It’s ironic, isn’t it? 24 hours ago, the mood was despondent that the sport was out here doing too much as its World Championship leader was seen stretchered off through the back of Siberia. Now we sit here reflecting on a Grand Prix that never happened at all. Sod’s law. Phillip Island gives us one last gift before kicking us in the junk on the way out. While this isn’t a conventional race review, there’s still a lot to talk about, so let’s do it.
Cutting A Promo
This has been one of the worst weekends for biking discourse I can remember. It started on Friday when The Race was first to the secret document that had been doing the rounds, saying that grid penalties were on the table for anyone missing more of those blasted, evil, wicked promotional events the sport keeps putting on. Going forward, any missing of a Thursday press-conference, pre-race promotional activity, Sunday rider’s parade, or spending at least 10-minutes at the “Hero Walk” signing autographs is deemed as non-compliance.
In shocking news, what wasn’t mentioned until you actually read the small print was that a rider needs to miss SIX of them in order for that penalty to kick in:
| Frequency | Punishment |
| First offence | Reprimand |
| Second offence | €5,000 Fine |
| Third offence | €10,000 Fine |
| Fourth offence | €15,000 Fine and “Official” Warning |
| Fifth offence | Deduction of Practice Time |
| Sixth offence | Grid Penalty |
Oh and exceptions will be made for riders who need medical attention, or already have a promotional event planned with their team. MotoGP says it’s a system that is more uniformed with other sports and “repeated instances of non-compliance have made it necessary to introduce a clear and transparent escalation process”.
A lot of what’s happening here is I think sincere from MotoGP. Missing mandatory media sessions never go down well in other sporting environments unless you have a valid reason. In Formula 1, just being late to a press conference is a (suspended) 5k fine. Carlos Sainz got a €20,000 fine for missing the National Anthem, and it only got reduced to 10k because he got a Doctor’s note for having last minute stomach pains.
Another reason I think this a non-story – Who in their right mind is missing SIX of these events over a season? Or ever? They have to have a sporting penalty in there at the higher end of the scale over cash penalties because if you have it as cash all the way, you’re essentially putting a price tag in place to skip the media entirely. And given some of these riders are on north of $10m a year, five-figure fines is something they’ll eat if they really want to. A sporting penalty is a genuine deterrent, not that I think anyone has ever even come close to a sixth offence. And seriously, do you want to be known as the rider who skipped an autograph session?
As far as I’m aware, the only person who has intentionally skipped one of the sport’s designated sessions, was Marc Marquez twice (And feel free to correct me if I’ve missed any of these). He missed the Silverstone press conference in London as he didn’t want the extra travel commitments, and of course the now infamous kart-race in Japan and calling a ringer. And one, I’d argue the Streisand effect was just as useful for the social media admins and newsdesks of the world, and two, there was an argument it was for a genuine medical reason as he needed physio and ice for his very publicly shared arm injury. So, unless I’ve missed something… is this even really a story?
I don’t think it is at all, but I think it’s bike racing’s place in the world that’s amplified everything. As I said, the actual nuances of the new system were buried half way down a 500-word article, as is the new way sports articles are written to encourage more page visiting time. Another of the sport’s most prominent journalists called it “A separation of church and state”. Which… no?
While I personally wasn’t enthralled by a go-kart race for MotoGP riders in Japan (When mini-moto’s were right there and a former tradition), they can have genuinely bombastic appeal when done right. I know people are going to keel over in cringe at an F1 comparison here, but the two Lego-kart races they’ve done were massively popular, an insanely successful brand activation and had a string of viral moments that generated money and coverage on social media. There is very little downside in trying to emulate that model. They were going to have the riders in mini-jeeps for the riders parade before the weather cancelled it on Sunday morning, but they got a quick go for social clips and the riders seemed to be loving it.
There is absolutely a discussion to be had about whether the riders are doing too much. With 22 races now on the calendar, there’s more time on the road spent than ever. And when a race week is happening, riders are only at the track for 4-5 days, and inevitably in a sport that lacks commercial partners and big sponsors, they’re going to try and squeeze the talent for as much as they can to balance the books. There might need to be a discussion on that balance for a rider’s sake, given their priority is and should always be what happens on-track. But I think there’s a far bigger culprit that’s led us down this path, which is coming up next.
