I remember having this debate with my mate in the pub, unbiased of course
I was saying that I thought MotoGP riders have more skill than F1 drivers.
Simply because the bikes are harder to control, there is less grip per horsepower and the riders weight placement is more critical.
He told me I was a twat for even suggesting this and the debate got quite heated after a few beers,
I still stand my ground, especially as Rossi is now picking off some serious times both in Rally and F1 cars
Anyone care to cast their unbiased opinion, so I can print this off and take it to the pub
My ultimate arguement is that to go as fast as possible, all you are actually doing is constantly battling with the limit of grip your tyres can maintain, if you constantly at the limit then you’re the winner Seeing as bikes have a credit card sized contact patch and cars is more like a sheet of A4 the bike riders are the best!
yeh the whole ‘strapped in’ thing is a good point, a rider is trying to hang on with the very hand that is controlling the throttle, I knew I was right
Oh and drivers have a little straw for supping away on banana milkshakes whilst they drive, do riders have this luxury?
I think riders can have fluids in the hump of the leathers to sip…just thought of something else. When the F1 driver gets bored in a race he can switch the radio on and have a chat with his pit crew who will then tell him what to do…
Of course the other way is to put some F! drivers on Rossi’s GP bike and see what lap times they get!
I think it boils down to how much bottle you have too. Its a lot easier to have confidence in a car and push a car to its limits bikes pay a much higher price for getting things wrong!
There’s no scheduled pit stops in motogp, hence no race strategy involving fuel to weight ratio, tyres. motogp is mostly all down to the one man and its machine once he is on track, formula1 have the pit constantly tweeking their cars by radio controlled wizardry.
but…
there is only one Rossi and only one Raikkonen and i take my hat to both for their skills.
Raikkonen and all his F1 mates are a bunch of shandy drinking, Monaco living, private jet owning lightweights!!!
There is no jeopardy in F1. They can crash into a concrete wall at 200mph and walk away, hardly the same as Moto GP, or any bike racing for that matter where even the smallest crash can leave you with broken bones at the least.
When was the last time a F1 driver competed with a broken collar bone or leg. Micheal Rutter, Ruben Xaus, James Ellison are just a tiny number of the riders that have.
Motorcycle racers are heros. From people like Chuffster giving their all in club racing, to James Toseland getting it full lock sideways in superpole on saturday.
There is no excitement in F1, no risk and far less skill.
Like I said - a bunch of lighweights the lot of them.
They need to do something with F1, otherwise they may as well just make the things radio controlled. Way too much electronic gizmo’s on them now and its ruined the whole spectacle of close racing. Even the drivers admit that its virtually impossible to overtake now and you have to time the pit stop just right.
I know there are electronics heavily involved in the top level bikes now, but getting all that horsepower down through a contact patch the size of a 2p is not going to be easy. Interesting to find out that Honda are refusing Traction Control on Toselands bike. He was spinning for the world in the last WSB round.
As for me, I still reckon club racing is where you really need to look. They don’t have all the flash stuff the top boys have.
I like the sound and sheer power of F1, but it’s boring, as Johnny says, MotoGP is much more of a real racers sport! I was going to say much more of a mans sport, but that’s a bit sexist really, especially considering Foxy loves to watch the racing as much as me!
