It’s time to sit back and relax as Episode 35 of the MotoGP™ Podcast takes you on a long walk down the avenue of differences between MotoGP™ and F1 with current four-wheel star Pierre Gasly, after the French driver visited the PTT Thailand Grand Prix.
Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Gasly shares his experiences in the paddock, his friendship with compatriot Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) and THAT Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) crash and being able to rebound to take the title. “At the beginning we got in touch... we managed to meet at a couple tracks in Barcelona and Paul Ricard,” comments Gasly.
“We said ‘actually we should try to go to a MotoGP race’ because I'm a big fan and I wanted to see it so it's great to be here… We were comparing the driving style with how you brake, which is really different. The fact that you have four wheels in the car maybe sometimes allows you to make slightly more mistakes and you can get away with it, whereas in MotoGP you cannot really go over the limit, otherwise you're done!”
Gasly is a huge fan of MotoGP™, so being in and amongst the paddock and pitlane in Thailand was a special experience. “I'm a bit like a kid you know, coming here for the first time, I just want to try everything! I tried Fabio's gloves and I was on Dovi's bike in Ducati just to feel the position. Yeah, it feels amazing, I've watched MotoGP since I was 6 or 7 years old, same as Formula 1, it's just really cool to be here.”
In addition, the MotoGP™ Podcast sits down with Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Mika Kallio as he returns to full time racing action. “I kept going as a test rider and I actually really enjoyed a lot at that time. Always in my career I like a lot to test many things on the bike and try to find the best solution and get the best out of the technical things on the bike,” says the Finn.
“So that was a really nice part of being a test rider but at the same time I was missing the races, the atmosphere, the feeling you have when you are on the grid, the (inaudible) you have in the body and this was the part I was missing. And now to come back I really realised that yes, this was the thing I was missing for many years. That's why I appreciate it a lot to be here.”
And, as always, former MotoGP™ star John Hopkins offers his expert analysis on the action we witnessed in Buriram: “Just as impressive was Fabio Quartararo, going head to head with an 8-time World Champion in his rookie season at Buriram, a track he's never seen before on a MotoGP bike.
“To have a race like that was extremely impressive! I thought for sure, my words of him getting that first win this year was definitely going to come true. It was just such a good race from him, he led that race from the very beginning, and to have such consistency all the way through the laps... I mean, every lap, all the way up until the end he was within tenths, every single lap! When you're doing that and you have the 8-time World Champion Marc Marquez breathing down your neck the whole time, that is extremely impressive riding.”
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