MotoGP 2025 Discussion Thread *Warning: Spoilers allowed*

250R-ICE said:

Is it just me or has the Interest in Motogp decreased a lot this season. Typically there would be a lot of discussions post races.
As much as I like MotoGP , even I am finding this season so predictable.
I really wish we could go back to "Alien" era. Where at any given race there would be 5-6 riders that could win. Even watching the mid pack fighting for points was exciting.
This is turning into Formula 1 for me . Hardly any passing or fighting for positions. Same rider winning everything by huge margins. Same 2,3 positions.
When a rider tells the fans I hope I gave you a good race at the end. It seems even they know it has become too predictable.

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I've been whinging about a lack of competitiveness for three years. I haven't watched a minute live this season, though I did watch the highlights from Le Mans.

Add up the following:

- bad aero regs that allow for far too much dirty air behind a bike, mess with tires, make passing difficult and totally change handling whether leading or following
- poor tire development rules that are out of sync with the badly written aero regs
- ridiculous loophole devices like ride height adjustment that can't be banned due to requiring unanimous agreement from the manufacturers (including the one manufacturer that has specialized in developing said loophole devices and benefits massively from them)
- one utterly dominant manufacturer which also has the most bikes on the grid, allowing a huge amount of data aggregating
- the greatest racer of all time on said dominant bike
- total changes to the rule set coming in 2027 and a development pause in 2026 that means everyone not called Ducati isn't wasting time trying to fix their flawed bikes for the current gen, but are focused on the next gen
- all the competition either being tiny (Aprilia), verging on bankruptcy (KTM) or questioning the value of the spend required to be competitive due to changing sales dynamics that involve selling a lot fewer big bikes (Honda, Yamaha)
- an out-of-touch organiser in Dorna that has totally lost their grip on the series and manages races poorly

All of it totals one of the least interesting seasons since the days of Agostini's factory MV dominating a bunch of privateers. Full credit to the Marquez's and Ducati for maximizing their advantage, but it's on Dorna for letting it get this out of hand. It's not like this is a blip, it's been the Ducati Cup for a few years now.

Based on the above, I'd expect next year will be more of the same, and then I'm praying that 2027 brings a shuffling of the deck. If it's more Ducati dominance, I fear for the health of the series. I'm sure Liberty Media will do a better job than Dorna of getting ahead of the issues, or so I hope. There's a long history of car folks walking into the motorcycle world thinking they know better, only to find out things aren't 1:1.

I think the biggest risk is that the Japanese factories simply aren't willing to invest what Ducati is, and it continues down the same path of single-make dominance.

On a similar tip, I wonder about the long-term viability of WSBK considering the whole reason for the series is long gone and hardly anyone is buying the associated street bikes anymore...

Yea although I am a Duc owner and fan. For the interest of the sport. I would like to see more manufactures being able to compete. It would the wins more interesting.
Hopefully when the new rules come in. The sport becomes more balanced.
Would love to see BMW , Kawasaki etc coming in. Most importantly more riders that can win on any given day.
I really feel for riders like Fabio Q riding beyond the limits and not seeing the results due to bike that can't compete.

It's a weird thing to complain about, but I think that I haven't been commenting much this season because of event saturation. Everything starts to blur together between the sprints and the increased number of race weekends. I've always watched Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE as well, so that's a lot of screen time. I subscribed to WSBK for a year or two as well, but that was just too much so I did not renew it.

Oddly enough, I don't mind the MM93/Ducati dominance. It's like he's in a separate race class and barring a serious injury the championship is pretty much already written, which leaves me free to focus on everyone else. I find I appreciate the more minor stories now: AM73's surprisingly strengthened form, FB63's dejection, FQ20/Yamaha making what looks like actual progress, Zarco finally getting his win on a satellite Honda of all things. And MotoGP is sort of about the stories. Moto3 has always been the thing to watch if you want to see close, fierce racing.

Ash said:

It's a weird thing to complain about, but I think that I haven't been commenting much this season because of event saturation. Everything starts to blur together between the sprints and the increased number of race weekends. I've always watched Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE as well, so that's a lot of screen time. I subscribed to WSBK for a year or two as well, but that was just too much so I did not renew it.

Oddly enough, I don't mind the MM93/Ducati dominance. It's like he's in a separate race class and barring a serious injury the championship is pretty much already written, which leaves me free to focus on everyone else. I find I appreciate the more minor stories now: AM73's surprisingly strengthened form, FB63's dejection, FQ20/Yamaha making what looks like actual progress, Zarco finally getting his win on a satellite Honda of all things. And MotoGP is sort of about the stories. Moto3 has always been the thing to watch if you want to see close, fierce racing.

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Agreed.

MotoGP has always had its eras of dominance. The Rossi years had him clinching each championship with several rounds left in the season. He won 80-90% of the races, it wasn't even close.

In 2007, Casey Stoner finished off the podium only 4 times out of 18 rounds, it was still an exciting season, despite every race being a foregone conclusion.

There are other stories besides who wins the race. If I didn't tune in because the same racer wins every race, I wouldn't have seen heart-warming stories like Petrucci's and Zarco's wins. Watching flashes of brilliance from rookies like Acosta and Ogura, etc.

I still watch MotoGP and WSBK. I like it. *shrug*

The 12x Sachen-King re-emerges to take his throne! Stand up!


