Giacomo Agostini: “The MotoGP World Championship cannot depend on the tyres”

The most successful rider in the history of the MotoGP: “The problem is the excessive power of today’s bikes”

Giacomo Agostini

– Milan

It’s a shame, but on the day when we should be talking about the duel that is deciding the season, instead of riders we have to talk about tyres. But who can like such a situation? How do you explain to an enthusiast, or even worse to the fan of a driver perhaps fighting for the world title, that his idol was unable to do the race he wanted, but he doesn’t know exactly why? ?

Giacomo Agostini

15 titles in the MotoGP

Born on 16 June 1942, in the MotoGP between 1963 and 1977: he won 122 GPs and 15 World Championships

In practice this happened in Qatar, Bagnaia on Saturday in the Sprint and Jorge Martin in the race know it because they were unable to ride as they are capable of, because the tires were not performing. And it is not acceptable that such delicate competitions do not depend on them, but on a factor over which they have no control.

motogp puzzle

There are too many technical variables that not only make the results unpredictable, but also the performances themselves completely imponderable. Enea Bastianini wins in Malaysia and then you no longer see him in front, same thing with Johann Zarco, super in Australia and at the back in the following races. Marco Bezzecchi, often excellent, almost disappeared yesterday. How do you explain all these ups and downs? This really doesn’t work, it can’t work. We must give certainties to the drivers, and even more so to the public. The public that wants to see a fight between the best, whether there are two or three, but always the same or almost the same. People go to events to cheer for their hero, for Muhammad Ali, for Alberto Tomba, for Valentino Rossi. For Jannik Sinner, but also Djokovic: the clash of the titans. For the fascination of great challenges.

ok say but…

Seeing a different one ahead at each grand prix ultimately gives a sense of uncertainty, of precariousness. This is exactly what often happens in this championship: I am very happy for Fabio Di Giannantonio and for his first victory. He did a great thing. But it seems clear to me that we have no certainties. But meanwhile on television you hear talk for half an hour or forty minutes about tires, about temperatures, whether one should save them or can wear them out, if the other one has taken in too much air. I believe the time has come to change something, starting with power. Which needs to be reduced. Also because it is only in this way that the impact of the electronics can be reduced and the wings can be removed. Not to mention that all this power causes problems for all the various components of the vehicle, starting with the tyres, but also the brakes and the chassis.

motogp and power

It’s not necessary to have 300 horsepower to put on a show: didn’t we, too, with our 110-120? Or Valentino with his 150? People went to watch the races like and more than today. I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be developments, but I have the feeling that this technique has distorted its nature a bit and made everything more uncertain. Having said all this, I enjoyed Pecco Bagnaia. Which was good, for how he reacted after the difficulties of the Sprint race, for how he managed. At the end of the race I spoke to him: “Be satisfied with 2nd place, be satisfied with 2nd place”. After the scare he got he did it. And he is to be praised for that too.



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