Hey folks, Dre Harrison back it with another edition of Ask Dre, the monthly show where you, the wonderful Motorsport101 Audience, ask me your pressing questions about M101, F1, IndyCar, MotoGP or anything else that tickles your fancy!
In this month’s edition, how the Bahrain and Saudi cancellations affect the season, how the 2027 MotoGP grid might take shape, and who has been the biggest disappointment in the big series so far. Enjoy!
With the delays and cancellations thanks to the Middle East conflict (I’m being polite!), could this have a serious impact on the F1 world championships with two less early rounds in a new reg set? – Ciara
Oh definitely. Two less races, especially given they were early on in the calendar (Bahrain and Saudi originally being in April), means two less races that Mercedes were likely going to dominate, especially with how much track knowledge everyone has with Bahrain as a test facility.
As I’ve said in other places, the development race in this new regulation set is embryonic and wide open. We’ve already seen the first shot across the parapet with Ferrari pondering whether Mercedes’ active aero is closing too slowly. We are so back.
McLaren’s another example. They got their power unit from Mercedes and were left to figure it out from there because if you think Toto Wolff was going to make it easy for them after getting beaten by a customer two years in a row, I’ve got beachfront property to sell you in West London. It’s why Woking think they can still win races by the end of the season, and that could matter depending on when they think they can make those gains on their car.
It’s also two less races for someone to make a comeback if we get another Red Bull 2025 situation where a key breakthrough can work later on in the year. So there’s a lot of ways it could affect the competitive nature of the Championship. We just have to see how it plays out first.
Only one win after three races, is Alex Palou washed?!?!?! /j
Seriously though, how has his performance over the season so far affected predictions for his 2026 form? Is a runaway championship still in the cards, or will Palou have to fight his way to a fifth Astor Cup? – Rouge
Well, let’s break it down – He dominated St Pete for its largest ever win, was running Top 5 in Phoenix despite starting 10th before Rinus Veekay drove into him, was second in Arlington, only beaten by Kyle Kirkwood and Andretti being busted on street tracks, a huge outlier in terms of form.
I think he’s doing just fine! Palou had a couple of dodgy days last year and still absolutely destroyed the field in 2025, so all signs point to where we need a contender to step up and win four or five races to really give Palou something to think about.
Kirkwood might be that person but I’m still not fully convinced on ovals and road courses. Pato O’Ward’s the only other driver who has three Top 5’s so far, and has proven credentials as a three-tool Indy driver but McLaren’s struggled for outright pace so far in 2026, he’s never looked like he can actually win a race so far.
Don’t get me wrong, Will Power proved back in 2022 that you can point your way to a title, but you need a lot of distribution of points to go your way, and I expect Palou to win five or six races minimum. Three typically gets you in contention. See the problem here?
Is Pecco just in a slump, or has Marquez extinguished the flame since arriving at Ducati? – Stuart
This is tricky, because I don’t think this is a simple answer, I think it’s the sum of a lot of smaller parts.
I think it goes as far back as the Sprint being added to MotoGP back in 2023. That has become a weakness in Bagnaia’s game. Still good enough where he can win them if everything goes to plan, but in a pack, he struggles as he’s never been comfortable with the smaller, Sprint fuel tank.
Next up I think is a combination of Marquez arriving into Ducati ranks in 2024, and then joining the factory team in 2025. Ducati took one look at Marquez’s data on the GP23, a bike that people generally accepted was three tenths a lap slower and thought: “We have to have him”. When he joined, Ducati tried and probably failed to improve upon the GP24, quite possibly the most dominant MotoGP bike since the NSR500 of the 90’s.
Marquez has such incredible adaptability and talent that he was able to muscle his way out of the 25’s flaws (Lack of front end feeling, not as stable as the 24, engine braking issues too), and have one of the best years of his career. Bagnaia’s always been a bit more of a “Goldilocks” rider, a lot more sensitive to feedback. Bagnaia wasn’t satisfied at finishing third most weekends, and likely went into tuning hell trying to see if there was a magical setup that allowed him to bridge the gap to Marc, even if it wasn’t that big a gap in the first place.
The more he tried, the deeper the hole he got into. Combine that with an engine braking issue that Pecco couldn’t ride around, and Ducati had to work around and not really fix due to the homologation, and you get this inconsistent, messy Pecco, who hasn’t felt comfortable riding a Ducati for a good calendar year at this point.
And Ducati lost patience. Hence why he’s going to Massimo Rivola’s home for troubled Italians (Cheers Paddock Pass Discord), and Marquez is now taking all the credit for Ducati’s continued success, because the latter is very good at jamming a square peg into a round hole, something Pecco can’t do. Mind you, the Aprilia is such a user-friendly bike according to those in the know that it might bring out the best in him again…
Will Prema make it back to Indycar? – Nelson Philips
I think there was a slither of hope that someone may come along and fund them for a 500 attempt but given they allegedly didn’t pay their engine lease, that really feels like the end, because that will likely go to someone else if they want to run said 500 attempt.
