2023 Phillip Island MotoGP Report

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Johan Zarco caught Jorge Martín on the last lap to take his maiden MotoGP win at Phillip Island. (MotoGP/)

When high winds and rain were predicted for Phillip Island on Sunday, it was decided to move the 27-lap MotoGP event to Saturday afternoon, then run the 13-lap sprint Sunday. Unfortunately, conditions forbade racing on Sunday so the sprint was canceled.

Continuing his outstanding recent performance, Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac Duc) set a new lap record in qualifying, causing all observers to expect a grand struggle between him and current MotoGP champion and series leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team). In Indonesia a week ago, Martín had taken the title lead by winning the Saturday sprint, but then fell while leading Sunday’s race.

The bulk of Saturday’s race was a show between Fabio Di Giannantonio, Brad Binder, Zarco, and Pecco Bagnaia, with Martín off to an early lead. That would all change with a few laps to go. (MotoGP/)

When the flag dropped at Phillip Island, Martín on a soft rear tire (18 rivals chose the medium) went straight into the lead, which he then held for 26 of the 27 laps. The Spaniard was 2.5 seconds ahead on lap 9, his lead peaking at 4.5 seconds on lap 15. But as his soft rear tire gradually dropped, he yielded about a third of a second of his lead each lap to reduce the tire’s rate of decline.

It wasn’t to be. At the beginning of the last lap, Johann Zarco (Martín’s Ducati teammate) passed Martín for the lead, which opened the door for Bagnaia, with Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Duc) and Brad Binder (factory KTM) slipping by moments later. The finish order was Zarco, Bagnaia, Di Giannantonio, Binder, and Martín.

Binder once again demonstrated the strength of KTM’s new carbon fiber chassis by running with the leading Ducatis. (KTM/)

After the race Marc Márquez (who finished 15th on factory Repsol Honda) summed up the nearly all-Ducati charge by saying, “Jorge, Bagnaia, and sometimes Bezzecchi, are the ones who make the difference. When you see a group of riders with the same bike and the same pace, it means that they’re making the most of it.

“When instead you see one or two who manage to lower their times by three- or four-tenths compared to the others, it means they’re making a difference. Di Giannantonio is a rider who has had some good races and did well today, even if he doesn’t have the consistency of others.”

Aprilia riders showed signs of speed all weekend, but weren’t able to put a result together. (MotoGP/)

Speaking of Martín’s choice of the soft rear, Márquez added, “Last year [here], I got on the podium with that tire. This year, the gamble didn’t pay off.”

What changed?

Fabio Quartararo, the 2021 champion who now struggles to make the top 10 on his factory Yamaha, said, “I’m half a second faster [here] than last year, but I’m 17th! Our bike gets more difficult to turn every year.”

Several riders noted that the track is bumpier than before, with less grip. Bagnaia commented, “This year the grip level was less than last year but the performance was faster.”

That was close. Zarco passed for the lead, which then opened the door for Bagnaia. (MotoGP/)

Why does a tire that made the podium last year give up before the end this year? How did Martín set a new lap record, and why is the field faster when the track is bumpier and offers less grip? One possible answer is the new technique of using excess engine power to drive a larger aero downforce array. With high-power bikes such as Ducati and KTM able to generate more downforce off medium-speed corners, there is less need for intervention by electronic anti-wheelie systems. They work by cutting throttle just enough to keep the front wheel on the job. But increased downforce becomes increased acceleration.

Not for the frustrated Quartararo, whose Yamaha cannot presently afford the power to push a competitive downforce array.

Top riders are always thinking. Bagnaia added, “When I realized that Martín wasn’t increasing his lead, I realized that we would catch him again.

“I thought about not risking crashing and trying to catch Brad and Fabio (Di Giannantonio). In fact they started fighting each other and it was easy to get back.”

Tire selection was the deciding factor in Phillip Island. Bagnaia made the right decision, and in coming home in second, extended his championship lead to 27 points. (MotoGP/)

This is a point race watchers must remember—that when two riders focus on beating each other, they sacrifice lap time by dividing their attention between going fast and dueling.

Martín described the first half of his race by saying, “I felt good. I was managing my lead in the middle of the race. But then [with] six laps to go was the moment when I started to struggle a lot. I saw that I had no rear tire.”

Although Martín’s team said the tire choice was their mistake, he himself said, “The important thing is not to make any more mistakes on the tire choice. Just try to go with the same as my opponents.”

Rain and, more importantly, high winds forced an early end to the weekend, with the rescheduled sprint race being canceled. (MotoGP/)

As various riders consider the vacancy at Honda for next year (Márquez having decided to switch to a satellite Ducati) and as the drama at Yamaha continues, this author two weeks ago had the opportunity to quiz two very experienced racing people during festivities at the Barber Museum near Birmingham, Alabama. They gave very similar answers to my question: What is holding back Yamaha and Honda from quickly becoming competitive again?

Their opinion was that big-company management structure can be too slow-moving to solve racing problems.

My informants gave specific examples. Japanese companies move engineers around during their careers. What an engineer learns in racing is wasted when in six months comes reassignment to Inventory Systems. Also, I was told, it is common for racing to hit the “scheduling barrier.” Access to specialized machine tools or processes is by priority level—how high is yours?

Something similar occurred in US aircraft engine manufacturing during World War II. Large and successful manufacturing companies prototyped advanced engine projects that they were unable to make reliable before the war ended.

Pratt & Whitney had in the 1920s and ‘30s developed its method of “trampling problems to death.” Instead of building and testing the several possible solutions to a problem one after the other, they tested all solutions simultaneously. Expensive, yes, admitted a retired P&W VP, but a crisis makes time more valuable than money. If your crankcase design is cracking at 10 to 50 test hours despite all your hard work, your contract will be terminated or your tooling diverted to faster-developing projects.

There were some familiar faces in Phillip Island. (KTM/)

Companies like Lockheed in the US and Dassault in France discovered that technical projects accelerated when staff size was cut, eliminating much organizational friction.

Yamaha dominated late-1970s 500 GP racing by quick action. Instead of “working through channels” to alter the steering head angle of Kenny Roberts’ 0W-48, Kel Carruthers sawed off the steering head and rewelded it at a reduced rake angle. Small, action-oriented development groups (e.g., “Skunk Works”) get things done. Big organizations have tons of paper to push.

Next weekend is Thailand, at Chang International Circuit. Predictions?

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