I’m not a Spanish speaker and I’m using whatever translation tools are available to me but the gist of it is that Acosta was not pleased with Diggia looking back at him after the final corner overtake to take 4th place, and considers it disrespectful.
I wonder if there is still a bit of needle between them after Acosta’s VR46 jokes last year.
After his crash and subsequent diagnosis, Marc Márquez will miss the next two races at a minimum but with multiple surgeries planned (the foot fracture and screw in his shoulder), he could be potentially miss more time throughout the season, especially if he takes time off to properly recover as his title chances don’t look particularly fruitful at this time.
Another scenario is that he decides that’s enough and retires after years of injuries and pain, which leads me to this question, what does a Marc Márquez-less future look like for MotoGP and is it able to withstand his loss?
When I say ‘withstand his loss’, I don’t believe that MotoGP would fold or anything to that degree but Dorna and MotoGP have done a poor job marketing at MotoGP to the masses outside of Marc Márquez. They had the same issue with Valentino Rossi who dragged the sport kicking and screaming into more mainstream cultural relevance in the early 2000’s and were fortunate that another rider could fill the void that he would leave (even if he arguably held on too long).
MotoGP have been similarly reliant on Márquez, after the collision with Bezzechi in Mandalika last year, a large amount of social media posts/commentary/general airtime were about Marc. He’s earned that right through his performances but it’s become a crutch for MotoGP, they are seemingly unable to tell a story without including Marc, if he misses a significant chunk of time, a lot of the broadcast will be about Marc, whereas he should be able to recover and rebuild himself without media coverage and speculation (on either his recovery or his future).
There is hope that Liberty Media could bring more eyes onto MotoGP and create stars out of other riders the same way they have done in F1 with Drive to Survive and improved accessibility to highlights/replays.
F1 didn’t have readily available highlights until 2017 (because Bernie Ecclestone is a fossil who doesn’t understand social media) and MotoGP is still poor at uploading highlights/replays, they don’t post the actual highlights until the end of the year and the highlights they do post are called ‘Top 3 moments of [blank]’, which makes it harder for casual and new fans to find, watch, and become invested in the sport.
If Márquez was to retire at either the end of this year or next year, what do you think it would look like for MotoGP, and who would potentially be able to fill that void?
These are the four most recent drivers to have taken a title fight to a decider and not become champion in their careers. There have been many other drivers who took a title fight to a decider and lost before becoming a champion so Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg (to name a few) don’t count here.
Piastri still has a chance to become champion as he is an active driver but the last driver to be involved in a title decider and not win a championship before Irvine was René Arnoux in 1983 and that seemed a bit too far back for a comparison.
I think Irvine is a clear last but it’s in interesting debate for the other three, I would probably put Piastri top.