Consistency: that’s what the results tell us wins championships. Look at Joan Mir’s title in 2020; one victory, yes, but a string of second and third places that just quietly racked up the points. True, 2020 was an unusual season, truncated due to all the lockdowns, but it proves my point. As does this season. Almost. Actually, maybe not!

Right now, Francesco Bagnaia is in the driving seat, after four back-to-back victories, bringing his tally to six for the season. This has brought him to within 31 points of Fabio Quartararo when the gap had been over 90. Those four wins have netted him 50 points more than Quartararo and all the momentum is with Bagnaia, especially as the next race is Aragon, where the long straight has Quartararo worried, as well he might be.

But hang on: this is the same Bagnaia who crashed out of three out of four races earlier in the season? Had he not done that, would he now be leading the championship? After all, he crashed out while at the sharp end of the race.

Because his consistency seems to come in blocks – three crashes, four victories – you don’t tend to notice it in the overall picture until you look back and analyse. But it’s there. Even Quartararo has been consistently inconsistent, with three victories and four-second places, but also retirement and some lacklustre performances out of fourteen rounds so far.

Behind all this, Aleix Espargaro is a model of consistency, with six podiums (including one win) and lots of top ten finishes and has only just been overtaken in the championship by the hard-charging Bagnaia. But Espargaro doesn’t seem at all worried. Maybe he’s just happy to be in this position, regularly running at the front?

But he just seems so calm. He knew before the start of the season that America, Austria and Misano would be difficult races for the Aprilia. America he was right about but Austria and Misano both netted him sixth-place finishes: useful points. Especially in light of Quartararo’s scoring. After the race at Assen, where Quartararo failed to finish and Espargaro battled from last to fourth in one of the best rides of the season, Espargaro was 32 points away from Quartararo and now he is still only 33 points away. Not bad after getting your three worse tracks out of the way!

However, he needs to be doing more than merely maintaining the gap if he is to challenge for the title. The number of races left is dwindling, meaning that at each race, he has to outscore Quartararo and Bagnaia by an ever larger margin and with those two at their respective peaks, that won’t be easy.

Maybe Aprilia should simply rejoice in what has been their best season by a long way. But, of course, that won’t happen – they’ll be completely gutted if they don’t take the title: they’re racers, what would you expect?

As Espargaro said after Misano: “In the past when I finished sixth, we had a party in Aprilia.” If they don’t do that anymore, then it’s a sign of how far they have come and what their expectations are from this year forward. No longer are they the also-rans but the step from finishing second or third in the championship to actually winning it is as big as from the back to the front of the grid, if not bigger, especially when you are up against teams that are in the habit of winning championships or, at the very least, races, consistently.

Towards the end of the Misano race, we had an interesting taste of what 2023 could look like as Enea Bastianini closed relentlessly on Bagnaia. The two will be teammates, of course, in 2023 and it was interesting to see what Bastianini would do to his future teammate who is currently fighting for the championship.

Bastianini would be keen to prove his worth with a win but, by the same token, he would not want to take Bagnaia out with a risky lunge up the inside. Nor would he want to harm his future team’s chances of the title by taking a few points off Bagnaia.

The fact that Bastianini couldn’t get past Bagnaia, even though the factory rider’s rear tyre was all but shot, harming his acceleration out of corners, was another indictment of Michelin’s front tyre. If anything, the Misano MotoGP was a bit of a procession, the top three or four running close together but no one having the extra grip for a banzai braking manoeuvre. Michelin is working on new tyres but these won’t be around until 2024 at the earliest. Until then, are we to be subjected to Formula One-style racing, without the benefit of pit stops providing the ‘overtaking’ excitement?

On Tuesday and Wednesday after the race, all the teams remained at Misano for the last test of the season. Of course, the main talking point was the fact that Marc Marquez would be making an appearance, his first time on track since his operation to finally fix the right arm break which had been so poorly fixed the first (several!) times.

That he is on the mend was evidenced by the fact that he completed 61 laps on Wednesday, finishing 12th on the timesheets. While that might not be the best news for Honda, they were trying out dozens of variations on a theme, including a preliminary 2023 bike, so it was clear they were not out for outright lap glory but looking forward to the development of next year’s bike, something that Marquez will be keen to have a hand in.

