What was this 2023 season worth? For six days, “Parlons MotoGP” takes stock of the year. Having studied what did not work, let us now focus on the good students, and, more generally, on everything that worked this year. With, each time, three points per episode. Find the previous section by clicking here. Are you ready ? Let's go !
The Marseillaise, finally!
Even though at the time, I had reservations about reading about his victory at Phillip Island, Johann Zarco has, once again, had a very good season. There is no doubt about it. It's true, he dropped his pace again towards the end but finished on two very good notes: The Australian Grand Prix with his first victory in the premier category, and Valencia, a deserved second place following the downgrading of Fabio Di Giannantonio.
The Frenchman, always discreet, hardworking, and solid, knew how to take advantage of great opportunities and above all, did not waste his “match point” in Australia. Previously, we could legitimately blame him for this killer instinct, this feeling that differentiates the good from the very great. But ultimately, he broke away from this image of eternal second by seizing his chance. We can always discuss the way, but the result is definitely there.
Johann Zarco is finally the winner of a motorcycle GP, eight years after his last backflip in Moto2. Photo: Michelin Motorsport
Overall he was a great help to his team First Pramac Racing, but also, for Ducati. This fifth place in the championship acquired in the last moments avenges his end of the 2022 year, where he lost everything during the last GP, slipping to 8th place. If we take everything into account, we can only place it among the satisfactions of this season. It remains to be seen whether this great dynamic will translate to the Honda RC213V.
It's not just Kalex!
I have already spoken at length about the Moto2 season in a dedicated article that I invite you to read by clicking here. But in this one, I hadn't touched on one of my favorites this year: the performance of the Boscoscuro chassis. Only used by the Italian team Speed Up Racing, Boscoscuro B-23 is the first, since the tubular KTM, to pose big problems for Kalex in the intermediate category.
We took it for granted that Moto2 was a one-make class, but that is forgetting the very essence of the discipline! In 2010, the year these prototypes with identical engines were introduced, there were more than ten different manufacturers. But since 2013, Kalex has reigned supreme. All the champions since then have had German equipment, from Pol Espargaro to Peter Acosta.
In Valencia, Alonso Lopez and Fermin Aldeguer were on the podium. A great success for a small manufacturer. Photo: Speed Up Racing
Sometimes, we saw Speed Up, the irresistible Italians, perform a little, but certainly not as much as KTM on the one hand, and light years from Kalex. Until this season. Alonso Lopez, and, of course, his brilliant teammate Fermin Aldeguer posed serious problems for Pedro Acosta. The Kalex Red Bull KTM Ajo team, an already legendary association, had no response to the Aledeguer/Boscoscuro tandem at Sepang, but also, on four other routes at the end of the year. Moreover, the driver was the first to achieve four consecutive successes since Toni Elias in 2010 (then on Moriwaki), which no other driver on Kalex had managed to do in 13 years! I'll let you remember the list of champions passed on German chassis. It's strong, isn't it?
Let's hope that it lasts, and, in the absence of the spectacle on the track, we will perhaps have a battle of manufacturers for the 2024 world title in Moto2.
Aprilia gets closer
Finally, how can we not mention Aprilia. In addition to the results which speak for themselves (two superb victories and a significant number of podiums), the Italian firm has moved considerably closer to the lead in 2023. We could have legitimate doubts given the end of the financial year 2022, completely failed on every point. But with bold aerodynamic concepts, a better approach, and above all, two drivers involved and ready to jump at the slightest opportunity, then it could only work.
We'll talk about Aleix Espargaro again tomorrow, but in the meantime, Maverick Viñales has progressed quite a bit although I still think he's still not the one who can take the brand to another dimension. He messed up more than Aleix, but doesn't deserve it in the least.
Aleix was, once again, exceptional. Photo: Michelin Motorsport
Aprilia may be behind KTM in the manufacturers' standings, of course, but the two victories in Great Britain and in Catalonia, snatched under the nose of Ducati (the only two successes that escaped the Desmosedici) weigh heavily. In my opinion, this is a better exercise than that carried out by the Mattighofen firm when we put everything together.
Even if Espargaro is not eternal, they remain dangerous for 2024.
That's all for this little retrospective on what was this season! Do you have any other comments? Tell us in the comments!
Cover photo: Michelin Motorsport
