Episode 379: Running a team in MotoGP & more with Michael Laverty

The Paddock Pass Podcast crew are joined by TNT Sports pundit and commentator & MLav Racing Team Principal Michael Laverty to talk about the rites and rewards of a running a Grand Prix squad in Moto3, using Hondas, Scott Ogden and more. The Northern Irishman also give us his views on Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin and MotoGP 2024 while we also discuss some of our favourite bike liveries on the eve of the ’24 team launches.

This is the pent pass podcast I’m Adam wheer and taking over hosting duties this week as Steve English is attending the mark VDS Superbike team launch and also hovering around the test which I think is taking place in herth right uh can’t remember it’s called to be joined

By a man who makes pink headphones like a tasteful fashion accessory our podcast Sage even though he’s a vegetarian Mr David EMT also a person Sage is I’d just like to point out that Sage is actually a herb so it’s perfectly fine for me to

Eat lots of sage and I in fact we have a few varieties in the garden so there you go perfectly thanks Dave also a person who can name every Championship finish by noric Abbe but who once forgot to pack his underwear for the valencian Grand Prix the esteemed Neil Morrison

Our final musketeer on this show is a person with many hats in the wardrobe TV pundit and expert former racer in at least five high-profile series an academy director and motor 3 team principal and an all round Good Egg welcome Michael ly thank you very much

Adam nice to see you NE David and happy New Year to everyone before we start our thanks as always to Renville for their support they support the best motocross and superow Supercross teams in the business there’s also a big complement of Street accessories just watch Kawasaki racing team in World sbk this

Year to see and know the difference rental can make we also have some KTM backing for the podcast 2024 is the 70th Anniversary for the company and the 30th Anniversary for the KTM Juke lineup 125s 390s 690s 790s 890s 990s and the super Juke the whole lot um is anybody on this

Podcast ridden a KTM apart from me I rode a 990 super adventure a very long time ago and it was an enormously fun bike um uh I I also noticed that you skipped out on the 1190 the 1090 1190 1290 and now 1390 uh of the uh the KTM

Range I was looking at dues Dave they’re super Adventures no no no the 1390 is a super dukee I think you’ll find I would know because I’ve been watching videos of it on the on the YouTubes okay Michael we know you’ve got um an association with Honda so maybe

You don’t want to say too much particularly you and it comes to mot 3 but ever ridden a KTM uh lots of their off-road bikes never on road so um yeah I’ve got uh a 300 and Euro upstairs for a bit of play rting on I’ve always enjoyed the KTM off-road lineup and

Their two-stroke range is is top notot so yeah still never got the opportunity other than doing some test ring with their WP team but that was on actually a Yamaha R1 but it was linked to KTM at the time so I’ve never actually rode a KTM uh on

Road bike but yeah one day yeah the two strokes tpis good bikes um in general the the Jukes like bikes with massive amounts of talk that leave you grinning like aerous grandfather in a palates class so check them out if you can KTMs um firstly updates I’m off to Austria

Tomorrow to actually help KTM with their motor GP team launch videos uh five or minus I should say minus 5 degree temperatures coming up so not going to be too Pleasant and then the ducatti launch in Italy and finally track house the week after that in Los Angeles uh

Dave you’re getting ready for the first team launch of the preseason which is going to be grini but it seems that they’ve had their Thunder stolen somewhat uh by a Spanish lgo austral Galia and the Marquez Brothers kind of spilling the beans ahead of time yeah well someone’s got to pay the bills

Don’t they so um uh yeah I mean obviously Mark said last year um that it wasn’t true that he wasn’t going to get paid for racing in 2024 he didn’t actually specify that it would be grini paying paying him a salary but yeah Australia Galia is one of his personal

Sponsors there’s a few of them esta Galia aliance insurance I think uh also Red Bull he’s a massive Red Bull um uh athletes it’s going to be very interesting to see how much red bull branding there is both on his leathers and on uh on the bike itself so because that’s the other

Thing we also know that Red Bull has gone from Repsol Honda of course uh Neil there’s only a few days before M bigo the jaati launch um where we’ll be meeting up and doing the podcast uh are you half marathon training what have you been up to uh a

Little bit of that yes I’m actually going to the greding launch as well ad so I’ll be joining our friend Dave uh over in richion on Friday Saturday I think it is and then yeah we’re driving up together to the uh to the doite mountains on Sunday so yeah a couple of

Fun days ahead couple of launches few free dinner is all being well as well uh Michael I don’t know where to start um you know what about the team MAV Racing for 2024 I can imagine it’s been a busy time with emails Administration just trying to get things sorted yeah pretty

Much that’s the winter for uh life as a team owner which I’ve never quite realized just how much the team boss has to do um just getting everything everything in place with with sponsors um the admin side is one thing getting staff locked down getting everyone’s contract signed then more importantly

Getting the sponsors in place making sure everyone’s happy sorting out the Brandon um we’re changing all trucks and Hospitality units and then Honda bringing out a new bike so yeah a massive overhaul of her of her kit and Fleet were expanded in junior GP to run the British talent team alongside DNA so

That requires more staff and more bikes and more kit and also in British talent cup we’ve got from three Riders last year to six next year so yeah it’s just never ending making sure you’ve got everything in place that you need all the material the budget most importantly

Unfortunately we lost Vision track at the end of last season so we don’t have a title sponsor so at the moment I’m working hard to try and replace Vision track at the moment it’s the team’s going to be called M lab racing until we find a a suitable replacement for vision

Track so yeah not not easy when you lose your title sponsor but it is what it is it’s the current Financial climate it’s not easy to find a replacement when we’re sort of even though we’re in a world championship series we’re definitely more angled towards the UK

Market having all British Riders but um but yeah we’re it’s it’s Trucking along I’ve got a good business partner in the team now takes a bit of load off my shoulders takes a bit of the financial load off as well and we’re um we’re we’re looking good for the season ahead

And looking forward to seeing what Honda brings for the 2024 machine it looks like everything’s changed which we needed a little bit of a step up to compete with KTMs and so yeah a lot of um a lot of differences with the 2024 package so look for to seeing on track

