MotoGP's Marquez era

Just five rounds remain in this year's MotoGP season, and there's every chance that we could be crowning the series' first rookie champion since Kenny Roberts Sr. all the way back in 1978.

Marc Marquez's performances so far this year have marked the young Spaniard as nothing short as a phenomenon. His pace isn't surprising - he demonstrated that lucidly in the Moto2 and 125cc classes - but his sheer consistency is.

Marquez may be riding the best bike in the field, but the fact he has finished on the podium in every race bar one (the sole exception being Mugello, where he crashed) must give his opposition some serious food for thought. If he's this good in his first season, how good is he going to be three or four years down the line?

Marquez has already beaten Valentino Rossi's benchmark of 10 podium finishes in his rookie season, set in the his first season on 500cc machinery in 2000. And, arguably, Marquez has been able to do so in the face of stiffer opposition than the Italian encountered.

Jorge Lorenzo has been, certainly in recent races, Marquez's most formidable foe. The Yamaha rider has re-gained the momentum he lost when he fractured his collarbone during practice for the Dutch TT, winning the last two races in very contrasting styles - coming out on top in an epic last-lap duel with Marquez at Silverstone, and simply galloping away from the rest of the field at Misano.

Yamaha are bullish about their prospects for the rest of the year, but it will be no easy task for Lorenzo to deny his compatriot Marquez the crown. The gap between the pair stands at 34 points; with five races left, Marquez can afford to finish second at each of them to assure himself of the title.

What about the other rider still realistically in the title hunt, Marquez's Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa? Unfortunately, his chances of finally claiming that elusive maiden premier-class crown are looking frail, despite being level on points with Lorenzo.

For one thing, Pedrosa cannot rely on having a bike advantage in the same way that Lorenzo may be able to. He has to beat Marquez purely on merit, something he hasn't managed to do since Catalunya all the way back in June. You have to go back further still, to Le Mans in May, for Pedrosa's last race victory.

As Toby Moody pointed out in a recent column for Autosport, it must be pretty demoralising to see your teammate dislocate his collarbone mere hours before the start of a race, just as Marquez did at Silverstone, only for him to beat you just as easily as he managed at the last race.

The situation must surely beg the question of whether Pedrosa, the man who boasts the unenviable record of having racked up the most premier class wins without having won a title, is ever going to break his duck.

It's mighty unfortunate for Pedrosa that, just as Casey Stoner departed the scene whilst still more or less at the peak of his powers, he ends up with perhaps the most impressive rookie the championship has ever seen as his teammate.

Back in April, I thought Pedrosa's window of opportunity, before Marquez would get well and truly up to speed, would last at least a year, particularly given his strong form towards the end of last year. But, in reality, it lasted less than half a season. It's difficult to see where he goes from here.

It's a mighty shame, in many ways, that Stoner decided to leave MotoGP at the time he did. Had he remained this year, Marquez may have been forced to ride a satellite Honda, thereby giving us a tantalising glimpse of his potential rather before having his considerable talent unleashed by a factory ride.

What's more, a Stoner-Marquez battle for supremacy, both aboard Repsol Hondas, would have been a spectacle to behold. A Stoner comeback seems a dim prospect at best, but it would provide a welcome layer of intrigue to proceedings if Marquez were to start to dominate in a Rossi-like fashion.

The tragic death of Marco Simoncelli at Sepang towards the end of 2011 has also, in retrospect, robbed fans of another potential rival to Marquez. The lanky Italian was poised to be the ideal successor to Rossi in the lineage of Italian Grand Prix racing heroes, and would have surely been capable of at least giving Marquez a decent run for his money.

Without wishing to take anything away from the likes of Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, it seems that Italian fans have a while to wait yet for their next real championship contender. Spain, on the other hand, seem to have no shortage of talent making their way through the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.

The next Spaniard poised to make his MotoGP debut is Pol Espargaro, Marquez's closest challenger in Moto2 last season. Yamaha appear to be hoping that he can become a serious threat to Marquez sooner rather than later, having signed Moto2 title contender Pol Espargaro to ride for Tech 3 Yamaha next season.

But, Espargaro may be forced to wait for a factory Yamaha seat for a few seasons yet. Lorenzo, probably the Japanese factory's biggest asset, is going nowhere soon, whilst Rossi's marketing value can hardly be underestimated even if he's not quite the rider he was five years ago.

That said, Yamaha would surely jump on the chance to sign Marquez if he was to become available. MotoGP's commercial rights holder, Dorna Sports, would no doubt love such a move to come off, as it would fuel fan interest much as Rossi's switch to Yamaha from Honda did back in 2004.

That particular plot-line, combined with Rossi's peerless charisma and his rivalries with riders such as Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau were sufficient to maintain interest in the sport even while 'The Doctor' set about racking up the wins. Contrast that to the Mick Doohan era of the mid-to-late nineties, when spectator interest dipped and World Superbikes consequently took up the slack.

At the height of Doohan's supremacy in 1997, there were few, if any, other riders in the field who could be considered of the Australian's calibre. That shouldn't be the case in a hypothetical Marquez era, if only because Lorenzo still theoretically has at least five or so good years left in him.

But, it's too soon to say whether up-and-coming riders such as Espargaro and Scott Redding will be good enough to challenge Marquez. Let's hope that they are, or else this next chapter of MotoGP history may not be looked back upon particularly fondly.

