End of a difficult season

Some thoughts on the 2021 annual statements

At first glance, it was an exciting season with many surprises, which the fans of MotoGP and WorldSBK were able to experience. Because FIM and Dorna had learned nothing from the first year of the pandemic, it began with many unplanned changes in the second. In the Grand Prix Sport, even the completely absurd January test in Sepang (Malaysia) fell through completely. While we had already complained about this in December 2020, the majority of all sports websites still claimed, until shortly before the cancellation, that these days were very important for the riders and teams. For the rookies this was a clear disadvantage and a man eagerly awaited by many fans did not appear even in Losail afterwards. Instead of Marc Marquez, HRC test driver Stefan Bradl drove the Repsol Honda again, and the Bavarian did a good job. Under the circumstances, Honda’s newcomer Pol Espargaró did too, but many scribes in particular refused to admit this. At the latest, in the second race in Misano, the Catalan sun boy proved all the lies and took a sensationally strong second place for HRC.

Quartararo – a worthy new MotoGP world champion

While Marc Marquez’s return was nowhere near what the Spaniard had promised his fans before the forced break, which was far too long, 2021 was the French season. Right from the start, Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo were at the forefront. On the alleged Ducati circuit of Losail, the Monster Energy Yamaha riders won with Maverick Viñales and the man from Nice. With Repsol Honda’s ace Marquez’s well-noticed comeback, Quartararo rode up and away from the rest of the field in Portugal. With his victory, he took over the championship lead from Ducati Hope Johann Zarco. Despite much praise from the advance, Jack Miller, who initially stumbled, had a strong phase in the Ducati factory team, but then mistakes came again. Actually, as we expected before the start of the season, the Australian ultimately lacked consistency over the course of the season. His team-mate Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia did a much better job of this, but in order to compete in the title fight until the very end, the fast Italian also lacked the necessary reliability. It was Marc Marquez, of all people, who drove the local hero into ruin in the second Misano race when he was able to put him under constant pressure. In the end, the triumph for Quartararo and Monster Energy Yamaha was absolutely deserved and with just one retirement, Fabio is a more than worthy new world champion.

Jonathan Rea with Kawasaki as a role model for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes

While the Northern Irishman and his team endured the loss of the seventh World Cup title in a row with dignity, Formula 1 saw a completely different picture. Despite the fact that the Greens were fooled by the FIM a few days before the start of the season, they tried to give their best race after race together with Rea. While BMW was granted a significantly higher maximum speed for the new M 1000RR compared to the previous model, as expected, the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninja was formally castrated by the highest motorsport authority. No neutral observer could understand this wrong sporting decision, but no complaints were heard from Kawasaki. The Japanese, like their two top riders, are a model of sportiness, and they will fight like lions to recapture the world championship next year. On the other hand, Hamilton and Mercedes shamefully damaged their public image with their unsporting behaviour after the defeat. After all, with Max Verstappen and his team Red Bull Honda, a team won the title that it really deserves. After the debacle of Red Bull KTM in the second year of the pandemic in MotoGP, this was a consolation of very high value for one of the biggest sponsors of motorsport in recent decades.

The problem of the first WorldSBK title for Turkey

Unfortunately, Toprak Razgatlioglu could not compete in his home country on his Yamaha R1 this season either. But at least he gave the lie to many critics who did not believe him to have a constant season. Nevertheless, for many, his first world title for Yamaha is a dark shadow. In view of the young deaths in the junior series of MotoGP and WorldSBK, his driving style, often described as very inconsiderate by competitors such as Scott Redding and six-time world champion Johnny Rea, is considered highly problematic. Not entirely by chance, Deniz Öncü in Texas received an exemplary high penalty from the FIM for his risky driving maneuver. The young Turk naturally sees Toprak as a great role model, and that is why he emulates the Yamaha ace and copies its rude attacks regardless of losses. At least until the US GP, and hopefully the fast young man will turn his head on a little earlier in the future and thus prevent further dramas, as there were too many to complain about in 2021. At Razgatlioglu, the future will show whether he will find his senses, in any case no one has doubts his speed for a long time.

The year 2022 – quo vadis?

Since the introduction of the track limits, it has been clear to us that in the future we will forego such comprehensive reporting as in the past two years. If some drivers are penalized during or after the race, while the FIM stewards let others get away with their “wrongdoing”, the sport stops with us. Not only does this seem to us as if it was intentionally trying to manipulate the list of results from world championships. The “castration” of the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR Ninja, in particular, supports such theses. Thus, a few days before the start of the season, the Greens were robbed of all the knowledge of their previous tests because they could not expect such a drastic reduction in speed. The best driver of all time took more risks than ever, and we know the rest of the story. He crashed far too often, and now it’s up to Jonathan Rea to come back strong and achieve with his team what Joan Mir will try on the Suzuki in MotoGP.

