Austin 2023, Sprint Race. Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaiaafter conquering the pole position with a track record, he wins the 10-lap race on Saturday with authority, confirming hisevident superiority of him and of Ducati of this start of the season. The Italian does not seem to have rivals around him capable of worrying him, with the other manufacturers – Aprilia, Honda, KTM and Yamaha – refraining from setting the world title as their seasonal objective. On the other hand, the numbers speak for themselves, with 9 Ducati victories in the last 12 world championship rounds. And Bagnaia’s exponential growth is equally clear and since his first MotoGP victory – obtained in Aragon 2021 – he has added something like 12 first places in 28 races (42%).
It cannot be noted that the victory for ‘Pecco’ in the Sprint came precisely in that Austin which has always been the Marc Marquez’s fort, the track where the Spaniard has always shown sensational supremacy. But the #93 wasn’t there, just as it hasn’t been in 27 of the 54 GPs on the calendar since that damned 2020 Spanish Grand Prix. From July 19th three years ago to yesterday’s Saturday race have passed 1000 days. 143 weekends that opened a new phase of the MotoGP.
On that hot summer day, we returned to the track after the forced stop caused by the acute phase of the pandemic. On pole at Jerez was Yamaha Petronas (Malaysian colossus which would retire within two years) of Fabio Quartararoa promising French driver still chasing his first win in the premier class, which he then captured in that very GP. With him in the front row was Maverick Vinales on the factory Yamaha, as usual at the start of the season hoping to fight for the world championship, and Marc Marquez. The Honda Spaniard came from 6 MotoGP titles in 7 years, the last 4 consecutive, and something like 56 successes in 127 GPs (44%). In 2019 he had collected 12 first places, 6 seconds and 1 retirementadding up 420 points, a good 151 more than his immediate pursuer Dovizioso.
Everything has changed since Marquez’s right shoulder injury. There was still Valentino Rossi on the factory Yamaha, as well as Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati. ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia was in the Pramac team and he would still have had to wait 27 races for his first victory. There were 3 world champions from 3 different manufacturers: Joan Mir on Suzuki, Fabio Quartararo on Yamaha and Bagnaia on Ducati. Mir, Quartararo, Morbidelli, Oliveira, Binder, Dovizioso, Vinales, Petrucci, Rins, Miller, Martin, Bastianini and Aleix Espargarò have won GPs. Aprilia was only on the sixth row on the Jerez 2020 starting grid, paying for a gap of 1″2 from pole position. Without Marquez, Honda gradually sank: from first in 2019 it went on to be fifth in 2020, fourth in 2021 and sixth – and last – in 2022. The Ducati it had only won the constructors’ title in 2007 and finished third in 2019: from 2020 onwards he won three years in a row. Valentino Rossi retired, Suzuki raised the white flag, the MotoGP crowd began to drop significantly, several sponsors left the paddock, the Sprints were introduced to give new life to the category.
The 1000 days that upset MotoGP.
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