Also, a subject of scrutiny was the Yamaha. Quartararo has been vocal about the lack of straight-line speed compared to the Ducati and Aprilia and it is known that one of his conditions for signing a contract extension with the team was getting more top speed out of the Yamaha for 2023.

This they seem to have achieved, Quartararo’s best top speed is only 2 km/h slower than Jorge Martin’s Ducati. Yes, this speed was achieved with the aid of a tow from another rider, but the overall fastest lap time on Wednesday will give the Frenchman hope for next season, not to mention a boost for the remainder of 2022: the Yamaha team tried a new chassis and team manager Massimo Merengalli stated that it could appear in time for the next race in Aragon.

As usual, the post-Misano test asked more questions than it answered. For those answers, all we can do is wait for the remaining six races to run their course. What we all want, of course, is a championship that is in doubt right up to the last corner of the last race. On the current evidence of the form of Bagnaia, Quartararo and Espargaro, that’s not such an outrageous hope.

It has been suggested that a great sporting rivalry needs both protagonists to enter into a bitter loathing of each other, while still maintaining often well-hidden respect for their talents.

It is true that there has been the case in a large number of some of the great rivalries in racing – Prost/Senna, Fogarty/Slight, Schwantz/Rainey, Rossi/Gibernau, Rossi/Stoner, Rossi/Lorenzo, Rossi/Marquez. There have been just as many that have not been rancorous – Hailwood/Agostini, Marquez/Dovizioso for example. But it is the angry ones that we largely remember because the off-track animosity just adds more spice to the on-track war.

The telling point, however, is that, after their retirement, the once mortal enemies are often pleased to see each other in the pits when all the dust has settled on their rivalries. The scales of competitive enmity fall away and, even if they are never going to be bosom buddies, they can at least see someone who is just like themselves, one of the few who could ever do what they themselves did to an equal measure: there is a bond of ability.

They might even be able to look behind all the competitive bluster necessary to succeed and like the rival for who they are as a person.

Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that, while they were racing, they hated each other with all the passion they could muster and we, as fans, only want to remember them as wanting to kill each other on the track, however much the post-retirement bromances in pit lane might warm our hearts…!

So, how do we cope with the scenes at the end of the Austrian MotoGP race when the top three finishers – Bagnaia, Quartararo and Miller – and sixth-placed Aleix Espargaro all stopped together on the slowing-down lap and proceeded to have a chat about the race with an obvious passion for what they had all achieved, respect for each other and genuine pleasure for the guys who beat them. These are the guys who are leading the championship, for crying out loud: first, second, third and fifth in the overall standings and all with a strong chance – if a little mathematical in Miller’s case – of being crowned world champion.

Some will obviously bang on about how the fire has gone out of the sport and wish a rider would start a fight in the gravel trap after another rider took them out of the lead or make some barbed comment in the pits after the race.

But, in a world which is seemingly ever more bitter and angry, it is important for everyone to see just a bit of honest empathy and friendship in a sport which involves the competitors choosing to put their lives on the line and fight tooth and nail to beat the others and afterwards doing the equivalent of sitting down for a pint and having a good laugh about it. Ego has to come into the equation of their talent but I’d wager there’s a lot less in a motorcycle racer than in many other sports. Or, if there is a lot, it’s kept very much at bay.

Does the off-track friendship take away from the on-track action? Definitely not, because as soon as the lights go out, they’ll forget everything and want to kill each other anyway.

For sheer excitement, it would be hard to beat the Austrian MotoGP race of 2021, which ended with a nail-biting final lap as Brad Binder skated to victory wearing slicks on a wet track with wet-tyred rivals catching him hand over fist.

If 2022’s race was never going to match 2021 – and, indeed, it didn’t – that’s not to say it wasn’t a good race. Perhaps not the most overtaking or close fighting but enough to keep things interesting for 28 laps, including one of the most audacious overtakes of the season when Fabio Quartararo got past Jack Miller’s Ducati at the new chicane on the curving uphill section after turn one.

A Yamaha challenging a Ducati for second place in Spielberg was something no one could have predicted; a rider overtaking another between the two corners that comprise the chicane, as opposed to under braking for the first corner of the chicane was something else altogether. It was simply astonishing, all the more so when you consider that the next Yamaha was languishing down in 13th position (Morbidelli, whose dreadful season continued when he crashed out at the same chicane where Quartararo showed his genius.)

