling of what he was in 2019 then I think Cal Crutchlow said it best when he said you know the rest of the grid just shouldn't show up and unfortunately I really don't know how I'm I'm excited not it's not unfortunate I'm so excited to see some battles between Mark Marquez, Petko Benyaya, Jorge Martin, Brad Bender, I mean there's Anaya Bastianini there's some extremely fast and talented and crazy riders out there that will make for some killer viewing I can't wait to see this next race in Portimao is it I think it's Portimao the next one in in in Portugal I believe maybe I have that wrong but anyway I guess I'm I need to hop off the Mark Marquez bandwagon here a little bit and start talking about something else there's plenty to go over here I think the other you know I think we already touched on a little bit but Brad Bender as always he is showcasing the speed of the KTM and his own personal speed being right there in the mix with the best bikes on the grid wedged between two 2024 factory bikes I don't care about your rear end rear end chatter Jorge you're on you're on the best bike I obviously I'm not a rider to that degree I don't know what what kind of problem that is to such an extreme that I mean he did complain about it over the weekend but it doesn't matter Brad Bender still beats you fair and square and it's impressive I think the KTM is on their carbon fiber chassis at the moment I know that Danny Pedrosa I almost forgot his name there for a second Danny Pedrosa made an amazing wild card appearance last year where he brought out that that chassis and he kicked everybody's butt I think he got fourth of the wild card it you know fourth or fifth it really doesn't matter um he did better than the factory KTMs that that was the other thing he did better than Brad and Jack last year on the carbon fiber chassis Brad Bender if I'm not mistaken is on it now I think he might have even been on it for some of the remainder of last year's season KTM they've been getting their ish together so to speak and it's pretty impressive to see how different they are approaching it I mean they've got the horsepower but I was impressed with how much corner speed the KTM had and it was noticeable I actually you always notice Brad going fast in the corners but because of just his position just behind Pecco who was managing the pace so well you didn't get to notice it as much you noticed it whenever he was battling Jorge back and forth for per second but the person I noticed it the most on was Pedro Acosta he was really showcasing the speed grunt and corner speed of the KTM and I was not expecting that if if KTM keep doing as well as they're doing as a factory then I have no doubt in my mind that honestly Brad Bender should and could put up a title challenge but he needs to get on it he needs to get on it because Pedro Acosta is gonna beat him to it if he's not careful and seeing as he's already starting to deliver this season maybe we're in for a treat a Brad Bender special I'd love to see some more action from the South African I think again he had a he had a great race we watched him battle back and forth with Jorge over and over again that was cool it was kind of neat seeing just that was a cool battle just bottom line I I there's not there's not too much to talk about there other than both Jorge and Brad they they fought really well I don't think there was anything that was remotely overly risky nothing like that was pretty clean and straightforward textbook dueling on motorcycles and it was it was fun to watch I say there's not much to talk about because it was just a spectacle you know it's kind of hard sometimes to put things in words and if you didn't watch it it's it's always worth watching but if you didn't watch it then you missed out on some cool action that does give us lead us to Jorge Martin and I will say I I think I think he'll put up a fight this year um he he sure did last year he he won the sprint and he's third in the race that's that's pretty good no pretty good that's really good I think he's uh excuse me I think he's I think he is just straight up third in the standings or is he second no he's third he's third Peco's first Brad Bender is second and then Jorge Martin is third yeah okay and Brad Bender and Jorge Martin are separated by one point 28 29 very close already obviously first race of the season not much of a you know the points really don't matter right now the points only men uh sorry the points only matter and mean anything and I think it's is it ending with Valencia again this year I I think it is but it only matters at the end of the season yeah Valencia so that's cool so yes Gran Primo Tissot de Portugal over the 21st 22nd 23rd and 24th not this week but next week so oh my goodness I don't know if I can wait that long I'll probably have to watch the sprint again or the main race too for that matter um who else to talk about oh okay you know we've been talking about how good some of these guys have been doing I need to talk about Anambasini, Alessio Spargo, Alex Marquez I actually do need to talk about Alex Marquez because it was impressive I'll do a little shout out to him I was not expecting to see him uh doing what he was doing out there yesterday I think I think he's probably learning from his brother some um I also think that settling into this Ducati or being on a Ducati for a second year in a row now has probably done him you know pay dividends he's figuring it out he was on really crappy bike uh the orange mess as somebody I like to know or somebody I know likes to call it Revsol was crap he came over to he came over to Grissini Ducati and no oh I'm I'm completely missing a whole part of his lore he went to LCR for a little bit didn't he I think Alex Marquez