Motosport General discussion tread --- Formula1, MotoGP, WTCC, ETCC, DTM.....

[Davian144]

I'm really looking forward to the new season unfortunately not Portima anymore, the track was really good and exciting. There's just something about oldschool tracks with gravel beds, but it's hard to say who will come out on top in the first race... Have there been any MotoGP races in the Algarve?

Today I watched FP1 for the MotoGP class in the Algarve, Portugal, with Alex Marquez being the fastest from the Gresini Racing team, followed by Joan Mir and Luca Marini to complete the top two and three positions. And soon there will also be FP2 for MotoGP, which I also hope that the weather will be good to see the actions of the riders in recording their best time today.

Ducati will definitely be able to fight for the victory if they haven't made any big mistakes in the winter preparation, Honda and KTM are difficult to assess.

I also believe that Ducati will still be the fastest and also still be a big threat to other manufacturers this season. This is very visible in Alex Marquez who has succeeded in becoming the fastest in today's FP1 session so there is a possibility that the factory Ducati will still be very good here if there are no obstacles or obstacles in the race later.

[SquallLeonhart]

It is written as the best in history for Verstappen, by teenagers who have been watching f1 for 2-3 years. This man may be a good pilot, but he will never reach the level of a Schumi, an Alonso or a Hamilton. Look, I didn't even say lauda senna prost. He fought with schumi senna and hakinen with the best williams in history and got out of the way. He's done with someone like Alonso Schumi. Even Hamilton, whom I was pissed off, beat Alonso in his rookie year and lost the championship by 1 point. The vehicle this friend is driving is the best vehicle in history and there is neither a team nor a car to compete against. Now they will say that Perez is getting into the same car. Anyone with a little f1 culture knows that vehicles in f1 are designed and developed according to the 1st driver. If this friend's teammate were not Perez but a man of Rosberg quality, he would make a mess of Max. Unfortunately, a vehicle that can compete with the redbull does not seem to come out for another 2-3 years, and we will watch the past years with redbull dominance, and we will watch boring seasons such as 2000 - 2004 and 2014 - 2020.

I think this happens in every sport until the new player gets a lot better. Back when Messi started, everyone said Maradona was better, back when Lebron started everyone said MJ was better, back when Ronaldo started even Figo was seen as better and nowadays when people look at players like Doncic or Giannis or Mbappe or Haaland, they all say that they will never be as good as Lebron or Ronaldo or Messi. We have seen these players be much better than who came before, and there is a reason for that.

The time passes and everything gets better in the sports world, they eat better, they train better, they have more machines to help them, basically if those old players did have the same things, then they would be even better, but they didn't, and these kids do, and that's why they will be better.

Same with Verstappen, sure Schumi was amazing, and Hamilton could be better or not, but he was definitely amazing, and now same with Verstappen, this dude drives in a simulator hours everyday, just that alone wasn't available to Schumi, imagine every other opportunity that Verstappen has and Schumi didn't had. There will always be better and better players in every sport, that's how history works, it's progress.

[retreat]

It is written as the best in history for Verstappen, by teenagers who have been watching f1 for 2-3 years. This man may be a good pilot, but he will never reach the level of a Schumi, an Alonso or a Hamilton. Look, I didn't even say lauda senna prost. He fought with schumi senna and hakinen with the best williams in history and got out of the way. He's done with someone like Alonso Schumi. Even Hamilton, whom I was pissed off, beat Alonso in his rookie year and lost the championship by 1 point. The vehicle this friend is driving is the best vehicle in history and there is neither a team nor a car to compete against. Now they will say that Perez is getting into the same car. Anyone with a little f1 culture knows that vehicles in f1 are designed and developed according to the 1st driver. If this friend's teammate were not Perez but a man of Rosberg quality, he would make a mess of Max. Unfortunately, a vehicle that can compete with the redbull does not seem to come out for another 2-3 years, and we will watch the past years with redbull dominance, and we will watch boring seasons such as 2000 - 2004 and 2014 - 2020.

Why do you say he will never reach the level of a Schumacher, Alonso or a Hamilton? These three people are indeed seniors in F1 but that does not mean that Verstappen will not reach their level, it just takes time for Verstappen to reach or even pass their level. Verstappen has all the resources needed to reach the highest performance point of an F1 driver, and that's what keeps his performance stable. Even during the previous race he was in P15, but he still managed to reach P2 and that proves his determination to be the best. Moreover, it is not good to compare past F1 drivers with current ones, because everyone has their own time.

