The 2024 motorcycle racing season is underway and for us journalists and pundits, that means another year of analysis, opinions and presenting soap boxes lies ahead...

But really, there is only one opinion BSN likes to really put our faith in. So, with the WorldSBK opener wrapped up, MotoGP round the corner and talk of a big sale on the horizon, it's in James Whitham we (and you) trust. So, without further ado...

BSN

Can we start just by telling me, you’ve been to Phillip Island quite a bit. How many races did you do there?

James Whitham

I can pretty much tell you exactly, so I did one year on the Ducati, I did two years on the Suzuki. They were all Superbikes and then I did three years on Supersport. So I did quite a few years there. 

BSN

Did you win?

JW

I won one Supersport race in 2000, yeah, that was probably the wettest race I’ve ever ridden in my life. Immediately after the Supersport race had finished, they cancelled the rest.

BSN

Let’s talk about Phillip Island - cheers for Alex and tears for John. What’s your view on those two guys and the race in general itself?

JW

I thought the racing was generally really good. I would reserve judgement before I say that it’s the rule technical rule changes that made the difference and made the race exciting. The first thing I’d say about Phillip Island is that it’s not indicative, generally, that what happens at Phillip Island doesn’t follow the whole year. Sometimes it does but generally it doesn’t. You get oddball winners there technically, but not always. 

So the race was exciting, I really enjoyed it. Really, really pleased for Alex but we’ve been waiting a long time for a medium like that to come through. I think a lot of us thought that was never going to happen. We like the Lowes boy. They’ve been good ambassadors for what they do and for motorsport. They’re good lads, very personable. And they try their heart out both of them, so really pleased to see Alex going well. 

I’m also really pleased to see Sam make the steps to Superbikes and get it all right. It looks like he’s going to be alright. It looks like his bike’s going to be good. 

Jonathan Rea, really disappointed for him. I think it’s really too early for us to say that that’s it for him, he’s too old but I don’t think that. Jonathan’s always been really good at reinventing himself. He’s had to work hard, all of his technique and his approach to suit whatever he’s doing. I still think there’s life in the old dog. I think there’s clearly something between his technique and his riding that just doesn’t suit him. Or there’s a problem with the bike. I don’t know. He did allude to something that he “can’t tell the truth yet” in one of his interviews, so I don’t know what that’s alluding to. There’s clearly something wrong. I still think there’s good things to see from Jonathan yet. 

I think I will stick to my guns and say the Ducati is going to be the bike to beat this year and most of the circuits. You’ve got BMW. I think the bike is still going to be quick.  Although they have got concessions, it looks like Kawasaki are benefiting from the increase in revs. Even on the Yamaha, Locatelli looked like his back was fairly sharp. I think generally the job was good and that’s the general consensus as well. I’ve got a lot of mates who are into WorldSBK. A lot who watch BSB and the general consensus was universal in praise for the exciting racing. I think it was good.

BSN

And what about British riders? One or two of them did quite well.

JW

We’ve got Alex and Sam, the way Alex won the way he did it was fantastic. That’s the sort of place with everything else being equal, you can’t ever get past someone you’re coming to lap there. It’s a really difficult place to pass. He’s a great lad, he’s stuck his neck out. I think he had a little bit more tyre left. He looked like Bautista. Apart from that, the Brits. Mackenzie really struggled, Brad Ray really struggled, and Jonathan Rea, he had a nightmarish meeting. 

BSN

The first two lads are fairly new to all this aren’t they to this level of racing, so they didn’t do too badly did they?

JW

No, I think apart from Jonathan Rea, they all had reasonable meetings with the exception of Alex who had the best meeting of his life. I hope it continues for him. 

BSN

What do you think of the pit stop idea? I gather it’s because the new surface caused a lot of tyre problems for Pirelli and they had to limit the distance of the races. What do you think about all of that?

JW

What I think about all of that is that it’s not just the new surface. People are saying “oh it’s the new surface” but it isn’t the new surface. Even as far back as the early 90’s. I remember people not having problems with Pirelli but with Michelin, Dunlop and every tyre manufacturer. It’s the nature of the circuit. 

It’s a left-handed circuit which is quite unusual. There’s a lot of corners where bikes are accelerating, bikes have a lot of power now. I remember Michelin tyres chunking up with Falappa, Foggy and Corser. It’s always been a tyre sensitive circuit. And I don’t think we can read anything into it other than the fact it’s a unique place in terms of tyres. It’s always given trouble. I think maybe the new surface didn’t help but I think it’s the nature of the circuit, the shape of the circuit that’s more to blame. 

It’s a feature that has become a feature the championship. I commentated on it two years ago when they had to have the same thing both in Supersport and WorldSBK. We got away with it as it was a two part race in Race 2 this time so it didn’t really come into the second part. It didn’t have the effect that it has done at previous meetings. 

It’s the nature of the circuit. I think good on Pirelli, if they think they’re going to have a tyre issue, they’ve addressed it. It’s the same for everybody. They didn’t lose out in Race 1. 