In in Portugal mfb Michael you mentioned how difficult it is to get sponsorship uh what what kind of is the process for you could you shed some light onto you know for our listeners is it a case of Leaning heavily on the contact book can you work

With an agency I mean how where do you even begin to try and get you know a sizable check to be able to go racing in MGP for a full season yeah I’ve been fortunate in contacts to this point but now I am actually engaging with an agency so I’ve got actually some

Meetings this week to try and get some assistance I put together um sponsor proposals and packs and try and put a presentation and um that the design side of that coming up with visuals and and proposals takes a lot of time so you’re you might produce 20 or 30 of them and

And maybe only get one if you’re lucky and it may only be for a secondary sponsor or a smaller sponsor a lot of the companies in the UK they want to go to BB it’s easy to send their clients to a British Superbike race and they’ll get

The VIP hospitality and have um have an easy weekend it’s harder to get people who want to or who have um a kind of a global client base or european at least they can send their clients to get the hospitality have the the weekend in the

Motor GP pic so I’m finding more people are interested in doing that like Lucho cze canel’s done for years smaller packages maybe one event deals send um send their their customers or their clients so I’m trying to attract those it’s always easier if you can attract

The the big title sponsor because if you have 10 secondary sponsors you have to give each of those the same FaceTime the same uh commitment whereas if you’ve got one it’s more or less the same process but for a much bigger Brandon but you you only have one uh senior title

Sponsor to look after so yeah at the moment I’m just uh still exercising the contact book the contacts I’ve made over the years but trying to to Branch out a little bit it’s like I said I mentioned earlier it is difficult to stay in the the British track completely I did have

Options which would have made my life easier to choose a writer from a different nationality and it brought a sponsorship package with it so it would have been easier but I wanted to stay the the course it’s probably going to be that I’m not always able to stay that

Way just judging by how tough It’s been this winter so I may have to diversify but as long as I keep one British Raider let’s say B three grand prix each each year it keeps that alive but I may have to to look to other Avenue streams um

When it comes to nationalities because it changes your conversations with sponsors quite a lot um Michael how does the sort of the changing calendar the expanding calendar how does that affect your sort of searching for for for sponsorship because obviously you know the broader we go and the bigger we go

The sort of the broader the audience but that also you know companies tend to uh tend to operate in in markets uh and they’re really particularly interested in serving a particular market and sort of the the more Global you get it’s almost like you get bigger there are

Bigger parties interested but more but fewer of them yeah yeah that is true the the Asian Market’s still relatively untapped as is going to India last year has definitely potentially open some doors for the future I’ve had a lot of contact with Indian companies and riders

That want to come and raceing Junior GP um so there there is um potential there to open doors for the future I know there’s um there’s untapped markets that we aren’t really getting into but it’s it’s not easy it’s finding those contacts it’s doing the the networking

When you’re in those countries I think it will it’ll definitely pay off long term the the broader we go but at the same time makes it harder to get mechanics and staff on board over 22 rounds because now all of a sudden you’re asking a lot more off them um

It’s not not easy right now so I had some mechanics that worked in both my junior GP and GP team last year they’re all a little bit like no that’s too much to do 22 rounds then come back and do a seven round Junior GP plus a couple of

Tests so you don’t have much much of a home life but I think I don’t think we’ll ever end up I don’t think we’ll have the budgets to be like Formula 1 and have two teams but it’s almost head in that way but um but yeah those those

Markets I think the mot GP teams will tap into those first and then hopefully the smaller teams in motor 2 and motor 3 can pick up a few uh smaller deals off the back of that but it is um it it should work out Michael I’m just curious you’ve now

Had two full seasons as a team owner in the world championship in Moto 3 and you know there’s been some really there’s been some good moments some difficult moments as well I would just like to know over those two years you know what’s kind of the big biggest thing

That you’ve learned uh in your current position that you can kind of take forward into the the next couple of years yeah it’s been interesting it’s been massively different than I had anticipated I I’ve learned a lot in those two years still not I’ve never been good at managing people I had

Taylor McKenzie in there as my team manager I it’s hard being everyone’s uh friend so whether it’s um writers uh staff uh mechanics parents they handling everyone is a little bit difficult you you’re never going to please everyone and i’ I’ve struggled with that side of

It um because you have to give some bad news at times you can’t you can’t please everyone but um in general it’s it’s been good I got to say the world championship is is good in the support we get from era I still manage a lot of

The the um behind the scenes with the the travel and everything but er do make our life easy organizing all our freight and shipping and the the cares and the work that goes on there the the ER guys have been such a good support as of Da

It to be fair they they put a lot behind the teams assisting us to to travel around the the globe in 22 races it’s not easy but um but yeah overall I’ve I’ve enjoyed the process year one was really tough because I had um I had to

Stretch a budget to uh qu to its absolute limit so I was doing a lot of jobs myself that I knew I could do so it just meant I was burning the candle at both ends I don’t think I could have kept doing that year on year so last

Year I brought in a a business partner and that took um a lot of load off my should and it meant I’ve got a bit of my own life back and then I’m hoping to to grow that again for the third season so learn to delegate a little bit more have

More Budget on hand that you can employ people to do jobs that I had to plug um plug holes with um but yeah the the I don’t think we underestimated the the task but coming up into World Championship I know Scott and Josh both came from Junior GP but because we’re a

Brand new team unfortunately the Honda was a little bit of a disadvantage against the KTMs especially over their last season 2022 at times it was a little bit closer weirdly the Honda won the championship with leapard but when you look at the rest of the Hondas they’re that little bit below the ktm’s

In general performance so keeping the Riders um morale up because they felt like they were on a hiding to nothing at times even though Scott had some really good results as the Josh towards the end of 2023 before unfortunately got hurt in Qatar he was having such a such a strong

Performance week on week he was he was improving he was getting up into the top 10 and practice and qualifying sessions and yeah really getting chipping down those those last few tents so yeah it’s been uh been really pleasing to see the progress on on Josh’s side and