It was such a topsy turvy race. If a Ducati victory was almost guaranteed and Bagnaia subsequently made it look easy, that hid an awful lot of ups and downs, crashes, run-offs and retirements, all of which affected the final result more than overtaking.

For too long now, overtaking has been increasingly difficult as riders are on the ragged edge of front tyre performance. Michelin has come under constant criticism for the performance of the front tyre for a long time now but it would be unfair to lay all the blame at their door.

The Michelin front tyre was designed for a certain set of load parameters but developments in downforce aero technology have overloaded the front tyre. That means that when a rider gets close to the bike in front in order to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre, the front tyre overheats and loses grip as the pressure rises inside the tyre and the rider simply has nothing left with which to make a pass. Look at what happened to Jorge Martin when he tried to out-brake Jack Miller into turn one after following him closely for a lap or two: he just lost the front end and slid off the track, luckily not taking Miller with him.

“When you have a control-tyre championship, then the manufacturers have to design their motorcycles around the tyres,” Piero Taramasso, Michelin Motor Sport Manager said. “But by adding all the aero and the devices, then they aren’t designing their motorcycles around the tyres.”

So, for riders to complain that the tyre doesn’t match the motorcycle is a little unfair as the motorcycle has been developed out of all recognition to the motorcycle the tyre was designed for.

One temporary solution is to try and make a tyre that can run at lower pressures. Michelin is working to reduce the minimum tyre pressure than can be run on the current front tyre.

“I’d like to say that next year you can go to 1.8 or 1.7 bar with the tyre we use at the moment,” revealed Taramasso. “But we cannot go lower than this. When we started using this tyre five years ago the minimum pressure was 2.1 bar, then we went to 2.0 and then to 1.9…

“The goal (for the brand new tyre that might appear in 2024) is 1.7 bar and to make the tyre less sensitive to temperature and pressure changes,” said Taramasso. “The tyre will be very different, with a new profile and it will be made with different materials.”

It’s not going to be an instant fix but at least the problem is being addressed.

Another bombshell was dropped by Dorna in Austria. From 2023, MotoGP will follow other motorsport categories – Formula One, World Superbike, Touring Cars – in including Saturday sprint races over the MotoGP weekend. These would take the form of roughly half race-distance races, offering half points to the top nine finishers: 12 points for first, nine for second, seven for third, six for fourth, five for fifth, four for sixth, three for seventh, two for eighth and one for ninth.

Where will the sprint race fit into the overall schedule and how will both riders and machinery be able to stand the extra strain and pressure?

The two Friday practice sessions will now decide who has to qualify in Q1 and who will go straight through to Q2. Saturday’s early morning Q3 session now becomes like the current free practice 4, which is the race-pace session directly before qualifying where the rider can further fine-tune the race set-up rather than the out-and-out qualifying speed set-up.

Q1 and Q2 will take place earlier on Saturday, with the sprint race starting at 3 pm on Saturday. Overall track time will remain the same as in current race meetings so no extra strain will be put on engines or affect tyre allocations.

What might the concerns be? Well, it could be argued that having a practice session, two qualifying sessions and a race on the same day is a bit much but the great god television likes the idea of more coverage to keep people watching and looking at the advertising hoardings, let alone getting more people through the gates at the track on the Saturday.

Also, while the race start is one of the most exciting moments of any race, it is also one of the more dangerous moments and no one wants to be ruled out of the main race (or, worse, for a few races) because of another rider’s mistake in the sprint race.

Naturally, there are dissenting voices in the paddock, with some riders hating the idea and others loving it.

Aleix Espargaro: “I want to believe that the management of the championship thinks that this is the best thing for the sport, for the show, for the popularity of the championship. I don’t share this idea, but it’s just my opinion.

“I think it’s not the solution because I think the risk is going to be too high. I think that 42 starts (assuming a sprint race at every round in the championship, currently 21 races) in a season is too many. Dorna says that we will have the same track time, so nothing changes, but this is bullshit because there’s a big difference (in risk) between FP4 and a race, where they give points for the championship.

