2020 MotoGP Wrap-up

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Miguel Oliveira took the win at Portimão. (MotoGP/)

The top three finishers in the season-ending MotoGP of Portimão, Portugal, were all on satellite bikes—Miguel Oliveira topped the podium on a Tech3 KTM, Jack Miller on a Pramac Ducati, and Franco Morbidelli third on a Petronas Yamaha. All this year it has seemed that satellite teams have hit it right more often than the factory groups.

With Suzuki’s Joan Mir taking the 2020 MotoGP championship last weekend at Valencia 2, all that remained was the question of who could find a working combination for Portimão, a circuit new to the MotoGP paddock. Its ups and downs caused some riders to liken it to motocross, and another to find closest similarity to Laguna Seca, in Monterey, California. Although recently repaved, evidently presenting an abrasive surface that ages tires rapidly, both Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci (both on Ducati) noted that bumps and “holes” remained numerous.

As so often, Maverick Viñales, the man of two moods, greeted Friday saying, “It’s been a long time since I enjoyed myself like this on the bike.” Oliviera topped FP1, saying, “I’m feeling really good and enjoying every moment on track, happy with every lap.” Miller, after qualifying third behind Oliveira and Morbidelli, would say, “I have been feeling good from the beginning.”

There had previously been a Portimão test in which MotoGP regulars were allowed to learn the circuit, but only on production bikes. On Saturday morning, Viñales’ fortunes nosed over as so often before: “…today we didn’t have the same feeling, especially when it comes to rear grip.

“Saturday was a disaster.” This has been Viñales’ oscillating trajectory so often in his career—the Fates smile upon him, only to deceive.

Yet in that same session, Miller and Oliveira remained strong as 1-2. Petrucci, starting a lowly 18th on a Ducati team bike, was finding hard going with his factory Ducati: “I…still can’t get a good feeling with the bike on this track.”

He described the production bikes they rode in the test as, “…softer and more flexible bikes, and that helps a lot. MotoGP bikes are made to go very fast but here there are bumps and ups and downs.”

Jack Miller finished second in Portimão, but was nearly 5 seconds behind Oliveira. (MotoGP/)

Years before, Ben Spies’ crew chief Tom Houseworth had described MotoGP bikes and their tires as being much stiffer than their World Superbike equivalents. Where there are bumps, that is a recipe for what MXers call “air time.” Tires generate zip for grip up above the pavement.

This put me in mind of things said about dirt-track car chassis setup. Yes, you can stiffen up the chassis like on an F1 car, but if you do, the suspension has to be exactly right or it doesn’t work at all. That is because the suspension must do the whole job. But with a more flexible chassis you get something that can work pretty well even if everything is a little off, because accidental chassis flex can compensate to a degree for an imperfect suspension setting. Could it be that MotoGP bikes are in general too specialized, too dependent upon a high level of pavement smoothness?

The undulations and bumps of Portimão made setup difficult for the super-stiff MotoGP bikes. (MotoGP/)

In the race, Oliveira was master of ceremonies and pulled away. Miller said, “He went away so fast from me and Franky (Morbidelli) that the win was pretty much off the table about two laps in.

After his win he said, “It was long! … I didn’t want to look at the board for the first three laps. I just wanted to do my pace and my lines and try to see if anyone would go for a lunge on the inside.”

But he was alone.

“After FP4 I realized I had something more. I pushed from the start without looking back, but managing the tires and the advantage in the final laps was not easy.”

By lap 21 he led by 4.597 seconds.

The drama was behind him: a resumption of the Morbidelli-Miller battle which Morbidelli had won at Valencia 2. This time the finish was reversed as Miller-Morbidelli.

About his own setup, Miller said, “…it’s a challenge to work out your setup and where you might have to sacrifice on one corner to make the bike better for others. I’ve really found my groove again with the bike in the last few races…”

Morbidelli, too, had found Oliveira unapproachable: “(He)…had something extra today and we weren’t able to follow him.”

Dovizioso, leaving the Ducati team, fought through to sixth place, which is where Ducatis were finishing when he first came on the scene. Cal Crutchlow, also saying his goodbyes, finished 13th after a strong fourth in qualifying. I will miss the education both have given me in their words.

Cal Crutchlow finished his final MotoGP race in 13th. (MotoGP /)

This year results have often seemed more like a lottery than a result of discoverable cause and effect. It’s tempting to just accept randomness in thoughts like: “Yamaha is out of it, except for a strong Morbidelli and sometimes Quartararo. Ducati is out of it, except for Miller, who seems to have some grasp of his fate. KTM is at last solidly on its way (three wins this year, two bikes in the top five today), but Honda must for the moment be content with the occasions when Nakagami or Alex Márquez has a good day and stays upright. Will Marc Márquez bring back the past, or will time’s arrow have flown on? Unknowable, so 2021 will see what Pol Espargaró can do as a hedge. Can Yamaha break out of its comfortable years of having nearly enough rear grip in the spring and not nearly enough in the fall? Will Ducati continue its fascination with braking stability and acceleration, to the exclusion of grip at the apex? Will Suzuki, the present master of all-around performance, emerge as a dominant force in 2021?”

As the Japanese manufacturers focus ever-more tightly on their Asian markets and backpedal in the West, the push and shove of sales competition is heating up Europe. That competition is the only good reason to race.

What will be in 2021? Will teams like Tech3 continue to see success when Marc Márquez returns to competition? (MotoGP/)

If what MotoGP has to sell is suspense, this year brought a bumper crop, as up-and-coming riders up-and-arrived, gaining in confidence and experience. Will they wilt in 2021 as Marc Márquez returns full strength to shade them out? No one rider stands out, for the system now in place has provided all with the same excellent schooling of national series, then Moto3 and Moto2 to prepare the top performers for MotoGP. Meanwhile a series of schemes to put competitive bikes on the start grid has succeeded in placing each arriving graduate on a fully engineered bike, designed from the start as a factory MotoGP machine. This has brought machine and rider parity comparable to that of Moto2 while preserving the proven appeal of many brands in contention.

Prospects for a return of this suspense in 2021 look good.

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