>- Lorenzo retires.

This is both expected and disappointing, when he was great he was dominant, but if the level he was riding at was more confidence dependent than the bike it is probably for the best. It really is crazy the stats the likes of him, Pedrosa, and Stoner have for their time in the sport as like a gateway that only Rossi/Marquez/Agostini surpass, it was a pretty ridiculous generation for them all to be racing each other.

>- The Marquez brothers will both be riding for team Honda next
>year. (Little bro crashed in testing yesterday). It will be
>interesting to see if there are "team orders."

I don't foresee a need for team orders, I don't see his brother being as fast as him. I've watched him in the lower classes, and I can't take his titles away from him, but he's never really shown the kind of innate talent that gets the likes of Marc, Lorenzo, Pedrosa, even Vinales noticed right away in those classes. But hopefully he makes a better teammate and doesn't revert to throwing the bike away from a good position. Marc single handedly winning the team title this year (scoring 420 points ;) is obnoxious.
>- Hopefully Yamaha can figure out their "power" issues. That
>bike just isn't strong on longer tracks.

They clearly have one lap pace, and test well, it's hard to tell whether its the bike or the riders that don't last the race length but finding that consistency is important.

>- Aprilia made some noise with the big boys this year. It will
>be interesting to watch their development.

Apparently one of their engines was on fire in testing! I'd love to see KTM make moves with their commitment to this level now, they've always known how to win in the lower classes with smaller bikes, even when they left and came back you knew they were contenders.