By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer

Late September 2005 at Ernée, France, the Motocross of Nations was re-born. The combination of a capable, amphitheatre circuit, a hot region for motorsport fandom in Europe (Le Mans is a short distance east), the inclusion of Team USA for the first time in two years and with marquee names like Carmichael (then reigning SX and MX champ and fresh off the back of two perfect outdoor seasons) Windham and Tedesco and some late summer sunshine created a boom. Infront Motor Racing (then Youthstream) had re-taken control of the FIM World Championship and the Motocross des Nations from 2004 and had staged a low-key ‘recovery’ edition at Lierop that year. 2005 was a return to full pomp and billing with an official attendance of 60,000 cited for the weekend.

From that moment Ernée has held a special slot in MXoN (the ‘of’ came into being from 2004) lore. Incarnations in 2015, 2023 and now 2026 became bigger and more raucous as the race generally developed into an annual ‘must see’. The Nations used to be the best chance for worldwide fans to witness the best of the AMA series in action and to see athletes like RC, Villopoto, Stewart, Dungey, Tomac, Barcia, Webb and then Reed and the Lawrences up close. But it also rapidly became a gathering point for the industry and a platform for promotion to a vast audience and the largest endemic media gathering of the year. The extra feeling of importance and scale surrounded the MXoN and its build-up, and expansion invited more ambition; one-off tracks like Donington Park, Franciacorta and TT Circuit Assen popped up while large, experienced or time-honoured circuits like Ernée, Matterley Basin and Maggiora were the only suitable options for the sizeable eclectic gathering of fans and the attention paid by brands that engaged hospitality rigs and set-ups rarely seen at offroad events.

The MXoN was the only international meeting with enough clout and financial muscle to breach American borders, from Budds Creek to Thunder Valley to RedBud and Ironman and after failed projects for the USGP from California to Carolina to Florida.

The MXoN has frequently delivered for racing scenes or drama. Stefan Everts’ perfection in 2006, Ryan Villopoto’s surprising MX2 dominance in ‘07, Sebastien Pourcel’s defeat of James Stewart in ’08, Chad Reed and Tony Cairoli’s duel in 2009, Gautier Paulin’s double win to start France’s streak in 2014, Jason Anderson’s win and shocking accident at Maggiora, Max Anstie’s freaky 1-1 at Matterley in 2017 and Glenn Coldenhoff’s blast at RedBud, Tim Gajser’s last lap attack on Jett Lawrence in the UK and Hunter Lawrence’s majesty in Indiana 2025 to name just some. The MXoN has also kept patriotism as a key identifiable trait as motorsport, in general, balances saturation on social media and seeks novel ways and methods to engage new fans and generations.

For all the promise and premise, the pulse ahead of 2026 Ernée felt a little weak. The MXoN had only occurred at the track three years earlier. The Lawrence brothers had long declared their intention to have a respite from the 31-dates of SMX and would not travel to France. There was the annual furore about Team USA with injuries and controversy affecting the three-rider line-up right up until the week before the race. The Americans are the most prolific country at the MXoN with 23 victories but have lifted the Chamberlain cup only once since 2011. A high-profile racer and national champion like Haiden Deegan continues to flirt around Team USA with confusing messages. Yes, the 20-year-old has been unlucky with timing and post-season surgery but then is surrounded by contradiction. He bangs a jingoistic drum but only wants to dance for a dime. The MXoN and international motocross fans wait for Deegan, and a rider of his ability and stature would bring Team USA back to those days of reverence for the Stars and Stripes.

The Deegan discussion did resurface valid questions about the promoter’s role in the fabric of the MXoN. Ernée brought over 30 countries to the French paddock with 20 hoping to make the motos on Sunday. Should each of them receive some sort of support from Infront? Even in the form of travel indemnity? Or maybe extra backing from the FIM, instead of focusing on diluted versions of the MXon with the Intercontinental Games? Fan funding and inventive sponsorship programmes usually help teams as established as Belgium and Switzerland compete in the race. Team USA are stuck in a quandary of being the biggest draw but are also the largest, richest and most fecund motocross market in the world. Should the financial burden of freight and travel fall on the professional race teams? For most, the prominence of sponsors is lost in the blur of spec-liveries. Should Federations be even more proactive with the ‘reach’ of the spectacle?

Stakeholders across the board need to keep pace with the marketing and opportunism of the MXoN as eyeballs and investment from the public (and therefore the potential of the MXoN) is not waning. Ernée themselves had increased their hospitality possibilities considerably over 2015 and 2023 with a double-tier VIP unit towering over the bulk of the crowd. From my infield perch high on the opposing Ernée hillside, the facility was ram-packed from the furthest point left all the way to the right and back around to the upper viewing gallery behind me. The official event figure of 105,000 spectators (Friday now counted with the first day hosting numerous activations like the team presentation) did not feel like an exaggeration.

Ernée did not lack star power. MXGP, MX2, SMX and EMX champions were in play. Race teams from all the factories filled the paddock and Honda and Yamaha even decided to run demo laps with their electric prototypes. Brands like Red Bull and Alpinestars constructed their hospi set-ups usually reserved for the likes of MotoGP. The racing was gripping with a Jeffrey Herlings/Jorge Prado face-off, a third moto charge by Herlings, unexpected disaster for the hosts, the Coenen ‘experience’ and a third-generation Everts again splashing that famous name on a podium ceremony.

Around the venue there was an ‘end of term’ vibe; nothing new for the Nations but more acute thanks to (yet more) good French fortune with the climate. The Pollock-esque collision of colours on the hillside came from the ‘mandatory’ presence of flags. The campsites were rammed, boisterous and partially hidden from the main circuit area.

“I think it is more than just a sport event now,” Infront Moto Racing CEO David Luongo told us while airhorns blared, flares plumed and the podium ceremony bombast filled the air in the distance below us. “It’s a celebration of our sport. It’s a party where many nationalities want to come to celebrate motocross. A lot of public also comes to this race for the camping and the scene around, to see friends. It’s a historic event [for motocross]; maybe like Le Mans or Monaco or the Isle of Man. You have a selection of events in the world that ‘mark’ people and I think the Nations is one of them.”

“The Nations always delivers surprise and emotion,” he added.

Ernée heaved and swelled at the seams. The scant security services seemed in danger of being overwhelmed, as Yamaha nudged against the rafters with their own YZ Cup set-up and collection of young riders. The French club’s experience in moulding the magnitude of the Nations and the collaboration with the local town and region mean it is now arguably the most proficient location on the continent, and it’s little surprise that it is slated again to stage the contest in 2029, even if more growth could even put Ernée at peril.

“From the moment we came back in 2005 they have always improved the facilities and the infrastructure and now the club is working with 1200 volunteers that come from around the region for this event,” David revealed. “We broke the record for spectators this time; for three days we went to 105,000, including the passes also, and I don’t know where we can put more here because it is really packed.”.

There are rough edges. The MXoN at Ernée still needs better paddock and circuit access, improved sanitation and bigger and better provisions for refreshments. These were assessments shared by some of the companies with structures in the paddock. “I think there are queues for food and beverage and for when they [people] have to move around,” Luongo conceded “but I have to say the organisation is perfect and I’m very happy with this last race of the season.”

The MXoN will remain on familiar terrain for the years ahead. The TT Circuit Assen made their 2027 presentation in France for a replay of the 2019 edition (hopefully without the same relentless rain) while Ironman will be the American platform again in 2028.

The attitude of participants could be in flux: who knows how the champions of the coming years will embrace the Nations. Jeffrey Herlings was one of just five riders in the last ten years to have gone 1-1 on the day as Team Netherlands finished 3rd. The Dutchman’s brilliance and results highlighted the uniquity of the MXoN; personal success doesn’t always equal team success. Only eight riders since 2004 have won both of their motos and ascended with their team to the top of the box. It’s a tricky blend. “Even though there is nothing on the line - we kinda do it for free - it’s a race we do for the country and for the team,” the MXGP world champions said. “As you can see with the fans; it’s quite impressive. It was full and you can see it is still the biggest race of the year. The whole industry, all the brands. For me the Motocross of Nations is a traditional race. It’s a pure passion race.”

Motocross of Nations double moto winners and country positions:

2026: Jeffrey Herlings (Team Netherlands 3rd)

2025: Hunter Lawrence (Team Australia 1st)

2024: Tim Gajser Team Slovenia 7th)

2021: Jeffrey Herlings (Team Netherlands 2nd)

2019: Glenn Coldenhoff (Team Netherlands 1st)

2018: Glenn Coldenhoff (Team Netherlands 2nd)

2017: Max Anstie (Team Great Britain 3rd)

2015: Romain Febvre (Team France 1st)

2014: Gautier Paulin (Team France 1st)

2013: Tony Cairolia (Team Italy 3rd)

2012: Tony Cairolia (Team Italy 5th)

2010: Ryan Dungey (Team USA 1st)

2007: Ryan Villopoto (Team USA 1st)

2006: Stefan Everts (Team Belgium 2nd)

2005: Ricky Carmichael (Team USA 1st)

2004: Stefan Everts (Team Belgium 1st)

Where did this come from? Guillem Farres had clearly shown speed and flashes of potential in his short career to-date and even sparked enough to a level of prominence in 250 SuperMotocross in the United States…but the 23-year-old had struggled to compile a full season of excellence…until a masterful display of consistency in 2026 in which he led the most laps, won the most motos and owned the most Grands Prix and tied on the most podiums. Farres sealed his first world title in Australia last weekend, and also the first for the Triumph factory after just three years of competition with the TF 250-X. From Manresa, Farres is the first Catalan #1 and can join athletes like Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez, Albert Arenas, Toni Bou, Josep Garcia, Marc Coma; adding motocross to disciplines like MotoGP, Moto3, Trial, Enduro and Rally to the small country’s ridiculous motorcycling record.

Farres has broken a few barriers by breaking a few bones. He tried to find a space in MX2, then chanced AMA Supercross and Motocross and, finally, signed for a fledging Triumph effort but there were stages of uncertainty, pain and mental strife that he struggles to describe. “Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of things in 2022 where I switched teams, I got a fill-in ride, and then was in MX2,” he says. “There was no consistency, also with my programme because I didn’t have a mechanic and was working on my bikes. Some days it would be a tuned bike, other days a stock one. I stuck to whatever was available.”

Farres found his way to the U.S. and to the long revolving list of Star Yamaha riders later that year. He caught the eye with top ten results and seemed to be cementing an opportunity until he broke his left arm at Thunder Valley for round three of the 2023 motocross season. “I had sacrificed a lot of things to go to the U.S. and I met a lot of amazing people there like Justin Cooper and Jillian, Levi Kitchen…I lived with them and even today I was speaking with Chase Sexton because we all spent a lot of time together in Clermont but it was not an easy time,” he recalls. “I had to deal with a lot of problems and with Yamaha also a lot of internal problems after my injury. I went there very happy although I was not earning any money and it was just a dream shot with a factory team. I then signed a contract…but a lot of things happened, and they did not really treat me good.”

Solace and another shot came with the factory Husqvarna squad for 2024 but in February that year, eight months after the setback in Colorado, came the injury that would alter everything.

“I’d done two supercross’ and I’d finished 8th and 9th or something like that,” he explains. “I’d had a good Heat race with a top four and it was at a time when the 250 East class was pretty stacked. I was happy and I was training for Daytona. My family was coming over for that one. I was going through the whoops and the wheel locked. I think the hub had broken but we’ll never really know. I had surgery right away because my femur was completely broken and my leg was just hanging off.”

“I was still motivated to make it back for the Outdoors. I went back to Spain to work on the recovery, and not to my home but to Madrid. I was sleeping while having magnetic therapy. Lucas Coenen was there, Ruben Fernandez while recovering from his ACL, Francisco Garcia also. After a month-and-a-half the femur was fine but the leg would not bend! I tried to sit on a bike - I always ride on my toes which means you bend your leg more – and I could not sit down because the knee would not bend. So, I decided to have another operation, which improved it a tiny bit.”

“I kept working for another month,” he continues. “A lot of pushing and pain. I would have people actually pushing my leg to bend and I was crying with pain. The day after something like that was not good. At that time Husky was making a push for me to come back and race…and I could not even sit on the dirtbike. So, I agreed to go back and continue the recovery in America. They were the ones taking care of my visa but when I got to London I could not fly because of a problem. That’s when I went a bit crazy and said: ‘I’m done…I’m not going back’. I went back to Madrid and called the physio to organise another surgery to remove the rod. We went for it and they couldn’t take it out because it was a special rod from the U.S. that required a special tool. They found out it was easier to leave it in because bone had grown over it. They left it but did a good job cleaning up and that’s when I started to feel an improvement and things became a bit better…that’s when I started talking to Triumph.”

Farres didn’t (and doesn’t) feel like he had unfinished business in the States. “I had offers from other good teams… but I felt like I didn’t belong there,” he shrugs.

