Thread: 2015 Moto GP...
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Old 10 Nov 2015, 12:31 (Ref:3589475)   #562
J Jay
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Originally Posted by littleman View Post
Clearly, Rossi knew Lorenzo had the beating of him and had to finish right behind him, as a minimum, if he was going to have any chance of taking the title.
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Originally Posted by J Jay View Post
But there is an aside to why he spoke out - he knew that Lorenzo had enough pace to overhaul the points gap, interference or not. If he had been more patient with Marquez in the Sepang race he still would have finished 3rd at best, and keeping his qualifying position at Valencia wouldn't have got him any further up than 4th based on his pace throughout the weekend. The cracks were definitely showing by Aragorn; Pedrosa rode out of his skin but he would not have taken 2nd if Rossi had the pace and nous expected of him. Ditto for PI - regardless of what Marquez was or wasn't doing, Rossi should have left something to be able to get past Iannone in the closing laps. Those seven points would have been enough to see the title decided in his favour.

So Rossi would still have had to rely on the Hondas to get past Lorenzo. Having rewatched the race, Marquez is fooling absolutely no-one about his race strategy but I reckon it would still be a tall order for both of them to have made it past in the closing laps (Lorenzo was quicker from T7 to T13 and the Yamaha had enough to keep the Hondas behind on the straight). The title was gone already, Rossi just put the verbal nails in the coffin.
Beat you by 29 hours and 44 minutes

No decision at this level is entirely impulsive. Rossi knew he needed something extra after failing to capitalize at Misano, Aragorn and PI. It seems harsh to say that given how consistent he has been but it does show how much slower he knew he was. Eventually either Lorenzo or Marquez had to get their act together, and when Jorge did he was simply quicker.

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Originally Posted by Artur View Post
I think Dorna is doing fine. The tracks are always filled with huge crowds, they have good tv presence on several countries and, unlike with Uncle Bernard's little circus, their rating are not falling apart. They are also not short of countries interested in hosting events, so Dorna seems pretty fine with their money collecting sources.

When Rossi retires, I think we'll see lots of people go(at least we'll get rid of the worst of the fanboys) but MotoGP/Dorna sooner or later would have to deal with their real fanbase, the one which involves only those who like bike racing and not those who just sporadically watch some event because of some circusntances(rider fanboyism, controversies or something else)
Huge crowds: And a significant proportion are there to see only one rider. As the commentators never fail to remind us, "every race is Rossi's home race". Although this is anecdotal, from attending a few Silverstone races I cannot say otherwise - VR is still the big draw. So those numbers and their receipts will drop a lot when he retires, as will the countries that will want to host MotoGP, although just being cheaper than F1 in general will help to keep their interest. However there will always be good crowds at Iberian/Mediterranean races so at least MotoGP has a strong European presence to fall back on (that F1 no longer has). If Dorna can rein in their global ambitions then this will provide a solid platform to keep MotoGP running.

Good TV presence: Unfortunately, just like Uncle Bernard Dorna have put short term gain (moving away from free-to-air channels) ahead of long term stability, and the viewing figures have dropped in the same way F1's home audiences did. And if the racing is pretty naff* - as is rather common with only 3/4 bikes in contention for victories - people will stop paying to watch, like I did this year even though my favourite rider led the championship until the last race

*Relatively speaking, of course. Even the most turgid bike race will still provide more action than a good number of top-class car races. But their "real fanbase" as you say will have these higher expectations than those who are only fans of certain riders or who want to know what all the fuss is all about.
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