Mat Mladin’s take on the current state of play in MotoGP

2024 MotoGP World Championship
Mat Mladin gives us his take after the French GP

After an awesome French MotoGP, I figure now is as good as ever for a little racing recap.

I wonder where all the “Marquez is finished” crowd are now? I can imagine them going out for a mate’s night out to watch the French GP, having a few beers, and they end up looking the other way and talking about the ugly chick at the end of the bar. I mean, what else could they be talking about? The sad thing about being a wanker behind the keyboard is that you miss some amazing racers doing things on motorbikes that sometimes seem ridiculous, and that’s coming from a bloke that won a few races. All these kids are awesome.

I think the first few races have proven a few things.

I think the Ducati is still the best bike on the track. It’s not by much, but it would seem to be the case. The only problem I have with myself believing this is that Ducati has three of the top five best riders in the world. I’d have said three of the top “four,” but Pedro, for a rookie, is proving himself quickly even though he hasn’t been close to winning yet.

In my opinion, Marc is still the best motorcycle racer over the course of a forty-minute race than any of the others. Marc is hands down the best on the front tyre after it has worn, and this is keeping him competitive. From row five to second place in both races. I’d be game enough to say that only Marc Marquez can do that.

Jorge is doing everything ninety five percent, all of the time, hence why he is winning often. Not a lot of weaknesses with him. He is definitely a very keen to go bugger, isn’t he. Ants are in the pants big time.

The 24 Ducati is a beast compared to the 23. The best way to look at it is to do the same lap time on the 23; you are going to be on the edge more. Unless you’ve been searching for a couple of tenths, it would be hard to really see it, but at the front of any race at a high level, finding a couple of tenths feels like getting blood from a stone.

Unlike the Honda, Marc has a machine that makes much better mechanical grip now. For Marc, this is huge for his corner entry to apex. From what I’ve seen, the Honda gets off the corners every bit as good as the Ducati. In past years on the Honda, Marc coming down into La Chapelle was just a huge waiting game – waiting for the rear tyre to get back in line with the front tyre. It is night and day different now.

Almost the only time we saw Marc with the rear out like the old days was when he caught Pecco sleeping with a few corners to go and dive-bombed from six bike lengths behind.

To see the amount of ground he makes up on the front tyre in the area where the front brake is being released is crazy. This is the danger zone. As you release that brake initially and the front starts to unload all the way to the time you’ve got it turned and grab some gas, you are in the danger zone. The less time you spend in this area, the fewer crashes and the more consistent any rider will be. The way you set up the entry of a corner and the line you take getting to the apex from the very initial time you pull the brake lever in plays a very determining factor for consistency and ability to save both front and rear tyres for the whole race. I spoke to a fella from a riding school a couple of years ago who said that “all the blokes at the front pretty much do it the same”. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I one hundred per cent believe Jack’s biggest issue trying to find a consistent pace is at this part of the track and his body position in this area. There is a way to put a lot of pressure on tyres and a way to put less!

Onto a completely different area of the corner, and I said this about Marc back in 2018 that his feel on relatively unloaded tyres at slow speed and at a max lean angle is next level, and it still is. No one before or has yet ever consistently drifted a GP bike on both tyres at relatively slow speeds like Marc. He has had a few rough years on uncompetitive machinery, but he is back, and he is poetry on a motorcycle. Drifting a bike doing 200 km/h isn’t that hard for most decent racers, but at sixty degrees of the lean angle at sixty kilometres per hour, it is very, very hard. I’d have crashed every single time!

Somebody give Fabio a good bike. After watching Marc’s progress this year, I was very, very surprised that Fabio signed BLUE so early in the piece. He was having a great race on Sunday before pushing a bit too far. Maybe he knows something we don’t but I feel it’s a big risk. He would be ridiculously fast on any of the Euro bikes.

Watching Pecco during that race was like watching two different riders. With three to go, he looked out of it, and then, all of a sudden, he was crawling all over Jorge. Some would say that it was because Marc was behind him, but I personally believe that he had confidence issues all weekend. Exiting the horseshoe coming towards where Marc passed him, he was so far up Jorge’s arse I thought he was about to mount him and go for the last lap shove. As the drone shot showed in the replay after the race, he decided there was nothing he could do about Jorge, and he sat up way too early. He was just weird to watch throughout the race, and he allowed a bit of a soft pass to happen with a few corners to go. When he took his helmet off, we could see what he thought of himself. Wasn’t happy.

Pedro is so bloody good that when he crashes, he manages to go right between them. This is a skill that he could teach Marc, haha. The kid is definitely fast. I feel that race would have come to him with just a little patience. I can’t wait to see him in the mix-up front on a consistent basis. Talent coming out the wazoo!!!

The Aussie kids in the minibike classes all had solid weekends. Young Senna got a taste of the top six for a couple of laps at the start, which is all good for experience.

A shout out to young Maxy Stauffer, who made a step forward onto the box at the last round of the ASBK. There are a couple of other speedy youngsters in the top ten of the championship also. The old fellas are gonna have to hurry up.

Personally, I am a month post-knee replacement surgery and have been hating life. A couple of mates said the surgery was the best thing they have ever done but failed to tell me the best bit came after weeks of the worst bit. As I type this, I am on my first little walk and thinking that it is as big an achievement as winning a championship. You go, Mat!!!

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