Initially, a ride back in the world championship was hard to source. “I was waiting for the surgery and I was calling teams,” he explains. “A lot of them actually, and they were like ‘maybe, but we don’t know’. So, basically, they were not interested. But from the first moment I spoke to Triumph they were all-in. I’m grateful for that and it’s been great to grow with them.”

Once Triumph had made their surprising public declaration to widen the catalogue from enticing naked bikes and retro themed street machines to encompass motocross and enduro, one of their best strategic decisions was signing a deal with Thierry Chizat-Suzzoni’s team. Triumph had established a big motorsport brand message by becoming the Grand Prix engine supplier to Moto2 from 2019 but off-road was a dip into the unknown. Chizat-Suzzoni’s outfit, marshalled by technician Vince Bereni came within a few laps of winning the 2021 MXGP world championship with Romain Febvre after nearly a decade representing Kawasaki’s factory efforts. The Dutch-based cosmopolitan crew were gazumped by Kimi Raikkonen’s IceOne team for the green machinery for 2022 but took on the Triumph mantle, began testing and developing, and swiftly started to eye serious results from 2025. The closeknit environment treasured by Febvre was the antidote for Farres and the equipment was progressing.

“Triumph, for me, is not just a team, it is like a huge family,” he says. “Vince is the one that trusted me and put me on the radar. Then our boss, Thierry; I don’t think I have met anyone like that in my life. It is a very ‘human’ team and I’m really happy to be here. It’s not just about business and that’s why I feel comfortable. Obviously, we are very serious and we do all the work but at the same time we try to keep it fun.”

Farres needed 2025 as a foundation. He finished 8th in the MX2 series with one podium but then set schedules and objectives that winter; bolstered by the input of test rider/now-trainer and advisor, former-MXGP winner and championship runner-up Clement Desalle and the tight relationship the team fostered with South African teammate Camden McLellan. The unit became strong. “What really stepped my game up was having a full season and two races every other weekend for the first time in 3-4 years…and then obviously putting in the work in the winter with Clement,” Farres says, analytically. “It’s not just the bike-side but as a person Clement had a lot to show us and to teach us. Having Camden as a teammate is great because we push each other hard when we ride. We always do everything together and you have good days and bad days. I think we are both smart and mature enough to take advantage of that [dynamic]. When Camden smokes me one day in training I don’t think it affects me…it helps me step up my game and also the other way around.”

Desalle, who had always been a very studious and individualistic racer, embraced the challenge of fine-tuning the riders as much as his diligent work with the TF 250-X (and the factory TF 450-X for its MXGP introduction in 2027; a bike that Farres will debut in his transition to the premier category).

“By the end of 2025 I saw they were ‘getting’ a few things, and I thought during the winter we could make a progression,” the Belgian tells us. “I also saw them more connected. It’s been really positive to see what they have learned, not only in training and on the bike but off the bike, in life.”

“It was part of the plan to make them work together as much as possible,” he adds. “They are open, and they have the characters to do it. I had a discussion with them at a race not so long ago because working together I see them progressing together in the same way.”

The bike was competitive for starts and reliability (even superseding the KTMs and Husqvarnas that had long dominated the 250 division) and were already superior to offerings from Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki. Farres and Mc Lellan would share 11 victories from 19 between them, tally 26 podiums and appear on the box together at 8 Grands Prix. 2026 became the year of Triumph with Bereni as technical ringmaster.

“He has a big influence on the bike and is the one changing stuff on the frame,” Farres reveals. “I see him as more of an engineer. We are also lucky to have Gunther Geerts from KYB for our suspension and he gets along great with Vince. When they take decisions then it is done as a group. Vince is super-smart and the way Triumph works is different; I’ve seen other factory teams, but Triumph’s way to be as a group is something else. It’s demanding…but also amazing. I might have ten different Triumphs but I know when I hop onto any of them it will feel like the same bike.”

Farres’s regularity each Grand Prix (and in a myriad of tracks and conditions) was critical, as McLellan chased him all the way. He blended precise technique with moments of throttle-heavy necessity. “I think, in a way, I am a little bit similar in style to [Jorge] Prado with the Trial-style and the technique, to ride on toes and stand-up,” he assesses. “But Jorge is really smooth on the throttle and carries a lot of momentum. I would say I am a mix between Jorge and Ruben; who is sometimes really aggressive but can also carries rhythm. I’m a mix.”.

The only sketchy moment was a double crash in the Qualification Heat in Sweden for round 15. “The second one, there was a bike on the landing and I tried to wheelie-it but I was too late to do something else,” he remembers. “Luckily, I was OK.” Farres was able to compete on Sunday looking like an extra from a movie bar brawl scene and his 4th position proved to be valuable in terms of points.

Guillem has now joined the very short list of Spanish motocross world champions; a roll call opened by Jorge Prado in 2018 for the first of two crowns in MX2 and then two in MXGP in 2023 and 2024. With Ruben Fernandez earning trophies for HRC in MXGP, Farres blasting MX2, Oriol Oliver clocking a satisfactory first season on the 450 and Francisco Garcia dominating EMX250, plus more riders pushing through the EMX ranks, Spain is very much on the ascendancy.

“I think we are capable,” Farres nods. “We have some good tracks, some good people around and some good conditions in the winter. OK, in the summer you might have to move but I love seeing Spanish riders do good in this sport. Before you’d have [Javier] Garcia Vico or [Jonathan] Barragan but it was just them…but now we have consistent Spanish presence at the GPs.”

The ability of Spaniards to excel at multiple levels and across various surfaces has also been down to priorities and activations at the foundations. The Spanish Federation has tried to help promote talent in this way. The wider spread of Spanish influence in motocross has been noticed elsewhere.

“In all the sports, if you do a great job in the base, then the results are coming,” said MotoGP Grand Prix winner and 2025 series runner-up Alex Marquez. “Maybe it affects a generation. Something that maybe Prado or riders like [Jose] Butron or Vico in his moment or Barragan also gave an idea of how to work and that it’s possible to do it. I remember Guillem, I think it was when he came back from the injury in America, that he was recovering in Madrid, he trained many, many days with us. He had no bike, no team…but then he found this opportunity and he’s doing an amazing job.”

There might be a very slight hobble along with Farres’ new swagger in the coming weeks and months. Motocross of Nations duty beckons for his country, along with the requisite media and promotion duties but then a debut on the 450 is also firmly in the agenda. From a decimated limb and despair he has forged the ultimate sporting pirouette.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Jordi Wheeler Garcia.

Tim Gajser’s blue Alpinestars’ look in 2026 has been arguably the best and most attractive in the MXGP gate (props as well for the yellow VR46 livery at the Trentino GP) but aesthetics mean little to the decorated 30-year-old who ends 2026 without a Grand Prix victory on the factory Yamaha YZ450FM after injury problems mean he misses the final two dates of the season.

Gajser has toiled for race-winning pace, effective starts (he has yet to claim a single holeshot) and has starred far too many crash replays. From the 17 rounds of 19 to-date and since the switch from ten years in Honda red to Yamaha blue, Tim has managed just two moto wins, five podiums and led a paltry 22 laps. His current standing of 3rd in the world championship is by no means a disaster, but it ranks a very distant second to fellow ‘changer’ Jeffrey Herlings, who took Gajser’s former mount to the title with two fixtures remaining and a hot streak of six Grands Prix of total dominance.

“It’s been a struggle to put everything together in one weekend,” Tim sighed when we spoke to him on the eve of the Dutch Grand Prix at Arnhem. “I feel like the speed is there and I am better and better but, on the bike, it is…inconsistent. It’s like two of the three races in a weekend would be good but then I would mess up or have some bad luck. Some crashes. It has been a difficult year so far.”

Tim’s professionalism and unconfrontational nature means he has a willingness to assume responsibility and to evade excuses, but it’s clear through the results, the performances and his own words that both rider-and-team were unable to get the multi world champ consistently comfortable on the YZ450FM; a bike that has proved problematic for Maxime Renaux, Calvin Vlaanderen and Jeremy Seewer in past seasons.

Gajser’s transfer to Yamaha was one of the big stories for 2026. Tim had sensationally claimed the MXGP crown in his first season with Honda’s CRF450RW in 2016 and had been a cornerstone of HRC’s reemergence as a Grand Prix super-power. His saddle was taken by Herlings, who was making his own sizeable departure from Red Bull KTM after representing the Austrians from 2010 to 2025. Both riders were tied to their old contracts until December 31st 2025. Herlings certainly won the acclimatisation ‘battle’ as Gajser also fought niggling physical ailments as a consequence of trying to find the Yamaha’s limits.

“If I am completely honest then we started really late,” he explained. “I started riding just at the beginning of January and I felt like we were missing a bit. If we have started straight after the season in October then we would have had an extra two months and a half…but it is what it is.”

“And it was the same for Jeffrey,” he swiftly adds, quite graciously.

Gajser quickly learned that new sensations might not be so accurate for an MXGP contest where Herlings, Lucas Coenen and Tom Vialle were setting standards for starts and pace.

Tim was able to speak with some hindsight of the winter work. “In the beginning I felt good,” he revealed, “but I felt like the first reality check came with the first GP in Argentina. We were not ready. The bike was not ready. I felt OK in testing and in the pre-season races but they were one-day events, you know? The tracks are flatter…things like that. Just struggling; how to set-up the bike correctly for bigger tracks, rougher tracks because during the GPs the tracks get so rough and it’s not easy to find similar ones for testing. Everything was new for me, and I didn’t have any experience riding a Yamaha in these conditions.”

Was he ever equally flummoxed by versions of the CRF450RW? “With the other brand, with Honda, I was there so many years and there were times when I did not feel comfortable, but I knew the bike so well that I could figure it out somehow,” he justifies. “Here [with Yamaha] everything was new and I thought I had figured it out [but] when you start racing you get faster and faster. At the start I was training in November and December but not so much on the bike…because I did not have one! I had a stock Honda and you can only ride so far with it in the conditions and to the level we ride. Things like that.”

Orientation is one thing…but the noticeable lack of progress to move from being a top-five runner to race leader was evident. A big vulnerability has been Tim’s lethargy from the gate. It’s been punishing, and has led to forced mistakes. “They are super-crucial this year - well, they are every year - but this time everyone is so fast and fit. I don’t get out of the gate and then I’m rushing. I’m like ‘f**k, I really need to get to the front as soon as possible…’ because Lucas, Jeffrey, Febvre were just pulling away and I was back in the pack. I knew I had to be with them to go with them. If you need 4-5 laps to get to 4th place then they are 10-15 seconds gone. You will not catch them because the speed is similar.”

It would be naïve to think that Yamaha and the #243 were not rabidly searching for a solution even if it feels like an inherent chassis issue is the drawback as well as trying to shape the YZ’s engine delivery for both the gatedrop and the full moto distance. “We try many things. Still trying. We change many things, [including] myself with technique. I feel the starts are getting better but I want to be in front! Top five is possible, top three better but top fifteen?! That’s the problem actually. Then rushing the first laps. If guys who are 2-3 seconds a lap slower in Timed Practice are holding the inside line everywhere then it’s not easy to pass them. The mistakes come. I have crashed many times. I feel like sometimes it was difficult to control myself…a bit more patience and sometimes accept 3rd, 4th 5th. It’s not easy.” Those crashes carried a price. His tumble in the Grand Prix of Turkey (where he still managed to tough-it through to 4th) ultimately ruled him out of the trips to China and Australia.

Gajser has had to navigate a different political landscape in 2026. In HRC he had the tight link with Giacomo Gariboldi, Japanese Honda technicians and staff like Team Manager Marcus Pereira de Freitas and Roger Shenton, Roger Harvey and Massimo Castelli, who actually followed him to Yamaha. In blue it’s been the influence of Hans Corvers’ devoted team, the Michele Rinaldi led YRRD division heading race bike development on behalf of the Japanese and the organisational influence of Yamaha Motor Europe. It was an alternate panorama that will probably shift again for 2027 when Yamaha Motor Racing concentrates MXGP under one roof with MotoGP and WorldSBK at their new and expanded HQ near Monza. The company are doubling down on their investment to get MXGP back in the winners’ circle. “It’s a big team…a good team and they are all really supportive: whatever I request they try to give their best,” he says quickly. “Even in bad races it’s important to have the team at your back [but] there are a lot of things going on. It is a big group working hard to get me better and more comfortable.”

“It was a change,” he concedes. “With Honda the Japanese were a little more involved. With Yamaha they are also…but not that much. Many things go through Rinaldi, especially for developing the new stuff and the new parts. In the end they are both professional, factory teams.”

If anything, Gajser has been able to sharpen his overtaking instincts in 2026. It’s not quite the breeze that he so emphatically showed in Russia in 2021.

It means he has become more observational of the track preparation and the frugality of line choice in Grand Prix generally. “I think they are doing what they can…” he says diplomatically, “but they can do way-better with ripping and watering the tracks earlier.”

