Why motorsport needs more Crutchlows

If you really thought about it, how many modern motorsport competitors would you want to go for a beer with? That question is not 'who do you want to meet?', or answered by recounting a list of people you already know or consider friends.

But think about what you know about riders or drivers - their professional persona, anyway - through television broadcasts, social media and the prism of the media. Now who do you reckon would be good value for a quick pint after work, to maybe watch some sport or just generally have a chat about life? If I'm being honest, overlooking people I have dealt with, I don't know that my list is a massively long one.

The longer we go on, the more it feels like the dudes are disappearing. Public personas are becoming increasingly homogenised and interchangeable, like they have all fallen off the same production line. At least until you get to someone like MotoGP's newest winner, Cal Crutchlow.

You know, when was the last time you heard a winner joke to the world that his rivals were "wimps"?

That was just part of the Crutchlow show that followed his maiden MotoGP victory in the Czech Grand Prix last Sunday. Beyond being the first British rider to win a premier class race since Barry Sheene in 1981 - 35 years ago, when only Valentino Rossi of the current grid had been born - it was a popular victory in the MotoGP paddock.

Crutchlow is liked as a person and respected as a rider and for how hard he has worked to get into MotoGP. And few will begrudge him a breakthrough that has been 98 grands prix and stints with three different brands in the making.

As ever, Crutchlow was excellent value after winning. He offered detail about how he did it: "I was playing with them. I had so much grip compared to the other guys that did not make the same tyre choice as me. I was cruising around. I made the right choice and I knew the race would come to me in the end."

There was honesty: "Yesterday I made a disaster. I had to say sorry to my team, had to say sorry to Honda, because I don't think there was any conceivable part left on the bike after it went 6.5 metres in the air. Just the engine, but the rest was completely destroyed. They worked really hard to build me a bike for today. And it's really nice to repay that."

And humour: "It's a long race when Lucio [Cecchinello, team boss] is hanging over the pitwall jumping up and down... Honestly, if I could've taken my hand off the handlebar, I would've stuck my finger up at him to say, 'get back in the garage and have a coffee'."

And sometimes a bit of all three: "Lucio's worked so hard for it over so many years, he's not had a win so to finally repay him with a win is great. But it is difficult to ride for Lucio because he's an ex-racer. You can't imagine what he told me last night to do in the first lap - I said to him, 'Lucio this is not 125cc racing, mate, we're talking big-boy stuff here!'"

But the thing is, Crutchlow is excellent value even when he's 14th. You never know what you're going to get from a media session with him. He's a rare breed in modern motorsport, someone who is not afraid of actually saying things, rather than adding to the white noise.

Formula 1 comes back from its summer break this weekend, and I can already hear a group of repeat offenders telling media "we got through our programme and got some good information" on Friday afternoon. "We'll look at everything and work hard tonight," they add, but say that it's too early to make any predictions for qualifying. "We'll see tomorrow". Or even the copout of all copouts, "it is what it is".

They are strings of words that tell people nothing and add nothing to what you get out of following motorsport. And, you know what? It actually seriously sells what they are doing short.

MotoGP riders are a lot better on that front. During Saturday's post-qualifying press conference at Brno, Jorge Lorenzo was asked about 2017 Tech3 rider Johann Zarco's riding style, on the basis that there are similarities with his own. Lorenzo had clearly seen enough of Zarco in 125cc and now Moto2 to have formed an opinion, and shared his insight, with added elements such as that he perhaps uses his body more than Zarco.

A little later, Andrea Iannone talked about how he applies a big hit of rear brake mid-corner, to help stand his Ducati up. This seemed to be news and potentially useful information to Lorenzo and Marc Marquez, sitting next to him.

Crutchlow has had more than his fair of crashes this year. He'd be the first to admit that. The list includes falls in four of the first five races of the season, and at Assen when a good result looked on the cards in wet-dry conditions. After that Dutch TT, he was genuinely delighted for his former team-mate and new winner Jack Miller.

"The three [other] guys that have crashed - [Dani] Pedrosa, [Andrea] Dovizioso and Valentino - they never crash and they don't crash on the same day," he mused. "Ironically, we sat at dinner last night, me and Jack, and he said, 'I'm going down tomorrow'. He's the only one who stays up and he wins the race!"