Consolations to Pecco for finally getting himself on a podium and being absolutely DESTROYED by Marc in what was his Team in less than half a season--I'm not sure how long they can keep him around if he just keeps shrugging it off like it was an inevitably. Italian or not, VAG is going to want to know why he isn't even on the podium alongside him if this remains.

I hate to have said it so bluntly over the years, despite being proven correct, but it was always the Bike and obviously almost never the Ducati riders that won championships.

Priller said:

I've been whinging about a lack of competitiveness for three years. I haven't watched a minute live this season, though I did watch the highlights from Le Mans.

Add up the following:

- bad aero regs that allow for far too much dirty air behind a bike, mess with tires, make passing difficult and totally change handling whether leading or following
- poor tire development rules that are out of sync with the badly written aero regs
- ridiculous loophole devices like ride height adjustment that can't be banned due to requiring unanimous agreement from the manufacturers (including the one manufacturer that has specialized in developing said loophole devices and benefits massively from them)
- one utterly dominant manufacturer which also has the most bikes on the grid, allowing a huge amount of data aggregating
- the greatest racer of all time on said dominant bike
- total changes to the rule set coming in 2027 and a development pause in 2026 that means everyone not called Ducati isn't wasting time trying to fix their flawed bikes for the current gen, but are focused on the next gen
- all the competition either being tiny (Aprilia), verging on bankruptcy (KTM) or questioning the value of the spend required to be competitive due to changing sales dynamics that involve selling a lot fewer big bikes (Honda, Yamaha)
- an out-of-touch organiser in Dorna that has totally lost their grip on the series and manages races poorly

All of it totals one of the least interesting seasons since the days of Agostini's factory MV dominating a bunch of privateers. Full credit to the Marquez's and Ducati for maximizing their advantage, but it's on Dorna for letting it get this out of hand. It's not like this is a blip, it's been the Ducati Cup for a few years now.

Based on the above, I'd expect next year will be more of the same, and then I'm praying that 2027 brings a shuffling of the deck. If it's more Ducati dominance, I fear for the health of the series. I'm sure Liberty Media will do a better job than Dorna of getting ahead of the issues, or so I hope. There's a long history of car folks walking into the motorcycle world thinking they know better, only to find out things aren't 1:1.

I think the biggest risk is that the Japanese factories simply aren't willing to invest what Ducati is, and it continues down the same path of single-make dominance.

On a similar tip, I wonder about the long-term viability of WSBK considering the whole reason for the series is long gone and hardly anyone is buying the associated street bikes anymore...

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All valid points, and I'm not really enjoying the 1 sided domination either, tbh: 2019 was all I wanted to see of this level of domination, but thr truth is that no one is on Marc's level, probably never will either and this isn't even peak Marc who will win Constructors and Riders entirely by himself with a resounding 420 points with only GPs. This is a semi-prgamatic Marc (see: Sprint race in the rain hunting down an Aprillia) who knows a career ending injury is always looming.

It's crazy because even this dominant Ducati will bite him at his favorite tracks (COTA, Jerez) and even that doesn't even do much for the spectacle for the Sport as it's all pretty much wrapped up.

Mean it's something that I can only watch live if I have nothing else to do the following day (EU/Asia time races are a much bigger challenge then before) so I just watch BT/TnT sports replays most times.

Oddly, I think MotoGP (be it either under Dorna or Liberty) needed this story arc more than they need a competitive field because they both need a new audience to tap into to justify the sell/merger... because like what Liberty has done for F1 they need Marc's story to be re-told on a series and a movie that will be the Marketing hook they need to get a new sector of watchers. They want to see this story more than most die-hards who have seen his entire career as one over-arching thing which has made him the indisputable GOAT, regardless of titles/wins/podiums/poles etc... this Man is what Marketing teams salivate over, and MotoGP will always be just a massive traveling Motorcycle ad.

And yet... it seems like it's new ATH of on track attendance every other round, so something is working but I'm starting to even miss the Marquez v Dovi days at this point, and opine I didn't watch most of the Alien era (started to watch reguraly in 2013ish when Marc hit GP) when it was live because this is a series with the only and best Alien left on 2 wheels.

Personally, as a Marc fan but an even bigger fan of the Sport: this season is a 6/10 so far.

I always doubted Martin was going to ever do anything but putt around that Aprillia and now that they are going to force him to see his contract out it's less likely we will see much of anything interesting until 2027. Fabio and Mir are probably going to be one offs until he retires, and Pecco was always a glorified works rider on the best bike with VR46 backing, though i respect him for defying the Rossi trope and being Man enough to know he just can't compete and still maintains a respectful and cordial relationship (stopping the boos for example).

As to the Japanese brands, they lose money on their flagship SS, always have and likely always will, but they make it all up from selling thier brand/image to SE Asia and whatever developing economy de jour thier focus may be on with the smaller 50-250cc work horses they can crank out in massive numbers so it's hard to say if they can completely give it up.

The real question is if they will see it impossible to win unless they get Marc (or his closest equivalent) on their bike, which if I'm honest I want to see him back on a competitive Honda to close out his career and win again on--ideally one that isn't trying to kill him on every turn. Still... watching him tame and prove Newton's notions of gravity wrong on those death machines was worth the cost of entry.

Absolutely wild Moto2 race.

Ash said:

Absolutely wild Moto2 race.

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Wild is an understatement…

I don’t think I’ve EVER seen a race to accomplish that amount of ********* ever before….