The adversity in his work led to speculation that Gajser had had enough and was being courted for an exit; towards Kawasaki and for the seat vacated by Ducati-bound Romain Febvre. One year after being crowned MXGP world champions Kimi Raikkonen’s KRT crew are staring at a 2027 campaign without a leading Grand Prix protagonist. It’s a tough topic to speak about on the record but the tone of conversation with Tim when the recorder is both on and off is one of defiance, if slightly fatigued.

He considers it a personal mission to try and reverse the course of their season results. After all, he’s been signed by one of the largest manufacturers in the paddock to bring glory back to Yamaha and bag a title that has been elusive for over a decade. It won’t be an easy fix: the YZ450FM has been stubborn in the hands of several riders for a full title tilt. “I feel like it is just the beginning,” he advocates. “We are working hard and we are doing many things. We will find what suits me. We are almost at the end of the year and we are still not there and I am impatient with that. I know what I am capable of still and I have full belief in myself.”

Inevitably judgement has been circulating. Can Gajser set up a bike? Can he still run the pace of his peers? Are his best years behind him against younger foes like Vialle, Kay De Wolf, Andrea Adamo and the incoming Guillem Farres? “I see people are talking…and saying things but I feel like I am in the best shape ever,” he counters. “I changed many things coming into this year on this part; personal trainer and different things that have made me feel better. We just need to figure out the bike side and we should be back. The difference is not that big. Even if I don’t feel 100% comfortable on the bike or at any track, I am still there: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and I know how much we can still improve.”

Tim has dealt with physical setbacks, his broken right femur in 2023 perhaps the hardest and most damaging, but this has been a fresh career obstacle. He breaks into a rare smile when we suggest that laying the hard yards in 2026 might actually be beneficial for a renewed force in 2027. “I believe in that! I believe that way,” he grins. “I am going through some difficult times now, especially mentally because it is not easy to be where I am. Fighting yourself a little bit, especially in the mind, but this does make me stronger and makes me understand more.”

Maybe Jeffrey Herlings will be feeling a little more blue next year.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Jordi Wheeler Garcia.

Kay De Wolf won’t be 2026 MXGP Rookie of the Year. This fairly innocuous label will go to either Red Bull KTM’s Andrea Adamo or HRC Petronas’ Tom Vialle but the 21-year-old Red Bull Husqvarna Factory Racing Nestaan racer has certainly made an impact. De Wolf’s all-action style on the FC 450 turned heads, and the results also appeared when he was in a state of fitness and readiness: a first podium at round four in Sardinia and three more runner-up finishes. He also led 15 laps of MXGP but couldn’t quite penetrate the quartet of moto winners in 2026 [Jeffrey Herlings, Vialle, Lucas Coenen and Tim Gajser].

De Wolf’s eagerly anticipated MXGP debut in 2026 came after a career-emboldening 2024 MX2 title win and a dogged pursuit of a successful defence in 2025 that went down to the final laps of the season. The Dutchman was hampered in his transition to the premier class by a succession of small injuries. He broke a ligament in his left thumb pre-season and needed surgery. He then tweaked his other thumb in a Dutch Championship event. He snapped a ligament in his right ankle during the Italian Grand Prix at Montevarchi. A crash before the Turkish Grand Prix delivered a hairline fracture of the knuckles and prompted an early withdrawal from the championship. Kay will have missed 7 of 19 rounds but looks to have cemented a top ten slot in the standings.

Along the way De Wolf also re-signed with the Lommel-based Nestaan outfit to give Husqvarna considerable motocross clout for the next two seasons.

2026 was stop-start-stop for the tall racer but De Wolf has time on his side; he will turn 22 at the end of September and his patient and measured approach to his career trajectory (staying in MX2 as reigning champ while title-rival Lucas Coenen vaulted into MXGP) could pay off. “I’ve learnt almost every weekend this season,” he tells us. “For example, in Sweden 8th position is not the result we are looking for but every time I came off the bike after a session I thought ‘wow’. So maybe experience has value…and helps more than a result. It definitely gave me confidence.”

“The start is super-important in the MXGP class,” he explains when we ask him to get specific on his education. “It is one thing we all see but…you cannot waste a single turn. If you mess around on the first lap then it will cost you twenty minutes to pass some of the riders. That’s where Jeffrey is so good: he passes so quickly and that puts him up front and able to pull away or react. That’s the biggest thing but, in general, learning the riders, learning the bike more. The bike is completely different and I still need to get adapted to it…but it’s getting better and better all the time.”

Racing a 450…and the rivals

250 to 450: it leads to the obvious question of dealing with the same weight and chassis but extra horsepower. Kay won’t be the first or the last Grand Prix star to need prime race mileage to work out the intricacies of the different packages. On the FC 250 he often seemed to bend the quarter litre to his will, like a BMX. “You can hang it out and just keep it wide-open; give it all you have and make it work. You cannot do that on the 450. You have to respect it.”

“It’s something I need to work on in the winter; to be more efficient. I am using too much energy at the moment,” he confides.

We point out that MXGP fans quite like watching his exciting and expressive 250 approach. “It is my style!” he grins. “But we have to take it down a little bit. It’s my type of riding and I feel comfortable doing it, so maybe that’s why I’m riding more like that. It’s natural to me but I will calm it down for next year…and be a bit more straight-forward.”

In 2017 Jeffrey Herlings went into his debut MXGP term with a broken right hand. De Wolf’s countryman also spoke that season about initially underestimating the demands of the 450 as well as his peers. How was Kay’s discovery? “I wasn’t shocked,” he confesses. “I knew this class was going to be tough and I was really prepared. It proved to be! If you told me last year in Arnhem ‘the 450 class is really gnarly…’ I would have thought ‘OK, but I’ll get on with it, and it’ll be fine’ but once you race it…’

‘It’s weird,” he adds. “Because it doesn’t look as crazy on TV. It doesn’t look that spectacular because you cannot really appreciate the speed…but when you are there on track then you have to figure out that speed. It’s a gnarly class at the moment…”

Tale of the [surgical] tape

De Wolf might have a pair of wonky thumbs from 2026 (a hand brace allowed him to make his MXGP debut at round two) and a painful set of knuckles but it was the ankle ligament in Italy that really threw him off kilter, and will push him into a second phase of surgery and recovery this autumn. “I was around the top five until Montevarchi when I injured myself again, pretty bad,” he recounts. “With that I am still struggling, and with my confidence a little bit. Not riding-wise but performance-wise.”

The condition of his ankle makes his feats in Lommel and Arnhem (the latter when he pressurised Herlings for the win) all the more impressive. “One ligament is broken and is ripped clean away in my ankle,” he describes. “It is quite unstable and I can feel it when I land in deep holes. Jett [Lawrence] and Jeffrey also had ankle problems and what we see with Jett…they had to make a footpeg for him and it’s the same for me. I feel it’s unstable. I have bone-to-bone problems…but I also had freeplay.”

The pre-Turkish Grand Prix accident and culmination of his campaign has accelerated planning to fix his limb. “It will take at least two months but the doctor said he would get my ankle 80% better. So, I will give up everything for that.”

Staying White

De Wolf’s profile and adaptation to MXGP (he was top five in the motos in his second Grand Prix and breached the top three in his second start) put him firmly on the radar for other factory efforts for 2027. #74 was tempted by the market but also knows the team owned by Kay Hennekens and run by Rasmus Jorgensen is the kind of ‘nest’ that can help him reach further up the tree. Common dominations between the prolific athletes of MXGP this century – Tony Cairoli, Jeffrey Herlings, Jorge Prado and Tim Gajser – were long-established teams and crews around them.

There is a case for over-familiarity and clichéd talk of comfort zones and motivation levels for some athletes, but a sea-change did not dent Herlings’ level of performance in 2026 and did not deter Romain Febvre from winning with Kawasaki in 2025 (after coming so close in 2021). De Wolf bet on what he knows and a setting where he came all the way through the EMX ranks.

“It’s a team I have been with since I was 13, such a long time, and they know when I will have an ‘off’ day,” he explains. “They know me in-and-out and if I’m not feeling it then there will not be a push to turn the bike upside down; I’m not sure that would work in another team. My base with this team in general means we are not jumping from left to right.”

De Wolf was in demand though as the silly season started to build. “Of course, a lot goes through your mind in that one-two month period because you get offers and you have to imagine yourself being in another team. There is a lot of things going through your head. There was an offer…and I really saw myself in this other team because it has a really cool structure but I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much as I do with my team now. I really thought about it and realised just how good I have it where I am. I’m really happy.”

De Wolf’s ability, his environment and his potential mean he carries a wealth of expectation into 2027; a season where Herlings will be #1, Coenen will have departed, Romain Febvre will steer Ducati’s third attempt at the division and Triumph will lunge into the fray with Guillem Farres. Maybe old foe Simon Längenfelder will also make the step. Is De Wolf a confidence rider? “I have days where I feel really bad on track but then I come in after Free Practice and the guys say: ‘you looked amazing on the bike’. And I’m like: ‘What?!’ But I think it’s because I want to be picture perfect…and that means I don’t always ‘feel it’.”

A perfectionist then. “I would not say so in my daily life…! But on the bike I want it…for the 450. On the 250 I can be really loose and make it work. I’m tall and the bike is a bit lighter but you are always on the throttle with the 250 and that makes it easier to handle, I think. Sometimes I see it like riding a jet ski; you cannot turn one unless you are on the throttle. I think it’s the same with an MX bike where you need to steer with your rear wheel. You cannot come into a turn without the throttle. It is something I have to get used to…but if we can fix my ankle and have a decent winter then we can come out in a very decent place next year.”

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Jordi Wheeler Garcia.

In Arnhem you could only whisper the name ‘Jeffrey Herlings’. The dream that the MXGP World Championship leader could extend his complete dominance to five consecutive Grands Prix and lay one gloved hand on a sixth title and third MXGP crown was fragile. 2014? 2015? 2019? Dutch motocross history in the making? His fans had been here before.

Judging by Saturday alone and a Qualification Heat disappearing act with a 37-second cushion, the soon-to-be 32-year-old might have been an apparition at Motorsportpark Gelderland Midden. Herlings avoided the glare of a packed crowd behind the tinted windows of HRC’s 5-truck compound in the paddock. As usual, he’d enter the start gate fully geared-up, goggles on and his gaze hidden by coloured Oakley lenses only minutes before ‘go time’.

“I’m very happy for it…[home Grand Prix fuss] but it’s crazy,” he admitted post-race. “All my fans, friends, family. All my sponsors, even my doctors and surgeons. The press. The team and the meetings. It was difficult to focus but I’ve been doing this thing for quite a while…so I know how to work with it.”

#84 in full motion meant an education for his peers in Dutch sand for the 17th time in his career. The sustained period of ‘pounding’ on home turf began back in 2010 where he thrilled and prevailed at Valkenswaard as a 15-year-old: only his third Grand Prix. On this occasion he satisfied HRC management for the tenth time from sixteen rounds this season (now 122 career wins) and with a 143-point margin (with 180 left) only has to outscore Romain Febvre in Turkey in two weeks to bring Honda their fifth MXGP championship and be just the second rider in red to do so this century. He sated the fans’ expectations for glory at Arnhem and was prodded for reality by bustling understudy Kay De Wolf as SMX star Chase Sexton looked on with an expression of wonder.

Herlings’ Saturday authority was diluted by De Wolf’s strong starts and the challenge he posed in both motos. Herlings thrust clear in the opening race but when he seemed to stall on the only downhill slope on the track (in the region?) on the last lap there was a moment of panic. “I was lucky that Kay gave up that last lap and I kept going,” he explained. “I had ten seconds was able to get off the bike and move it back and forth. It was just some sand or a stone in the sprocket. It was nothing the team could have done or a bike problem. Something weird.”

In the second moto De Wolf was kept at a safe distance until the last ten minutes of the 30 minute and 2 lap distance when he shrunk the gap to less than a second and both orange-livered Dutchies had to thread their way through the network of backmarkers. Only De Wolf’s exhausted final lap fall decided the contest. “I didn’t land the jumps clean, I didn’t make the turns clean, I was struggling because I was pushing so hard,” the 21-year-old Husqvarna racer recalled. “I gave it all I had and held on for dear life. In the end I could not hold on anymore. My bike kicked-out to the right and my front wheel grabbed a handful of dirt. I cannot go to bed tonight and think ‘what if…?’”

“I’m just pleased to put a fight up against him. He’s won 17 GPs so to beat him around a sand track is not easy…” he understated. They both lapped up to 8th and 7th positions in the races, played out in spectator zones where space was a luxury and the large TV screens nullified the lack of general viewing superbly.

Herlings’ win in Arnhem lays the table for his inevitable championship feat in 2026. The five-in-a-row, 13 podiums from 16 and 16 moto chequered flags draws comparisons to his immense first MXGP title in 2018. Eight years ago, Herlings was into his second premier class campaign but his ninth term with Red Bull KTM. He proclaimed to “live like a monk” during that season where he racked up a sensational 17 victories and 19 podiums from 20 rounds (15 of those thanks to 1-1 scorecards) and missed one Grand Prix due to a broken collarbone. 2026, thus far, has been injury-free but Herlings has swapped Austria for Japan, steel for aluminium, WP for KYB. The only constant perhaps being the mentality towards excellence and the policy of placing a star athlete at the centre of a racing universe. Herlings thrives in that environment where he can religiously train and race on his own terms.