The future is clear to us – with many reviews of the history of racing
We have at least already decided to take current events into account only with sporadic articles. We particularly focus on looking back at historical events. After a creative break, there will be articles on pilots such as Ewald Kluge on our site. From a time when motorcycle racing was still a sport and helping colleagues in the paddock was still a matter of course for competitors. Like Jack Miller lending one of his best tires to Pol Espargaró today, if Pol Espargaró had already worn out his set of usable rubbers. Completely unthinkable? Correct, but not back then, and we should never forget the circumstances under which the athletes and their fans lived back then.

On the subject of Covid – democracies are not capable of pandemics

Let us hereby also publish a few thoughts on the subject of Covid. A problem that would not actually be a problem if everyone acted responsibly. Certainly, some of our opinion on the topic will offend one or the other reader. But it is meant honestly, and we also wish that this annoying topic, in addition to our everyday life, will not overshadow sport for too long.

Lies about lies – which is why politicians are more untrustworthy than almost never before
Anyone who voluntarily had themselves vaccinated in the past few months probably couldn’t believe their eyes when reading various articles on the subject of Covid. Regardless of their motives, an infinite number of people have to feel taken aback by now. Originally, there was talk of a good year or even more with regard to the protective effect of vaccinations. Lately there have been numerous idiots, regardless of their provenance (whether they are alleged experts or politicians), who speak publicly of a few months after which a re-vaccination would be required. But it is currently not at all clear which vaccine we are talking about. Above all, there is currently still a sufficient number of examinations regarding, for example, the Omikron variant for trustworthy assessments. In this context, we also remember the statement made by the former Austrian Chancellor Kurz, known as “Shorty”. In the spring, this involuntary prankster was seriously claiming that his country would have survived the Covid pandemic in May. But in the meantime, his compatriots have at least survived him, but unfortunately the number of deaths continued to rise sharply.

Which is definitely clear
Unfortunately, it is now clear that numbers on the pandemic have been falsified far too often. In addition to the lies about the supposed effectiveness of the vaccines (above all, they do not help against an infection, as falsely even claimed by the Swiss authorities), it is now at least clear that statements by supposed experts and politicians cannot be trusted in principle. At least today, it is clear that the rapid spread is not possible without drastically restricting the freedom to travel and closing schools. One should not forget that the Delta variant had its origin in India, which dominated the pandemic before the omicron mutant. As soon as the majority of voters were vaccinated, the “unvaccinated” were identified as scapegoats. This is strange because there are millions and millions of children and adults who are not allowed to be vaccinated for medical reasons. Countless politicians have at least shown that they do not care about the minority of their voters. Their primary concern is power and their re-election, while the well-being of the population is secondary. A sign of poverty for practically all democracies in the world, even dictatorships could hardly be better off.

The press world – not a bit better than politicians
The duplicity of print and internet media can best be recognized by the fact that on the one hand they pretend to be affected by the pandemic and on the other hand they publish information about travel options for holiday destinations. Often enough, one even gets the impression that most of their journalists are paid directly by the governments for the uncritical dissemination of their pandemic nonsense. There is hardly a journalist who denounces the many lies that politicians and authorities have already exposed. On the contrary, in the style of Nazi Germany and the GDR at the time, many were involved in denigrating minorities and spreading untruthful untruths.

Vaccination status versus infection numbers – a small example
At the beginning of November 2021, the city-state of Singapore had a vaccination rate of almost 92 percent for its 10 million inhabitants. Nevertheless, the so-called 7-day incidence was around 250, how can this be? Almost all politicians and even experts had promised that with a sufficiently high vaccination rate, the pandemic would be under control. But the example of the small Asian country and Portugal with a similarly high rate prove that this was a mistake. One can confidently speak of a lie, just one of many. In principle, a functioning economy is far more important in our world than a few hundred thousand dead. Such is the sad reality. Many journalists only recently publicly claimed that Denmark had overcome the pandemic. These idiots go unpunished, as do all politicians who are responsible for the well-being and health of millions of their compatriots. Unfortunately, far too many have failed, and now they are trying to blame “the unvaccinated”. This is not only embarrassing, it is utterly reprehensible and simply abhorrent. Careless vaccinated people are just as responsible for the spread of the pandemic as the black sheep of today’s society. With this in mind, cheers for the New Year and stay healthy, dear readers!

Two things to think about at the end of a difficult season

EU: The so-called e-car connection in buildings is to become mandatory in the future, but the resources for it will run out in about 12 years.
Terrible restrictions from Covid? A few generations ago people grew up in ruins and with next to nothing. From 1939 to the beginning of the 1950s, there were almost no vacation trips for anyone!