Frustrating for Scott because he started last season so strong and then it sort of tapered off a little bit towards the end of the year but he’s also picked up an injury in Valencia but hopefully both will be back to full fitness um for when

We roll out on track and in uh Portugal in February but yeah both both Riders having a bit of a tough winter to be fair yeah are you able to give our our listeners a we bit of an idea Michael just how how busy you have been over the

Last couple years because I feel every time that I’ve bumped into in a Moto GP Paddock you’re telling me that you’ve just come from a cev round or maybe it’s a round in the BSB championship and it seems like you’re just like always always on the move and you said you’re

Obviously trying to delegate that a little bit better but back in 2022 I mean how many weekends basically were you working year and you know will that be will that be drastically reduced in in 2024 um a little bit not as uh I’ll still keep my finger on the pulse with

All three teams but in 2022 as I said I was uh mainly in junior GP we had enough budget in the Grand Prix team from the get-go that we could employ people for every role having Taylor in there as team manager having um everything rolling without me in the pit box but

For junior GP I had to I was driving the truck and managing the parts and managing the pit box and so I was basically getting back from a GP uh do my at then it was T BT Sport but with TNT sport so I do my my work as a pundit

And commentator then Monday or Tuesday fly to the workshop in Barcelona Drive whether it was Estel or Portugal drive the truck down there then help set up and then work through the the weekend then get it back to the workshop and then fly on to the next race so in

Between that you’re I still was bookkeeping so I was getting all the receipts off every member of of Staff booking all the travel um doing the accounts and trying to even initially setting it all up was was hard because um it brexit really hurt us as a as a UK

Based team luckily I have an Irish passport and I set up in an Irish company which has made life easier to be honest that we don’t need Carise for everything when we race in Europe so um I did put some good uh I I spoke to Paul

Denning I spoke to Shawn M who were both going through the similar scenario so I got some good direction we set up our our GP Workshop in Barcelona and um and run from an EU company we do have a UK company as well but it just made life

Easier in general so yeah it’s been 2022 was mental because I was doing so much and then I just didn’t have much time my little boy was um was born at the end of 2021 so in his first year life I wasn’t really around a lot so last year I

Wanted to be home more I was still traveling a lot but I wasn’t going to every single Junior GP so um mcau Webb who was Chief mechanic for Josh had come to work with me in junior GP and I identified that he was quite good in terms of the organization and the

Management Logistics using own initiative just doing things without me having to tell him so in the end he’s become my team manager and team coordinator down there so I could at the end of last season I could just stay home and watch on the on the TV which

Was good and and trust mcau and the boys to to run it so he will he’ll stop traveling GPS next year and solely focus on the junior GP team so he’s going to run that meant that I had to find a good Chief mechanic to replace him in in

Grand Prix but yeah just finding those key people makes your life a lot easier so I in the British talent Cup team now I’ve got um Jordan Pritchard and Nathan Smith and basically they can run everything I don’t have to they sign off on spend with me and that’s about it I

Don’t really have to do too much now with that team I do want to pop in and make sure everything’s going right which is two three races a year but it’s um when you’re doing 22 GPS uh three bsbs and say three or four cevs you don’t

Have many weekends left if you want to have January and December at home um Michael I passed by once in the beginning I have to say you’re cooking in the hospital Hospitality wasn’t the best so I really hope you’ve managed to get someone else on that front in the

Last year or two but on a serious note um I appreciate you maybe have some uh you know you have to tackle this diplomatically but tell me about the relationship or us about the relationship with Honda because I think for most Moto 3 fans watching last year

You know and you said yourself you alluded to the fact that it was a little bit of a hiding to nothing it wasn’t quite the bike to have even though it won the world championship of course with Jamma massia but you know I mean are they going to give you more support

Next year is they’re going to a little bit more in terms of resources do you think the package is going to be more competitive or is it just one of those those compromise things where you get a level of support and you just really

Have to make the most of it yeah in a way it is frustrating but at the same time we’re all essentially in the same boat so um you just got to commend leapard they do a slightly better job than the rest of the H teams I think a

Lot of that’s they’ve got good experienced people in there but also they’ve got the biggest budget to employ them to develop to to spend time in the Wind Tunnel because it is it literally is marginal gains to steal D David bord line but the smallest things make

The biggest difference in Motu 3 so Honda gave a good package unfortunately you’re well not unfortunately it’s good because budget wise it’s locked over three years so we’ve bought all new bikes for 2024 but they you’ll just upgrade those for the next couple of years I say upgrade them you do everyone

Thinks you buy a bike as a whole you really don’t you build you build it in Parts it’s the same when you speak to the mot GP teams there’s never actually a whole bike it’s a new frame it just constant evolves new engine new wir new

ACU you change the parts all the time so it’s never the same bike from the beginning to the end of the year but what um the the new rules do so well is the three-year technical phase means that you’re um you’re buying you know you can stock up early on because you’ll

Be using that same material um when it comes to the the parts you get you’ve got the exact same engines the exact same uh electronics package and ECU the exact same exhaust even suspension Tire it’s all identical so we have the same material as all the other Haun teams it

Just seemed like KTM somehow they have a a test team with FM vgz they’re they’re working on the peripheries which you can change there are setting parts that you can change and then there are homologated parts that you’re not allowed to adjust but somehow they were

Eing out a little bit year on year when in theory it should have remained fairly stagnant in terms of development over the the three-year period that’s the plan for the technical freeze but didn’t quite work out so it meant by year three KTM had found enough for every team across the the

Board and they it just seemed like they had a little bit of an advantage so it was hard keeping our Riders motivated but then you you would arrive at a circuit in the Honda chassis because it always turned good and the Riders liked it you’d think oh they they’ve got

Something this weekend but it’s just hard in race trim because you can’t use the flow in motor 3 everyone slip streaming passing bulking each other in the corners and the KTMs can fight better because they can stop and go a little bit easier so the where Honda was

Strong they couldn’t really use that strength as often but Jam msia did a great job to win the championship you know obviously there was the the Qatar incident that sort of tted it a little bit but how he rode in the races around the the second half of the Season he was

