An unwritten rule states that a teammate is a driver’s first opponent. The reason is simple: if you have the same vehicle and are in the same structure, there is no excuse for receiving a paycheck. However, in the case of an official team, beating the driver on the other side of the garage means being the leader of the company, number one on the team.
After the first three races, the balance of power in the various teams takes shape, but not always with predictable results.
In a way, Suzuki seems to be the one with the clearest hierarchies with its world champion. But it was also true that Rins had a difficult start to the season last year due to an injury and that many consider Alex a more talented driver than Mir. Since there is no test to scientifically measure talent, you have to rely on results. These state that Joan already has a podium and thirty-eight points on the leaderboard, while Rins has twenty-three and a zero.
Alex is a very quick rider but still too prone to errors and Portimão only confirmed this with a crash when he was in second place. The opposite of Joan, who makes constancy one of his strengths, which allowed him to win the title a year ago. Last Sunday, the world champion did not shy away from his team-mate: “Sometimes you have to do what the motorcycle allows. Maybe Alex has exceeded the limit. ” While Mir polishes his number one, Rins thinks about the mistakes he’s made.
In Ducati the situation was more fluid. According to many, they should have sided with Miller, who instead disappointed them. After all, the Australian rider was the most experienced rider in MotoGP, but the move to the factory team seems to have done him more harm than good, at least for now. in contrast to Bagnaia, who seems to be even more concentrated and stronger in the team colors.
For Pecco, however, the challenge wasn’t just with his garage colleague, but also with Zarco who had achieved two second places with the Ducati Pramac in Qatar and the lead in the world championship before Portimão, where he threw everything away, or rather, in the gravel, exactly when the driver from Piedmont showed what he was made of: a record pole ( like in Losail) was canceled because of a yellow flag, a comeback as a driver as quickly as it was stressful and a second place in the ranking with six points more than Johann.
What about Miller? The ranking says it all: fourteen points that put him behind the rookies Bastianini and Martin (The latter with one race less). But the Australian rider has some extenuating circumstances considering the compartment syndrome constrained him in Qatar, but the Portuguese GP mistake was simply inappropriate as it had been in the past.
Finally, we have to talk about Yamaha. The works team won the first three races, once with Vinales and two with Quartararo. Both were checked for consistency and if the French driver passed with flying colors, the Spanish driver fell back into the usual abyss. Maverick is very quick, but the problem is that he doesn’t do things by halves: he wins or he fails. He was perfect in the first Losail race, then disappeared in a wobble of his recent results.
So Fabio has now become a reference point at the pits and seems to have learned above all from his mistakes. He found that he turned to a psychologist over the winter and feels calmer now than he did a year ago when he took command of the world championship after two races. A lesson Vinales was also to learn when he spent the winter extolling the climate in the garage only to stumble upon his first difficulty.
After all, only three races were archived. Too few to achieve an indisputable result, but the three on the podium already know who is responsible in the garage.