[Rassegna stampa] – After the long summer break, it is now time to get serious again for the World Championship. Yesterday at Silverstone the drivers returned to try the track again with the first two free practice sessions. Today and tomorrow we get serious with qualifying and the race and the viewfinder is always focused on the leader of the general classification, Fabio Quartararo, chased a short distance by Aleix Espargarò’s Aprilia and, further away, by the Ducati patrol of the Zarco trio. Bagnaia-Bastianini. The season, once again, is proving to be very balanced: in 11 races five drivers from four different manufacturers have won and only Quartararo, between Barcelona and Sachsenring, has managed to conquer two consecutive victories. Yet the general feeling is that the premier class of two wheels appears to be in an identity crisis.
In today’s MotoGP, in fact, the characters that polarize attention, like Rossi and Marquez, but also the rivalries that have made history, such as that between the Fantastic 4 (Rossi-Lorenzo-Pedrosa-Stoner, to which Marquez himself was added). Compared to the past there is the perception in the public that there are fewer duels and fewer races decided in the last corners. Furthermore, the fact that the whole platoon is extremely close together, with minimal gaps between the leading and trailing pilots, gives the general feeling of a flattening down rather than a new balance. If, with rare exceptions, whoever finishes on the podium one Sunday is out of the top-10 the next, it becomes difficult for an average spectator to judge the actual value of that driver. The Italian press has also dealt with this question, with an interesting analysis carried out by Matteo Aglio on The print.
“[…] Gone are the times when the Formula 1 cousins and the single-seater trains that were their races were viewed with superiority, now the roles seem to have reversed. […] none of the 11 races was decided in the final laps. It was the secret of motorcycling success […]. Now […] the style seems to have changed and solo rides have taken over […]. Wings and flaps have sprung up all over the place […] and following another driver becomes difficult. […] 12 different drivers got on the podium at least once, half of the grid. As if everyone was famous for the 15 minutes after a GP, but none really. […]. There hasn’t been a real escape from the circuits yet […] but perhaps the time has come to rethink the world championship. […]”.
#MotoGP #Identity #crisis #FormulaPassion.it