“But they choose what they want and we have to adapt. Let’s try, maybe it’s a good solution…”

Jack Miller was one of the voices that were unequivocally up for the idea:

“I’m a massive fan – it’s another chance of a bonus! Why not try it? I’ll enjoy it – it’ll be all or nothing. As a rider, it’ll make you want to risk more, but you won’t have to worry about tyres, fuel, or physical condition because in a lot of races you can’t push yourself to the absolute maximum the whole time, but for half-race distance, you should be able to. For sure it will increase the risk but at the end of the day we race motorcycles, we don’t do ballet. Why not (try sprint races)? Give it a crack and reassess at the end of the year.”

While the likes of Formula One currently has sprint races at selected races in a season, it looks as if Dorna is intending their system to be a permanent part of every race weekend. If that is the case, then the only thing to do is try it and reassess at the end of the season, as Miller suggests.

Personally, I think we are just going to have to wait and see if it is a good thing. The current system of one race on Sunday has been in place since the championship started way back in 1949. Change is inevitable but we have to be careful it is not solely driven by commercial pressures and that it is good for the sport as a whole.

It is no good being a stick-in-the-mud traditionalist as much good has come in the past from shaking up the status quo and it’s not as if Dorna is suggesting a change to the race-day protocol.

Perhaps more racing to enjoy is what many fans want. As long as the teams and riders can cope and it doesn’t dilute the Sunday action, then why not give it a go?

How do you even begin to report on the incredible day’s racing at Silverstone? Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP all produced some of the best racing we’ve seen all year, and it’s not been a bad year of racing so far.

It was just one of those days that left you with a smile on your face, all the wider for being five long weeks since the last one. If we had to wait, then it was worth it and it wasn’t even as if we had to make excuses for finding it so exciting: it genuinely was.

If the championship is still Quartararo’s to lose, then at least Bagnaia’s victory closed things up a little and Aleix Espargaro minimised the damage to his points score by finishing right behind Quartararo in ninth, a heroic ride considering the pain he must have been in with what was later diagnosed as a fractured heel after a nasty high-side in practice.

For a few laps, it looked as if Johann Zarco might finally win his first race, after converting pole position into the lead. Quartararo slotted into second and Miller third, Bagnaia fourth and Rins, something of a Silverstone specialist, fifth.

It was going to be one of those races where the order was never the same on consecutive laps. Rins started to look quick and got by Bagnaia, while Quartararo took his long-lap penalty and slotted back in fifth.

Then Zarco yet again threw away his best chance of victory in many races as he slid out leaving Miller leading, with Rins in second, which he would convert to first place on the same lap. Meanwhile, Jorge Martin passed Quartararo for fourth, who in turn, had Viñales breathing down his neck.

No one was managing to get away from the rider behind and one second covered the top five runners. Bagnaia disposed of Miller and then got past Rins who would continue to sink down the order as the race went on with tyre troubles. Then Viñales started to make his move as he passed Martin for fourth, which would become third soon after as Rins slowed, followed by second when he passed Miller.

The result was in doubt right up to the last lap. Maverick Viñales showed that he too is starting to gel with the Aprilia as he hounded Bagnaia in the closing stages and was even ahead for a brief moment on the penultimate lap before settling for second – his second podium in a row. It was, by any standards, a brilliant race by a clearly rejuvenated Viñales.

Much had been made of the brevity of the long-lap penalty that Quartararo had to take, his many practice efforts showing that he lost around 0.8 seconds off his lap time. In the race, however, it was enough to drop him to fifth, from where he simply could not make up any ground to those ahead of him. We all assumed that it was a return of the front tyre temperature issue the Yamaha suffers from when following other riders but, in actual fact, it was his rear tyre that was giving him the problems, running far too hot.

Bagnaia’s victory was all the more unexpected as he had given no warning of his potential during practice and qualifying, as he had done in Assen. Even at the beginning of the race, he was overshadowed by Zarco and Miller’s Ducatis but, as the race went on, he just got stronger and stronger and was able to repulse Viñales’ attack.

Bastianini had a great race to fourth, including passing his rival for the second factory Ducati seat, Martin, in the closing stages, Martin, for his part, had a high-profile race, including holding the fastest lap for a while. Oliveira on the KTM also shone, while his teammate Brad Binder was left to rue the wrong choice of the rear tyre.

It didn’t matter where you looked, there was some great racing going on. Was this really the race track that had to cancel all the races in 2018 on race day as the track simply wouldn’t drain away the torrential rain properly after being re-surfaced? Having said that, this is Silverstone that saw the epic battle between Rins and Marquez in 2019, Rins taking the victory by mere centimetres at the line.