As I’ve said on video before, I think the fact it’s the F1 model, the anti-christ of the hardcore biking fan culture that’s leading this charge, is what’s getting people to act up. The harsh reality is, they’re the only even close to mainstream sport that’s had a genuine uptick in youth viewership and participation post-pandemic and that’s what executives in every other sport want. Hell, even the NFL’s recent expansion into other countries, commissioner Roger Goodell credited F1 and the idea of putting on big events in different countries every other week. Hence why we now have games in London, Ireland, Mexico, France, Germany, Australia, Brazil and there’s talk of a game in Japan next year.
F1’s formula has been copied, because it worked. And this is the same audience that I’ve seen countless times complain about why MotoGP isn’t as popular as it should be given it’s quality of product (And even that has tanked in recent years), or why the sport can’t generate another flamethrower of a talent like Valentino Rossi, who transcended his sport’s popularity. But when the sport makes a sincere effort to try and bridge that gap, we get a response of: “No, not like that.” The cynical part of my brain often makes me wonder… maybe some of us like the fact we’re sporting mavericks. Being in that niche pocket where the sport feels like it’s “theirs” rather than being spread out there to the world. Maybe I’ve gone mad, but I really do think many of the figures in the sport we’re supposed to trust have made mountains out of a molehill…
…Says the writer who’s written 1,100 words on it in response. What a feedback loop, eh? Shall we talk about some actual bikes?
THIS is the Problem
Phillip Island was always going to be a really unpredictable weekend. A dry Friday was scheduled but it was information that could have easily been seen as redundant with heavy rain predicted for Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was a mixed bag, with Qualifying in wet conditions, but drying up for the Sprint Race. And in the rain, Marc Marquez put in an exhibition. Despite what he called a “rookie” mistake crashing on his first lap in Q2, he came back out straight away, using the softer, medium-wet tyre, and immediately went fastest. And then immediately put in the exclamation point when his final lap had him 1.4 seconds faster than the field.
1.4 seconds. I joked back when I hosted the Brno 2019 edition of Motorsport101 that the decimal point for his lap was in the wrong place. Ironically again, that was the last weekend anyone had a margin for pole position that large. His Sector 4 alone was nearly half a second faster than anyone else, and that’s just the hairpin and the final two sweeping left handers. It was fast, it was brave, and it was brilliant. Marquez’s 10th pole position in wet conditions on a grid where no-one else has more than one. It ended up with the Marquez brothers 1-2, with Johann Zarco third and Jorge Martin’s final effort being just enough to salvage fourth, with teammate Marco Bezzecchi only managing ninth, unable to get clear space for a lap.
As said, it dried up for the Sprint. And if Phillip Island has to go away, it did serve us one last treat on the way out. This was eight laps of some of the greatest Sprint action we’ve ever had. Jorge Martin got to second off the line and both he and Marc Marquez went at it at full force.
Part of the beauty of Phillip Island is, it has a little bit of everything that shows you where each bike makes its money. Aprilia was visibly quicker in the faster corners, like Doohan, Siberia and the Hayshed. Martin was making multiple-bike lengths there. But when Marquez had to follow, he knew he was faster at the Southern Loop where Martin was leaving the door open on the apex to counter-attack. Marquez following Martin gave him the information to know he could fight with him, and fight he did.
It was an incredible back-and-forth. Hard racing, at the limit, but never below the belt. Racing as its meant to be. Just when Alex Marquez was closing in to make it a three-way fight… Martin crashes at the Hayshed. Game over.
Martin had been riding his luck. He’d already very nearly tucked the front when he ran wide at the Miller hairpin, needing both knees to pick his Aprilia back up off the ground. This time though, the bike was already unsettled, he hit the bump going into the Hayshed, and despite a valiant effort, he couldn’t save the front a second time. It’s a nasty crash, dropping the bike at 125mph, and then spinning through the massive gravel trap. And it did the damage, with Martin having to be stretchered off the circuit.
The x-rays revealed a fracture of the right radius and a suspected fracture of the right ulna at the distal end. Unfit for the Grand Prix and maybe more. Interestingly, Martin has elected to have the surgery in Australia rather than fly home to Spain for it. It says to me that Aprilia have to go for broke. They’re going to see if Martin can ride on it in Sepang next weekend and try and salvage whatever they can get for the Championship. I get it, this is now the situation where you have to go for broke.
Martin’s now 10 points behind Marquez in the Championship now the latter won his ninth Sprint of the year. If he misses Sepang, it’s a borderline “Game Over” with three to play. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen, but with questions about Martin’s form, a fresh injury and Marquez only getting stronger as the year goes on, it now seems like an uphill battle for either Aprilia. Remember, Marco Bezzecchi is now down 50 despite a solid fightback to get to fourth from ninth on the grid.