“2018: I was more confident and I was better results-wise,” he reflected, “but I feel the competition was not as strong as it is today because back then I was only fighting a 32/33-year-old Tony Cairoli and right now I am facing young guys like [Lucas] Coenen, Kay De Wolf and Tom Vialle. [Also Romain] Febvre, the world champion, and [Tim] Gajser. Lucas and I have been winning most of the motos and if you take him away it would have been almost the same but, right now, I feel pretty close to 2018 level…even though I am almost ten years older!”

Against the odds and against expectation (outside of his own inner circle and perhaps that of HRC team management) Herlings has matched the performance parameters of that imperial 2018 term. “I was never outside the top three of a Sunday race and only once or twice I was 3rd,” he reminded us. “All the others 1st or 2nd, so I have been very consistent.” He now stands to be the first rider since Cairoli in 2010 (fittingly?) to win a premier class title the first year after switching team and brands.

The streak was blighted by three blameless technical problems and the early threat of Lucas Coenen. The Belgian has still led more laps this year than Herlings even though his left hip nerve problem has counted him out of a moto start for five races. “It’s still a shame that Lucas got hurt because I feel I have something for him now,” Herlings admitted when speaking on context of the championship. “I’m not saying I would be beating him every single time but at least I could fight with him now, either in sand or hard [pack].”

Significantly, Herlings has looked secure and composed. Strategic and purposeful. 2026 so far has been one of the very few without an injury issue. His list of past physical problems would keep a class of physio students busy for an entire semester but the move out of the KTM comfort zone and into HRC red has paused any notion of degradation of speed, will or want. “I was actually driving in, and I said to my girlfriend: ‘I still have so much passion for doing this’,” he described. “Yeah, I like money, I’m not gonna lie…but at the same time I am not racing for money anymore. I can have a great life if I stop tomorrow but I still enjoy taking all the sacrifice. I have nothing to prove to anyone and have won the most motos and the most GPs but I keep waking up each morning with the same desire to try and be the best I can be. Even now we are considering to extend the contract, we are in negotiations. I am like an old bulldog that doesn’t give up!”

Sunday and 2026 belonged to the Dutch. A corner of a field north of Arnhem hollered national pride while much of the country’s motorsport fandom and national media attention was trained instead on a beachside circuit close to Amsterdam, where Max Verstappen lasted less than a lap of the final F1 GP at Zandvoort.

Saturday, to a degree, was stamped by a Spaniard. Francisco Garcia is the latest name to join the list of EMX250 European Champions. He logged the first part of another overall victory to bank Kawasaki’s second title in the class in the last three years. The 18-year-old has been ruthless in the category with 15 chequered flags (missing only the round in Belgium) and gives the long-standing Bud Racing crew another feather in their considerable motocross cap. Garcia, outstripping countrymen like Jorge Prado, Ruben Fernandez and Guillem Farres to be the first from his country to pocket an EMX250 gold medal, now has to follow in the path of the last four winners; Janis Reisluis, Mathis Valin, Andrea Bonacorsi and Rick Elzinga in finding his feet in Grand Prix. Only Valin has been able to stand atop an MX2 podium, and Garcia will slot into the factory Kawasaki set-up next to the injured Frenchman for 2027.

A large segment of Europe has sizzled in Spanish-eque temperatures this summer and the Spanish theme has extended through the MXGP in 2026. Guillem Farres was 3rd in MX2 for his 10th podium of the campaign. The Catalan may look like he’d taken part in a mass brawl at a Dutch bar (a consequence of his rough crash in Sweden last week) but he rode drama-free to push his minor championship advantage to 25 points. “It was a tough week,” he said. “I think I cycled one day only and the other days I was taking some therapy with Camden, playing some Call of Duty. That’s pretty much all.” Farres has held the red plate for five Grands Prix now and is vying to be his country’s second world champion in MX2 and underline the tremendous work done by Vince Bereni’s team in sharpening the TF 250-X Triumph into a Grand Prix force. In WMX Daniela Guillen, already a double world championship runner-up, will carry a six-point advantage all the way to Australia for the final date of the contest and yet another last round WMX climax. The GASGAS Spanish Federation-supported racer could become Spain’s first #1 in a series that lifted from World Cup status in 2008, if she defeats Doe Kiara Fontanesi in Darwin.

The best sand rider outside of the Dutch was a South African. Farres’ teammate, training partner and comrade, Camden Mc Lellan, might not have found the lines to demote Liam Everts in the second MX2 moto but his 1-2 was enough to add Arnhem to his Lommel ‘overall’ for win #3 and keep him in a four-way championship dispute, thanks largely to his 11 podiums; five now in a row and the highest haul of anyone in the division.

The other two protagonists are Red Bull KTM pair Sacha Coenen, who was 4th in Arnhem and seething after the second moto with what he felt was “dirty riding” by his peers, and reigning #1 Simon Laengenfelder. The German’s claws were blunt in the sand as he tries to hold onto a title defence but seems to lack feeling, confidence and much of an explanation for the erosion of his competitiveness. Simon has not won a moto since round four but is 75-points adrift of Farres and 180 still to win. The quartet are in their own league (perhaps with a fit and firing Everts now joining the show) and that brings repercussions for the points on offer. “I’m not far back but the next three rounds are difficult to make a difference,” assessed Mc Lellan, who is 3rd and just 37 from his buddy. “The overseas are not too stacked and the tracks don’t get too demanding or rough. There is never really a lot of drama overseas, like we see here.”

Drama has been a semi-regular MXGP companion for Jeffrery Herlings. From teenage spats and outbursts to poor decisions, avoidable injuries, high emotion, milestone results (Iron Man) and relentless individualism. He’s unique, and MXGP is still moving to his shuffle, his sand superiority and a lot more.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by MotoGP.com

Ai Ogura leans back in his chair. He looks reluctant: is this another interview about Aprilia, his astonishing second year in the MotoGP class, his decision to leave the burgeoning SuperFile Trackhouse team for a floundering Yamaha project? There is also the prospect of the on-the-record discourse in his second language; Ai’s English is great but his calm, introverted demeanour means that he thinks carefully before he talks, picking and choosing the right words. His discourse is almost systematic, a little like his understated but fluid and incredibly efficient and economic riding style.

By saying I want to chat about his background instead his eyes widen. It’s a tact I learned in 2025 when we made an interview largely based around his passion for motocross. It was a way to tap into how he rides a motorcycle, and what he takes from his love of off-road to apply to the day-job. A leftfield approach sparked his interest. Today, at one point, he exasperatedly says: “I really like these kinds of interviews, and I know exactly what I want to say in Japanese…but I cannot find it in English!”

It’s fair to say that a lot of people want to know more about Ai. He’s a Moto2 World Champion but his rookie MotoGP season in 2025 was unspectacular, if encouraging in spells, and blighted with injury. In 2026 he has been arguably the series’ most fascinating figure. Ogura has posted four podiums finishes, a maiden victory in the Netherlands (just the seventh of his career in all classes) and has yet to cross the line outside the top five from twelve rounds (he suffered a technical DNF in the USA, was penalised with a 3-position demotion in Catalunya for tagging Pedro Acosta in the final corner and his crash out of podium contention at Silverstone two weeks ago was the first major slip of the campaign). He has frequently outshone teammate Raul Fernandez even though the Spaniard has two more terms of experience with the RS-GP and three more in the class in total.

Ogura’s Grand Prix origins have been peddled across MotoGP channels this year: his rise from pocketbike to the Asia Talent Cup and adoption by the Honda Asia programme for Moto3 (he finished 3rd in the championship in his second season in 2020) and then Moto2 (where he pushed Augusto Fernandez all the way to the title in 2022). Ai’s choice to move out of Honda’s gaze after 2023 led to a sensational year with the Spanish MT Helmets MSi team and he won the title in 2024; Japan’s first in the Moto2 era.

At the end of 2024 Ai was one of a raft of world champions attending the FIM Awards ceremony in Mallorca. During the afternoon press call at the FIM hospitality rig, positioned on part of the coastal road in the capital city of Palma, he sat alone, undisturbed, seemingly content, possibly a little bored while the rest of the platform was packed with media talking to various motocross, Rally, Enduro athletes and hankering for time with Jorge Martin and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu. Ai was oblivious to the fuss.

By that point he had already spurned a MotoGP berth and a return to Honda colours for 2025 (the LCR Honda seat went to his friend and former flatmate Somkiat Chantra) and accepted Davide Brivio’s offer to enter Trackhouse. The Italian had done his research and knew that Ogura’s talent came with a zany degree of focus and unwavering commitment to the job.

Ai typically avoids any social media fanfare and fulfils requests from the team or MotoGP Group but does not engage in many other extracurricular activities, outside of some limited-edition merch or custom gear for his home Grand Prix. He’s all about the job.

“To be honest, I knew almost knowing about him, just his name…but I enjoyed watching him ride,” Giovanni Mattarollo, Ai’s Crew Chief at Trackhouse told us during a Paddock Pass Podcast recording at the Grand Prix of Catalunya in May. “When we first met him in Misano - when he was still fighting for the Moto2 title- he was invited into the garage, we didn’t understand anything from him because he didn’t talk or even touch the bike! He was very focused on what he was doing at the time and, when I came to work with him and to know him, I understood this. He thinks about what is important in that moment.”

Mattarollo spoke effusively about his charge. He even felt Ai could be a championship contender on the eve of round seven. It seemed a little far-fetched at the time but proved to be prophetic as Ogura made his way up to 2nd in the points table pre-Silverstone and was the head of press conference duties.

“He is not the guy that makes many journalists talk about him, due to his low profile and how he approaches things… and I don’t think many people understood how hard his first year in MotoGP was with injuries, comeback, loss of confidence,” Gio said. “He might be different to others with his mental approach. He always does 100%, or even more, to do his job in the best way. Like riding at Motegi last year with a broken hand.”

“Ai’s a really hard worker and is always studying what he is doing,” he adds. “At the Sepang test he made more laps than anybody else. He is always focused mostly on himself and what he has. He never puts any doubt on the bike and, if he is struggling, his first question is always ‘what am I doing wrong?’

The technician offers a story that sums up the rider. “We were in Qatar last year and he was going very well. It was before the first injury he had. He found a rider going slow on the line in qualifying. Sometimes we see other riders going mad about things like this and throwing up their hands. He continued to push, did another lap and went into Q2. Then at the end of the qualifying we did a summary, talked about what we’d do and heard his comments. I said to him I appreciated the fact that he kept focused and kept pushing. He then made a statement that gave me one of my best lessons in MotoGP. With the same straight face he always has, he said: ‘emotions just make you slower’”.

Back in the Trackhouse hospitality in Assen, Ai is not betraying too many emotions as we dip into some personal subjects. Slowly, he appears to semi-enjoy unveiling details of his trajectory.

I ask Ai about his family. His sister Karen also used to race and lives close to the family home in Kiyose; a district west of Tokyo. Ai’s Dad is a truck driver and his mother works in admin department of a hospital. When he isn’t at MotoGP, Ogura commutes from Japan and stays with his parents. From 2019 to 2025 he lived in Spain and his last residence was in Castelldefels; the beachside town close to Barcelona and next to the airport. “Spain never felt like home,” he admits.

“When there is a week off between races I go back,” he says. “I train in Japan and spend time in Japan. I live with my Dad and Mum. I have all my training bikes and I can train better there. The level of the riders that you spend time with on a track day is not high, not like it is in Spain, but it’s OK. I just had one motocross bike in Spain and many times I wanted to go to a circuit but it was closed. I couldn’t prepare like I wanted, so that’s why I’m based in Japan.”

“Until now the flights are not disturbing me,” he says matter-of-factly.

What was it like growing up with an older sister who also raced?

We are completely different characters. She was faster than me, so she pushed me. [I think] if she didn’t race then I would not be like I am today. Around pocketbike time she was important because she always went quicker and fought for the victory when I was P5-P6. She was always ahead…and I think it was important for me to have that person in the family. When I moved up to minibike I was better [than her]. It is probably also the last time I raced with her because then we split classes.

How is the family home? Do you have land?

[awkward smile] It’s a normal house. MotoGP Group asked to film something at my home…but I said “no” because it’s not something to show. Yes, it’s private but I don’t care about that…it’s just that it’s not what people might think! It’s not huge, or something to show to the racing fans.

Your Dad must have been another fundamental person in your development. Was he tough on you? What kind of guidance did he give?

My Dad was a racer. When I was really small, pocketbike time, he was like that [tough]. Sometimes he kicked me! When I moved to minibike then he changed completely. He would say nothing to me. Sometimes [at tracks] I would ask: “what should I do?” and he’d say” think for yourself”. It was interesting. He thought it was better for me. To train my brain and be more independent.