He has never shied away from those crashes, putting up his hands to accept responsibility. And as much as I'm sure he would rather not be talking about them, Crutchlow has been exceedingly generous and honest in doing so, and discussing a Honda that is not an easy package to get the most out of. On that front, his insight has actually helped shape just how good championship leader Marquez has been this year.

On the fourth-practice crash he referenced after winning at Brno, Crutchlow said: "It's the same old story, it's not an easy ride. We are pushing the front because we have no rear grip, we have no speed. So I braked a little later than normal and crashed. Yesterday, Marc was braking 30 metres later than me, so maybe I braked two metres later and crashed."

I spoke to Crutchlow on Friday at Brno for something you'll see next week, and he didn't try to pretend that he'll be trying harder in the British Grand Prix because it's his home race. Or that Silverstone is one of his favourite circuits on the calendar. Those sorts of cliches aren't how he operates. He's an honest guy and perhaps that honesty does not always please Honda.

As progressive as it might like to be considered, motorsport and its stakeholders are still fairly conservative and traditional.

Consider that Lewis Hamilton's lifestyle, fashion sense and tattoos have been the topic of debate in F1, to the point that you might even call them divisive. But what does it matter that Hamilton jets around, hangs out with people from other sports and the entertainment industry, and likes to mix his fashion up? Until it costs him a race, absolutely nothing. Although if he did some rock up at Spa with 'IH8 NICO' inked across his knuckles, that might be another matter...

If you put Hamilton into any Premier League football team, there would be zero suggestions he's too 'out there' or 'radical', or not confirming to some outdated notion of what he should be. Look at the excitement around Zlatan Ibrahimovic moving to play in England with Manchester United. How would motorsport handle an outlandish competitor that balances brash and brilliant like Zlatan does?

Footballers celebrate goals like they are going out of fashion, and Rossi has helped make that an accepted art form in motorcycle racing. But the hysteria around Red Bull F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo drinking champagne out of his boot on the German GP podium showed just how rare it is to see something different in that domain.

So perhaps the scrutiny on Hamilton plays a role in more competitors feeling they have to stay within a set of undefined boundaries. Everything they say and do is all over the internet as soon as it happens, and some sponsors and/or employers are still more conservative than others. So, be Dave McDudeson away from the track, but Colin Corporate when you're there...

MotoGP feels more relaxed than most forms of motorsport. It no doubt helps that many of the riders are backed by an energy drink company, and that brings a level of freedom over, say, finance companies. As Red Bull has shown, those companies know marketing and have a different target audience. And, of course, Rossi has more than paved the way for fun to be acceptable during his 20 years in grand prix motorcycle racing. Everybody has seen the benefits of that.

It also feels less guarded in terms of what riders are willing to say about their own progress or broader topics and Crutchlow is very much the leader of that. What actually makes it to publication over the course of this season will probably be about 1% of what he says in his LCR's media sessions.

And that's not because he's talking rubbish or beige, that's media practicalities kicking in. Crutchlow has spoken out on the safety of winglets, and explained how his current situation feels impossible when he had been "king of qualifying" but maintaining his belief that he would "hammer" other satellite riders.

Perhaps the best came at the Sachsenring after qualifying, when he took aim at those he considered "embarrassing" in how they tow leading riders in those sessions.

"These idiots, they can't be in the top 10 so they just rip the arse out of people," Crutchlow said.

"Honestly, I'm going to come soon with a membership for about six guys to the 'caravan club'. Because that's all they are, fucking tow artists. I know it's part of the game, but it's absolutely pure embarrassment for these people to do it.

"That's like saying, 'I'm not as good as you, on a general day-to-day basis, I need help to do it'."

That sort of output is more indicative of other sports, probably even American sports. That nation always having been a bit ahead of the 'entertainment' element of things than those based in Europe and especially those with four wheels.

When MotoGP rolls into Silverstone next week, there will be a weight of local expectation on Crutchlow. One not really in line with the capabilities of his Honda in dry conditions - he reckoned he'd have finished sixth or seventh if Brno was a regular race.

So Crutchlow's going to have a packed schedule and have to answer a lot of the same questions over and over again, as the UK's two-wheeled drought breaker. But at least you know he'll be worth listening to. Or will he?

"I should be having a commission of the gate money I reckon, or maybe I just don't turn up," he joked on Sunday night at Brno.

MotoGP could hardly have a better new winner at a better time.