The compressed time of the sprint race, in combination with 12 points for the win, likely has the same effect on the rider's strategies - it's compressed. What's normally settled out in the first 4-5 laps of the GP is now being dealt with in the first 2-3 laps. In the GP, the last ten laps or so are where there's a start for the push to the finish. The fifteen or so laps in between the "settling" laps and the final push laps are gone in the Sprint...it's all go-go-go 'til the end. That seems like an arena for mental mistakes born from a sense of urgency. Homework credit: Name the mental misfits. Bonus: Name the track where this might really be a problem.
Beast needs to leave Duc. That was a VR46 hit job if I've ever seen one on top of Pecco being a bitch in the media to him. Now that he's wiped out of the championship and secured his 2 year fuck you money it's time to start banging bars.
I don’t think there’s much meat on the bone after WSBK times. Once you’re moving that fast going any faster just difficult and expensive. That’s why the times are close but GP is faster. The GP boys are running so close to boil that I’m just not a fan of asking them turn the heat up. We already have more race weekends. I don’t think sprints or even a 2 race format is needed.
The new onboard cameras and mics are great. Shit looked like a video game, in a good way. Marc is back.
You do realise that after 6 rounds of the championship last year Bastianini was 38 points ahead of Bagnaia?
I mostly noticed it on Bagnaia front camera that seemed equipped with some type of stabiliser. It felt weird to watch actually for some reason.
It'll be interesting to see how the extra points grab per weekend plays out over the course of the year. I'm still on the fence about the sprints. That was a good race, but I hate seeing guys get hurt. Would those crashes have happened in a longer GP? Maybe, maybe not. It's a different dynamic for sure. Entertaining though.
Bare minimum 5 rounds before he’s on the sharp end competitive after an injury like that. This ain’t years ago where half the field was trash when Lorenzo did it.
Another big part of the sprint race is a lot of bikes are on the soft compound. This fan walk looks so tiring for the riders. They definitely have a lot more demands between the sprint race and now all this fan stuff. Sucked to see yesterday barely any crowds for the race.