All that branding stuff bores me to death and that's an area I know almost nothing about. I have never read a sponsorship contract. So I have no idea what the answer to your question is. I could ask but like I said, stickers and patches bore me to death.
I should’ve specified exposure. I don’t know what that translates to in sponsorship dollars. Rea is a special case. I’d reckon Miller, Pecco, and Pol pulling in more personal sponsorship than Bautista or Toprak. If we measured total mentions or name recognition in some way, I’d bet the previous 3 have an order of magnitude more. More eyeballs = more $, though not at a 1-1 basis. Turkey has a large population and consumer market, in Toprak’s case I could see a GP endeavor being especially profitable.
Fe I feel like Joe should have taken the Aprilia ride when he had. Either way, I think he could have landed on his feet like Iker.
Great article, thanks for sharing. Yea that was a tough call. The way I remember it, when I spoke with his dad during this time, Joe felt like he had unfinished business and didn't want to jump up to MotoGP, after not having won inMoto2. That was pretty much the extent of that part of the conversation and we moved on to discussing other things. From what I've since read, I'm guessing, that if Joe went up and didn't do well on an Aprilia, which was considered a crap bike at that time, that may ruin his chances to ever do well or win at the World Level. I think Joe really wanted that win, for his own internal validation, and you can't blame him. Joe now has that world level win, and honestly not too many American racers can say that, so more power to him!!!! I bet if this were two years ago, and the Aprilia was still in that same situation, back marker bike that was unproven, and they had not yet hired Maverick, but Joe already had his win, I bet he would take the risk and jump over to Aprilia. I just remembered, Joe had just signed with the Italian team to move "up" from the American Racers team, so that would have clouded the decision as well, even if he had the win.
I don’t know, Suzuki bailing has really taken the fun out of the silly season and the series for next year for me.
@Dave K meet @motion he also lost all interest in the series over a stupid f..king reason. Both of you need to man up and remove your girlie panties. There is real men's racing going on!!!!
Hard to not like Iker. Slowly making the Honda competitive. Don’t see any obvious reason they won’t sign Vierge for next year as well, but I am interested to see if thats what they do. That would be a good seat to have.
Yea he has had a few tough ones like that, but at least he is up at the front battling. I'd rather him be up front battling and crashing out, versus running around mid pack like GG is doing. I really hope GG goes to another program for next year or figures something out at Yamaha. My son has been telling me since GG was in AMA., he thinks GG really has it to make the world level and win it. Not that the other guys don't, that was just his pick from riding with him years ago.
I remember watching him when he was still in WERA and said then that I thought he was our best hope for the next competitive American on the world stage. Lots of class riders in his age group but he just seemed to have that extra little something, which I think potentially hurt him. I've said it before but think it bears repeating - he never learned how to ride with others. Most races I ever watched him in before going pro, he just ran away with every win it seemed like. On the Paddock Pass podcast, one of the guys (I think it was Steve English but may have been one of the others) said they thought Rinaldi's seat could potentially be a good spot for him and a surprise signing but they did make it clear that was pure opinion and there were no indications at this stage that was a possibility. The explanation was Rinaldi has had a few years now and simply seems to have peaked. And they don't necessarily see indications that Bassani is necessarily any better. They don't see either of them of ever being real championship contenders. However, according to them, the whole paddock still generally understands that Garrett has the speed and a higher ceiling than most others, potentially more than anyone outside the current top 3 but clearly something else is going on and maybe he could achieve that potential in a setting. And with Bautista knocking on retirement age, Ducati needs to find their next star sometime in the next couple years. Garrett could be worth the risk. But they also acknowledged Italians like other Italians on their bikes and outside of that, you have other riders in the pipeline showing their own promise and with previously established ties to Duc, like Oli Bayliss who could also be a good shout to fill that role. Interesting perspective though.
They've got plenty of young guys in GP. Not all of them are great to have a long career there. At some point, some will be looking at other opportunities.
Absolutely agreed. I just parroted a couple of examples that the PPP guys used. And yea it's one of those long shot ordeals that'll likely never happen but it also wouldn't be the craziest thing we've ever seen and there is some decent logic behind it. Us Gerloff nutjobs have to fantasize about something lol.
To add a bit to what Quentin posted: ‘merica is Ducati’s market and having an American on one of the factory seats can’t hurt ‘em. But papa is right, they have a shit ton of riders in GPS and eventually they are going to need seats for the next crop of riders they seal up.
ducati and GG were linked before. and greg white teased that he had some insider knowledge that Ducati was GG's next spot. i really dont get why ducati would take gerloff over axel bassani but maybe GG will to the independent duc team and Axel to Factory since GG dosnt seem to mind being on the Junior team.
https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1...will-be-earning-more-worldsbk-he-would-motogp Toseland is a nice guy but I don't think he ever was as good as Razgatlioglu.
Really really really want to see some cross over action one of these days. We don't see much of it in the motorbike racing world, except for in the ancient past. The car guys do a fair bit of it. That fatass Tony Stewart raced several different categories. Douchebag Alonso claimed he could podium in MotoGP... too bad we never got the chance to see him attempt it LMAO! Schumi did some German national superbike racing. https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1...ion-fabio-quartararo-linedup-mercedes-f1-test