It’s a brilliant track, at once fast and flowing but with some technical bits: if your bike works well at Silverstone, it should work well anywhere and that has to be a worry for Quartararo, as the Ducati has now shone at two tracks that are supposedly not great Ducati tracks: Assen and Silverstone. If Miller and Bagnaia – and Martin and Bastianini – can continue this form into the next few races, the championship certainly isn’t over by a long shot. Add into the equation Quartararo’s new-found calm approach to relentlessly rack up the points even when a win isn’t on the cards and we are in for a hum-dinger of a race to the championship and what a way Silverstone was to kick-start that race.

Boy, but it’s been a long five weeks! For some reason, the overworked MotoGP paddock seems to think that we can do without our bi-monthly fix of two-wheeled adrenaline not only during the off-season between November and March but also for the whole of July. Whoever gave them that idea needs to be given a good talking to (and yes, I am aware that some of that time would have been taken up with the cancelled Finnish round.)

It does, however, give us chance to draw breath and reflect on what has passed and, using that knowledge, try and make predictions for the second half of the season which, motor racing being what it is, will no doubt prove wildly wide of the mark and just plain wrong! Maybe I’ll just leave that bit out!

What did we learn from the first eleven races? Plenty, of course: that Fabio Quartararo will be hard to beat to the championship (but not impossible): that no other rider can make the Yamaha work (with the possible exception of Darryn Binder but he has less to unlearn than Dovizioso or Morbidelli): that the Aprilia has finally and to everyone’s delight come good: that the factory Ducatis still seem unable to string together a championship-winning series of good results although the satellite teams are doing well: that KTM has good weekends and bad: that Suzuki is sadly withdrawing from all forms of motorcycle sport.

So far, Quartararo has taken three Victories and backed these up with a string of good placings. Bagnaia has won three times but has been unable to claim consistency in other rounds. Enea Bastianini has miraculously won three races while Oliveira and Aleix Espargaro have won one apiece, with Espargaro claiming an impressive string of podium finishes to leave him second in the championship.

The beginning of the season was a model of unpredictability, with nine different podium sitters in the first three races. No one saw that coming. No one saw the Japanese factories not getting a look-in until round three and scoring only seven podiums (out of a possible 31) in the first eleven races.

Who Shone in The First Half of the Season

You have to say that Quartararo has the best claim to the rider of the season so far, given that he is leading the championship combined with the failure of any other Yamaha to even crack the top ten, let alone challenge for podiums.

Quartararo’s strength has been his determination in the face of a Yamaha that has a straight-line speed deficit to the Ducatis. If he suffered at the opening flyaway rounds, then he more than made up for it when the circus returned to the more technical circuits in Europe and he consolidated his championship challenge, even if the bike was still not the best on the grid.

Aleix Espargaro has made the most of the hard work that has gone on at Aprilia’s Noale factory by both the team and himself. His is a case of the right rider on the right bike at the right time: the Aprilia RS-GP is the second-best bike on the grid, after the Ducatis and at some tracks it is better, marrying a sweet chassis, good speed and reliability.

If there was one stand-out ride in 2022 so far, then it was Espargaro’s run from dead last to fourth at Assen, including overtaking two riders at the last corner of the last lap: what could he have done had he not been forced off the track by Quartararo early in the race? Then again, maybe the ride was what it was because he was mightily pissed off and the red mist descended. That the Aprilia was able to support such throwing-caution-to-the-wind riding only serves to show how good it is.

Enea Bastiannini’s three victories on a year-old Ducati showed his prowess at tyre preservation, something which is becoming increasingly important in MotoGP at the moment. He rides like Marquez – all on the front end, which leaves him with plenty of rear tyre towards the end of the race and he is able to change his style to take advantage of those changing tyre conditions. Each victory was a result of him biding his time and taking over at the front as the leaders faded.

Consistency is his problem at the moment: a run of two non-finishes, a tenth and an eleventh in the last four races will not have done his chances of securing the second factory Ducati seat (Jack Miller’s – he’s off to KTM) alongside Bagnaia any good, his three victories notwithstanding. Having said that, it’s not as if Jorge Martin has a better claim to the seat. It’s a hard choice for Ducati to make.