How old were you?

Seven…or eight? It was part of his strategy. If you always have a teacher saying to you “do this, this and that” then maybe in the next race you do very well but not ten races later. You have to think for yourself, especially if you get to GPs then you have to be aware. My father explained this to me only four-five years ago, and it is impressive to think he was already believing it was the way when I was so young.

Did you ever miss having a support network?

I was fine. I never joined a school or a team. My first proper team was when I went to JuniorGP! I’d always raced with my family, even if it was difficult for money. The most important thing that my parents gave me was to give me nothing. They kept me ‘hungry’ all the time. I don’t want to say this to sound a certain way…but I never had a new bike, I never had new suits or a new helmet. And that kind of thing makes you a bit stronger, a bit hungry. I feel they gave me that.

Did you race to please your parents? To gain some approval?

Pocketbike time, yes. I just didn’t want my dad to kick me! The biggest target of the day was that one. By minibike this thing had gone.

Were there other distractions as a kid?

I was only serious about motorsports. I liked to play football or basketball with friends in the evenings but it was never serious. The only thing I was serious about was motorcycle racing.

What about the feeling of missing out on other activities?

By middle school I was OK with it because I would always think ‘if was them then I’d be jealous’. So, I said: “OK, I’m here right now [with my career] and I am super-lucky…” and I was fine. I never thought ‘I want to be a normal student guy’ or whatever.

And moving away from home and Japan?

I was completely OK with it.

You don’t have an entourage or a group. There was the Honda Asia set-up…but other than that you seem very understated in MotoGP. We don’t see you elated or very frustrated…

I can think simple. It’s easy. The race is a place to show what you have got and what you can do. If you finish P10 - no matter what - then you are a rider that finished in 10th position. That’s it. I’m ready to accept this and I will be OK. If you are not happy with P10 then you need to work harder. That’s all. I was never [banging the table]

What if P9 was one second ahead? Would you be frustrated?

Frustration, no. Because the guy went one second faster than you. To beat him you need to go 1.1 faster. That’s all. Of course I think ‘how…’ but never [angrily].

When did motorcycle racing get serious for you?

When me and my Dad decided to go for Asia Talent Cup selection. It became very serious. Before then I was just racing and if I crashed I would just crash and nobody would be disappointed but me. When we got to Asia Talent Cup I thought ‘this is not just for me anymore…it’s also for others’.

Could you deal with that pressure?

Absolutely not!

So how did you learn that part?

Time. Experience. Even now sometimes I am not handling it very well. I’ve never thought ‘I’m very good…’ Wait! Yes! Probably when I won the championship because that says you are number one and nobody can say anything about that. Now if you win a race then there are 22. You might win 3. From 22. Hmm. But the championship? Yes.

What were the effects of winning the championship?

Of course, life goes back to normal but it [feeling of the title] stays here for ever [touches chest]. Again, I don’t want to say this because people might go ‘blah, blah’ but when I won the Moto2 title I knew at that time, in that year, I was #1 in the world. This makes me…calm. It makes me OK. It gives me the feeling that I did something. That’s everything to me. Of course, I am fighting for something important again in MotoGP but if something [adverse] happened tomorrow…then I would be OK.

What did you think of the scale of MotoGP? Of the extra scope of the premier class?

Hmmm. How happy I can be is related to how big the stage is. In training, this purely for me to enjoy riding a motorbike. But here? If somebody asked me: “do you enjoy riding here…?” Then, no, not really. I can explain much better in Japanese! Practice: for me to enjoy. Here: for others to enjoy. This is my understanding. Whatever. Next.

At what point did parents say they were proud of you?

You need to ask them. My mum sends me messages. After a good race, she’ll say congratulations…

What is happiness to you?

It’s related to the result. Yes.

It’s that a bit risky. The results can’t always be good…

Then I would be an unhappy guy.

How about the increased level of attention that comes with being successful in MotoGP?

I’m still learning that kind of thing…but I am doing my better than in the past.

What happened in the past?

Asia Talent Cup time was the worst. Every time before the race I was like “this if f**king important, this if f**king important, this if f**king important…” and it made me anxious. But, now it’s quite OK.

Can you feel any fame in Japan?

You can only see it with this [points at phone]. You can’t see it with your eyes or in the street.

Only in Motegi…

In Motegi yeah, but only because they are there to see a race. They know me, of course. But in normal life in my town or in Tokyo, you cannot see anything.

That’s both good and bad…

Yes. In one point is good and one point is bad. Personally, it is fantastic! But for the sport probably not a good thing

Do you feel like you need to do more?

I start to feel [this]. It is also important to do this kind of thing. Not for me. don’t need to be a different person but I need to accept many more things…while being myself. That would be nice.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by MotoGP.com

Kelly Brittain is trying to lead change in MotoGP. She doesn’t have an influence on engine capacity, tyres or technical rules…but she does have the power to shape how people find or follow the championship or what they think about it. MotoGP Group are trying to steer where the series goes, and what it will look like on the track, but they are also considering the perception away from the grid. For the first time it feels like there is a concentrated and resourceful effort (specialists, money, campaigns) by the promoter to push MotoGP beyond hardcore subscription-paying audiences and her flowering team are standing on the first bricks of a long path with a promising Liberty Media wind at their backs.

Brittain, Madrid based for over a year with her family, and a veteran of DAZN (UK) and Red Bull Racing in F1, is one of very few non-Spanish senior management at MotoGP Group and is representative of the company’s quest to be more global to become more global. Her hefty experience and CV was critical for the mammoth task of constructing a marketing department and subsequent activities, projects and workload to get the wheels rolling on the juggernaut and, in particular, to make the whole rig more attractive to lucrative audiences and markets in territories like the USA and the UK, where MotoGP has comparative anonymity to southern Asia, southern Europe and zones of the Americas.

From the calming environment of her compact office in the MotoGP Group workspace within the paddock, we tackled a range of topics…

One of the big, more visual impacts of MotoGP Group’s marketing efforts has been the ‘Wired Different’ campaign. It’s looks radical and less endemic. What was the thinking and is this where MotoGP is heading?

It is the start of something…but it was built on the research and the positioning work we did last year. The idea behind that was to really understand how fans and potential fans engage with the sport and to position the sport in a way that responds to that. What we saw was that they were bored with stuff that seemed manufactured and bored of feeling like their algorithm is being dictated elsewhere. They want something that really stands out and is impossible to turn away from. That’s how we came up with this concept of ‘magnetic defiance’ and we tested that across multiple markets and frontier-and-growth markets for us in the UK and U.S. and it resonated strongly. So, we used it as a creative brief and then developed the Wired Different campaign from it. It’s founded on brand positioning that we believe in and has been strength tested. That won’t evolve because we know it speaks to core insight, but the activation will evolve and change. 2026 was our first year of this season-wide campaign and what you’ll start to see over the following years is how it embeds itself into more touchpoints; so how does it really manifest in our content? In our physical fan activation? In our digital content that we provide to fans? I think we are learning that at the moment. The organisation is getting to grips with what that means and as we become more adept at implementation that you’ll start to see more of it.

How has it been moulding a marketing department but then also directly catering to the expectations of Liberty?

I was bought onboard by MotoGP, or Dorna as it was then, and a company that already had growth ambitions before it was bought by Liberty. We’d had a set of really good discussions about the size of the marketing team and the ambitions for how that would evolve over time. Obviously with Liberty coming onboard that was something they were looking for as well…so it has been quite an easy process. What we want and need for MotoGP is what Liberty wants to see, so there hasn’t been any clashes or a feeling that we had parallel plans. There are a lot of people looking from the outside in, and now we’re under the Liberty umbrella they say to us “why don’t you just do a ‘Ride to Survive’?” I think it is what I have heard the most in marketing and it’s absolutely something we were looking at before Liberty came onboard and what they are keen for us to explore. I don’t think there is a point of conflict. They are looking at what worked for F1 – and they would be daft not to and we’d be daft not to listen – but we know that the sport has different roots and slightly different fandom and fan insight. What we need to do is make sure that we speak to that insight and not the F1 insight.

Will that be hard to do for MotoGP?

Not really because the main ‘buckets’ are the same. So, commercial development and media rights development: we know we need to focus there. Long-form content and serialised content: we need to focus there. The approach to that content will be the bit that’s different. Maybe where you go to watch that content. Maybe we want it to be more (or less) accessible. There are lots of different ways to cut what you do in each of those buckets. I don’t think anybody is denying that the timing for F1 was brilliant but they were in a position to capitalise on that. They did it brilliantly. We are existing in a different time…and we are from a ‘different part of the world’ So there are lots of points and difference to look at and how we can do it our way.

Will one of the main areas be sports rights and how-and-where people will fine MotoGP? If you look at F1’s U.S. deal with Apple as an example of change…

Precisely, but it’s a challenge that many sports rights holders are facing right now. We are all chasing the big bucks from a distribution and sports rights perspective, but it does feel that in 10-15 years the whole landscape will be turned on its head. It feels like the most successful entities will be those that can balance the shift as it happens as opposed to sticking their fingers in their ears and trying to make hay as the sun shines.

What percentage of your job so far has been internal organisation compared with external priorities and talking with the big companies to find more partners?

Great question. I would say we are still in a time of internal evolution right now. We are recruiting, bolstering the team. We have some great individuals in our marketing team but if we are to do more then we need more specialists. So, there is a focus on that at the moment and utilising the assets we have brought in. There is a much more sophisticated means of analysing the things we’ve done and using it to shake the things we are going to do. There is a bit of internal refocusing and as that settles and we build-out that team there will be more of an opportunity for looking outwards. All of the agencies and big companies that want to talk to us are really interesting, and we are really lucky that we already have a pipeline of organisations that want to take us to the next level or benefit from the scale we have already got. We’re in a good place but we need to get that internal structure sorted to capitalise on it.

Have you seen a tangible increase of interest in MotoGP since you joined the championship?

Without a doubt, and Liberty’s involvement has increased interest from agencies that want to work with us and brands that want to work with us. Also, talent. A lot of the talent we are talking to about appointments are very clear on the benefits that Liberty can bring to organisations, and that’s really appealing to them. That’s been really helpful.

Is there an ‘ABC’ plan, or a map, for marketing? Do you need a series, a social media campaign and so on…?

They [plans and projects] take a lot of time to develop, so you need to run a lot of them parallel. I would not say they are organic. There are plans in place. I am naturally a very impatient person and the time taken to get them live is very frustrating, but I know it will definitely be worth it. It would be a shame if you half-arsed a lot of this stuff, you rushed it or didn’t do it properly because there will be no benefit downstream. You’ll look like a ‘me too’ or a budget brand or it just won’t shift any needles and that negative perception will do us active harm as opposed to helping us build.

So how do Liberty influence your work? Is it just a budget thing?

It’s definitely not just a budget thing. It is much more collaborative than that. The kind of talent that exists on that board – Chase Carey and Sean Bratches – who have had the most incredible careers, as well as our CEO through Derek [Chang] and Marty [Patterson] they have built businesses and done deals in the kind of direction we want to go. Derek is very involved from a media rights perspective and also a commercial pipeline development perspective and he has been brilliant. Super-helpful. Opening doors and engaging in active conversations, so I think those teams [in MotoGP Group] have massively benefited. Also, for me with Sean Bratches, he has made himself incredibly available and he’s introduced me to good people, some I’ve interviewed for roles and it’s hugely collaborative. It’s been nothing but beneficial and perspective-broadening actually but it’s hard to….well, I think a lot of people don’t want to hear that and have made up their mind already about what Liberty are going to do to the sport and how they are going to ‘F1-it’ and do X-Y-Z. Every little development that MotoGP is making, you’ve got to be careful not to read too far down the comments because you know what’s coming.

Aiming for F1 boom with MotoGP can’t be seen as a bad thing…?

If you look at how many fans are able to enjoy F1 - and do enjoy F1 - and have had the doors opened by one of the levers F1 has pulled in the last few years: that’s people time and enjoyment. While the purists might feel that something has been detracted you cannot argue that a ten-times growth in fans and ten-times the people are able to enjoy a sport and turn on a TV or open an App or whatever and enjoy what they are seeing; how can you say this is a bad thing? And I’m not talking about the income being through the roof, I’m talking about people’s time and enjoyment accessibility to the sport and that’s ultimately what we are trying to do. Everyone thinks Liberty are here just to make money…but you do that by taking it to someone who is going to enjoy it. No money will be made if people don’t love it and our job is to give people something that they love and that, to me, feels like something more altruistic and positive than just ‘they want to make money from this’.

The head of COTA, Bobby Epstein, said you just need to give Liberty time…and they are not in for the quick return…

Absolutely. I think they came onboard with F1 in 2016-2017 and nothing substantially moved until 2020-2021 so they are here for the long-term and are investing long-term and are supporting the business with a long-term view. It doesn’t feel like an a-typical piggybacked industry where they will come in and rip a bunch of costs out of the business and bleed it hard and sell it off. That’s not what they are looking to do at all.