[swogerino]

It is written as the best in history for Verstappen, by teenagers who have been watching f1 for 2-3 years. This man may be a good pilot, but he will never reach the level of a Schumi, an Alonso or a Hamilton. Look, I didn't even say lauda senna prost. He fought with schumi senna and hakinen with the best williams in history and got out of the way. He's done with someone like Alonso Schumi. Even Hamilton, whom I was pissed off, beat Alonso in his rookie year and lost the championship by 1 point. The vehicle this friend is driving is the best vehicle in history and there is neither a team nor a car to compete against. Now they will say that Perez is getting into the same car. Anyone with a little f1 culture knows that vehicles in f1 are designed and developed according to the 1st driver. If this friend's teammate were not Perez but a man of Rosberg quality, he would make a mess of Max. Unfortunately, a vehicle that can compete with the redbull does not seem to come out for another 2-3 years, and we will watch the past years with redbull dominance, and we will watch boring seasons such as 2000 - 2004 and 2014 - 2020.

Why do you say he will never reach the level of a Schumacher, Alonso or a Hamilton? These three people are indeed seniors in F1 but that does not mean that Verstappen will not reach their level, it just takes time for Verstappen to reach or even pass their level. Verstappen has all the resources needed to reach the highest performance point of an F1 driver, and that's what keeps his performance stable. Even during the previous race he was in P15, but he still managed to reach P2 and that proves his determination to be the best. Moreover, it is not good to compare past F1 drivers with current ones, because everyone has their own time.

Right now I think he has all the possibilities to become as good as Schumi and I think he is already better than Hamilton,in the 2021 season where car were almost the same it was only Verstappen bravery that brought him the title no matter that it were contested in the final race,I am talking about all season long,Mercedes were slightly better at that season and yet he manage to win so by doing it he has increased his self confidence to another level as shown in 2022 where he won easily the title.Now in 2023 let's see how it goes but he surely look posed to become 3 times World Champion which immediately puts him a step ahead of Alonso.

[coinlocket$]

Qualifying results for Moto GP.

Marquez is back on his spot

1   Marc Marquez   SPA   Repsol Honda (RC213V)   1'37.226s   8/8   341k
2   Francesco Bagnaia   ITA   Ducati Lenovo (GP23)   +0.064s   6/8   344k
3   Jorge Martin   SPA   Pramac Ducati (GP23)   +0.228s   7/8   344k
4   Miguel Oliveira   POR   RNF Aprilia (RS-GP22)   +0.295s   7/7   344k
5   Jack Miller   AUS   Red Bull KTM (RC16)   +0.323s   2/5   342k
6   Enea Bastianini   ITA   Ducati Lenovo (GP23)   +0.358s   8/8   346k
7   Maverick Viñales   SPA   Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23)   +0.372s   6/8   345k
8   Marco Bezzecchi   ITA   Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)   +0.390s   6/8   344k
9   Luca Marini   ITA   Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)   +0.396s   8/8   343k
10   Johann Zarco   FRA   Pramac Ducati (GP22)   +0.654s   6/6   343k
11   Fabio Quartararo   FRA   Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)   +0.694s   7/7   343k
12   Aleix Espargaro   SPA   Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23)   +0.910s   7/7   343k

Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1022560/1/2023-portuguese-motogp-portimao-full-qualifying-results

[Davian144]

Qualifying results for Moto GP.

Marquez is back on his spot

Today Marc Marquez managed to take advantage of towing from Q1 to Q2. at Q1 Marquez managed to make a towing to his teammate Joan Mir by setting a new record lap, and then it was broken by Jack Miller in Q2 and after that Jack Miller's time record was also broken by Bagnaia. But in the final minutes of Q2, Marquez managed to make another towing to Bastianini so he (Marquez) managed to set a new record time which was a new lap record at Algarve Portugal today so he (Marquez) became the pole position today. Looks like today's Sprint Race will be fierce and amazing.

[tokeweed]

It is that Verstappen had to start from 15th place, otherwise he would have easily won this race again. But the luck for Verstappen was that he had mechanical problems during qualifying and not during the race itself. It must be extremely frustrating for Hamilton to drive around in this car. For almost 10 years, Mercedes has dominated this sport, but since the rise of Red Bull everything is changing. It seems that Red Bull is the team that exudes pure control and dominance. There are a few new riders, they must have swallowed twice if you ride with more than 300 on certain parts.

