BEGINNERS TAKE ALL
How Bastianini showed MotoGP is an increasingly young man’s game
‘Experience counts for less in the frantic new normal’
Racing used to be predictable. History has long spells when you could pick a winner, before a wheel had turned.
Think Spencer, Lawson, Rainey, Schwantz, Doohan, Rossi, and Marc Marquez. Familiar, experienced riders ruled. Rookies took time to learn. That’s how it worked.
Not any more. On Sunday, yet another precocious performance proved the point.
After Brad Binder’s win last year and this year Jorge Martin’s poles, podiums and win, now it was another rookie’s turn.
In his 14th MotoGP race, on a two-year-old Ducati regarded as intrinsically flawed, Moto2 champ Enea Bastianini was blazing.
He cut through from 12th on the grid, scything past racewinners like Marquez, Miller and Rins, to a threatening third. More than that, he lost nothing on speed to Bagnaia and Quartararo ahead of him, setting the fastest lap of the race, a new record. They were out of his reach only because of ground lost fighting through in the early laps. Winner Bagnaia, at 24, was the oldest on the podium. Quartararo is 22, Bastianini 23.
What a contrast to the oldies. Rossi, a triple MotoGP winner here, was once again nowhere, mired in 17th. Better than fellow veteran, the returned Dovizioso, back on a Yamaha and plumb last. Aged 42 and 35 respectively. Commentators have been talking of “the changing of the guard” all year. It’s easy to see that experience counts for less and less in MotoGP’s frantic new normal. It’s not so easy to understand why this is the case. Something similar prevails in all forms of professional sport, for a number of factors. Most important, better training. The previous generation of champions, often as not, starting riding motorbikes on the street, discovered they had a knack for it, and took to the track. Hopelessly oldfashioned.
Modern racers start long before street-legal age, and move up through increasingly well-supported and wellorganised feeder series, where they are expertly coached. When the best of them arrive at GP level aged 16, they are already seasoned competitors, up against rivals they know well. There’s more. Continual technical developments reward new techniques. Older riders, set in their ways, have trouble adapting. Kids bring fresh tricks, without even thinking about it. Or is it even simpler? That – vaulting power and speed notwithstanding – modern MotoGP machines are just too easy to ride? Switch on the traction control, engage the electronic aids, and go for it? Wouldn’t you hate for that to be true?