After an u𓄧pdate on the condition of Gino Rea, who suffered serious injuries during practice for the Suzuka 8 Hours, the first part of the show focusses on reaction to last week’s episode on the low Silverstone crowd.

“We had hundreds of comments and tweets,” said Podcast h🐈os꧋t Harry Benjamin, “and a lot of them mentioned the same things:

“’Silverstone is not the rig🐼ht track to watch bike racing, the money side&n💫bsp;- not just the cost of living, but tickets, parking, the cost of a burger - not having any British riders in MotoGP class, the promotion of the event…’

“Everything we kind of predicted😼 last week but it's worse in a way isn't it Keith, because it’s not just one problem?”

“I think you're right Harry. I won't say it's a proble📖m, but I think it's a smorgasbord of things that need tweaking,” replied former Grand Prix rider and British champion Keith Huewen. “I think we have to be positive, the overall event was great: The British Grand Prix under the sun at Silverstone. And they put on lots of entertainment.

“I think the questions are mostly over,ꦏ to start with, the parking prices. It's a bit like if you buy a television and then got🌳 charged by the same shop for parking as well. Nobody likes those extra charges.

“As far as the beers, burgers and so on, I assume the vendors are paying Silv🤪erstone to be on-site and thenꦜ setting the prices. Could those be controlled more? Maybe no more than a 20% rise over what you would pay in a pub would be acceptable, considering someone has to drag their bar to Silverstone, set it up and take it away again afterwards.

“Silverstone did a lot of things right, but I think there were things that anta☂gonised people into not going, and I think that is reflected in our mailbox.

“Some people you wil♔l never please, the Donington vs Silverstone thing just gets on my nerves! Donington is a good racetrack, the facilities are better since Jonathan Palmer took up the lease but not as good as Silverstone.

“The biggest thing I think is that we need a home MotoGP race winner. This weekend ﷺwe had a home winner at the British Grand Prix… Speedway at the Principality stadium in Caꦬrdiff. Dan Bewley. You’ve never heard a roar like it inside that stadium! Just imagine if it was happening in MotoGP? We need that situation.

“The mai༺nstream British media were also not behind the Moto🧜GP like they were for the F1 Grand Prix, where it was in every newspaper and magazine.

“The answer is - and I can see you both looki🔥ng very stern! - the cost of seeing racing on the Sunday was, deep breath, not the best value for money. £90 plus the car parking, for three 🔯races and the British Talent Cup, for me it wasn’t enough track action.

“Our market in Britain is different, our fans are different, our expectations are slightly different... We won’t go! It’s not a case of going just because it’s the British MotoGP, it’s ꦕstill got to represent value for money. Whatever that is.

“🐷But where do we find that happy medium? Less entertainment on 𒐪stage and knock £15 off a ticket?

“Parking, in my view, should always be♌ part of the deal. I heard a rumour along the lines of, the re🍨ason why they were charging for parking was to encourage people to go on motorbikes. Now only a car bloke could think of that!

“The other thing was that there’s not enough room for all the cars. Hang on a second, you had 140,000 race day fans for the F1 Grand Prix. They all came in cars. I don’t understand some of th♏e contradictions.”

wuqian0821.com MotoGP editor Pete McLaren added: “I do think it comes down to the perception of value for money, as well💙 as the actual cost. Do people feel what they're geℱtting back is worth what they're paying?

“I also think that on Friday for example, and you often see this kind of thing at some of the flyaways, why not have rea🎀lly cheap tickets to boost attendance and allow virtually everyone to afford some kind of MotoGP trackside experience. Espღecially new fans.”

Responding to a comment from a listener about empty grandstands, McLaren said: “You’d have to imagine the grandstands wou🧔ld have been left in place from the F1 anyway, so wh🐲y not let people use them?

“I also think you need to adjust the ticket pricing to reflect the situation on a yearly basis, depending on the circumstances and taking into account the factors Keith has mentioned. H🍃ow popular is the sport in terms of viewing figures in the UK? Is there a home rider doing well in the top class? How much disposable income do people have relative to previous years?

