5. Brits’ having to wait 35 years for a race winner!
Yes, I know; better late than never and all that. The thing was we got so used to having a Brit on the top step at almost every race, in the age of the late, great Barry Sheene. We kind of got used to it. And it’s not like he was alone. Back in the Grand Prix heyday of 500cc two-smokes, British riders peppered the grid. We did have the spark that was World Superbike champ, James Toseland as the sole British hopeful in the late 2000s, his sporadic moments of promise brought a collective ‘maybe’ from the public. Sadly, his MotoGP and racing career was curtailed by an injury that would see him retire from competition altogether. Oh well, only seven years to wait!
4. Jerry Burgess’ inability to fix the Ducati GP11 “in 80 seconds…”
If there’s one thing you shouldn’t do it’s claim you can do fix something before you’ve even seen the problem. Sure, there was more to Burgess’ comments than just making the Ducati a MotoGP winner in 80 seconds. But still, the phrase was captured in the flashbulb of the media and that was that. To the fans, the Ducatisti and maybe even to the mechanical maestro himself – the GP11 should’ve been a winner before it started FP1 at the first race.
3. The 2018 British GP
Wet weekends don’t get wetter than that gloomy and typically British afternoon in Northamptonshire. The fans hated it, the riders hated it. Even the viewers in their warm and cosy living rooms got fed up, taking took to social media to let the world how much they hated it.
And the worst thing was; it shouldn’t have happened. The new surface, in the dry at least, was great. Cal Crutchlow rode the road-going RCV213-S there in the summer and mentioned how improved the bumps were. And it’s not like we’d never seen rain like that at a British GP before – I was there 2015. It was equally wet but the track drained.
On the upside, the queues to get out were tiny.
2. Dani Pedrosa’s collarbone
Look we’re not beating down on the diminutive Spaniard here, quite the opposite. He’s one of the most talented riders ever to sit astride a MotoGP bike. It’s just sad that he’s so injury prone. If you go back through the seasons and look at Pedrosa’s average finishing position, then look at the races missed through injury and apply his average finishing position to those events – I’m pretty sure he’d have lifted a world title by now!
1. Every Moto2 champ apart from Marquez
Okay that sounds bad but, ever since MM93 first swung his leg over that red and orange, physics defying missile, he’s won. Free practices, qualifying, fastest laps and races - the guy won the championship on his first try for Pete’s sake!
And is that the problem? He set the bar so high that now anything other than podiums in the first season makes a rookie Moto2 champ in the MotoGP class sound like a looser. Last season things were looking up though - Zarco! His first race at the slippy and tricky Losail circuit. Yes, he crashed out but the promise was there, for part of the season anyway. Here’s hoping him and Tech3 can get back to the same form next year.
Now, where’s my Stefan Bradl t-shirt…??