Inside the paddock, does MotoGP need to be more business, commercial and promotion orientated rather than just focusing on racing? Do the blinkers need to come off?

I don’t think it’s blinkers because everybody has managed to build this sport; it’s passion that has done this. It’s not just MotoGP’s Group’s passion but the teams also. The same way that we are building our capability internally here, them being able to leverage the brands they have built and being able to capitalise on those brands, to me, we all need to do that. Them through their own brand ‘worlds’ because they are not just manufacturers or teams; they are brands, and I think they need to leverage that as much as we do. I know the old adage of ‘win on Sunday and sell on Monday’ should not just relate to two wheeled vehicles but relate to the profile of the riders and teams. Also, didn’t Daniel Ricciardo prove this to all of us, it isn’t just about winning. When Marco Bezzecchi was on stage at the MotoGP Forward event earlier this year and was asked about how he will build his personal brand, he said by winning; that’s not the be-all-and-end-all. There is much more to a personal brand than that.

After ‘Wired Different’ is there anything else coming? What can MotoGP followers expect to see?

It’s difficult to segment it down to just ‘marketing’. For example, if you look at the Fan Zone then you’ll see a step-change in how we present those. A step-change in our merchandise, the kinds of brand partnerships, a step-change in the kind of content we produce and particularly across our social channels as we continually try to diversify away from just track footage – which is what we are really good at producing. There is a whole ecosystem here, and marketing plays a part of that. For me - and this is so important and F1 will tell you - they don’t do a lot of their marketing themselves; it comes through those that come onboard to work with them. So, as we proliferate the kinds of brands - and on a commercial basis as we bring in those non-endemic and lifestyle brands - you’ll start to see those opportunities open up because we will never have enough time or money to grow a marketing team as big as we would need to grow globally. It would have to be through fans, broadcasters and through licences. We’ll start to see growth in those areas.

Lastly, media rights and deals bring in so much income to the championship but is it also a shackle for bigger growth?

If you look at what a lot of brands have done, NFL, NBA etc, they have opened the doors a little bit around their footage. They have given footage to teams and athletes and you see a bit of a trend for what is going on there. I think it is definitely something we need to consider.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer.

Arrive to most MXGP Grands Prix and they feel like busy, bustling events within a fecund sporting series with public interest and plenty of participation numbers. But, has MXGP been ‘redlining’ too long with more riders, more speed, and more potential for ‘cracks’ of an inflated championship? MXGP has not changed format (apart from a brief dalliance with a SuperFinal concept for the flyways) for 22 years and still wedges into circuits from the days when the sport was split into separate 125, 250 and 500cc championships; a scheme last used in 2000.

The European Championships, sanctioned by FIM Europe, have been part of the MXGP support programme since 2011. The advantages of this blend and from the abandonment of EMX as a separate calendar for Infront Motor Racing are numerous: young riders learning and using Grand Prix level tracks (with prep, infrastructure, medical facilities), proximity to factory teams and power-movers in the sport, a degree of promotional worth with larger crowds and TV exposure, increased professionalism. For Infront the entry fees for this high-standard platform of 10 races for EMX125 and 12 for EMX250 (with a qualification system in place) provide a decent amount of income per event and reduced costs by wedging more races into single locations.

There are disadvantages. The extra load of people and transport in paddock spaces put a strain on more traditional or condensed circuits. Tracks crews have less time for maintenance and circuit staff (mainly volunteers) have long days with sessions starting as early as 07:40 and running towards twilight in the spring months especially. For some the overbearing presence of EMX overshadows the Grand Prix motos themselves. Fans that are paying to enter the circuit gates may well welcome more action, but lines are being blurred for priority and relevance, especially for new eyeballs on the world championship.

This is best encapsulated by the respective start gates. Publicly, Infront have been unconcerned by filling all 40 MXGP and MX2 slots; preferring a ‘quality rather than quantity’ approach, orientated around the Officially Approved Teams [OAT] and those signed up for the full world championship calendar. In the first six European rounds of the series this year in Spain, Switzerland, Sardinia, Italy, France and Germany, MX2 moto1 finishers have numbered: 24, 30, 21, 29, 35, 35 respectively while EMX250 has had a full 40 quota in their respective five outings. This is partially to do with the different ethos of the categories (a more privateer, development story with EMX250 compared to the OAT nature of MX2) but with similar machinery and similar speeds, similar age groups (EMX250 has a 21-year age ceiling while MX2 is 23) there is an argument for a greater need for separatism.

Add five dates for the FIM Women’s World Championship and one-off Grands Prix like Czechia where the European Two-Stroke, EMX65 and EMX85 classes will appear then MXGP is a bundle that comes close to the organisational limits of some venues.

The subjects of appropriate Grand Prix tracks, collaboration in the paddock, and their role as forceful custodians of the sport have brought the FIM under the spotlight recently. MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre’s forthright comments and criticism in the wake of the French Grand Prix stirred emotions and turned the gaze on the sanctioning body.

The FIM has made irreputable steps with safety initiatives in MXGP. The helmet homologation tiers [ensuring racers have the latest tech for protection and rotational acceleration] pushed one of the biggest and most conservative product suppliers in motorcycling into action while mandatory chest protection and the openness towards airbags and ingredient brands like Mips are other commendable nods.

But what can be done to further hone the championship and allay concerns of teams (particularly those in the MX2 class) and racers for the future direction of Grand Prix? Much to his credit FIM CMS Director Antonio Alia Portela always has the door open and swiftly answers any enquiries. The Spaniard is at the centre of a political circle that involves the sports’ promotional controllers, Infront Motor Racing, who also bring financial contributions to the FIM (any promoter pays for sanctioning rights, for MotoGP it is MotoGP Sport Entertainment Group) and FIM Europe as well as the MSMA that speaks for the manufacturers and teams. Alia Portela also deals with national federations and how they support their respective Grands Prix and the two-rider delegation that changes every round and should (in theory) speak for the riders regarding any issues they have.

What is your current view of the European Championships and its support role to the FIM World Championship?

It is the base of the pyramid that Infront have been building up and have been working on for many years, and we can see the results; some of the best riders have evolved into MX2 and MXGP eventually. Those classes sometimes put the whole system in a difficult position and stretch the limit of the capacity of some of the places…but Infront is able to cope with the facilities, and manages to persuade the organisers to provide more, time and time again. I listen to the organisers, and there should be a limit…because there is a physical limit of the venue. Sometimes the timetable is difficult, particularly for Saturday because we are aware that having people on the track for more than 12 hours in a day is complicated. People might volunteer for one event but unless the experience is satisfying in some way they will decline to come back. Which, at the same time, puts us in a difficult situation because we have to manage a group of 60-70 every single event, and that’s very demanding for our officials and the organisers to provide resources or replacements for people who are flagging the races. All-in-all we have able to cope with this demand and accommodate the facilities. We, and Infront – who deal with this problem – have been able to do that with the venues in the best way. It is not perfect…but it is the best way.

The benefits are easy to see: the classes are oversubscribed and people want to race. It filters the best towards Grand Prix contention on world championship level circuits. It also saves costs for the promoters and makes them money. But…track preparation suffers and it could be said to water down the Grand Prix experience. How easy would it be to change the system? To scrub EMX250 and push riders straight into MX2? Or have some sort of rookie sub-category?

It could be very drastic. We could split the series’ and just have MX2, MXGP and maybe WMX and then the Europeans on the other side but then they would not have the same level of exposure as they have right now. We put everything in a balance. Without these European series’ then younger riders would be more obscured. They would be fighting in national championships and FIM Europe would have to organise its own series. The platform Infront is offering to FIM Europe to host their classes within the frame of MXGP is fantastic.

But is it too much?

It could be. If you see it here today [Trentino] then there are two classes and two groups in each class…so it is complicated. It stretches the manpower, the facilities and the way you have to work but at the same time you are offering the visibility and the possibility to attract more sponsors, spectators and attention. You have to widen the gaze to see the full picture and not just organisation on the track. In my opinion it is beneficial to the sport and beneficial to the small classes. The promotion they get back through the year is very important.

How would a change to EMX250 and MX2 happen?

Here we have three bodies. FIM Europe, FIM and Infront. As Infront holds all the rights for the promotion of motocross for both FIM and FIM Europe we simply have to adapt to how they organise themselves with those groups. They are limited to the number of days and events - which is 20 a year - because they also have to consider the cost of moving the circus around Europe for EMX. The furthest away from central Europe is Turkey, which is a bit more demanding.

So how much power does the FIM or FIM Europe have with Infront to say: ‘we feel it’s better to change the structure…’?

OK, so we have open conversations. But, as I said before, we deal with the sporting side and they deal with the organisational side of the events and we try not to interfere or hinder the progression. We are normally in contact or communicating to improve things but, as you can see, every time things are growing and growing. And it becomes more demanding. Not only for marshalling but also medical and other factors like water, electricity, paddock space, facilities, toilets, services. Everything is growing. Up until the moment that the organisers cannot cope with the demand…I think the system will stay in place.

Those ingredients of the event are important…but from an image perspective spectators can see an MX2 gate that is not full and an EMX gate that is overspilling. You, as the FIM, can you bang the table and say ‘guys, this is not presenting the world championship in the best light…’?

Hmmm. There is the negative aspect: of less people on the grid…but then there is more room on the track. More options, more chances to pass or less chance of an incident and more space for medical teams. There are positive and negative aspects. Do we really want a full grid? They are prepared for it. We have to look at the figures also for incidents and accidents and the number of spectators on site and TV. We have to play with the balance.

How would you like to see MXGP change?

So, in Spain this year we were able to set up our first TV Control Room and we have become a bit independent from the TV images and the TV compound. We still have the images they use for TV promotion so we cannot focus on one specific part of the track if there is an incident but we can register the images from the live for analysis. It’s a great advantage. It means we can look and do things like rule on actions or apply penalties as soon as possible and if protests are logged or any appeal then we are better equipped. From another aspect there are many things we can still improved…but this [MXGP] is like a big dinosaur and it takes time to move and to implement any development. It takes time to decide when, how and how much. That’s important. We are already asking organisers to provide, provide and provide and an example is the container, space and connection for the TV Control Room. From an organisational point of view, there are different opinions…but you have to put everything on the table and develop it as a whole, not just one side.

Riding gear and safety performance has been one area of focus for the FIM. What’s your view on the progress and acceptance of airbags and then the new level of FIM helmet homologation?

With the airbags we are still in the early stages of development and the algorithm is getting better and better. Yesterday I spent the day scanning helmets to make sure the whole process was thorough because the scrutineers are in the process of checking and uploading all the new information into the platform. Also, we realised that we have more and more helmets in the European classes that are passing the standard, even though it is not compulsory until 2027. Through our controls we are also seeing more and more kids using airbags. That’s good. The more people that use this kind of protection then the faster the evolution and the proper algorithm will be there sooner, and prices get a bit cheaper so it is affordable for everybody and not just the riders in the top classes. We also have to consider kids and different sizes of rider. All those things. We cannot make them mandatory because we need to look at the whole industry to ask if they [brands] are willing to provide this-and-that. That’s an issue we had with helmets. We wanted to homologate but the industry had to be ready to go into production for all sizes. It’s coming slowly. We expected them to be faster but there are more and more on track. The outcome of the tests run at the University of Zaragoza has shown the breakthrough of technology. Safety is a big issue in the Motocross Commission.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by MotoGP.com/Adam Wheeler

The press call at Mugello for the announcement of an official link between MotoGP and the largest motorcycle show in the world was one of those small ‘oh, of course…’ moments at the Italian Grand Prix. The series had a short-lived involvement with the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK three years ago but, oddly, haven’t carried much official presence at the Milan event.

EICMA is a big deal. The organisers claim annual attendance increases for the six-day gathering where there are more than 730 exhibitors, over 2000 brands and 43,000 trade professionals, spread throughout the halls of the Fiera expo centre. 2025 saw crowds of 600,000 bleep through the gates. Creating presence and pomp at EICMA has required each significant powered two-wheel brand in the industry to assign a hefty quota of their yearly marketing budget due to the fancy stands and showy set-ups.

MotoGP riders have frequently attended a portion of the show but the scheduling pf the Valencian Grand Prix has inhibited these obligations in recent years. When figures like Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso have gone to Milan then it’s usually been at the behest of sponsors or employers rather than MotoGP itself.

Since the ratification of the Liberty Media takeover of Dorna Sports in 2025 there has been speculation about how the championship will change. A new visual identity (put into place before Liberty arrived), internal recruitment and alterations towards better corporate entertainment (organisation of the paddock, an extra pitbox space for guests) have been the only signs outside of confidential meetings between teams, the MSMA, MotoGP Group and Liberty for the next five-year contract window starting in 2027: the foundations of how the championship will eventually blossom.

