Michael Scott | November 6, 2024
Cycle News In The Paddock
COLUMN
Rain, Rain, Come Again
I think it was F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, many years ago, who said that the way to make racing more exciting was to introduce subsurface irrigation systems that could wet the track at random times.
That was for cars, but the same is true for bikes. But luckily, we already have such a system. It’s called “rain.” And what a joy it can be. Especially for those riders whose progress is crippled by their motorcycles’ technical weakness. Now, they can show just how good they are.
Rain at Buriram for the Thai GP proved the point.
Rain, like we saw in Thailand last week, has a way of evening out the playing field.
It came one day after yet another new record for Ducati—the top eight places in the Sprint. A first in MotoGP, and the first in history since Honda in Barcelona in 1996. A week before the Desmos had taken the top six in the Australian GP, a first since Honda in France in 1997.
Then on Sunday a mini monsoon brought welcome relief. Only three Ducatis in the top nine.
Admittedly those Ducatis were first, second and fourth, and three fast riders (Marquez, Bastianini and Morbidelli) crashed. But KTM took third, fifth and sixth (Acosta, Miller, Binder); Aprilia’s Vinales and Espargaro were seventh and ninth, and (gasp) a Honda eighth with Zarco. Only in 10th Alex Marquez on the next Ducati.
Could Ducati’s badly battered challengers, especially KTM, glean some hope? Are things looking up at last? Can they engineer their way out of the slump?
All the more so, given that top non-Ducati finisher Pedro Acosta’s recent improvement has come since getting a new chassis at the final European rounds. A clear demonstration of actual technical progress.
Yet the major factor had nothing to do with engineering of any sort. The difference in Thailand was weather. A wet track skews everything.
No surprise, really. This has been demonstrated time and again over the years.
Rain evens out machine differences. Rain hands power back to riders. The best of them can forget about the problems that ruin their dry races. So, if these good results were not necessarily reassuring to beleaguered engineers, they meant everything to the guys wielding the twist grips.
The best-rewarded at Buriram was Acosta, lining up after four crashes and one missed start over the last five outings (Saturday’s Sprint tumble brought his total for the season so far to 25, two more even than serial faller Marc Marquez).
Acosta’s podium, his ninth in his first season, came after a scary moment early on, dropping to eighth after failing to get enough heat in his brakes for the turn-two hairpin at the end of the one-kilometer straight. By the closing laps, he’d pushed through to prevail over factory KTM riders Binder and Miller.
It had been a joy to watch. The fight between Miller and Acosta was a high point for fans and a low point for the Australian, who from laps 14 to 24 (of 26) had been a strong third. A most welcome transformation after a season with just three top 10 finishes for the four-time GP winner.
Miller’s problem has been severe chatter. It has struck over and over, leaving him dropping back for race after race. Thankfully for him, a sharp-eyed Dorna cameraman caught it in the act at Motegi. Shown in slow motion the vibration was intense. At last, the hapless rider’s excuses became totally plausible.
Chatter is a mysterious ailment, afflicting different riders in different ways, even on the same bike. Other KTM riders have suffered a bit, though not as much as Miller. But on a slippery surface, the forces on the bike are not enough to set it going. In this way he and factory teammate Binder were given a chance to prove that it’s the bikes, not the riders, which have been spoiling their averages almost all season.
The other rider to achieve a talent redemption was Zarco, whose move through to eighth on the last lap, past earlier GP winner Espargaro’s Aprilia, was the best result for any Honda rider this year. Again, it follows upgrades to the beleaguered bike, but mostly it was down to the Frenchman.
As significantly, however, the same two riders dominated in the wet as they have done in the dry at almost every race this year. Just because rain freed other riders to give a better account of themselves didn’t detract from the fact that Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia are in charge of the championship, for reasons beyond just having the best bikes.
Their results have been helped, but their riding skills have not been flattered, by the quality of Ducati’s dominant GP24.
Rain helped them prove the point as much as it did those often-forgotten men of the championship who, for once, finished much closer to them.
Perhaps rain should be compulsory.CN
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