Silverstone is coming…which means rain, overweight spectators and, best of all, an abundance of homegrown British riders in the MotoGP. But how come?
Top Done
Revved up rider Maverick Vinales has officially been booted out of Yamaha as we exclusively guessed last week. The criticism for the Spaniard’s action hit the limiter in Hamamatsu when videos of Mav trying break his engine appeared on social media.
Initially Vinales was given a one-race suspended ban but after a formal review, mainly taking into account how much they detest his father, Yamaha decided to ‘mutually’ part ways with their bipolar rider.
This means a factory Yamaha bike is now free…
Crutches promoted
Cal Crutchlow has only been back two races but already he’s found his form and picked up exactly where he left off – complaining about stuff. Sadly so far on track Cal’s been rusty in several ways – but hopefully the patina on his metallic subframe will be buffed out in time for the race at Silverstone.
Given he already has had two races’ worth of knowledge on the Yamaha, and Garrett Gerloff isn’t available, Cal was the obvious choice to move onto Vinales’ bike.
This means an SRT Class-B Yamaha bike is now free…
Dix-in too
MotoGP owners Dorna are keen to promote English riders to ensure viewing figures. They have long known that Crutchlow was not an ideal choice given that no one really likes him much and that his titanium skeleton means he’s now medically 64% Taiwanese.
To step into Cal’s gravel-packed boots Dorna have advised SRT Yamaha that they should promote an English rider – and who better than Moto2 starlet Jake Dixon?
Dixon burst on to the MotoGP scene in 2017 finishing in a lofty 45th place in the standings – but it was his 2020 campaign that really set tongues wagging sideways. Jake’s most stellar season saw the Englishman push Enea Bastianini to the very end of the season finishing a nail-bitingly close 18th in the championship a mere 151 points off rightfully snatching the crown.
These kind of results are clearly what SRT Yamaha have been told by Dorna they are looking for…but have they overlooked someone…
Brad-nay Smith unfortunately
Top of our list of riders we’d love to see return is of course ex-Communard vocalist Bradley Smith. It’s seems a bizarre choice that SRT have chosen to pluck an average rider out of their Moto2 squad when they already have a rider with a far more average record free and available -in fact Smith’s GP resume is so dull it’s written on cardboard.
If Bradley was a drink he’d be tap-water – and it’s that kind of solid rider we believe should be in the team…
We have no idea how to end articles these days so let’s just whack another poll in: