Motorsport101

A special occasion for MotoGP as Le Mans came down with a record weekend attendance of 278,000 to witness the 1,000th MotoGP race. And with it, we saw another dominant weekend from the VR46 Academy's own, Marco Bezzecchi, who survived the chaos around him as Championship Leader Francesco Bagnaia crashed into the Aprilia of Maverick Vinales, and teammate Luca Marini and Alex Marquez collided at the Dunlop Chicane. Through it all, he dominated and we ask... "Why Not Bez?" We also talk deeply on the return of Marc Marquez, and once again, the man is box office. He almost sent his new Kalex chassis to the moon in practise, but it survived, he qualified 2nd, finished 5th in the Sprint and then was challenging Jorge Martin for second until an unfortunate crash with just a lap and a half to go split the room on the man's approach. Has he got it right? Is Kalex giving the Honda camp hope? And we also talk some of our favourite MotoGP Memories as the sport celebrates 1,000 GP's. All that and more on Imola's F1 Cance

CONTENT WARNING: The following Podcast contains transphobic rhetoric you may find upsetting. If you don't want to listen to that segment, we recommend stopping after the segment about the Driver Intros around the 50 minute mark. Thanks for listening. An extended edition of the M101 Podcast this week with the travelling circus heading to Miami. Within it, a deflating race if you're a fan of the Mexican side of the Red Bull garage as Sergio Perez got a gift to start from pole in a red-flag affected Q3, with teammate Max Verstappen starting P9. In a tyre-saving race, Perez's speciality, he was out-classed by Max, eventually finished 2nd as Max went the long way round at Turn 1. Is this the first big counter-shot of the 2023 title race? We also got a lot of blowback and vitriol over the Drivers getting intros in a return of the 2018 Michael Buffer one-off. Was this the sport missing our mark, a clash of European sensibility vs American pagentry, or have we all gone a little bit mad? And finally, there's an em

Hey gang, sorry this came up a bit late, lot of juggling to get through, but we had to get this one out about IndyCar at Barber and the intense Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin fight! We genuinely thought that this was finally going to be the race that Grosjean put it altogether and take that elusive first IndyCar win... only for a failure of his Push-To-Pass system when he had 100 seconds of extra power still to use, cost him dearly. Running wide at the Spider's Web hairpin sealed his fate as Scott McLaughlin would take the win and get himself back in the title picture. Is that first win ever going to happen for Romain? And is he a big Month of May away from being a genuine title contender? We break it all down on M101 Episode 439! We also start discussing Marshall Pruett's first big silly season update, with a huge amount of rumours centred around the 10 seat at Chip Ganassi Racing with Alex Palou heading to McLaren, the series worst kept secret. But it might not be a straight up replacement for Felix

Well, well, well... nice quiet round in Spain wasn't it? It's a shame that the best MotoGP race of 2023 so far was marred by controversy, but we have to mention first that brilliant fight for the win between Francesco Bagnaia and Brad Binder, that went all the way to the final corner, with Bagania keeping it upright and taking home another GP win, in what would also be KTM's best ever weekend in MotoGP! Including the Sprint, 4 bikes on the podium and a wonderful comeback from Dani Pedrosa, who wildcard'd to a hero's welcome! But we also had stewarding rear it's head again. Four separate incidents that left bitter tastes in the mouths of fans, two long lap penalties for Lap 1 incidents, and position drop calls and non-calls over Bagnaia and Jack Miller. We try to break down the colossal mess the sports stewarding is in and wonder... is Freddie Spencer ruining everything? The answer may surprise you! Plus, news dropped last week that the FIM are implementing a Women's World Championship for 2024. We break do

Baku stunk. I know it, you know it. It wasn't a good time for anyone involved. So we largely decided to ignore it and took about everything else bar the result itself! We talk in-depth about the Sprint Shootout, the changes from the F1 commission designed to improve the format and get more aggression out of the teams. Did it work? Well, yes and no. We breakdown in detail why it won't solve the problems the sport are currently in. We talk about George Russell and Max Verstappen's incidents in the Sprint, with the World Champion getting a hole punched in his sidepod. It seems people were more enamoured with Max's reputation for hard racing than the incident itself, we break all of that down! And arguably the most dialogue of the weekend was on the F1 Academy. It had its first weekend of the year at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, and while there was a crew and highlights shown, there'd be no live coverage. Dre breaks down a little bit behind the scenes as to what led to this and whether we think this was th

It was a good weekend to have a Jaguar powertrain as Envision and Jaguar both split wins as Formula E returned to Tempelhof Airport in Berlin! Mitch Evans led a Jaguar 1-2 finish (Their first ever) in Race 1, with Nick Cassidy taking Race 2 by the scruff of the neck in Race 2, in two fantastic races, with record-breaking numbers. 362 overtakes across the weekend, with 9 different leaders and 22 lead changes across that first Race! And that doesn't include ABT Cupra somehow locking out the front row in Race 2 in a soaking wet qualifying session, or Nick Cassidy getting into a bizarre beef with his own teammate, Sebastien Buemi. AND we had an environmental protest too! And Dre kinda flips out at the lack of emapthy in the whole ordeal! All that and more on a loaded Formula E edition of Motorsport101

We tried to tell you that Kyle Kirkwood was special. And proven right we were... In this episode of Motorsport101, we also feature a special guest, Ruby Acosta, Sim Racer for Queens Design eSports and an important ambassador for the LGBT+ community. As we've always said on this network, this show is made by all walks of life, FOR all walks of life, and we want to platform those beyond our usual scope. There's an extended interview with Ruby that goes into detail about her sim racing background and the direction the sport is going in. She was also at Long Beach this weekend and got to see Kyle Kirkwood take his first IndyCar series win, as well as an intense fight between himself and Romain Grosjean as Andretti Autosport had their best weekend in the series in nearly three years after finishing 1--2 and 4. We also discuss the collision between Pato O'Ward and Scott Dixon, with the Mexican refusing to apologise in what many were split on as to whether it was a racing incident or something more cynical. All t

We start the podcast with a sombre tribute to the tragic passing of Craig Breen, who died in a rallying accent last week. He was a wonderful ambassador to the sport, and to Irish representation in global sport in general, and he'll be sadly, sadly missed. In our MotoGP Episode, we talk about Alex Rins, who had a near perfect weekend, with a 2nd place in the Sprint, and a win in the GP itself after taking advantage of another huge Francesco Bagnaia crash, his 7th DNF since the start of last season. Dre, Cam and RJ breakdown the brilliance of Rins performance as well as another crash where we question the discipline of the reigning World Champion. Just how big a problem is this?! We also breakdown a lot of short stories to come out of the weekend - Such as Jack Miller crashing SIX times in a single race weekend. Why 10 riders crashed on race day, a brilliant Moto2 showdown between Pedro Acosta and Tony Arbolino, and why the hell the sport are hiring transphobes to sing the national anthem. All that and more

IndyCar is back on the dockett for Round 2 of the series in Texas, and we got a genuine all-time classic for the PPG 375. No seriously, Texas came through for the first time since... 2016?! Josef Newgarden and Pato O'Ward led nearly 90% of the racing laps as they went back and forth relentlessly, with overtakes, two wide running, and even Pato trying to lap the field at one point. And at the end, we have an intense decider as Alex Palou on older tyres got in the mix, as did David Malukas and Romain Grosjean, even if the latter ended the race with 2 laps to go after hitting the wall! But despite one of the series best races in years, we still left Texas with a sad feeling in our stomachs as it was revealed that Pato comped hundreds of tickets for essentially his home race, the TV ratings were down a good 10% and general bad vibes were around the series, as it struggles to look for genuine growth. Dre, RJ and Cam got into a pretty heated discussion about the future of the series! It's a wild edition of Motor

"Francesco Bagnaia... Why are you the way that you are?" - Cam Buckley Welcome back to MotoGP, and we have a brand new winner as the calendar returned to Argentina as the VR46 Academy scores its first ever MotoGP win at the hands of totally not a Marco Simoncelli lookalike, Marco Bezzecchi! He was brilliant in a dominant display in heavy wet conditions as he smacked around Johann Zarco and new polesitter Alex Marquez! We also had another brilliant sprint race as Brad Binder went from 15th to 1st on Saturday afternoon (Again in wet conditions), as he hugged the inside line beautifully to eventual victory. Has the South African become a Saturday man at last? And with Joan Mir suffering a severe concussion, is the Sprint having a nastier downside still? Also, Francesco Bagnaia binned it again, seemingly pushing too much in the rain and crashing it in the rain, his 6th in the last 22 weekends. How long can he keep getting away with making basic errors? All that and a roundup of the junior series racing, on a

Just what Formula 1 needed after two drab, predictable offerings... a complete shitshow of an orchestrated finish! The record books will show that Max Verstappen took his 2nd race of the season in dominant fashion! The reality is how we got there was a record breaking, wild affair - The first F1 race in history, to have three red flags in it, with their very status as a tool brought into question, as Kevin Magnussen's incident looked like a Safety Car at most. With it, we got a triple crash on the standing restart with 2 laps left, leading to Carlos Sainz going from 4th to 12th, Sargeant getting away with punting Nyck De Vries, and Pierre Gasly (On 10 penalty points), pinning Esteban Ocon against the wall. All makes sense. All for that to Max Verstappen to win under a Safety Car finish, only the 11th time since 1993 that's ever happened. Is F1 risking its sporting integrity by trying to solve a problem it doesn't have in regards to entertainment value? We get into a big debate about that one here. We als

An extra special edition of the Motorsport101 Podcast this week as Dre and RJ were joined by a special guest - Jens "Geinou" Sobotta, contributor to RacingBlog.De and Japanese Motorsport journalist that's commentated on all three Japanese Supers, GT, Formula and Taikyu! In this feature length special, both RJ and Jens cooks on Super Formula and Super GT's 2023 Seasons starting this weekend and next weekend respectively! In Super Formula, can Tomoki Nojiri make it a three-peat, or will he come under pressure from high-profile teammate Liam Lawson at Team Mugen? Will Kamui Kobayashi finally win a race? IS Naoki Yamamoto back in the mix? We also preview SuperGT with even more 450km races! Three different types of body, and sustainable fuels! Are Team Inpul favourites? Can Bertrand Baguette retain? And what can the NSX do in its swansong year? All that and more in a 101 minute special on Motorsport101!

We're not going to lie to you folks - This one's a little unhinged, even by our standards. We were tired, but having fun and a Formula E Race Review is somewhere in here, as well as a rare blooper of RJ O'Connell screaming in visceral horror. True story! But MITCCCCCCCCCH BRRRRRRRRRRRRAH is still alive and well as he took a narrow win in Formula E's debut in Brazil at the Sao Paolo street circuit. The podium was separated by just half a second as Nick Cassidy's 3rd podium in a row had him caught in a factory Jaguar sandwich. Sam Bird 3rd, and oddly, not going for the win despite a 2% battery advantage! We also talk the oddities of the track itself. Seemingly another step in the right direction for the series with a fast, almost roval layout but question marks about that weird extended chicane in the middle and the regen havoc it was causing. And we also answer a genuinely interesting question - Is Formula E the most exciting Motorsport series in the world right now? Here us out for a minute, for realsies!

Well... this was a lot. MotoGP's season opener was always going to be an anticipated affair, but this weekend was all over the place and it was pure unbridled chaos. We had a dodgy Portimao circuit that had Pol Espargaro clatter an unairfenced wall at speed as the gravel refused to slow him down. The result, a horror crash with a lung contusion, a broken mandible and a broken back. That was intense enough, but then title contender Enea Bastianini gets collected by Luca Marini in the sport's first ever sprint race. A great showcase of the sport at its most aggressive... but at what cost? Oh and then Marc Marquez takes all the headlines with a hellacious clatter of Miggy and Martin, injuring all three of them in the process. It's become the headline story as Marquez got a Double Long Lap Penalty that he might not even have to serve... We break it all down in an 80 minute season opening special. MotoGP is back. And it's wild.

Surprise! We got another bonus episode for you in the cooker! And with RJ O'Connell repping Daily Sportscar, we felt like it was only fitting to get a podcast special in with both Sebring Endurance races - The new WEC Season Opener; the 1000 Miles of Sebring (That never goes 1000 Miles), and IMSA's 12 Hours of Sebring! Ferrari snagged a pole in their WEC Debut! But Toyota came through to eventually dominate the proceedings. We talk their run, Ferrari's debut that didn't include "honsing", and how Peugeot completely shat the bed in their big league debut. Good lord, that was rough. We also talk IMSA's 12 Hours, that had Jack Aitken come through and steal one after we got a huge wreck with just 30 minutes left that had both Porsche's and Wayne Taylor Racing's #10 car wipe out in a ridiculous racing incident. And IndyCar's own Scott McLaughlin ended up on the overall podium! How was the racing? And should the series move away from Sebring as a whole with Indianapolis and COTA slated to join?! More on all of t

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, they really are this dominant and there is every chance Red Bull runs the table. F1 returned to Saudi Arabia and it was a beating by Sergio Perez after Max Verstappen had to settle for second... after coming back from 15th in order to do it. Call forth the realisations that this is going to be a two-man fight for the title and we're already trying to give Perez a shot at glory. But is it justified?! We also deal with Fernando Alonso, who got his 100th podium... then lost it... then got it back again due to the FIA, handshake agreements and a rule being under the microscope. And this time, it was what counts as work one a car when serving a 5-second time penalty. Is the FIA setting itself up for failure again with its new VAR-like Operations Centre? And wasn't Tsunoda and Magnussen for 10th place fun? Shame we might not even get that many fights for points given the lockout at the top of the table. Saudi Arabia Race Review on Motorsport101!

"Hey Gang - Dre here, editor and all that. Quick note - Yes, this is very late, almost a month so. We're really sorry about that. This had some technical issues that took a while to iron out, and on top of that, we got caught up in the start of F1 season, the surprise of actually getting Ryan Nanni as a guest and Season Previews for all of the big stuff. This won't happen again, and hey, with Formula E back this weekend in Sao Paolo, maybe this could be considered a cool throwback! Apologies again, and hope you enjoy the show anyway." Formula E got down for Round 5 in Cape Town and it produced an all-time classic as Antonio Felix Da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne, two of the series greats came together in a brilliant back and forth fight for the win, including Da Costa pulling off maybe the greatest pass in series history! ....And yet, Formula E found new ways of kicking its audience in the teeth. A huge suspension issue was discovered during the weekend that led to Seat Cupra and Mahindra withdrawing their car

It's the final episode of Season Preview Season here on Motorsport101, and with MotoGP back in Portimao to kick off their 2023 season on Sunday, Dre and Cam sit down for a feature-length deep dive on the state of the sport heading into the new year. Now, we're going to be honest here, things look a little bleak. Ducati are set to dominate with eight bikes, a GP23 that broke Portimao's lap record in testing, and and a super-team with Enea Bastianini joining from Gresini. Can anyone stop them? Especially when their 7th best rider in their ranks is... Alex Marquez? Honda gets featured heavily at the start, as they're throwing EVERYTHING at the wall to keep Marc Marquez happy, including brining in Suzuki's former head of development, and outsourcing an entire chassis to Moto2 kings Kalex. A last roll of the dice to keep the legend happy? What about Aprilia? ALL the aero onboard with Aleix Espargaro already going under the knife with a fibrosis diagnosis, and now a second team with RNF, Raul Fernandez and Migue

Welcome back to IndyCar 2023! And we already had a complete shitshow of a race to start of the season, where half a dozen cars didn't make the fourth corner. Welcome back to... chaos? IndyCar's back in St Petersburg, and the whole running was dominated by a massive incident at Turn 4 where Scott McLaughlin lost control of his car and clattered into Romain Grosjean in a key flashpoint in a battle for the win. McLaughlin apologised but it brought Dre out into the open with RJ and asked - Is this series actually bullying RoGro here? Or do the standards of driving suck in general? With Will Power shoving Colton Herta into the wall and multiple sloppy incidents... there may be something to that too! We also talk the silly logistics of the calendar as IndyCar decides to not race for a month after this one, and oh yeah... Marcus Ericsson won a race via fluky means again as Pato O'Ward suffering a plenum fire with just three laps to go! Can he EVER win one normally?! AND a bonus segment! We recorded this the same

Okay, toss the scripts out of the window on this one! With an incredible coup, RJ only went and got us Ryan Nanni! Host of the Shutdown Fullcast of College Football fame, and someone you may have also seen as an alumni of Secret Base, the incredible video wing of SB Nation! We talk to Ryan, an F1 novice about the first race of the season, and Red Bull completely tearing the field a new asshole, a race of complete and utter dominance. The return of Magic Alonso as Aston Martin might actually be good, with Fernando 3rd and an injured Lance Stroll 6th! We talk Ferrari, who have been honsing right from the start this year, with Charles Leclerc's engine stopping from 3rd, and rumours swirling that is was a mechanical human error that might have both of their energy stores dead already. BEFORE A WHEEL WAS TURNED. And Mercedes, who are just slow. When was the last time Lewis Hamilton finished 50 seconds behind the winner with no shenanigans?! All that, and Esteban Ocon's hat-trick of penalties in a very, very sp