Expanding IndyCar's appeal

Once considered a major rival to Formula One, IndyCar is at a crossroads. With the introduction of the new DW12 chassis and a return to engine competition, last year marked a fresh dawn for the championship, and series organisers are ready to implement the next phase of their quest to recapture the series' past glories.

A couple of weeks ago, plans were unveiled to expand outside North America with a series of additional races outside of the main IndyCar championship that could form a winter series in early 2015.

While the move is primarily intended to give IndyCar teams some extra revenue during what is otherwise a very long off-season, it would also give the championship some welcome international exposure at a time when its popularity in the US appears to be diminishing.

Losing Danica Patrick to NASCAR at the end of the 2011 season undoubtedly took away a significant chunk of interest in IndyCar, with Dan Wheldon's death at that year's season finale in Las Vegas also casting a shadow over the series. Resultantly, TV viewing figures in the US dropped by a quarter in 2012 in comparison to a year earlier.

That's why plans to expand to new territories are to be applauded, particularly as there is something of a mismatch between the existing IndyCar calendar and the make-up of the grid.

The series currently features just one race outside of North America, on the streets of the Brazilian city Sao Paulo, but, of 21 regular drivers competing in the championship, just seven are North American. Europeans comprise another seven, with the remaining third made up of drivers from Japan, South America and Oceania. It's a truly international field, spanning as many nationalities as the current F1 grid.

It's therefore refreshing that the organisers intend to make a virtue of that fact by hosting some races outside of the confines of North America, which would allow IndyCar to tap into markets where the presence of local drivers would generate enough interest to make a race financially viable.

That's why its such a surprise that Asia is being cited as the main target market for IndyCar's proposed expansion, when you consider that there is only one Asian in the field in the form of Takuma Sato, and that a scheduled street race in the city of Qingdao was cancelled last year when the proposed date clashed with the city's beer festival.

Europe seems a far more logical market to target, given that interest in motorsport is generally higher there than in Asia and that a third of the field is European (including four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and former Champ Car star/Toro Rosso F1 driver Sebastien Bourdais).

There could be more Europeans on the way, too. After funding issues stood in the way of Luca Filippi graduating from GP2 to F1, the Italian has made the transition stateside with Bryan Herta Autosport, for whom he is contesting four races this year.

Filippi stands a reasonable chance of getting a full-time drive next year, which can't have failed to cross the minds of similarly underfunded drivers currently in GP2 - Stefano Coletti, Sam Bird and Fabio Leimer all spring to mind as drivers easier to picture in IndyCar than in F1.

If the rumours are to believed, a certain Jaime Alguersauri could also be heading to IndyCar. The former Toro Rosso driver has been doing little since losing his seat at the end of 2011 besides testing for F1 tyre supplier Pirelli, but according to Spanish media could find himself testing a DW12 before the year is out.

If a race drive came Alguersauri's way as a result, he would join Bourdais, Sato and Justin Wilson among the ranks of F1 alumni competing in IndyCar. It's a shame the championship didn't make more effort to ensure another member of that elite group from last year, Rubens Barrichello, remained in the fold also.

The former Ferrari star was easily the series' most famous driver last year, and could have been used as an effective marketing tool, particularly in South America. Budget issues forced Barrichello to race in Brazilian Stock Cars instead this season, representing an enormous lost opportunity for IndyCar.

Luckily for the series organisers however, they may have another chance - NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya was informed last month his services are no longer required by his Earnhardt-Ganassi team for next year, which could prompt a return for the former Grand Prix winner and Indianapolis 500 champion to IndyCar.

Whilst Montoya's first preference is believed to be to remain in the Sprint Cup with a competitive team, his underwhelming record of just two wins in 242 starts means the Colombian is unlikely to be of much interest to any of the championship's top teams. It may be a different case in IndyCar, however.

Montoya's former championship rival Michael Andretti - whose Andretti Autosport team won the IndyCar drivers' title last year with Ryan Hunter-Reay - has expressed his eagerness to field Montoya next year if sufficient sponsor money can be found.

The series organisers should be doing everything they can to make this deal happen, and after that, ensure that Montoya doesn't slip through IndyCar's fingers after just one season. In the absence of Danica Patrick, the series needs a star, and, in the short term at least, Montoya fits the bill.

With Montoya, and perhaps even Felipe Massa (if he loses his Ferrari F1 seat at the end of the year), on board, IndyCar would surely be able to add a second date in South America - perhaps at Interlagos - without having to worry about lacklustre spectator attendances.

On a similar note, a possible plan to introduce a race on the Indianapolis road course, used by F1 from 2000-07, seems like a no-brainer. Having only one race a year at the hallowed Brickyard almost seems a waste, given the massive local enthusiasm for the Indianapolis 500.

Such a move would also help redress the balance between road, street and oval venues, with this year's calendar comprising only three road courses against six ovals and seven street tracks. The make-up the calendar in fact strongly resembles that of IndyCar in 1995, when the series' popularity was at its zenith prior to the infamous 'split' the following year.

There's a long, hard road ahead to even approach the heights of the early-to-mid nineties, but IndyCar's plans to expand beyond North American borders are a promising sign that the ambition to do so is there.