What we know now softens the blow, but 24 hours ago, it was hard not to be despondent about the title fight being essentially over. For all the talk about the promotional events being the devil’s work, I feel like it’s been an unhealthy distraction from the real sport-damaging issue – The Sprint Race. This was the 35th race of the 2026 season. If we did have a Grand Prix, Martin’s injury would mean he’d be the sixth rider out of the Top 10 in the Championship to miss time through injury this season, the tenth in total. With Toprak done for the year via shoulder surgery, Fernandez out due to soft tissue inflammation from his broken fingers and Luca Marini ill, we were set for an 18-bike race.
Credit to Simon Patterson of The Race for doing the tallying I was planning to do for my end-of-year review, but the difference is startling. Since the Sprint’s inclusion to the calendar in 2023, we’re now up to an average of 2.5 riders missing time per race due to injury or illness, a 150% increase on the 1-pe race we averaged over the previous decade. It’s the Sprints people, that’s where we need to be channeling our frustrations, not whether Marc Marquez droves a fucking go-kart or not.
Winning a MotoGP World Championship should be a game of who the best rider is, not a AI-vibe coded regen of The Oregon Trail. *dies of Dysentery*
An Unfair Goodbye
And well, we all probably know the score by now. Massive storm overnight caused a boatload of rain, and when the sun came up, we were surrounded by low level cloud cover across Melbourne. In those conditions, you can’t fly the medical helicopter. And with no hospital within a half an hour drive, if the medical helicopter can’t fly, we can’t race. It’s as simple as that.
The conditions never improved, the sport understandably prioritised getting a race off, and at 5am UK time, the entire day’s racing was called. It’s such a shitty send-off for the greatest track in MotoGP history to go out on a whimper, but that’s also the cruel nature of Phillip Island in general. It’s a harsh and unforgiving micro-climate that can and will go against you sometimes.
For those understandably peeved about the potential of a 2023 Saturday switch for the Grand Prix and the Sprint, according to Crash and MotoGP, Saturday’s forecasts didn’t predict Sunday’s visibility problems. The track itself still seemed raceable, it was the clouds that were the problem. In an ideal world, this race would be in April and we’d never have these issues. But that would bring it too close to the F1 race at Albert Park. Can’t have that!
I’m glad if nothing else, we got a rider’s parade to say goodbye, and Jack Miller got to bring out his Australian-livery Pramac. A nice, touching moment for the fans who stuck it out. Miller’s been a wonderful ambassador for MotoGP, the paddock, and good old-fashioned Aussie grit. The sport won’t be quite as fun or bright without him.
The Lightning Round
…Mind you, it says a lot about how little people care about World Superbikes now that Jack Miller will be back at Phillip Island again in less than four months’ time. *sigh*
I do wonder if Jorge Martin’s new found aggression on that Aprilia during the Sprint Race was down to Marquez’s mind games and saying: “If you’re fast, you don’t need team orders” on Thursday. Just sayin’.
And can Aprilia even afford to give Bez a team order? 50 points is not insurmountable with four weekends left and the knowledge that he was very strong down the stretch at the end of 2025. Aprilia is running out of options and fast as Marquez is bullying them into errors left and right.
And another one for the more cynical minded – Saying it’s an undeserved Marquez title because of Martin’s injury when the former came from over 100 points back, having missed time himself, is nonsense. It’s understandable to be frustrated over Martin’s injury, but lashing out at Marc isn’t going to fix that feeling.
PS: Alex Marquez was never really close enough to Marc in the Sprint to think about a realistic pass. These bikes mean you have to take hellacious risk in order to pass safely, and when your brother is in a Championship fight and you’re not, blood is thicker than sassy tweets. And if you don’t believe me, ask Marco Bezzecchi why he couldn’t pass Diggia down the stretch either.
The Verdict: N/A – Well, we didn’t get a race in the end. The Sprint would be an easy 4.5 stars if I still bothered scoring them, it was a final treat from the sport’s greatest track, but sadly, that same track bit back on Sunday. It’s a magical, special circuit that the sport really should consider eating the losses on and just running anyway as a marketing tool for how good MotoGP can be at its best. But instead Melbourne is going to focus on F1 and Tennis, and we’re going to butcher Adelaide instead. Wonderful. Thank you Phillip Island. It’s been a privilege to race with you.