In my opinion Head and Shoulders above at times I know aumu took the fight to him really good but I think jamama was the complete package and was getting the most out of his bike even though leapard did have a bit more top speed than the

Rest of the Haunted teams yeah where is that coming from cuz I mean the well I mean two things first of all in Moto 3 I mean my criticism of moto 3 is always that so much of it um it’s it’s quite hard for a rider to make a difference

Because because of the importance of slip streaming uh you know slow Riders can keep up because of the slip stream because of slip streaming you know you could always like make a and make a pass um but also the it becomes really important the the package around it you

Know the the the mechanics the the the even like the data guys and all the rest the finding that little bit of you know that that extra HTH in the case of M three is it just becomes really really important yeah it it’s frustrating for

For me um now as a as a a team boss looking at it and feeling frustrated because previously I had the same feeling when I was helping John MC in the class and I felt he was a better writer than he was able to show at times

And it is because sometimes the bravest writer the one who’s not SC scared to push the other Rider off the track is the one who comes to the four David Munos is a perfect example he’s a quality Rider but sometimes it’s just purely his aggression that makes the

Result happen and he not scared to make some enemies out there so um yeah there’s there’s times whenever it is uh the lap times can be two seconds a lap slower throughout the race and it’s just staying in a bunch because of the the slip stream the overtakes not allowing

The a rider to get his head down and just uh just work in a rhythm you know there’s been years when you could do that but predominantly 125 and Moto 3’s always been a group battle but the way the class has evolved with the young kids coming up um obviously now they’re

18 years old but with even when they were 16 years old they were just Ultra aggressive coming in from Junior GP sticking up the inside not scared didn’t realize the danger they were putting themselves in you know some of the weaving we’ve seen Down streets and uh

I’m glad to see it’s tidied up a little bit last season but it’s still scares me at times watching them and it’s um yeah it’s a different way of racing and I think Jam said it he wanted to get out of the class he was just he was over

Motor 3 because of the the tactics and how you ride and how the races evolve Michael um you mentioned obviously Josh was uh kind of coming into his Zone towards the end of last year before that injury in in katar that he sustained with Scott um I remember

Back in in preseason I think he topped one of the tests in herth and uh I spoke to him at the final preseason test and both he and the team were thinking maybe you know he could be up there fighting regularly in the top 10 and he did have

Some some really good weekends but we did see it maybe tail off a little bit towards the end I mean we we know that Scott’s super talented but didn’t quite work out as as think I think everyone imagined last year I mean you able to kind of shed some light on on what

Happened there yeah difficult to exactly put the finger on it because as you said he was super fast at the start of the season did top the herth preseason test um fast in in most test in qualifying sessions he’s definitely one of those writers Who falls F of the ultra

Aggressive nature of the Moto 3 racing so um he could he could do a lap time if it was a if it was a time trial event he’d have been top five top 10 a lot more frequently but being able to position himself in the races was difficult in Argentina almost got the

Podium in the wet he was super strong in the wet which shows the class of his his skill and his feeling his level as a rider but it’s um somehow managing to uh say make his way through the pack has been difficult whether it is the he is a

Little bit taller he’s he’s skinny he’s leaning works hard to stay um to the weight limmit but he doesn’t have the ability to pass on the streets so he can hang in the slipstream but with the with that scenario where you’re never able to draft alongside you’ve always got people

Swarming you and it does it sometimes is hard to go forward in the grip but there obviously he’s not Scott’s not one of those Ultra aggressive Riders who is dive bombing in the braks but maybe it it takes a little bit more of that to to

Get the the end result that he needs because he’s definitely got the speed and the talent and and I think he just got um you know the the crash in India was big he had a few a few big ones and maybe his confidence was just knocked a

Little bit towards the end of the season but the speed was still there it was just an unfortunate end and then getting getting hurt in Valencia definitely not how he wanted to finish it but yeah we fully believe in Scott and you know he can he score points he could front row

He could fight for um for pole position in the wet every time can fight for podiums in the wet um and he’s fast enough in the drive we’re hoping that the package from Honda does give us a little bit of a step up in performance

For 2024 that allows him to to kind of develop and and show us what he’s capable of week in week out what’s what’s the emotion around running the team Michael is it something where you have a great deal of Pride but then do you also feel the responsibility because

I mean even your own personal experience and and that of your brother as well I mean you made big compromises and and took risks to come to World Championship racing and now we look you know the the the theme of British riders in GP is always talked about and it has been for

The last few years but but you you’re providing a platform for that to exist and to get better I mean I imagine it’s it’s quite a responsibility to bear it’s you know while you’re trying to make the numbers happen each year to go racing there’s almost like a necessity for it

You know yeah that the compromise you talk about still happens and it frustrates me because I want to give I want to just have enough budget that all we focus on is performance but you have to you have to balance the books you have to cut the cloth to suit and we

Have a decent budget but when you’re trying to compete with Alexa leopard it’s you’re not in the in there in the same level at all so yeah like I said it is hard to get enough budget that you you can spend the time in the Wind

Tunnel that you can um develop the the last little bit so you know it’s it’s not huge because when you go to the wind tunnel you can’t change your body work as as drastically as say in Moto GP but you can make little tweaks with um how everything’s positioned with how the rer

Sits on the bike with how much um excess material is on their suit all those little bits make a difference in in Moto 3 and it is at the end of the day it’s it’s budgetary as in how far we can push so we’re always I think we’re we’re um doing a

Good job but we’re always trying to look inwards as well because some sometimes you blame the writers sometimes the writers blame the team but it’s we’re a team together so we both accept our shortcomings and we try and um and push forth so it is uh yeah hard for me as a

Writer whenever I know what it’s like for for Scott for Josh when they’re frustrated they’re feeling like their their bikes aren’t as fast as of the others were our crew are giving them the the best tools that they can and it it still feels like you’re you’re on a

Little bit little bit of a hiding which is it’s hard to put your finger on why because like I explained earlier everything is identical engines Electronics exhaust so there’s not a lot we can do other than wind tunnel really um slightly lighter parts or or try and

