MOTOGP PREVIEW
I
s this a second golden age of
motorcycle racing? The new
MotoGP season—at 19 rounds,
the longest ever—begins on
March 18, and after eight months
of racing, the fans and the 24
riders in the premier class will
provide the answer.
2018 comes off the back of
two epic years. In 2016, there
were a record nine different
race winners. This showed that
Dorna's dumbed-down technical
restrictions really did level the
odds, and cut the factory teams
down to size.
In 2017, there were fewer win-
ners—just five. But the battle for
overall victory between defend-
ing champion Marc Marquez and
veteran Andrea Dovizioso on the
reinvigorated Ducati was only
resolved at the final race. The
pre-eminent pair shared six wins
apiece. Three more went to Mav-
erick Vinales, one to Movistar Ya-
maha teammate Valentino Rossi,
and two to Marquez's Repsol
Honda stalwart Dani Pedrosa.
The crown went, as we know,
to Marquez, his fourth in five
years on the factory Honda,
confirming his status as the
dominant force of modern road
racing. But, thanks to some mis-
calculations at Honda combined
with Dorna's rule freezing engine
development throughout the
season, it was an uphill struggle,
and a classic example of genius
turning hubris into victory.
The roots of Marquez's difficul-
ties were nourished by HRC's
sometimes fruitful but often
pig-headed determination to
do things their own way. While
rivals prepared for the unified
hardware of 2014, then unified
software in 2016, HRC persisted
with their own highly sophisticat-
ed in-house electronics until the
last possible moment. Yamaha
and Ducati were already familiar
with the Magneti Marelli systems
IN
THE
WIND
P46
Marc Marquez—
the best of his
generation, and
odds-on favorite to
grab a fifth MotoGP
title this year.
