With the news that MotoGP will return to free-to-air TV in the UK for this weekend’s French Grand Prix, it’s a golden opportunity for the series to lure back some of the fans that stopped watching when it moved to BT Sport at the start of the 2014 season.
If you’re one of those who lost touch with MotoGP once it was pay-per-view and you do decide to dip your toe again this weekend on ITV4’s live coverage of all of Sunday’s action, you’ll quickly notice that lots has changed in grand prix racing in the past eight years – but lots has remained the same too.
With that in mind, The Race has taken a look at the things to watch out for if you’re a returning fan looking to get up to speed quicker than a Yamaha M1 around the Bugatti circuit.
Marquez is now the elder statesman
Back in 2013, Marc Marquez was MotoGP’s rookie sensation, winning the title in the premier class at his very first attempt.
Since then, he’s gone on to dominate the series, winning every championship from then until 2019 with the exception only of 2015, when he lost out to Jorge Lorenzo.
However, 2020 was the hardest year of his career, after a badly broken arm at the opening race and a subsequently botched recovery meant he ended up sitting out the entire season, leaving Suzuki rider Joan Mir to take the championship.
And, now 28 years old, Marquez is not fully back to fitness as he returns to a very different grid in 2021.
Now the elder statesman rather than the young hotshot, it remains to be seen how long it takes him to return to winning ways – and to see if he can once again dominate the class.
It’s not just a Honda/Yamaha show now
Eight years ago, MotoGP was dominated not only by Marquez but by Honda and Yamaha, with the two Japanese manufacturers taking every single podium finish of the year.
In 2020, Honda and Aprilia were the only two out of the six manufacturers that didn’t win a race – and Aprilia the only one that didn’t make the podium.
The substantial rewriting of the rules in order to create parity, aid struggling manufacturers and close the field more than ever, has been a colossal success for MotoGP organiser Dorna.
It’s reaping the rewards with better racing and more competitive bikes than any point in the series’ history.
There’s a whole host of new rising stars
In the past few seasons, there’s been a changing of the guard. Gone are names like Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow, replaced with a bunch of hot new talent who are pushing the sport to new limits.
New world champion Mir is only 23 years old and won the title in his second season in the premier class. Equal runners-up Franco Morbidelli and Alex Rins are in their mid-twenties. Current championship leader Pecco Bagnaia and 2021’s double race winner Fabio Quartararo are even younger.
Every single team is a potential podium finisher
It’s not just every manufacturer that’s looking like it’s in podium contention at the minute – it’s almost every single bike on the grid thanks to an incredible system of parity among brands that has sprung up in recent years to reduce the gap between factory and satellite to almost nothing.
Only the two Ducati rookies at Esponsorama Racing and Franco Morbidelli at Petronas SRT Yamaha are racing last year’s machines, with every other rider on the grid on a brand new 2021 machine.
Morbidelli was runner-up in the championship last year, his team-mate Quartararo won three races, and Tech3 KTM rider Miguel Oliveira was a double winner, proving that pretty much every bike on the grid can now be competitive.
Rossi is still there but far from great
In some regards, it’s quite remarkable that Valentino Rossi is still racing at all. Now 42 years old and in his 25th season, he’s 10 years older than the second-oldest rider!
He’s still shown flashes of inspiration relatively recently, too, taking a podium at the second round of 2020 at his beloved Jerez.
However, 2021 has been an unmitigated disaster so far. He’s been way off the pace, struggling to score points never mind podiums.
He’s not got slower as such – his Jerez pace from this year matched his podium pace from last year – but with the crop of young talent driving on the pace at the front, his age is starting to show now.
Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Crutchlow are still there in the background
They might not be on the grid, but some of the past big names of the sport still aren’t too far away – and some of them are still playing a very key role in making MotoGP as entertaining as it is.
Former Repsol Honda stalwart Pedrosa switched allegiance to KTM upon retirement from racing, and has done a stellar job as test rider. He’s largely credited with the remarkable improvements we’ve seen in the RC16 bike of late.
Crutchlow has moved into a similar role at Yamaha, and already Quartararo and Vinales are singing his praises only a few months into the job.
The ever-controversial Lorenzo has found his own niche of late, as well, in a slightly different field – taking to YouTube to air his opinions as he attempts to launch a media career.
Michelin’s control tyres play a huge role
Back in the day of BBC coverage of MotoGP, control tyres came from Bridgestone and generally didn’t play much of a role in racing thanks to what could be positively described as consistency or negatively as absolute boredom.
Michelin has turned that upside down, though. Bringing a wider selection of tyres that work differently on different machines and making sure that they don’t last all race if you go flat out, it’s ensured tyre management has become a key part of MotoGP.
As Tech3 KTM rider Danilo Petrucci pointed out recently, with Bridgestone we knew who was going to win at 1.30pm on Saturday (after the all-important FP4 session), but with Michelin we don’t know who’s going to win at 1.30pm on Sunday (30 minutes into the race!).
The switch to Triumph engines has made Moto2 a talent factory
ITV4’s coverage includes Moto2 and Moto3 too, and it’s well worth starting your viewing early to get them in.
Grand prix racing’s intermediate class sometimes has a reputation for boredom, thanks to races that tend to be decided sooner rather than later as pace and breakaway speed play more of a role than last-corner scraps.
But the switch to from 600cc Honda engines to Triumph’s 765cc powerplant in 2019 has made Moto2 what it should be: a talent factory, producing hotshot young riders well-versed in the ins and out of setting up a bike when they make the switch to MotoGP.
That’s why all three of the 2021 MotoGP rookies are supremely talented Moto2 riders from last year, with Luca Marini, Jorge Martin and reigning champion Enea Bastianini all very impressive so far.
But their departure at the end of last year hasn’t made Moto2 any less dull this year, as British series veteran Sam Lowes goes up against a bunch of fast kids for the title.
Moto3 is just as mad as it ever was
The more some things have changed, the more others have remained the same – and we’re relieved to say that Moto3 is just as crazy as always.
Still regularly producing 20-rider fights for the win that are only decided in the final corner, it’s the motorcycling equivalent of gladiatorial mass brawls rather than the prizefighter bouts that the other two classes produce.
Normally wide open every weekend, Moto3 2021 has been dominated by a sensational talent in the shape of rookie Pedro Acosta.
Four races into his grand prix career, he’s already won three of them – including a victory from pitlane after a penalty at the second round in Qatar.
He’s being hotly tipped as the next big thing, and Le Mans is another chance to add to that reputation.