went to LCR and raced with Takenakagami and then moved to Grissini that's right I mean it doesn't matter if he's on the factory Honda or the LCR bike they're both crap and they both definitely were crap when he was riding them and so now he's on a Ducati second year Ducati here he is very first race of the season it it was a good race for him I was impressed to see him up there and I think I think him and his brother are going to be a power team this year but I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know I a power team this year but I have to scroll all the way down in the standings to uh I have a bone to pick and I feel bad for picking this because you know I don't think he deserves it because I think he still got hurt I think he's still probably dealing with injury um I honestly I'm a little shocked that Marco Bettecchi was so far down in the standings finished third last season um I know his title challenges was not there for the last half or last quarter at least last quarter at least of the season or 2023 season but he did finish third he won some races in some spectacular style uh I was expecting him to do better I think it's unfortunate that he got I mean it is the first race you got to cut the guy some slack but I was not expecting him to be that far down the standings and the thing to me that that kind of is why I'm picking the bone that I am now is because number 14 in the race and he's between one two three Japanese bikes barely above the other ones I I don't know I feel I feel crummy picking on a guy that got hurt last season but at the same time like I said you gotta look at where all the other Ducatis are and they're literally at the top one two three four five six yeah uh all the other Ducatis finished inside the top 10 inside the top eight actually other than um did Franco Morbidelli race was he actually on the grid I I didn't even realize that so okay well you know Marco Bettecchi did better than Franco Morbidelli I'm just I'm looking at Marco Bettecchi did better than Franco Morbidelli I'm just I'm looking at the standings here I thought he didn't show up but I I'm an idiot I I did see him on the grid I just completely blanked him out I haven't seen Franco Morbidelli do anything since 2020 um I think a lot of people expect a lot more from him I know I was hearing a lot of big talk from uh that I mentioned an introductory episode or introductory I guess you could call an episode I used to listen to this podcast called Brodo GP those guys are great and I think it was Kevin I think his name was Kevin I can't remember if it's Kevin I can't remember the other host's name but they they always like they like Franco Morbidelli and they were really talking him up in 2020 but uh you know he hasn't panned out to do too much and again you know reason this reason that you just got to look at where everybody else is I think the fact that Fabio Quartararo just absolutely outperformed Franco for his entire stay at Yamaha is kind of all you need to know the fact also I mean the fact that Marco Bettecchi placed behind Fabio Quartararo, John Zarco, John Muir um that he he placed behind the the two two Honda riders and Yamaha and Fabio has still been complaining about the Yamaha I don't know it's early in the season I hope he is recovering or is still in the process of recovering if he's not actually fully fit I don't know hopefully he can get his groove back I don't know what he's missing I really don't know I'd love to see him back up there his teammate kicked his butt Fabio DiGiantonio is an eighth uh yeah that's yeah way to get showed up by your newly acquired teammate so I think I think I'm going to talk about Fantasy MotoGP here for a second and then I'm going to end the episode I think for the next race I'm going to have another person on here to talk with me and I'm also going to be a little more organized I just sat down decided to go ahead just bottom line record it been messing around with audio settings trying to figure all this stuff up but it's a work in progress they're getting it there let's see already for 30 minutes wow time flies fast so Fantasy MotoGP every episode because I mean you've got to every after every race gotta talk about MotoGP so I'm in a MotoGP league with some friends it's the Rookie Fans MotoGP league um I'm I'm not gonna lie I'm pretty good at this I'm pretty good at this Fantasy MotoGP isn't terribly hard but last season I absolutely knocked my buddy's socks off I think I had almost a 200 point gap on him maybe more anyway out of here into there I'm gonna go over my picks so for those of you who don't know Fantasy MotoGP is really simple you start off with 15 million dollars of salary and you're you have to buy gold riders two gold riders two silver riders you have to pick a constructor and a team and then you you allocate your budget accordingly and the goal is you know your riders score points and the goal is to score more points than anybody else and part of managing your money is picking guys that you think are going to do well and selling them off excuse me when they make money you know they increase in their own salary like everybody has their own price and when they do well that price goes up so like if I bought for example Raul Fernandez for 1.4 million dollars and say he doesn't decide to pull out early in the middle of the race say he could go up like 200k so he'd be worth 1.6 million so I'll I'll trade him and I'll get the 200k difference to on top of the 1.4 and then you can buy you can build your um your team value and buy better riders etc last year I literally ended up with it was like it was a joke almost and my buddy gave up he said he's like ah dude I just I just gave up halfway through the season you know but I ended