Expansion and new audiences are the mantra of MotoGP as the championship morphs to be an ‘entertainment brand’ as much as a sport. ‘Show’ elements are increasingly eating into agenda of the riders – the stars names – across Grands Prix, and there may well be much more of a promotion emphasis moving forwards. This might be a chore to the establishment but it will soon become normality to the likes of David Alonso, Izan Guevara and the next generation of Grand Prix racers. Replacing Phillip Island for Adelaide Parklands is coincidental timing but the city centre location for the 2027 Australian Grand Prix is a fine example of the Liberty remit for a basic ‘ABC’ formula regarding more fan and public catchment.

Most followers might be resistant to change in fear of dilution of the traits that made them adore the championship in the first place. But MotoGP Group’s commitment to EICMA means they are working on a 360-degree programme of promotion, rather than just nonendemic channels for more eyeballs. In Mugello, it felt abnormal that MotoGP hadn’t taken advantage of the EICMA platform before or more regularly.

“It is kinda a surprise,” CSO Carlos Ezpeleta smiled. “EICMA is a huge event. MotoGP and our fan base are much more than people who just ride bikes, having said that we still have work to do with people that do. Millions and millions of bikes are sold every day and the people buying them are not as engaged with MotoGP as we’d like them to be. It is a more targeted initiative than others that we do… but from a brand perspective EICMA is the best in the world at what they do and we’re the best in the world in what we do, so it makes sense.”

The association was reflected in the advertising campaign for the 83rd edition of the show featuring a partially covered sportsbike. It’s not the most obvious gesture when the lion’s share of contemporary interest in the motorcycle market revolves around scooters, electric mobility and convenience models like naked bikes, tourers and upmarket adventure products. MotoGP’s push is to not only widen consideration for Grand Prix racing at EICMA but to work with the stakeholders and investors in the paddock.

“It’s an event that you have to be part of; to inform that crowd and how the manufacturers that are in this paddock are a level above,” Carlos added, exclusively. “We want to help with that and its important.”

EICMA, running from November 5-8 for general public (with an extra two days for trade and an expected media attendance of 8000+), falls on the rescheduled Qatar Grand Prix date and, for now, is one of the only non-race commitments MotoGP has for this type of fixture. “I think we will definitely do more outside of the circuits with different audiences and different targets…but I don’t think we’ll look at many other automobile shows,” Ezpeleta remarked.

What can EICMA attendees expect? The usual display paraphernalia of bikes, faces, merchandise and more but also some historical race machinery, partially borrowed from the new FIM Museum in Switzerland. The details will be announced across the weekend of the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano in September.

As for MotoGP, is the gesture towards a predominantly motorcycling audience (and one embedded in hotspot country for the sport at that) one that MotoGP Group felt they needed to quell some of the consternation about future alterations of Grand Prix? At the very least, EICMA will allow an opportunity for connection and dialogue with a hefty sample of European followers.

“I don’t think we need a gesture,” Carlos underlines. “There is always scepticism and people that like to draw-and-divide, and we have been very vocal and clear that we don’t feel we are making any choices between our fans. In this new era we come with a tremendous position of strength in that we don’t need to change the sport to find new audiences. It’s the best motorsport out there and we’re continuously evolving it to be better, safer and more entertaining. A testament to this is the new regulations [from 2027]. To make this sport bigger from the grass-roots all the way up to MotoGP. We think it makes sense. We’re definitely not forgetting about our more engaged fans and those that helped us build the sport up to what it is now.”

Honda and HRC formed their own ‘compound’ at the recent Grand Prix of Trentino. There were four trucks alone for the factory MXGP team; one of which being an elite VIP enclave. Shoes were left at the door. Paired with the new expansive and modern workshop in The Netherlands and a three-rider attack with the CRF450RW in the premier class (two of whom hold seven world championships) HRC has never been so well equipped and equipped to do well. The architect of this red empire is Italian Giacomo Gariboldi, who invests in and administers the platform for HRC’s swelling hunger for motocross glory as Honda edge closer to former heights on both sides of the Atlantic. Thanks to a prosperous association with Tim Gajser between 2014-2025 that delivered five titles across both MX2 and MXGP classes, Honda has not been in the wilderness but the line-up of Jeffrey Herlings, Tom Vialle, Ruben Fernandez and Valerio Lata in MX2, not to mention a team of nearly 40 people and increasing interest in the series from Japan, means Gariboldi now oversees the most powerful and opulent team in the sport.

I first met Giacomo in 2008. He’d set-up an ambitious talent development squad in the European Championship (then a separate, distant contest from MXGP) and helped launch the careers of Christophe Charlier and Harri Kullas. Gariboldi’s scope for racing caught the eye of Yamaha bosses and he was soon tempted to transition to Grand Prix. Budgets, priorities and politics meant a switch to Honda at a time when their 250 programme did not inspire confidence. It was a redirection for the Italian crew but Gariboldi snared Gajser from KTM’s grasp in 2014. The teenage Slovenian was a champion-in-waiting, even though he had a complicated family dynamic, but the collusion of emerging star power and Japanese curiosity with the potential of the CRF250RW in 2015 led to quick results and the Gariboldi and HRC relationship began to flower, even to the point where he could consider his independent Honda-armed youth schemes once more, and spent his own cash to run Livia Lancelot’s crew for three years; home of Hunter Lawrence’s last MX2 season in 2018.

In 2026 there was plenty to discuss. The arrival of Herlings from a 16-year Red Bull KTM association was a coup. Bringing Tom Vialle over from the U.S. after two 250 SX crowns was also a statement. Managing to convince HRC to field three riders and retaining Ruben Fernandez (the 27-year-old is another Gariboldi project after two years in the MX2 ‘pipeline’ and this season represents the fast but inconsistent Spaniard’s fifth term in red) offers continuity after he’d started to shape the prototype CRF from the mid-points of 2025. Lata, and the new alliance with Marco Maddii’s team for MX2 and starlets filtering from EMX, means the footprint is even deeper and scarlet.

It’s hard to imagine HRC MXGP being any bigger or better than it is in 2026. Is this the dream?

Yes, with four riders, the new workshop, around 35 people working for the team…it’s a lot of work – like running two teams – but this is what HRC deserves. They want to be top of the game in both classes. We are struggling with the 250 a little bit but we’ll be there one day. With the 450 we have shown that we have three top riders that can go for the win every race. Everything has been built with the goal to win championships, and you need this to perform at the best level.

In the past you backed Livia and had your own 250 programme because you felt it was lacking for HRC…

Yeah, what we [HRC] were missing was a place for younger riders and this was why I started those teams in the past and this year we’ve made an agreement with Maddii to do this because in HRC we cannot take young riders from the European Championships and wait three years for them to perform at the highest level. We need riders that can already go for podiums. We tried in the last two seasons to take somebody from EMX but it [the development period] was too long. That’s why we started with Maddii, and the idea is that they grow some of the young talent in their team and pass onto us because we need somebody for the 250 class. It’s not easy because we don’t have a two-stroke, so they always go through other manufacturers which then sign the best guys. It’s possible to find decent riders but not always those that are ready to go for the win.

What are your thoughts on the EMX250 and MX2 situation at the moment? Is one class choking the other?

I think we miss riders in MX2 now and the top two-three in EMX250 can match the speed of the MX2. Honestly it is like a double class. I think you should either leave MX2 without a [age] limit and put a limit on EMX, like it is now. But having two classes limited in age is a double situation, like a copy. I would go for just one class but I don’t know if it is in the interests of the federation to do that.

What do Honda say?

In the past they were not really interested in the 250. For them, the ‘F1’ of motocross was the 450 and they wanted to win there. But a couple of years ago they really started pushing for the 250, and the new bikes will come…I think they want a good performer on a 250, and they understand that to get a good 450 rider they need to try and work at a younger age to try and hook the next champion. This is how it worked with our riders like Gajser. I have always been pushing HRC for the 250.

Your teams always had a project; whether it was Christophe or Ruben or Tim. This year you went ‘big’ on recruitment. How was it to lure these top champions? It must have been a different experience for you and other management because Tim had been here for a decade…

We decided to turn the page. Our results were based on just one single rider in the past seasons, and we needed to show that we could win GPs and championships with more than just one. So, the choice was to go for two champions and, of course, it was not easy to find them! We were lucky because Jeffrey and Tom were at the end of their contracts. We jumped on the opportunity and after having worked so many years with top riders you know how to work [with this type of athlete] and what they need. So, it was not really complicated for us to put them in a condition where they could perform, even if we didn’t know their personality and habits, but very quickly we knew what they needed. I have been with Jeffrey since day one to understand him, and that worked because I think we put him in a position where he could perform right away and the results have shown. Tom the same; from the first test. To put the best people around him and to make him feel at home. The crew did a god job.

Was it interesting to see Jeffrey up close after being a rival for so many years?

It was strange…even now, after a few GPs, when I see #84 on a Honda I think ‘wow!’. It’s a bit like dream because he was a rival and against us for so many seasons and we had to fight him every time and hoped he wouldn’t perform well. Now to have him onboard it’s the other way and it still feels a little strange…but I’m also excited every time I see him on a CRF. The same for Tom. I’ve seen him on a KTM his whole career and to now be on a Honda and performing so well…you cannot imagine.

How is he? Tom is one of the fastest learners in global motocross…

He is very shy. Very professional. Extremely focused on what he does. He’s not afraid to be in a battle. He is used to that after the experiences with [Haiden] Deegan in the U.S. He’s an admirable guy, as well as sweet. Jeffrey is somebody who is completely different to what I thought he would be…and Tom has also been a great discovery for the team and, looking at his career, he has needed only one season to adapt and then we would go for the title the next. So, we said: “this year, take it easy, we don’t have goals…see where you are” and he is over-performing. Incredibly well. We expected to go for the title with him next year, not this one.

Tim Gajser: can you talk about the decision to part ways?

After twelve seasons we had won quite a lot; five titles and 50-something GPs. I think it was the right time. It is never a lifetime relationship between and team and a rider, and we already had a long time with him. How many others have lasted so long? Maybe only [Tony] Cairoli with [Claudio] De Carli. The decision was made after some disappointing results in the last two-three seasons. We expected…well, when you pay so much money for a rider…of course it [winning] is never easy but you expect to win titles and when this doesn’t happen then it is like a disappointment. I think, and also it was felt in Japan, that it was time to go for a new experience and new champions.

What exactly is your day-to-day role now?

I’ve never been as involved as much as I have been this year. I spoke about being with the riders but then also my involvement with top management in Japan about contracts and the future. I’m very pleased that they value my ideas. I try to give them an inside view of what is happening in the paddock and with the riders, so they have that feedback to make the decisions for the future of Honda [in MXGP]. I also try to put everyone in the team into a position where they can perform well and to have the right people in the right place but without interfering in their job because I don’t want to be the one that does everything. I think if you hire one guy for one job then it’s because you rely on him and you trust him. I think now we have the nicest group we’ve ever had in HRC. Everybody is happy to work. You see the enthusiasm of everyone in the team…and we are many. We have also had more visits from top management, and I think now they are passionate about motocross and that wasn’t the case in the past, it was more MotoGP. This makes a huge difference and why we have four riders now instead of two, like in the past.

By Adam Wheeler

As I write this the music of MotoGP’s first official ‘Fan Fest’ will be building up in Plaça Catalunya; the touristic and commercial hub of Barcelona. For two days before round six of the 2026 world championship, the five hectare square will contain all sorts of ‘festival-esque’ activities in promotion of the Grand Prix and is the first gathering of its kind, aping the F1 ‘Village’ set-up that has accompanied the cars in recent editions and since the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, located 15 miles north of the centre of the metropolis, became the Spanish host of the championship from 2013.

The 35th Catalan MotoGP (not counting the ‘Solidarity GP’ at the end of 2024) comes less than three weeks after the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez and follows hard upon the French Grand Prix at Le Mans (scheduling that could hit the attendance figures this weekend, as Barcelona lies just 100 miles from the border and tends to attract a large quota of French fans and motorcyclists). It is three-and-a-half months before the trip to Aragon and then Valencia is likely to wrap MotoGP for the last time come the end of November.

Last week Carmelo Ezpeleta was joined by political delegates from the Generalitat [the Catalan government], Montmelo (town of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya), district and circuit representatives to commemorate the 35^th year in a row that the venue welcomes MotoGP. Fittingly, the press conference took place in the astonishing Gaudi-influenced Hospital Sant Pau Recinte Modernista; a 125-year-old institution, refurbished and restored, updated and unavoidable for any passerby or tourist. The 80-year-old spoke at length (in Catalan) about the significance and relevance of the country in the modern era of MotoGP. “In F1 they speak English [as the main language], in MotoGP it’s Catalan,” he said.

