The double trip to Austria was not only bittersweet for Ducati, but above all for Yamaha. who maintained their leadership at the top of the World Cup Fabio Quartararo but also ran It was the toughest weekend since 1988 when Eddie Lawson left the team after his third title to win with Honda.
Relations with Maverick Vinales deteriorated so much that the Iwata maker was forced to suspend him. accuses him of deliberately trying to break the engine of his M1 at the Styrian GP.
In addition, Petronas announced that the team that bears his name will be giving up at the end of the year as the team desperately looked for two drivers to replace Franco Morbidelli and Valentino Rossi.
A total disaster, then … something Lin Jarvis might not have expected.
In a short informal conversation with the Yamaha boss in the paddock, Jarvis told us he had no responsibility: He wasn’t really interested in the relationship between the SRT team and Petronas, while everyone knows that Maverick is a very difficult driver to handle …
However, the fact is that the Iwata manufacturer is now almost at the end of August without the certainty of having a satellite team at the 2020 levelwhen it won 6 Grands Prix with Morbidelli and Quartararo and ended the season with the Italian as vice world champion.
At the end of the year, the team will likely move from the Sepang circuit to the leading duo Razlan Razali and Johann Stigefelt.
All of that during There is no talent in the market who can handle a MotoGP bike not only with every tangible opportunity to do good, but also with the knowledge of how to deal with it.
Jake Gagne at the Losail Superbike 2017 with the Ten Kate Honda
The names that are being swirled around right now are those of the younger of the Binder brothers, Darryn, who would make the jump straight out of Moto3 and test the M1 for the first time in Brno. His teammate is expected to be the British driver Jake Dixon, 11th in Moto2 last Sunday and 19th in the World Championship with only 21 points.
The risk, of course, is to burn out both of them, but after i tried Garrett Gerloff twice from Superbike and received the rejection of Toprak Razgatlioglu, Yamaha does not know at this point in which direction to turn and which saint to choose … until someone realized that there was another Yamaha rider who not only did well but also dominated another championship: MotoAmerica.
We’re talking about Jake Gagne last Sunday in Pittsburgh took his 13th win in a row on an R1.
and Gagne is not entirely unfamiliar with life in Europe.
Jake actually attended Spanish Moto2 Championship in the Red Bull AMA Rookies Cup and won the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup in 2010. He was AMA Pro Daytona sport bike Master 2014, MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Champion 2015 and participated in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship from 2016 to 2017.
In the 2017 season he was called up by Ten Kate Racing as substitute driver, at the Laguna Seca run in July, after the death of Nicky Hayden in May, and twice during the season to replace the injured Stefan Bradl at Magny-Cours and Losail.
In December 2017, he signed to attend the Superbike World Championship 2018 on board a Honda Fireblade SP2 for Ten Kate Racing as Leon camier ‘s teammate.
After the 2018 World Superbike season, Gagne returned to the North American series of the Superbike Championship aboard a disc of BMW before moving to the Yamaha where he currently dominates.
Could he be the right man to make a MotoGP debut? Difficult to say because Jake doesn’t have age on his side in his determination to focus on the little ones he will be 28 years old on August 27th. But that’s not all: He’s making good money in the States without having to drive too far from home, and the Ramona, California driver may be thinking of staying home.
However, Dixon is not three years younger and only has one passport by his side, which is now rare in MotoGP after Cal Crutchlow’s departure.
In a little over a week, MotoGP will be arriving at the Silverstone circuit, and perhaps some parts of this complicated situation will begin …