Stay on the on the weight limit that is the big thing in in B 3 is getting down to the weight limit and staying on it comfortably Michael just two things about next year I mean first of all um we’ve had one preseason test at the uh

At Valencia at the end of last year um the new Honda are we expecting something that’s going to be radically different from what you had before and then also I guess we’ve got pelli coming in as the the Soul tire supplier taking over from Dunlop do you envisage a kind of massive

Shift in how things kind of play out in in in model 3 or or do you think it will kind of be as it was no I’m hoping that the pelli change will make some I know in motor 2 I feel it will make a drastic

Shift to how the races are but I think it’ll affect the the tire preservation is going to become a thing in Moto 3 which it hasn’t typically been dunlops have been generally always had an option that will last distance without having to manage I think it’ll change also the

The tactics throughout a practice session because the tire drop that pelli has it’s not a drop because it still performs really good but it’s got a three-lap window that typically is You’ you’ve got um a good percentage Improvement so you’re not going to have the the luxury of just going for it and

Um and and hanging about waiting for it to you’re going to have to go out of the pit box and push on right from the the GetGo so yeah I think that’s that’s going to be the biggest thing the tires side of things I do think the improvements from Honda where they they’

Got new engine um that’s that’s one of the things to try and get that little bit of punch off the turns to match the the KTM but they’ve changed a lot visually it’s not going to look massively different but they’ve changed a lot of um a lot of the parts in the

Bike so I think it’s going to make a big step just one thing about the about the change to pellis because that really is interesting I think also especially in Moto 2 I think you’re going to see a big difference but um you say the because you’ve got the

Drop in uh in tires do you think that’s going to change the way that the racing developed do you think we’ll see less slip streaming do you think it’ll be harder to actually stick with someone I hope so I I do think the the tire management is going to become a thing

That you have to really think about so races will be decided the other side of it is the ability with a pry to really activate the TIR straight off as soon as the lights go out so you can push so hard through the first set of corners

And maybe put half a second in if you’re brave so being able to to drop the hammer from the the get-go means front row uh front row of the grid is going to be so important because you can get away the I think they will change the dynamic

I hope it changes the slipstream effect that it is Raiders being able to use their Tire in those early laps we get away make a make a difference I know the smaller Tire isn’t the same as the motor 2 or the you know it’s going to have um

A bit more of a consistency because you’re not dealing with the same level of horsepower same loads same weights into the tire it doesn’t drop it doesn’t um have such an issue with the heat so I think it’s going to be a bit more level

A bit more like the dull lot field but it will it’ll certainly change the character before we move on a reminder that our friends fly racing are back in the P pass podcast in 2024 there’s a range of motorcyc cycling gear on the website flyracing.com and not only

Excellent off-road products like the Evo DST with boa custom fit but the Zone Pro goggles and of course the superlative formula helmet which is actually the lid that I use I’ve tried AR showy laser Fox uh and the formula is the best I’ve had for Comfort ventilation and of course

The AIS system with Ron Tech and conad EPS uh great stuff have a look at flyracing.com for more Michael we want you to change your cap now uh from you know you know more than us about Grand Prix racing and last week on the pad pass podcast we did um a show pretty

Much about the main stories going into 2024 uh the first of which was Mark Marquez title Contender Contender or a man who’s going to be sort of things up slightly what’s what’s your opinion definite title Contender I I’ve always been one of the the guys to to

Champion marks RW speed and his ability and what he can do obviously coming off is it Four Seasons now of injury pretty much since um his title win in season in 2019 was phenomenal and I do think they still got that race head now he’s on the

Best bike as a as a jakar runner you got to you got to look at him and say he’s going to be a title Contender he’s going to really shift the dynamic obviously we we’ve seen it become in a fight between PCO and Jorge I think that now Mark in

There just changes everything so he’s um he’s Ultra aggressive obviously Alex showed what was possible for for Mark whenever he made the transition and now Mark’s going to follow it so he’s learned how to ride the jakar I thought watching him at Valencia at the test was was just different because he wasn’t

Over the limit and he was still super fast within 10 laps he was in control he wasn’t the the mark that you come to expect pushing the front fighting it sideways loose he just looked like he was trying to understand the bike and he was super fast so I think everyone needs

To be worried because that you know his his Ross speed is is he’s probably I’d say Casey Stoner is maybe the only one that we’ve ever seen that has that that element of being able to ride a bike at 100% And find its absolute limits within a few lapses he’s unparalleled at the

Moment in in motor GP I believe I think there’s some really talented and fast Riders but just Mark has that special Edge that we once in a generation raw speed and uh we’ve seen it twice in a generation with Casey as well but I

Think I’ve no doubt he’s going to be a a real as long as he stays injury free he there’s a good chance he be champion at the end OB you’re the only one of us who’s ridden the motorgp bike so you actually know the process of switching bikes of changing bikes because that’s

The one thing that everyone talks about um in terms of Mark is you know can he switch and also you know we’re going to get into silly season we’re going to see sort of Fabio quara maybe shopping himself around Martin shopping himself around different Riders looking at

Different bikes how how easy is it to to to change Brands to change to a different from bike because as you said I like you could see I had to same with it was really interesting watching Mark especially those first few laps because he was going into turn one and looking

To see where his breaking marker was but he was choosing turn one because you can run on at turn one it’s not an issue do you know what I mean and he he ran wide I think the first two three laps he was really wide and then he was a little bit

Less wide and then he made it and then he moved on to the next sort thing so it’s was really interesting to actually watch him sort of work through that but but the process of adapting how easy is it to adapt do you need to be a special

Rider to adapt or uh you know how does it work it’s different depending on the package you’re getting onto so because he’s jumping on jakar which has so much data for it they can dial it in to his request almost from the off so I I think

Uh lucini has the flip side going to a bike that needs development work so when you’re jumping on a package that doesn’t have a clear direction of how it works best and you’re trying to to find your feet with it that takes some time you have to engineer a package to work for

Your riding style but I think jakar at the moment have got such a good base that Mark wanted to adapt to it so he didn’t adjust much from the outs side it didn’t look like he was changing too much he was learning how the bike worked