up having so much money it was like a 26 million dollar team value or something I had Petko Benyaya Jorge Martin as my silver riders and then I think I had like Brad Bender and somebody else's silver I can't remember but then the constructor this is the funny part is for a constructor I had Ducati and my team was Lenovo Ducati so they have every every team and everything is ranked the value of it is ranked accordingly to how they've done so that that was just crazy so I just mopped the floor with them so this is this is 2024 I need to stop talking about 2023 except to make comparisons but 2024 rider lineup for MotoGP Fantasy League I've got gold riders of Petko Benyaya and Marc Marquez silver riders of Pedro Acosta Raul Fernandez and my constructor is Ducati you can't pick anything else they have eight bikes on the grid and my team is Gas Gas KTM does this still say Tech 3? I didn't realize that anyway so Petko 3.5 million right out the starting gate Marc Marquez 3 million right out the starting gate Pedro Acosta 1.8 million Raul Fernandez 1.4 Ducati the constructor 3.4 and Gas Gas 1.5 so I actually budgeted it out to where I had a 400k I had 400k left in my bank here my remaining salary I'm going to tell you right now I already know that Pedro Acosta is going to go up in price he's going to go up in value and probably make me an extra million dollars which is a big deal so Raul Fernandez I picked him because he was shaping up and testing and looked like he was actually going to pull something it's too early to tell he could have just completely had like a technical nightmare with the bikes he was on I don't know what the heck happened I still haven't heard anything about that he I think he was like four laps to go or something and he he uh pulled out of the race maybe maybe it was a little more than that I don't remember but it doesn't matter I am in my league I am number one I am number uno and I've got 134 points everybody else is nobody nobody else is even close and the funny thing is is that uh nobody else is remotely I I think my buddy just changed yeah he just changed his rider lineup and he's still 100k more than me everybody else is at their max this is the exciting part to me because last year I was knocking on the door so in the United States official league where does it say how many people there are uh doesn't matter out of all the people that are playing in the United States I'm number 550 that doesn't it's a big number if there's I don't I think there's like 10,000 or 20,000 I think uh oh there we go 32 no wow it was a lot less than last year wow okay last year it was way up there for the United States but this year it's only 3,207 people interesting 40,000 people worldwide doesn't matter still out of 3,000 people 550 isn't too bad but the exciting part to me is I'm looking at my stats here number one is 193 points I'm 134 but number one used a boost that means for this race he doubled the points one of his rider was going to make in fact everybody on this leaderboard and it just goes down from 193 they used a boost and they're all maxed salaries except for number one and a couple other dudes but they're almost all max salary number one is 14 uh 14 9 they all used a boost and what is that uh 60 points yeah almost exactly 60 points more than me with a boosted rider that means they really only outscored me with their boost I think that's right I think that's what that adds to because let's see what what is 50 50 here he's number one so he has okay he he has a why does he have franklin so he has number one here has peckle benyaya brad bender pedro acosta and franklin modiglietti ducati and gas gas so he made a really good choice picking brad bender um definitely definitely a good choice so I see how he did it looks like he boosted uh pecko I'm not sure but I'm knocking on the door I'm already up there close to the leaderboard the top leaderboard and I haven't even used a single boost and uh heck you know I I think I'm going to save my boost when I think that one of my riders is going to do the double that means in coda there's a good chance I'm going to boost mark marquez that means in the saxon ring there's a good chance I'm going to boost mark marquez because I swear if he doesn't win if he doesn't win in coda in the saxon ring I don't I don't know what to tell you people that would make me sad I think that would make him sad it doesn't really matter in the long run as long as you're putting up a fight somewhere but anyway that's my kind of update on fantasy league I'll get better at doing these updates to make it a little more interesting maybe I'll go ahead and next episode or something I'll do a rundown of my competition and uh their team names oh there's some good ones but um yeah I think I'm going to end the podcast or end the episode here it's really weird talking to a microphone for 40 minutes by myself I'm looking forward to having somebody else to talk to next time have a good conversation going uh in the future I'm gonna have some notes make everything a little more organized I'll probably have a sequence of events for what I'm how I'm going to talk about the races and stuff just to just to make things more organized just to make things more organized and I can easily figure out my quote-unquote script for upcoming races I I don't script anything I've said so far the pauses should uh relate that but thank you for listening if you're here looking forward to the rest of this season I'm looking forward to making more podcasts and having a good old conversation with some buddies in the future and looking forward to hearing from you guys if you want to leave comments or recommendations or whatever love to hear it thank you for listening I'll see you in a couple weeks