Jonathan Rea had a complete nightmare, he lost 22 seconds, I think. Certainly I’m not going to stand up here and say Pirelli should know better. It’s a feature of the circuit and I think any tyre manufacturer will have the same issues. In fact MotoGP have had exactly the same issues, not with Pirelli, so I think it’s a circuit feature not a tyre feature. 

BSN

What people do at Phillip Island does not mean they can do the same at other circuits because Phillip Island is just so special?

JW

It’s a very different circuit. It's a left-handed circuit which is fairly unusual. It’s a different shape to any kind of circuit. It’s kind of old school. We’re going to more and more circuits for safety reasons now that are all modern designs. More corners squeezed into the smallest amount of real estate. 

Every corner’s got the same amount of camber. It’s not like that at  Phillip Island. It’s more like these more traditional kinds of circuits. It was built by someone with a load of earth moving equipment. 

For that, I like it. It’s a lovely circuit. The crowd likes going. Racers like racing there. It doesn’t tend to follow that the man who wins there wins the championship. But the man this year, I hope that he does.

BSN

TV likes shorter circuits because it’s cheaper to do rather than a long difficult circuit to put cameras on etc etc. 

JW

I don’t think that’s a feature at Phillip Island. I think Phillip Island comes off really well on TV. It’s generally good weather there but you can get high temperature, low temperatures. You can get really wet races there. 

Like I said, I won a Supersport race there. There was such heavy rain, even I didn’t want to go racing. But generally the weather tends to be nice. It’s a nice part of the world. And it comes across really well on TV. Big sweeping high speed turns. Lots of passing opportunities. It’s a really good circuit. 

BSN

Is Bautista still favourite?

JW

Exactly. I think the first thing about the rule changes, especially the weight; I still don’t think Bautista had to carry a little bit of weight. I don’t think it made a difference to him. I think the revs have made a little bit more of a difference to some of the others. Maybe the fact that they can run slightly lighter cranks. So we’ll see how that goes. One of the standout men, and you said before who’s your outside bet, is Nicolo Bulega and I stick by that. What a rider he is. And Iannone, who’s not been on the bike for ages, he looked aggressive and quick. I think it’s setting up for what’s looking like a very exciting championship. I really do hope so. 

BSN

Can we talk a little bit about MotoGP. The talking point now is that MotoGP is up for sale. I remember us covering in 2019, when it was seriously up for sale. The owners being Bridgepoint they didn’t get it away but apparently it’s up for sale again. Carmelo hasn’t denied this. And Liberty, which owned Formula 1, have been mentioned in this. What do you think?

JW

To me, MotoGP seems to be in a really healthy place, certainly in terms of riders. They seem to be flush with riders who can run strong . Whether or not that’s sustainable I don’t know. It would be nice to see a British rider way up the front. It doesn’t look like there’s going to be one any time soon in the MotoGP class. It does seem to be predominantly a Spanish and Italian based championship but they’ve got brilliant feeder classes, a feeder system that seems to bring the younger riders through. 

I’ve got my own theories as to why that works for the Italians, and especially the Spanish. For me it’s in fairly good order. I was privileged to do an interview with Jorge Martin recently and I was blown away by how nice he was, how straight he spoke. Proper little warrior, he had a lot of time for people. And he was brilliant. Honestly, really impressed with how he conducted himself. 

If that’s typical in MotoGP then they are proper, proper professional sportsmen with a bit of an edge, which is what we want. Good person. And I’ve enjoyed MotoGP. I think it’s been exciting racing. I think it will be really exciting to see how Marquez goes on on a more competitive bike. I never thought I’d see the day when a factory Honda rider, that used to be the gold standard of factory rides, would pay his own way out of a Honda factory contract to go with a private one year old Ducati. I never thought I’d see the day. 

BSN

Dorna is owned by two bodies, Bridgepoint which has about 40% and the other, the Canadian Pension Fund which between them have about 80%. And Dorna, which is largely owned by the Ezpeleta family, owns the remainder. Not everything’s for sale until it has a price. 

JW

My Dad always said everything’s for sale, it’s just the price that will make the difference. I still think it makes a big difference how you look at it. If it was put up for sale by Dorna or whether a speculative approach was made by somebody else. 

BSN

In terms of marketing, Liberty have done a great job with F1. Given the illustrious sports that we have, motorcycle racing included, we could perhaps be doing better things at marketing…

JW

The marketing thing, I think F1 has done a brilliant job. “Drive to Survive” is cited as causing an influence. I really hope that MotoGP doesn't go down the route that F1 did. I’m not a massive F1 fan. I get the technical things. I know that people live for it but it’s not for me. I don’t think the races are that exciting. I didn’t think the race last week was that exciting. There’s too much technical stuff to make the racing as pure as it should be. That’s just my opinion. 

“I’m a little bit old school. Bike racing is to some extent going to go the same way. The limiting factor about bikes is that they still fall down a little bit. However safe you make it, you still have more exciting stuff to watch. 

“You can see the rider, you can see when they fall down. It is in that respect a bit more earthy. You can’t make it as clinical. But I really hope that MotoGP, motorbike racing in general, doesn’t go down the F1 route. It’s kind of not for me.