Obviously you look at Digi at the end of the year went his own Direction in terms of chassis setup and found something even better for him I think Mark will get his teeth into that when he gets to to Malaysia but knowing that you’ve got

Such a good base to work from a bike that stops that turns doesn’t have to be overridden it’s main advantage is accelerating off the corner it’s so stable so solid it doesn’t look like a Moto GP bag it doesn’t pump it doesn’t move um it’s planted so he was he was

Almost just taking a step back from his 100% which he said he was going to do on the Honda last year so I think he got used to not riding over the limit all the time so he was back just within himself a little bit learning the bike

Letting it do the work so I don’t think that obviously it can be tough to to change manufacturer if the bike isn’t working but the change that Mark’s making to the best bike in the grid I think will be relatively smooth because it’s such a good package right now so I

Think if you went to an ailia or a KTM which still is searching for that last little bit to equal jakar then it’s a different scenario but jumping on the jakar that’s the easiest transition right now it’s like when you everyone wanted to be on the Yamaha m1 back in

The early 2010 so 201 12 13 14 around then everyone wanted to have the the Yamaha as the best package now everyone’s chasing the jakar as the easier machine to ride it’s never easy but it’s easier it gives the the rider a little bit of um a little bit of

Comfort in in the knowledge that they’ve got eight bikes out there that all are competitive and can can battle for victory what’s your opinion on Jo Martin because I mean fantastic Rider of course the technique is amazing as we saw from the early days in Moto 3 but there

Always seems to be something kind of going on there’s almost like a chip on the shoulder and as Dave was talking about with the swaps for 2025 his name’s going to be up there he’s going to be talked about could be distra acting I just wonder what your thoughts were

Honestly I think Jorge still got margin to improve he’s um you know really establish himself this season I believe took that step to becoming a championship Contender his raw speed his raw talent and aggression was on show is his different riding style because of

His stature I I think he I do see the psychology in that he’s he’s had the chip in his shoulder a little bit especially missing out on the factory ride to Ana ahead of 2023 that upset him and it still rumbles on and still now he’s entering a season talking about

Looking to Pastor new for 2025 if he doesn’t get the the factory contract he believes he deserves that um that’s fine if it’s if it’s motivating him and it seemed to last year but um but yeah if you focus on that too much it can detract a little bit because he’s he’s

In a good team with good bike and good material he does seem to have the back in from the factory jar he’s got a factory jar contract just not in Red so he’s got everything there that he needs to fight to fight for a title but um

Yeah as markk will prove this year you don’t have to be in Factory red so there’ll be a grini Jakari a prak Jakari and a factory jakat all batam for the title they’ll have Brad Bender to contend with but I do think the when I was in in Moto GP which was

2013 and 14 you had to be a repol Honda writer or a a movie star Yamaha writer you had to be in factory colors and it had to be Japanese it had to be Yamaha or Honda if you were on a factory red jakar then as Nikki haen and D were at

The time and then K Kow it was a bit of a hid to nothing so the sport has changed so much and with it the the rise of the private team or the independent teams with staff that you look at look Marini and and Bazi with Valentino

Russ’s old factory staff in there you’ve got so many good Engineers everyone is searching for those electronic Engineers um you know KTM have have got such a good roster now a lot of um experience that was gained at jakar has been sort of farmed out around the pic and it it

Means that um the bikes are all at such a high level but so are the teams so the private teams have got good budgets and obviously DNA increased their support for the independent teams back in 2015 or 16 so it propped them up allowed them to make sure they had year old factory

Bike so now a year old factory bike is so good that you could battle for a world championship on it and uh I think Mari showed it as well he was still pretty raw in terms of his experience but he was there without the injury battling for a last season so it’s so

Good in terms of um we don’t want it to all be jakar but it it it is a case of all the jakat private teams can can battle for victories the the uh aelia move with track house hopefully getting a little bit more support in noall basing themselves there there’ll be even

More Factory support there so they’ll hopefully have a a second team that can battle for victories with a rer like Olivera who’s definitely fast enough to battle for a title so yeah I think mot gp’s in a good place now that you don’t have to be in factory colors and um I think

Jorge he’s he’s obviously wants the status of the factory uh jakar position but he’s got the contract there he’s got the tools and I don’t think he should focus on it too much so I think um yeah he if he doesn’t get the factory R I can

See him jumping ship and maybe it it will be financially motivated because obviously you can earn a bigger contract if you’re a factory Yamaha or factory Honda Raider than perhaps a prac toar with it with a factory contract but um but yeah the way it’s going to evolve

This year I think it’s going to be interesting to see what he goes for if you had to choose uh would you take the shot at a world championship or shall we say 8 million euros um it is a tough one and obviously you have a short career uh I think they

You’re still earning decent money but whenever you get a factory contract and it is say 8 million EUR definitely makes you think and obviously um everyone wants to win everyone’s motivated the biggest thing the ego believes that it can deliver so like Luca Marini probably when he got off of

The factory Honda raid always wanted to be a factory Honda Raider didn’t look at the negatives and the crashes that the Raiders were having but he looked at the the contract the paycheck the um the ability that he believed and I think he believes in his own and S A lot of

People his methodical way of working his feedback his ability to to arrive at something that will work for him and it looked like the Honda was a much better package in in Valencia on the Monday that they they did deliver which was good to see but but yeah what you have

To also have full belief in yourself and sometimes that belief can make you um choose questionable Roots because you believe that you can make that difference and it’s not always the case you’re not never going to beat uh Marquez PCO and Jorge Martin on jakar H whenever you’re at a at a slight

Disadvantage with a different manufacturer as P qu has shown us this year it’s just impossible as a previous world champion if you don’t have the tools Jan Mayer’s fighting for the the back of the pack scraping points and another former world champion so you need the equipment but if you’ve got the

Right people the right development team behind the scenes whether that’s in Japan or the European test team with um Honda seem to be working hard with Stephan Brattle and trying to make inroads so yeah it is it’s possible anything’s possible with the right people and the right

Motivation Michael before we let you go I was just curious because you form part of the team covering the sport for TNT Sports uh you have yourself you have Alex loe’s on there sometimes Silvan goni uh Neil hodon as well of course I just wonder what’s the bench racing like

