Pramac confirming Jack Miller alongside Miguel Oliveira completed a 2025 MotoGP line-up headlined by Marc Marquez joining Pecco Bagnaia in the works Ducati team - and a lot of big names exiting the Ducati fold as a result.
With the grid settled, it was time to summon The Race MotoGP Podcast family - regulars Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy, Megan White and Matt Beer plus roving reporter Ollie Card, producer Jonny Reynolds and big boss/occasional podcast supersub Glenn Freeman - to rank all 11 teams' line-ups from worst to best.
The MotoGP (grand prix race) scoring system was then applied to create our full ranking:
11 LCR Honda
Johann Zarco + Somkiat Chantra
39 points
Down one place from 2024
Highest ranking: 9th (Matt)
Lowest ranking: 11th (Megan, Jonny, Glenn)
Honda's satellite team replacing veteran Taka Nakagami with Moto2 graduate Somkiat Chantra means LCR drops to the bottom.
"Chantra will be a breath of fresh air in the paddock, but he's going to have a very difficult debut," says Simon, while Ollie expects "exciting character" Chantra's "enigmatic smile to fade once he hops onto the Honda and realises the grave situation" and adds "a middling Moto2 season doesn't seem like the best gateway to MotoGP".
There's plenty of faith in Johann Zarco, though. "He’s the unsung hero of this season and I bet he'll be the first to get a Honda back on a podium somehow," reckons Matt.
10 Gresini Ducati
Alex Marquez + Fermin Aldeguer
45 points
Down 7 places from 2024
Highest ranking: 8th (Val, Megan)
Lowest ranking: 11th (Simon, Ollie)
Bringing in Marc Marquez rocketed Gresini eight places up our ranking last year. Losing him means nearly as big a drop in the opposite direction now.
Val summarises the Marquez who's still there (Alex) as having "plateaued a bit as a middle-of-the-road performer with low-grip peaks but dubious tyre conservation" but much of this low ranking is down to scepticism over rookie Fermin Aldeguer - signed to a Ducati MotoGP deal on the basis of sensational 2023 Moto2 form but rather less sensational since then.
Glenn wonders if Ducati will "end up looking too hasty" in jumping for Aldeguer, Simon reckons Ducati will be "desperately hoping it gets 2023 Aldeguer not the rather lacklustre 2024 version" and Ollie fears a "shaky 2024 isn't a good foundation for MotoGP in 2025".
Podcast regulars might not be surprised that Val gives the best Aldeguer defence.
"Aldeguer is probably not as good as his Moto2 peaks but not as rough as his current Moto2 campaign," he argues. "He's a good choice for a rookie punt."
9 Pramac Yamaha
Miguel Oliveira + Jack Miller
49 points
Down 5 places from 2024
Highest ranking: 8th (Glenn, Matt)
Lowest ranking: 10th (Megan, Jonny)
Pramac's pair of experienced race winners "doesn't excite" Jonny, while Ollie says Jack Miller needs to be "more thriller than spiller" and Miguel Oliveira needs to "rediscover his better form".
Matt seems to have accidentally given this pair one of their higher ratings while feeling that "they're far too inconsistent and unreliable for the vital combination of development and top-team fallback that Pramac needs to offer Yamaha".
8 Trackhouse Aprilia
Raul Fernandez + Ai Ogura
49 points
Up 3 places from 2024
Highest ranking: 8th (Simon, Ollie, Jonny)
Lowest ranking: 11th (Matt)
Oliveira's old team is only ahead of his new one in this ranking on countback. There's some excitement about his replacement Ai Ogura - "the most exciting of the incoming rookies" according to Glenn and "a gem" according to Val.
There are contrasting views on Raul Fernandez - Simon feels he's now really "stepped up" in MotoGP and Ollie's spotted "glimmers of excellence" but Val worries the past Moto2 sensation might be "fundamentally limited by current MotoGP's qualifying-skewed demands" and Matt is "baffled about what the data is showing Aprilia that the actual performance on track isn't", considering Aprilia chief Massimo Rivola's high praise of Fernandez.
7 Honda
Joan Mir + Luca Marini
64 points
Up 1 place from 2024
Highest ranking: 6th (Val)
Lowest ranking: 7th (Everyone else)
"How the hell do you judge anyone who has to ride a Honda?" wonders Glenn.
Well, the rest of us gave it a go and the majority of us settled on placing Joan Mir and Luca Marini seventh, summed up by Simon's "solid but not exceptional" conclusion.
Val was the outlier, putting the pair in the giddy heights of sixth.
"Though Mir's 2024 has largely been a disappointment in my book, irrespective of Honda's RC213V's badness, I think there are signs he can still channel those same Sunday smarts that had won him the 2020 title," he declares.
"And I've been really encouraged by Marini's progress - from admittedly a very low starting point - on the other side of the garage."
6 VR46 Ducati
Fabio Di Giannantonio, Franco Morbidelli
72 points
Up 1 place from 2024
Highest ranking: 5th (Simon, Val)
Lowest ranking: 6th (Everyone else)
Quite a lot of excitement about what Fabio di Giannantonio - who this time last year looked set to drop right off the MotoGP grid - will do with a 2025-spec Ducati.
