Mav out at Yamaha?

I think Jorge Martin can be the villian. Watch the presser and tell me he doesn't look like an evil villain.

 

Mav is nutcase legend, wins races by miles, loses races by miles, has private rev limiter testing sessions, he's all over the paddock like mad cow disease. Go Mav may you always be a loose cannon in the Spanish main, get some Ape wins and go wild.

 

The Ape is probably capable of podiums at certain tracks. What Maverick will show up to those is to be seen. The Yamaha is capable of a championship and he couldn’t do it.

 

Yeah, Papa saw it and early as fuck. Almost a decade ago probably. I think when the kid was in like CEV Moto3 his first season or something. I thought he was nuts because so many kids look like the next thing when they're coming up and then disappear. Too bad there's not some long term betting market for GP, he could've bought a villa on the Riviera with his winnings.

England is a burly drunk guy staring at you with a glass pint spilling from his meaty paw, drool coming out of his mouth and glazed over eyes shouting "oy!"

Hail king Vindaloo, king of the headcases. Long may he reign!

 

Aleix is a fantastic rider and an incredibly hard worker. Maybe the hardest worker in the paddock. He's obviously extremely talented as they all are, but I think his excellent results are mostly the result of Aleix just grinding it out always. I think Mav is probably natively faster than Aleix though. I think Aleix's level on a top bike is probably regular top 5s, somewhat regular podiums, occasional wins. I think Aleix's level is very close to what Crutchlow was doing at his best, with fewer trips down the gravel traps.

I don't think Mav will outshine Aleix instantly, I expect them to be roughly equal for the first 1-2 seasons and the bike and results to get much better with 2 great riders on it. I'd absolutely love to see Aleix get a win. If Mav keeps his head about him, I'd expect him to be consistently faster than Aleix starting in the 3rd season though. But not miraculously faster or making the homey Aleix look like a chump. I hate to say it, but it looks like Aprilia is more serious about MotoGP than Suzuki is. Wouldn't be surprised if the Apes have a satellite team before Suzuki. I really hope bringing on Mav is going to be the start of the positive snowball for their project.

 

We're talking about a guy that has melted down and quit two championship contending teams within the last decade, with multiple mini-meltdowns along the way. Mav keeping his head about him for three years is a massive "if".

 

I expect Mav to outperform Aleix within a matter of a few races. While Aleix is a hardworker, he has one (rain impacted) podium in his entire MotoGP career --he has been in GP since 2009, longer than any other active rider, vice Vale. In 2016, Mav won on the Suzuki, and had 4 podiums, while Aleix's best was a single 4th. Those were their 2nd and 8th years in the top class, respectively. Time will tell.

 

We really don't have a good reference for Aleix until now. But I still think he's near the bottom of the paddock in terms of raw speed. He wasted a lot of time in his career riding shit bikes, especially the first years of the Ape with its overweight and underpowered engine. IMO, that doesn't exactly lend itself to developing rider talent and speed.

My first guess is that there's nothing dramatically different about the current Ape compared to the Yam or Suz. So Mav shouldn't have a hard time getting up to speed on it. Because of that, I think he'll beat Aleix handily within 2-3 races.

 

Aliex is a regular 5-8 place guy and Maverick is a top 5 rider. I think being on the Aprilia will suit Maverick. They’re the dark horse manufacture, which will take pressure off and that will help Maverick stay relatively even keeled.

 

Agreed....

 

This. Mav had a lot of time on "the best bike" or one of... results and performance ehhh. Aleix has never had the best bike or 2nd best bike, ever, in GP class. Mav is also a giant vagina. We'll see how this goes. New stuff gives people new gusto sometimes, but I dunno about outshining Aleix right away there.

 

Well, except Gorilla George.