Between you guys is it is it pretty in is it pretty intense or is there you know is it quite s of um amiable no it’s all good we all bow down to silan he’s the he’s the current racer still um able to jump on a Mot GP backe and go Ultra

Fast so um yeah we don’t we don’t do too we do a bit of um trash talking mainly whenever hji does his laps in the BMW we give him a bit of stick but but in general hji still fast when he puts his letters on um yeah when Alex

L arrives again another current writer so we we bow down to them um we I’m I’m a few years out of my leathers and even more so now i’ never really planned to fully uh stop riding but because I’ve been so busy I’ve not been able to to to

Get on board too many picks in the last couple of years but um but yeah we have a good good crew there such good banter between everyone good um been the having gav out there stering the ship and suie Perry when we’re in presentation so a

Lot of experience in there a lot of good banter good fun we U we enjoy our jobs there with TNT Sports it’s a a good crew Michael thanks ever so much for your time best of luck for the season and we look forward to seeing you in Qatar

Thank you very much cheers guys thanks there to Michael LV as we mentioned guys it’s team launch time I mean men GP has been off the map for the for the last few weeks last two months I guess you could say uh I guess it’s the time also

To look at whether we should be delighted or disappointed by deliveries to come up Dave I know I know you was very vocal on this subject but um you know there’s some kind of restrictions really I mean we never see anything kind of different from Red Bull KTM or

Monster n Yamaha or repor Honda because there are certain constraints of how those motorcycles have to look um whereas pramac bikes have looked quite nice in the past also God awful so you know is there anything it’s still a novelty isn’t it seeing what new motorcycle looks like for the season uh

Well cons well I mean you know you’ve seen how I dress you know how much attention I pay to uh the exterior appearance I mean one thing at repel obviously uh they’ve lost Red Bull and they’re not allowed to run another energy sponsor so it’s going to be very

Interesting to see what that looks like also I think there was a um uh Luca Marini at the uh whatever it is Valentino rossy’s um 100 kilm flat track race he had a very different uh helmet all of a sudden because he’s not allowed to run any any energy

Drinker sponsorship on it um it would be interesting he might actually have a really good helmet because a lot of those helmets especially I mean the helmets annoy me more than the bikes because the helmets are so dictated by the amount of money which energy drinks um uh sort of throw

At them and that the designs are designed around the energy drink logo the Red Bull or the monster claw or what whatever it might be so I I quite interested to see both shanmir and um Luca Marini’s helmets that’s going to be interesting uh if there’s yeah there’s

Going to be a a bigger change you know because repel are losing Red Bull and that was not huge but it was a a decent chunk of real estate I think that’s going to give them a bit more freedom to uh to change but usually the thing with

Repol HRA is is uh trying to spot liver is is you know is about you have to get your little tape measure out and see that they’ve moved one line .6 millimeters to up or down on the uh on the bike just curious da um you spoke

About the new liveries and potential new uh colors and logos are we going to see a bit more of the monster claw on your dress uh in your attire in 2024 uh well I mean there would there are those who would say that I’m a monster already so

Um I don’t understand why Mr sugar water man isn’t giving me large quantities of money just for uh existing around the paddock no in all seriousness perhaps we can look at maybe track house or grini I mean those are going to be the kind of newish forms of Livery colors design

Whatever because there’s not really many other wholesale changes right I mean what those motorcycles look like will be the main Novelties in motor GP for 2024 yeah possibly a bit of a change with repol Honda I mean if repol changed put the logo to half an inch to to one

Side then you would have to say that that a major change for them I’m being serious though but um yeah track house obviously they’ll come in with a fresh look I would say um interesting at the team launch that they had a Stars and Stripes Livery um referencing I think

Nikki hden the one that he ran at at Luna one year um and grini I’m not so sure I mean I’m kind of hopeful that they don’t change up too much because I’m I’m quite a fan of that little sky blue number that they’ve had for the

Last couple of years but um but yeah so I think track house is probably the the one the the most keep an eye on yeah I mean track house is going to be a massive change but I’m really interested to see what happens with grini precisely

As we said earlier on uh you know um Mark said he’s not riding for money and he has a lot of personal sponsors uh will they end up on the bike you know who knows they’ll certainly end up on his leathers and it be really interested

To actually see uh the Leathers that he ends up running and how much how much space of that is left over there’ll be I presume there’ll be someone they they’ll be you know selling a patch on his little toe for about 10 grand what’s the thoughts also on this

Phase for digital launches versus versus actually having an event uh it does seem I mean a digital launch can go on for like an hour online or it can go on for two and a half minutes it’s uh I don’t know do we prefer do we actually as

Journalists prefer going to an event I mean you there is obviously the ability to get content but then otherwise from what I hear from teams it’s a big budget it’s a ball Lake and the return is not necessarily what you would be expecting yeah exactly I mean there’s very little

There is very little return from it unless you can find uh a way to really exploit it I really think I like the way that ducatti do it I’m not just saying that cuz they’re going to put me in a hotel for 3 nights and feed me um but

The the way that they’re doing it is they’re actually part they’re actually partnering with uh uh the ski resort madon Madonna de compilo and with the I think he the trantino region uh to promote it as a form of Tourism obviously they’ve got a much bigger package that they’re La launching

They’ll be launching their world superbike team as well but also I I believe they’re also launching mcross project there as well so like that’s a really big thing and then it starts to make a lot of sense to actually do it and also I suspect that the fact that

They are world champions also makes it a lot easier but from a lot of teams there’s no there is very little I mean like if you invite journalists all they’re going to do is ask questions and you don’t want that what you want is to be able to present things for your

Sponsors certainly the more lowkey duy events that I remember from uh uh that I remember from the past one of the main things there was getting the sponsors on board you know getting the sponsors up so they can get their pictures taken with the bike with the Riders at the

Launch you know looking nice in a suit and all the rest of it and uh it was more about keeping sponsors happy than than anyone else so uh yeah there is a very limited I mean in the end uh a Podium shot will get you a lot more traction