Given it’s an open secret that Deborah Mayer is thinning her operations down (Prema IndyCar gone, Iron Dames dead, reports of F4 drivers no longer being backed, including Sebastian Wheldon [Son of Dan] apparently), I don’t think spending $50m to be in IndyCar is ever happening again. Also wild that they just vanished off the IndyCar grid and there was no public message about that from the team, series or broadcasters. Moving on!
Who have been the most disappointing teams for you so far out of the major series? – Geoff
Let’s see here:
F1 – Aston Martin. Kinda goes without saying really isn’t it? Before testing, you felt like a Top 4 push with Newey at the helm working his magic was a reasonable assumption. Two rounds in and the nearest they’ve got to finishing a race was Lance Stroll being 15 laps down in Australia. Between Newey being unable to handle the media having thrown Honda under the bus, more reshuffles in the technical department than a Tory government, and now Newey likely stepping down again, I’m not sure how much more messy it can get.
And as much as it looks like they’ve got Jonathan Wheatley from Audi, maybe the best people-managing Sporting Director in F1, with this regulation set still young, expect a year’s gardening leave before he actually joins unless some serious money is exchanged to cut that down.
MotoGP – Tech3. The “cake” that is the field is pretty much baked at this point given it’s the final year of a regulation set, and the running order is pretty uncomplicated. Ducati and Aprilia at the top, Honda not too far away, with Yamaha at the rear. But KTM has been a big disappointment outside of Pedro Acosta putting the team on his back. Given they have a 10-race winner in Maverick Vinales and a multiple-time Top 4 Championship finisher in Enea Bastianini, they should not be 17th and 20th in the standings. Bastianini has not gotten along with the KTM since Day 1 with only flashes of his Ducati brilliance, and I fear Maverick Vinales may never be the same again after losing a chunk of his shoulder at the Sachsenring last year. Guenther Steiner may need to make some tough decisions there soon.
IndyCar – AJ Foyt Racing. They were starting to make a genuine claim to be regular Top 10 runners so far, but they’ve not been able to beat the allegations that they were Michael Cannon-merchants, and that Santino Ferrucci’s 2024 season was nothing but a fluke. Caio Collet in his defence has been absolutely fine, but Ferrucci down in 20th in points (Despite being taken out in St Pete) isn’t great. I was tempted to say RLL here, but they’ve been booty cheeks for a while.
Trackhouse’s 2027 lineup? – Ed Spencer
Hey Ed, don’t honestly see a big reason for Trackhouse to change anything at the moment. Davide Brivio’s loyalty to Raul Fernandez has largely been rewarded given the latter’s been riding like a Top 10 runner for the last half season or so, and maybe Ai Ogura’s turned a corner as well. We no longer have to call him a Thailand merchant after arguably his best MotoGP weekend in Brazil with a Double Top 5. If Ogura can keep up that level of performance on the Aprilia, I don’t think you can get much better than that for Aprilia’s customer team.
Still early days in 2026, but the fact Trackhouse now sits as the second ranked team in MotoGP has got me thinking Davide Brivio is cooking.
Do you reckon next year’s regulations in MotoGP will make the races as competitive as F1’s ones have this season? – LegendSlayer
I dunno, is F1 all that competitive right now? Because so far Mercedes have won the first two at a relative canter with Ferrari the only team even in the same postcode. So if that’s what you meant then… probably?
I say probably because when new regulations drop in Motorsport, typically one team nails them and breaks off a big early advantage, with us as fans hoping for some convergence down the road once everyone figures it out. That’s kinda what we’re seeing in MotoGP now with Aprilia, but we just don’t know what will happen once that series has its big regulation shift in 2027.
In terms of on-track action, in theory, things should be better in 2027. A smaller fairing, a lot of downforce being taken off the bike (Around 25-45% according to Aprilia), less power, more nimble bikes. In theory, it should make for better, more competitive racing. In theory at least.
All I hope for is better racing. If a team dominates at the front, so be it, that’s Motorsport, it’s a game of engineering, even if we do need a little entertainment to keep people around.
You get to give a driver/rider a nickname that commentators will used ad nauseum what is the nickname and who is it for? – Edwin
I abstain! I genuinely think most Motorsport nicknames are very cringe to be honest. This comes up a lot in IndyCar where Diffey, Buxton, Bell and Hinchcliffe over the years couldn’t help themselves. Like calling Alex Palou: “The Professor of Precision”, or newly found oval entertainer Christian Rasmussen: “The Sultan of Sketch”. Like, my limit is calling Alain Prost “The Professor”. That’s pretty cool.
Keep that shit in professional wrestling where that’s part of the act. I’m not creative enough, or care enough about enough drivers on a personal level where I could do that justice. A message to Motorsport broadcasters, let the people come up with the nicknames, I promise it’ll be better than whatever you think up in the booth.
So that’s Dre “Hurricane” Harrison signing off, see you back for the next DRR on Sunday!