It is written as the best in history for Verstappen, by teenagers who have been watching f1 for 2-3 years. This man may be a good pilot, but he will never reach the level of a Schumi, an Alonso or a Hamilton. Look, I didn't even say lauda senna prost. He fought with schumi senna and hakinen with the best williams in history and got out of the way. He's done with someone like Alonso Schumi. Even Hamilton, whom I was pissed off, beat Alonso in his rookie year and lost the championship by 1 point. The vehicle this friend is driving is the best vehicle in history and there is neither a team nor a car to compete against. Now they will say that Perez is getting into the same car. Anyone with a little f1 culture knows that vehicles in f1 are designed and developed according to the 1st driver. If this friend's teammate were not Perez but a man of Rosberg quality, he would make a mess of Max. Unfortunately, a vehicle that can compete with the redbull does not seem to come out for another 2-3 years, and we will watch the past years with redbull dominance, and we will watch boring seasons such as 2000 - 2004 and 2014 - 2020.

Lmao never?  Do you know how old Verstappen is right now?  He's just 25 years old, hasn't reached his prime as an F1 driver yet.  I think we'd have to wait 10 years more before saying 'will never reach the level of Schumacher.'.  It's kinda funny how you already closed the guy's door to greatness when we have already seen a lot of potential from such a young age.  It's also not just about his potential, he really is a good driver and he's getting better as time passes.  And he's in the right team to boot.  Like it or not, it's currently the Verstapen era until the engine change...  And maybe even after.

[Captain Corporate]

2026 will definitely decide if Verstappen will be as great or not. First of all the fact is that all of these "greats" had great cars as well, if you give Mick Schumacher the same car that Max has, maybe he wouldn't be as good, but he would have won a lot, or maybe Vettel switches from Red Bull to Mercedes in 2014, can you imagine Vettel racing with that type of dominance for 8 years in a row? I think he would have shattered all the records ever, there wouldn't be a chance for Hamilton to win in that case, his best ever teammate was Nico who won just one, he was never teammates with anyone as good as Vettel. This means cars decide who is the best driver ever, if you give them haas or some other car, they wouldn't be winning anything. On the other hand 2026 will see a HUUUGE change, we had some small change last year, but in 2026 we are going to have the biggest ever change since 2014, it will be an insane change and everything will look differently and I think if Red Bull could come out of that as the best car, like the one they have now, then Max will win 8 or more.

[retreat]

-snip-

Right now I think he has all the possibilities to become as good as Schumi and I think he is already better than Hamilton,in the 2021 season where car were almost the same it was only Verstappen bravery that brought him the title no matter that it were contested in the final race,I am talking about all season long,Mercedes were slightly better at that season and yet he manage to win so by doing it he has increased his self confidence to another level as shown in 2022 where he won easily the title.Now in 2023 let's see how it goes but he surely look posed to become 3 times World Champion which immediately puts him a step ahead of Alonso.

And that's why I say that he can, deserves, and will even pass Schumacher and other seniors in F1. He has built his confidence to compete to be the best. And it will be possible that this season he will be the winner again, considering that his performance in the previous 2 races was quite good and he was able to overcome various problems with the car.

[coinlocket$]

Bagnaia won the 1st ever sprint race in MotoGP and this will stay on the books forever.
Ducati seems to be stronger, especially on long straights.

Marquez was with Ducati only for 2-3 laps and after that, he couldn't compete.

Expecting the same tomorrow during the race.

[alegotardo]

It is written as the best in history for Verstappen, by teenagers who have been watching f1 for 2-3 years. This man may be a good pilot, but he will never reach the level of a Schumi, an Alonso or a Hamilton

I disagree with you.
I'm sure that Verstappen can very well catch up and even pass any driver's mark.
Verstappen is still only 25 years old, so it is possible to say that the Dutch driver should still be on the tracks for at least another 10 years (I believe), and that gives him chances to conquer important records. Not to mention that Vertappen is in a very strong team, which is certainly capable of giving him all the necessary chances to be very competitive and reach his goals.
One of the records he can win is the number of consecutive seasons with at least one victory, because if he wins in F1 this year, he will jump to the top-5 in that regard, reaching eight championships in a row with triumphs. Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton won races 15 years in a row. so Verstappen has another 10 years to conquer the other 7.
Verstappen already has a metric that is better than Scumacher and Hamilton... last year he climbed to the top of the podium 15 times, Germans who won only 13 races.

As I said... Verstappen is a very young driver, he has many races ahead of him and I believe he will certainly become a great F1 legend.


I agree however, when you spoke of Senna.
To this day, I haven't met any F1 driver who was as formidable as he was.
Unfortunately he left us too early, so his feats were stopped early and other riders had "the chance" to overtake them.

[FanEagle]

I think the future is still unwritten and Verstappen is only 25 years old, Hamilton was 36 or something on 2021 when he barely lost, that means people could still be good at later age, and Alonso is 41 and still racing great when given a good car as we can see.

This means that there is at least 10 to 15 years of Verstappen we can watch, maybe not as dominating as right now, but the kid is on his way for a third title at 25, which means only 4 titles left and it is not unheard of for someone to have a dominating car and be that good. I am not saying that he will get 7 titles as well, but he definitely has a chance, and will work towards to make that happen and it is a possibility.

