MotoGP | 2026 | Silly Season

I don’t envy him. When I broke my femur I wanted to die the pain was so bad.

 

I don’t know if it was a BS story on social media but they’re saying Acosta has signed with Ducati for 27. They didn’t say which team.

 

18 years ago I broke mine as well.

Country road pre-track days - deer ran out, I stoppied into it, went ass over tea kettle, some part of the bike landed on my left femur and SNAP.

Off work for 17 weeks and to add insult to injury - I also broke my right collar bone and a few ribs so sleep, showering, and using the toilet were all nightmares for the first month.

These days with the condition these guys are in and the best medical services available - I expect Fermin to be riding in 7-8 weeks and normal roughly a month after than.

 

That sounds kind of implausible, unless KTM were on board with it, because they know they are closing down the team. If he signed for someone else at this stage, it's going to make for a very uncomfortable year.

 

And a race fan as a judge

 

I’m pretty sure KTM knows they have ZERO chance of retaining him for 27.

 

Wellllll.....if they pulled a magic monkey out of their ass and gave him a bike that he consistently win on, he might stay. I just don't get how the team is going to function when they know before the first race that their rider is gone. He could also pull a Quartararo and stay for a pile of money.

 

I think it’s also important to remember the teams are all made up of career professionals. No one is going to show up and give 50% because they know their best won career and reputation is at stake and they might be looking for a new job in the paddock in less than a year themselves.
At this level everyone shows up and gives 100% in the moment regardless of their feelings. The camaraderie will certainly be missing and it’ll be a lot more stressful with job insecurity though.

 

My worse fear (deer)...I can't imagine the femur pain.

Just surviving all that shows your one tough dude.

 

While everything you're saying is probably true, a professional can objectively try to give 100%, but fall short due to morale issues. I've seen people out perform expectations just because of the atmosphere. I'd also bet that there have been instances where 'professional' team members did NOT give their best effort due to how they were being treated, or the morale in the team. That suspension issue that Ben Spies experienced might have been related to morale...or someone was purposely sabotaging him.

 

[QUOTE="Rdrace42, post: 6333621, member: 60774" That suspension issue that Ben Spies experienced might have been related to morale...or someone was purposely sabotaging him.[/QUOTE]

Rossi was probably behind it.

 

Max shoots across the bow... "Ducati is German ... Aprilia the only Italian manufacture."

 

he’s kinda not wrong….

the Audi $$$$ changed Ducati almost overnight…

the Audi $$$ allows them to buy the right people like Gigi amongst a host of others .

They must have realized they weren’t gonna be able to put Stoner in their bike forever

 

I saw this but didn’t read. What was the jist of his reasoning? Because he’s their brand ambassador?

 

lol you answered my question. Thank you sir.

 

Edit/Addition:

As one of the oldest Ducati dealerships at the time, it was almost like a light switch for us, as we were thriving all along as a small mom and pop shop then boom,

new store displays always, $37483857838848 in new Ducati tools that are probably STILL brand new in their boxes,

it went from 100% “Passion”
To 100% passion as long as you played corporate.

still quite salty about all that, but clearly they’ve had a lot of success so someone made some some good decisions

 

I don't think you were the only ones. Noticed a few dealerships go under or change drastically during that time. There are still some indy shops i'd take my Duc before i'd take it to their new fancy dealer.

 

New Aprilia livery

Other liveries shown here: https://www.the-race.com/motogp/every-motogp-2026-livery-revealed-so-far/

 

The house has Toprak over Fabio for the 2026 championship. Discuss... between 3 P.M and 6 P.M. EST.