"A dark horse," reckons Simon and Ollie can see him "painting the podium fluorescent".
Ollie also predicts the "warm embrace of the VR46 family" will help Franco Morbidelli back to his best form.
Matt's less convinced: "Even with a bit of allowance for the road bike crash that wrecked his pre-season, we're still just not seeing anywhere near enough from Morbidelli on the best bike on the grid right now."
5 Tech3 KTM
Enea Bastianini, Maverick Vinales
82 points
Up 4 places from 2024
Highest ranking: 4th (Val, Glenn, Matt)
Lowest ranking: 6th (Simon)
Ollie calls Aprilia convert Maverick Vinales and Ducati convert Enea Bastianini "team coin toss". "They are well matched in terms of demonstrating a spectrum of riding prowess that ranges from 'barnstorming' to 'MIA'," he says.
Simon's on a similar theme: "It's going to be interesting to see how two of the series' more delicate talents react to the very different environment of KTM's satellite team. It might be that they both thrive, but right now there's question marks about that."
But Val has faith: "I think Tech3 and KTM could've done much, much worse than bring in two riders who are bad in the early phases of races (something the KTM's traits feel uniquely suited to tackle) but pretty good at most other things."
Matt is "still disappointed that we've seen so (relatively) little of Bastianini's best on a works Ducati considering how awesome he looked at Gresini" and "only expects Vinales to be genuinely good about twice per year" and yet "despite all that, on their very best days either of these two could blow everyone else on the grid away, and that’s an amazing thing to say about a Tech3 line-up".
4 Yamaha
Fabio Quartararo, Alex Rins
91 points
Down 3 places from 2024
Highest ranking: 3rd (Simon, Megan)
Lowest ranking: 5th (Val, Glenn, Matt)
"The 2021 world champion and the last man to take a victory for Honda. Both brilliant." - Megan feels the stats speak for themselves when it comes to Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins, and Simon calls it "a far better rider line-up than the bike deserves right now".
But last year these two topped our list, and the reason they don't 12 months on is entirely down to the question marks over Rins.
"While Rins has earned a solid enough grace period, at some point you can no longer subside on 'the idea of Alex Rins' and have to look at the results," says Val.
"He has not got a clear run in, fitness-wise, and that is not his fault, but nor can it be taken for granted that he'll ever get back to the superb rider he was."
3rd Aprilia
Jorge Martin + Marco Bezzecchi
121 points
Up 2 places from 2024
Highest ranking: 2nd (Simon, Glenn, Matt)
Lowest ranking: 4th (Megan)
What Simon calls "the most fiery line-up on the grid" and one Ollie reckons is bursting with "fearlessness" misses out on second in our ranking because of the varied expectations of Marco Bezzecchi - such a star in 2023 but emphatically not so in 2024.
For Glenn, Jorge Martin's level over the last two years is so high he elevates the line-up even if Bezzecchi continues to flounder. Matt is still convinced we'll discover that 2024 was the anomaly in Bezzecchi's career and he's back to his best next year.
But for Jonny and Megan, the 'Bezz factor' drags Aprilia's all-new line-up down.
2 KTM
Brad Binder + Pedro Acosta
125 points
Up 4 places from 2024
Highest ranking: 2nd (Val, Megan, Ollie, Jonny)
Lowest ranking: 4th (Simon)
Well, we definitely all agree that Pedro Acosta is well worthy of promotion into KTM's factory team. "A stunning breakout season that's lived up to the hype," says Megan, while Ollie reckons Acosta has "redefined the rookie year" and Simon declares Acosta "the name everyone wants if they can't get Marc Marquez".
It's Brad Binder - so long "KTM's standalone golden child", as Ollie puts it - who's caused the wavering, though Megan points out that he is actually back ahead of Acosta in the championship now.
Will Binder fall into the "dependable old hand" role in the shadow of "ludicrously quick youngster" Acosta that Jonny expects? Or will Acosta's arrival be a "timely sharpener" for Binder as Ollie predicts?
Val questions whether Binder's actually faded at all, pointing out that if you look at what Augusto Fernandez and Miller have done on KTMs this year, Binder's as impressive as ever. But Acosta is "already better", Val agrees, and "that's formidable" as a combination.
1 Ducati
Pecco Bagnaia + Marc Marquez
175 points
Up 1 place from 2024
Highest ranking: 1st (Everyone)
"If anyone hasn't put this number one you have to question what they are doing here," says Glenn. And luckily, seeing as Glenn's the one who probably has the power to sack us all, we all did put Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez top of the list.
Having eight of the 10 MotoGP champion's crowns in the current field between them is hard to argue with, and it may well be up to nine by the time they share a garage.
"This one requires no explanation. The reigning two-time world champion and one of the greatest riders MotoGP has ever seen? Yeah, this one is good," concludes Megan.
But will it be harmonious?
Ollie reckons Marquez will be a "hungry and confident shark who has smelled blood" given the events of his last year.
"You'd hope that their two differing styles should complement each other, but I'd imagine the harmony will last right up until the moment Ducati's golden son and the incoming reborn superstar find the same piece of asphalt going into Turn 1. Fireworks make for a beautiful show."