Brad Binder’s season might have not lived up to the promise of the opening second place in Qatar but if there is any rider who can get the best out of the KTM on race day, then it is he. Sixth place in the championship is a testament to the tactic – intentional or not – of steadily racking up the points while those around you yo-yo up and down.

Qualifying is the problem for the KTM, hampering his race day performance. The KTM suffers less of a lap time fall-off between qualifying and race than its rivals.  Think of it this way: some riders’ race pace might be a second or two off the qualifying pace but Binder loses only a few tenths. With that consistency, if he can qualify better, then he would be in a position to record regular podiums and, possibly, race wins.

2023 and Beyond

Of course, the 2023 grid will have a completely different look to 2022 and we are right in the thick of the silly season. With Suzuki leaving, two winning riders were potentially out of a job although both Rins and Mir are likely to be on Hondas: Rins signing for LCR Honda and Mir almost certainly a shoe-in at Repsol Honda, alongside a (hopefully) fit Marc Marquez.

Less certain is the fate of Darryn Binder. Many will say that he has done enough to deserve a seat at the top table but the limited options might force him back to Moto2, which would be no hardship: at least he will live to fight for a MotoGP seat again, something that doesn’t always happen: look at Iker Lecuona, who recently admitted his move to MotoGP was too soon but that he really had no option but to make the move. If you are offered a seat in MotoGP, you have to have a really good excuse not to take it, even if you are not properly ready for it.

That Marc Marquez will be fit for 2023 is likely: whether he can recapture his racing spirit is another thing entirely. Love him or hate him, the prospect of the Marc Marquez of old going head-to-head with Quartararo, Bagnaia, Aleix Espargaro and Bastianini is mouth-watering and could herald a classic era of MotoGP racing. Only time will tell if Marquez still has that fire and, just as importantly, if he can get onto the 2023 Honda in time to have a say in its development. If he can do that, then expect fireworks.

Similarly, Quartararo was seeking reassurances from Yamaha that they would address the top speed issue before he re-signed for 2023 and 2024. In his hands, the current M1 is effective and he has a new-found calmness about him, which means he understands that he can’t win at every track but does his best to get the best result possible at tracks that play to other manufacturers’ strengths. Give him a top speed to compete with the Ducatis and the possibility of the championship in 2023 becomes even more likely.

You have to feel sorry for Franco Morbidelli: while his teammate is winning races and leading the championship, Franco languishes down the order, unable to make the Yamaha bend to his will. The M1 might be recalcitrant, but Quartararo is proving that the performance is there to be unlocked: Morbidelli just doesn’t have the right key (nor, to be fair, do Dovizioso and Binder.) He has a contract with Yamaha for 2023 but it isn’t unknown for a team to terminate a contract early if the old rider is clearly unhappy and a new rider becomes available. There is a precedent for this: remember Maverick Viñales’ ignominious sacking from the Yamaha factory team after letting his frustration get the better of him in 2021? Morbidelli might be able to resist the temptation to let his anger and frustration boil over and he has proved that he can win races, but Yamaha needs him to step up to the plate and prove his worth.

2022: Part Two

And so to the second half of the season. Already, we have lost the Kymiring in Finland, so that leaves nine races left to run: Britain, Austria, Misano, Spain (Aragon), Japan, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia and Spain (Valencia). Part of the reason for the long summer break is that the Kymiring was supposed to take place between Assen and Silverstone but the race was cancelled largely due to the political upheaval between Russia – Finland’s neighbour – and Ukraine. As if there aren’t enough politics within the sport without adding more from the outside!

As to which of the remaining tracks favour which teams, well it’s not always that clear cut. Wasn’t Assen supposed to be Ducati’s worst track and yet they won there in the hands of Bagnaia? Who is to say that that won’t happen at other tracks?

The only thing about which we can be certain is that everyone wants to see Aprilia win another race: two, three or four would be better but let’s be realistic. We can only hope that they can start 2023 in as strong a position and not go the wrong route with 2023’s challenger.

Similarly, there are a lot of people who would love to see KTM fighting regularly at the front. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have five teams at every race with a non-fortuitous-circumstance (rain, in other words) chance of winning? We have already seen the dominance of the Japanese teams challenged by the European manufacturers: how great would it be to enter into the unknown at every race and see some real ding-dong racing?

We’ll find out from the 7th of August.