[Davian144]

Today the Portugal MotoGP Full Race will take place soon and my prediction is almost the same as yesterday where the Race will take place fiercely, but from the results of yesterday's Sprint Race I found that Honda Motorbikes this season look very weak and I think Marquez himself is very aware of this so he took advantage of his towing momentum to set the best time and also yesterday he took advantage of another gap on the final lap to get third on the podium when Oliveira overtook Miller at the first corner after the straight.

[swogerino]

Today the Portugal MotoGP Full Race will take place soon and my prediction is almost the same as yesterday where the Race will take place fiercely, but from the results of yesterday's Sprint Race I found that Honda Motorbikes this season look very weak and I think Marquez himself is very aware of this so he took advantage of his towing momentum to set the best time and also yesterday he took advantage of another gap on the final lap to get third on the podium when Oliveira overtook Miller at the first corner after the straight.

Since Marquez is out from the second lap already it means that he is well aware of the limiting in his Honda moto this time and he probably pushed to hard going out of track/crashing,the other Repsol Honda is not doing well also.Bagnaia is dominating the race in these first few laps as we are on lap 7 already and there is Aprilia just up there less than 0.5 seconds in gap.It is early to make predictions but it looks like this season is going to be an easy one for Bagnaia as I don't see any other competitor so far bringing serious trouble to him despite being early as I said,as they say the sun can be spotted already early in the morning.

[Davian144]

Since Marquez is out from the second lap already it means that he is well aware of the limiting in his Honda moto this time and he probably pushed to hard going out of track/crashing,the other Repsol Honda is not doing well also.Bagnaia is dominating the race in these first few laps as we are on lap 7 already and there is Aprilia just up there less than 0.5 seconds in gap.It is early to make predictions but it looks like this season is going to be an easy one for Bagnaia as I don't see any other competitor so far bringing serious trouble to him despite being early as I said,as they say the sun can be spotted already early in the morning.

In general, the Japanese manufacturers this season (Honda and Yamaha) will not be very serious competitors for European manufacturers, especially Ducati. But when compared to Yamaha, it seems that Honda is not much better this season so Marquez needs to fight harder for this season. However, what is very unfortunate in this race is that the host rider from the RNF Racing team was the victim of the Marquez incident in this race.

I also think that this season there are no serious competitors to interfere with Bagnaia in defending his championship crown, because this season he is the defending champion. But for next week's race, I only hope that there will be surprises from the other teams in the front row so that there will be a more interesting spectacle in the race that will take place in Argentina later.

[coinlocket$]

Big Mistake for Marquez, and now he is already in a difficult position even if the season is just started with this incredible Ducati.

Bagnaia perfect weekend for him with a win yesterday and Today,

[boltz]

Marquez can't catch a break honestly and I feel so bad for him but today he really did a mistake that indeed might cost him for lung run during this season.

Bagnaia on the other hand is still looking like a strong champ and today he showed a bit of weakness in his duel with Vinales in a slow Aprilla and still managed to be on his tail for most of the race.

[swogerino]

Big Mistake for Marquez, and now he is already in a difficult position even if the season is just started with this incredible Ducati.

Bagnaia perfect weekend for him with a win yesterday and Today,

As I said looks like we are having kinda the same seasons this 2023,both in MotoGP and F1 where Redbull and Ducati are completely dominating the Championships.We are still early as we are just two races in each Championship but the sun can be spotted early in the morning and Bagnaia is in super top form while Max has found some competition in the second race from his team mate which got and won the race,with a bit of luck of course but much more performance than luck.

For Marquez I think he still has chances if he does not screw up and starts thinking logically,by logically I mean to get the second spot while he can and hope that not all the races will be this easy for Bagnaia.

[Zackgeno96]

The F1 drivers have a little rest until the next Grand Prix is driven. Admittedly, it's too early to draw any conclusions, but I think the only conclusion we can draw is the fact that Mercedes still hasn't got things right and won't play any part in the battle for the championship. Disappointing, after last season you would expect Mercedes to come up with a faster car, but the gap et red Bull only seems to have widened. Nice for the racing fans to see that Alonso is back and having a good time.

[coinlocket$]

For Marquez I think he still has chances if he does not screw up and starts thinking logically,by logically I mean to get the second spot while he can and hope that not all the races will be this easy for Bagnaia.

I don't think so.
He seems not to be the old Marquez anymore after the injured.

Also, the season is very long and I believe that neither he knows if he will race all the GP this year for his situation and if he keeps crashing the situation will not improve for sure.