"I𒐪 don’t think you can j♓ust charge a blanket rate year in, year out on the assumption that people will automatically keep coming back.

“People have other choices, including WorldSBK and BSB, and I think they will look at the Britiꦅsh MotoGP each season and decide, is this good value for money? Given all the financial pressures people are under now.

“As far as the organisation of the event, 💃we should give credit to Silverstone. We've all been in massive queues getting in or out of Grand Prix circuits in the past a🎀nd, for me at least, that side of it ran like clockwork all weekend.

“But there’s no doubt you need t🧸o get more fans to att💮end.”

The trio then go on to debate the impact of free-to-air TV versus pay-per-view and how to attract n💯ew fans to the sport, plus potential improvements to the trackside experience ꦉitself.

Silverstone is listening…

Addressing the listeners directly, Huewen concludes: “Keep getꦡting in touch and leaving your opinions because we don’t ignore them and the fact of the matter is, managing director Stuart Pringle - and one or two others at Silverstone - were among those listening to last week’s podcast.

“I’ve had a couple of emails from Silverstone since regarding our podcast and the ideas that came up. They will be looking at our timeline as well. So you🙈r comments are being picked up by Silverstone and by anybody that's interested in giving the trackside fans somethꦗing more. They are listening.”

New Austria chicane looks like it’s drawn by a 2-year-old!

Attention then turns to this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP, which will feature a new ‘Z’ shaped chicane inserted at Turn 2 of the Red Bull Ring circuit, in response to the huge acciden꧋t for Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli in 2020.

“They've put this zig-zag in now, halfway down the ไhill towards Turn 3,” said Huewen. “I just wonder if there was💙 a 2-year-old that squiggled on the piece of paper that Tilke was working on!

“I really don't get it. Yeah, they've done what they needed to do to slow things down I suppose. It’ll be interesting to see what the riders actually make of it. I'm sure they'💟ll just bite their lip and get on𓄧 with it.

“But it just looks horrendous. Literally, the mark of Zorro. A zig-zag… As you ca🧸n tell, I'm not really a fan! But that's me looking at a piece of paper, not riding it. Let's see how 𒐪the riders get on in the first practices.

“I🌃t’s a stop-start chicane at the end of the day, they could have had something so much nicer than thatꦜ.”

“Quartararo said at Silverstone the🐟 new chicane also looks a bit dangerous,” McLaren added.

“The original track layout still exists, and is still used by F1, and if a rꦰider loses control on the way into the new chicane, they could potentially come into contact with riders ahead as th🉐ey cross the original track.

“I’m sure Quartararo is not the only one looking at that chicane and wondering, is this solving one problem and maybe creati𝓰ng another?”

Bastianini or Martin - Ducati’s big decision

This weekend’s event should also be the last before Ducati makes its decision on whether E♈nea Bastianini or Jorge Martin joins Fr𒉰ancesco Bagnaia at the factory team next season.

“If you look at it on paper, Bastianini has three wins and Martin no wins this yea🎶r. But then if you look at the last five races, Martin has scored more than double the points of Bastianini,” McLaren said.

“Martin also had the hand operation ear🦂lier in the season, and most importantly they are riding di🧸fferent spec bikes, which makes direct comparisons difficult.

“But there's no doubt Bastianini was back on form at Silverstone, only 1.6s from victory with a broken wing. Without that it could well have been Bastianin🍌i, rather than Bagnaia, who took his fourth win of the year.

“I think it might be easier for Ducati if Martin was the clear favourite because♉ he's already at Pramac and so a bit further up that ladder towards the factory team. But Bastianini is making it a really difficult decision for them...”

ꦰHuewen said: “I fancy Jorge for that [factory] place and I think Bastianini at Pramac will be the right call. But that's based o🌺n looking from where I am, not looking from where they are.

“This will be a decision based on the overall picture. Gigi’s no fool and he will 🎶make the right call for the team, and I don’t think Bagnaia will be affected by whoever they put alongside him.”

The trio finish by making their top three predictions for this weekend’s race, which curren🅰t wea💎ther forecasts warn could see wet weather on all three days.

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