Than sort of 10 minutes of of a picture of the new livery yeah I think it depends on the kind of situation with the team I mean a massive massive ride of change like Mark going to grini jaat obviously I think that warrants maybe a visit because well

It should have been the first time that Mark basically uh spoke on the matter it turns out with the Australia Galia promotion it won’t be but um I still think it’ll be worthwhile to go there to hear him speak to see him speak um on on

Such a such a big thing even if it is just one day of test is still really quite valuable to to learn exactly what he felt about that um and then yeah as Dave said if if a a manufacturer supporting or sorry are um celebrating a massive kind of achievement like what

Jaadi have done in the past year and of course launching the new M across team then yeah I think that makes sense to to kind of go to that as well but generally for team presentations I mean if as long as you can kind of get 30 minutes with a

Team principal um you know 15 20 minutes with the rider via Zoom like I think KTM have done or yamah have done over previous years years uh with their digital launches then I think that that’s fine to be honest um yeah the the the travel isn’t necess necessary yeah I

Mean fans are looking online at the photos and the small videos and that’s it I mean you can tick a lot of boxes just by doing that but then you know for the say 60 to 150 people that actually in a room listening to the the the PE

The you know the kind of Representative talks or looking at the images um as we know from jati last year there was also promotion as you said dayve for the region uh for the Audi group there was a heavy presence from them um there is a

Lot of kind of political uh I don’t know requirements I guess around these things but you know the bigger the budget the more investment there is in the racing and of course you know as promoters DNA Sports would like there to be as big as

Fuss as possible I think if you go to mod gp.com now there’s actually like a schedule of all the team Launches on there and when there’s absolutely nothing in the sport well basketball is still so hot the NFL is incredibly you know advanced in its season um you know

The football season is very Advanced coming up to the next forms of the next stages of the Champions League there’s a lot of sport going on but there’s like zero with Moto GP so I think team launch is um it’s just a way to keep the

Content out there I guess I’m trying to sort of put some sort of importance in that I mean surely that’s something you’re always going to lose against you know like the the the Super Bowl you know we’re coming up towards to the Super Bowl we’re in the playoff stage

For the NFL I mean you know well apart from the fact that you can’t really compare motp and uh and the NFL in terms of scale because they’re so vastly different but it’s the same thing when there is so much external content you know there’s a lot of skiing content on

Now you know there’s here in Holland loads and loads of stuff on speed skating you know can’t turn the tea off the TV on without people we seeing people skate around um uh ice ice rinks so is it better to try to comp to compete with that or is it uh

You just throw race fans a bone every now and again well at least you’re out there I mean if you’re not out there you’re not doing anything then you’re invisible and I think you know that was one of the messages from Dan Ros amondo uh who wanted to sort of you know get

Mot GP more present outside of just the the 20 or 21 22 Grand Prix races and and the tests per year but uh I started off by bringing up this topic by mentioning liary so I wanted to ask your guys you guys for your personal favorites Neil

And I touched on this on a patreon podcast special recently and we’re talking about how Suzuki never looked better than when it was in Pepsi colors I mean for me it was always rothman’s Honda there was something about that blue and white even though it didn’t

Really change that much uh it was just I thought an exceptional looking motorcycle um the JPS noron as well all black just apart from this sort of gold and gray or silver trim I mean Trevor Nations never look more menacing around a race circuit than when he was like you

Know clad like some evil Knights on a JPS Norton I just wondered you know as as we see new bikes for 2024 whether you two guys had any any particular preferences I mean obviously the Bumblebee the Yamaha Bumblebee and especially the one that Rossy and Colin

Edwards rode at lagona Sea I think that was just a fantastic looking motorcycle uh and another personal favorite was uh I think it was the dny Pedro say repol Honda the Retro repol thing that they did uh at Valen I want to say at Valencia and it would have

Been maybe 2013 2012 2013 2014 around around that time um that looked fantastic with the really old I think it was like a 1950s or 1960s repol logo I really like that and I’d really like them to to see them bring that one back

As well and in fact I seem to recall I think in Valencia just driving around between Valencia and Barcelona uh there was a bit more of that old low go at actual repol petrol stations so uh you sort of wonder if that’s not going to if they’re

Not going to bring that back I I I would love that I think it’s just fantastic I can’t choose one I have to I have to kind of give you a little selection of my favorites but U I think Kevin Schwan’s 88 89 Pepsi Suzuki that

Was sort of like what first attracted me to Kevin Schwans uh when I was watching Grand Prix as a as a we uh Rat bag kid um also I think Jon kazinski is 94 Kaja all red number 11 just looked so so precise and fabulous so pretty uh badis

95 Chesterfield Aprilia in the 250 class silver number one just again pure class and a bit of a random one but um I think it was toru aawa this is a really nerdy one but toroa was 97 ailo Honda he was sponsored by bennetton and it had this

Delicious color of sky blue it just looked absolutely amazing and obviously the they kind of the shape of the old Honda 250s as well just pure race bike it was uh it was wonderful so yeah I think those would be my big four the other thing we have to point out is that

Those bikes looked really good as well I mean you know like obviously Arrow um but the shape of the especially the ailia rs250 is just I mean art yeah absolute absolute porn typical NE in a time when we’re trying to do better video podcast you pick the most obscure motorcycle to try

And find an image to put over the top so yeah thanks for that one but uh other subjects we’ll be reviewing the team launches over the next couple of podcasts we’re going to be on the road so we’ll try to get the uh the P pass

Podcast online as timely as we can uh other matters the fantasy league that will be starting up of course in the next couple of months iuto the winner from 2023 we still need to know who you are DM us on Twitter if you want some prizes this is your last chance and the

Next couple of weeks we don’t hear from you then uh we’re going to have to be tighten up Dave’s wardrobe even more with some free Alpine Stars clubber so I’ll be here you to if he doesn’t get in touch or she doesn’t get in touch yeah please don’t let the P pass

Podcast be a victims of corruption uh that’s it pretty much guys thanks to Michael lavy to rthor to KTM and to fly racing we’ll be back next week from Italy