Ezpeleta explained how, as a five-year old, he was fascinated by watching cars barrel up Diagonal and the old Pedrables circuit (site of the 1951 F1 Grand Prix) and realised that Catalunya was a place where his motorsport predilection could be fostered and encouraged. Ezpeleta, of course, went on to become arguably the most influential figure in MotoGP history once Dorna Sports took over the commercial rights to Grand Prix racing in 1992. He was the head of the CdBC – which had been built as part of the same mammoth regeneration project to coincide with the 1992 Olympic Games and signed-off the first GP there that same year (tagged the European Grand Prix until 1996 when it gained its Catalan moniker).

Catalunya’s influence and legacy is unescapable. From MotoGP Group’s roots and operational base in Sant Just (a neighbourhood southwest of the city), to the bygone brands that used to compete (the Derbi factory was a short distance from the circuit), to the history of the Montjuic circuit and endurance motorcycle races that lapped the city’s principal hillside park, to Alex Criville; Spain and Catalunya first premier class world champion, to the bases for teams like HRC, Ajo, Honda Asia, to the residence and training focus for countless riders, the proximity to Andorra and where half of the current MotoGP grid call ‘home’ to Monlau and other motorsport ‘schools’ for mechanics, technicians like the late Antonio Cobas, Crew Chiefs like Santi Hernandez. In 2026 four of the current 22 riders on the grid are Catalan: the Marquez brother, Alex Rins and Maverick Viñales.

The Catalan Grand Prix is exactly the model of event that ticks boxes for the future shape of the series under Liberty Media’s watch: proximity to a major city, glamourous and modern (CdBC have been upgrading their facilities for the last three years, have aimed for better security and have invested more than a million euros in improvements to the medical centre for 2026). Monster Energy have seen fit to sponsor the event, choosing Barcelona’s appeal over Le Mans and Silverstone where they had previous agreements and presence. Crowd figures have fluctuated; from more than 97,000 on race day in 2015 dropping to 60 in 2022 and the first GP after the pandemic. The Marquez influence helped to a surge back to 76k in 2024 and twelve months ago the official figure was 83,320 for an unusual September slot on the agenda.

Last year the Grand Prix was the third best attended from the four on the slate. Jerez drew over 101k, Valencia (benefiting from its position as the championship climax) generating over 93k while Aragon could only pull in 50. Valencia is due to shift in 2027 as Australia and Adelaide are expected to assume the finale role, so it will be curious to see if the event continues to sell-out. Crucially, Catalunya has a 5-year contract in place, running from 2027 to 2031 as does Jerez and Valencia, so Aragon – which is up this year – is sweating under the axe. As a side note: Balaton Park and Silverstone were the lesser attended European rounds in 2025.

“In the future it will be difficult…but well, like I said before, Catalunya is a ‘birthplace’,” Ezpeleta commented when asked about the wavering Iberian prevalence on the calendar. “I think from the beginning in 1949 and then our stage from 1991 we cannot dispute that is has grown exponentially. I hope the growth from now will be almost the same again. We cannot do more than 22 races due to safety and due to the contracts with the teams and the federation, and therefore four GPs in one nation will be tricky.”

22 Grands Prix place huge demands on MotoGP Group for costs, staff and logistics but Ezpeleta intimated that the championship could – but won’t - accommodate even more. “The prospects are really good. There is a huge interest for MotoGP, above all, from investors and people who want to be part of the teams and, for sure, from the 22 rounds we have, if we could rise to something like 27 then we’d have them. People have accepted the change really well and everyone involved is committed to making thing better.”

“Liberty is a world leader and knows a lot about the entertainment business. They are going to fill the well, and should be very good for us,” Carmelo added. The Spaniard said that MotoGP Group has “changed a lot” but initiatives like the Fan Fest in Barcelona was the sort of idea the company wanted to chase. Now, with Liberty’s approval, the quest to take MotoGP away from the race circuits and into the faces of a bigger audience had been empowering. “There are a lot of things that we already wanted to do…but [needed] to have shareholders that agreed with these activities. Liberty’s experience of having done it with Formula One - and their knowledge - is really important, in comparison to the previous shareholders and for that we’re really happy and proud.”

The Fan Fest is largely a circuit and city initiative with MotoGP Group’s full involvement. It’s a dummy-run for more schemes and follows the priority in 2025 and 2026 for big activations like the season Launch. It’s also an example of the fresh demands that MotoGP Group are making of the 11 teams (more time, more marketing staff, more commitment, more promo motorcycles) in the protracted negotiations towards the new 5-year deal between promoters and players. Ezpeleta was also asked about this. He didn’t seem worried about the delay or stated that there was a deadline. “The agreement is different than it was…and changes need time for negotiation,” he admitted. “I don’t like people that don’t barter…because that tends to mean they won’t fulfil [the contract]! So, it’s normal that we discuss…but we’ll reach an agreement for sure.”

Also at the press conference was Miquel Sàmper, Minister of Business and Labour of the Generalitat, who stressed that the business spread of MotoGP covers “more than just 3 days” and the accumulative effort of the bikes and F1 contributes an “annual lever” of more than 500m euros for revenue and commercial interest in the region, city and country. Perhaps it’s an important stat considering the public funding required for the Circuit to exist and to bring the Grands Prix to town. He also commented that for 2026 “the circuit leaves its current area and comes more into Barcelona” with reference to the promotion efforts.

MotoGP gained even more traction in the eyes of the authorities when Madrid swooped to acquire the Spanish GP rights to F1. The five-year tie for the Catalan GP ensures that Barcelona won’t have to sweat its Grand Prix status as it barrels up to the four-decade marker…and can instead dream of other ways to get an already mainstream sport into wider consciousness.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Polarity Photo/MotoGP.com

‘April is the cruellest month…’ so opens T.S. Eliot’s seminal modernist poem ‘The Wasteland’ and Marc Marquez could well relate. The world champion’s love-hate relationship with Jerez persists and was partly encapsulated in a 36-hour period. The 2026 Spanish Grand Prix could even be said to represent a snapshot of the Catalan’s career: acclaim, adoration, speed, skill in the hardest of track conditions, improvisation, victory, controversy and then a disturber of gravel traps. For the second time in two years, his younger sibling jumbled Marc’s emotions of annoyance, frustration but also pride and affection.

All this came after a heavy crash in a former fortress – the Circuit of the Americas – and a somewhat fortunate three week reprieve to recover after the rescheduling of the Qatar Grand Prix. April was testing for Marc. ‘One must be so careful these days’.

There is plenty of poetic substance to the Spanish Grand Prix, and since the world championship found a spiritual home at Jerez. The frequent sun-kissed zeal for racing is immediately transparent through the repeatedly large attendance, the volume of the fans’ reactions, the abundancy of apparel, the now-traditional pre-dawn light show of the congregation at Peluqui and hammered home by the banks of shimmery motorcycle metal in the stodged parking zones.

Marquez, 33 years old, was aware of the great stage on Saturday when he turned his last corner Sprint crash into a first win of 2026. “I say many times; sometimes the people remember more, or talk more, about the riders that create show than the riders that win a lot. So yeah, the most important [thing] is that the fans enjoy.”

Alex, 30 over the weekend, and now a veteran of 250 Grand Prix starts as well as one of only three riders on the grid with world championships in the other two classes, also felt the indelibility of his mark. “This is something magical,” he said of his second win in a row and being the first Spaniard to do so since his brother in 2018/2019 (before that it was Jorge Lorenzo in 2010/2011).

Jerez. Where the Don Pepe tower flanks the sounds of dance music, the echo of the tannoy, the pungent smell of ‘lomo con queso’ occasionally mixes with sunscreen and the crowd are still pouring through the gates less than an hour before the main race (perhaps jaded after a busy night on the Andaluce tiles). All the vibe, but, perhaps less of the verve…in 2026. The 25 laps on Sunday was a long watch compared to the freneticism of the weather-hit Saturday Sprint where Marquez senior reigned but sparked debate once again with his detour into the pitlane after falling in the Flag-to-Flag wet at Turn 13. Cue yet another revision of the MotoGP rulebook due to the exploits of MM93.

Sunday was instead a showcase for Alex’s self-confessed “flow” and where he did not have to worry about the elements interrupting his pace in the lead, as it had done to the detriment of his spare parts catalogue on Saturday. The day was also, a window for the recovery trend and ‘acumen’ of Marco Bezzecchi after another iffy Saturday, and further consolidation that Fabio Di Giannantonio knows what he is doing with the finickity Ducati GP26 and when the Italian doesn’t have to lose energy and focus on rehabbing from injury, as he did in 2025.

There were only three position changes in the top eight from lap 5 of 25 and two of those coming when a resilient Johann Zarco lost all performance from his Michelin rear tyre with five circulations remaining, and the smooth Ai Ogura took aim with his Aprilia against the French sitting duck. “Especially the last four or five laps, everybody struggled in [corner] entry,” the understated Japanese said. “And in turn 8, I have so much grip compared to others, so that’s where I catch them. But, until lap 4-5, everybody was okay.”

Jerez was described as a ‘kart circuit’ by more than one rider for its short 4.4km layout, and is one of the few courses on the calendar where riders vocally complain of arm-pump. It’s also diverse, justifying its use as a testing source. “Jerez is a complicated track because it’s super-complete with fast corners, slow corners, hard braking,” offered Bezzecchi.

MotoGP is shackled by tyre pressures, aerodynamics and ride height devices and even though Jerez provides at least three delicious overtaking opportunities, the machinery appears too unwieldy. “We have many tracks where you can only focus on the rear tire, basically, because it drops the most. Here is a bit different,” Diggia explained. “I always suffer with the front here. I think it’s a track that if you are really precise you can make up time on the rider in front, but if the track is smaller it’s more difficult because you have to be super-precise. You have here a bigger track, longer track. You can gain and lose time here and there.”

The static extended away from the race distance. The MotoGP paddock is neither a wasteland nor a no man’s land; nothing near the gravitas or seriousness associated with those words…but, currently, there is a sense of stalemate, and the stench of impasse. Serious faces, endless meetings and the drip-feed of rumour and suggestion. The manufacturers, the teams, the MSMA organisation that represents them, MotoGP Sport Entertainment Group [namely Carmelo and Carlos Ezpeleta] and any semblance of a brief from championship owners Liberty Media are still not aligned. There is a vow of quiet among the MSMA members and they are not using the media to air any grievances or explicit details of how they’d like the next half-decade agreement with MotoGP’s rights-holders to play out.

Some information has emerged however as the parties barter on remuneration (and therefore the amount of future investment, with at least two of the brands involved almost entirely reliant on motorcycle sales to fund or justify their MotoGP involvement), profit share, and other stipulations such as the buy/lease process of equipment and mandatory requirements for marketing and promotion. Meetings have been going on for months and not just with senior racing management figures but also CEOs of the respective motorcycle companies (most recently at the USGP).

Allegedly, the latest proposal from MotoGP Group was deemed unsuitable for the MSMA members in Jerez. Three companies did not send representation to the promoter’s annual dinner for influential paddock personnel in the centre of Jerez on Friday evening, although the reasons for their absence could also be coincidental.

MotoGP, therefore, is still in a holding pattern before the hype can begin towards the new era for the championship in 2027 and all the speculative changes the transition entails.

There is some self-serving and forthrightness through the murk. Alex Rins is jobless for 2027 and had few qualms in informing the media on Thursday that Yamaha had decided against renewing his contract after two-and-a-half fruitless seasons (and a best result of 7th). His statement was as much an advertisement and alert as a direct response to an enquiry. Trackhouse Racing’s Team Manager, Davide Brivio, decided to tell MotoGP TV reporter Jack Appleyard during Friday’s sessions that Ai Ogura had informed the Aprilia satellite crew he would not be staying on the American RS-GP for a third term; essentially confirming his shuffle to Rins’ saddle. Apart from contracts for Johann Zarco, Diogo Moreira and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu there have been little else in the way of confirmation until the teams cement their status with MSEG.

Jerez was far from peaceful on Monday morning. The rustle of litter was the only audio from beyond the fences but MotoGP bikes were still howling underneath brilliant blue skies and with the abundance of post-race grip ready for sticky testing laps. KTM, Honda and Ducati were particularly eager to grab track time to fix their turning and grip issues respectively while Yamaha maintain their development course in a separate MotoGP sub-category. Oh! What a turnaround 2027 MotoGP could be if the Japanese are secretly fashioning the most potent 850.

2027 is likely to see a large pivot in the sport and Jerez, with its status as the European ‘opener’, will again be a barometer for MotoGP’s conditioning. Fragmentation and isolation in the pack and among the tinted windowed hospitalities are only temporary themes in this championship. Eventual harmony carries great promise.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer and JP Acevedo.

In the initial stages of the 2025 Grand Prix season, Spanish hopeful Oriol Oliver was stranded. He had a ride with a privateer MX2 team but when they lost their main sponsor he was asked to cough up cash to keep his saddle. The 23-year-old couldn’t pay and was briefly unemployed. He was rescued by the private Gabriel SS24 KTM squad with partial support from the Austrian factory as part of their talent development scheme. Oliver turned heads with a 4th position overall in MX2 at the French Grand Prix and he gelled with the modest British set-up until illness derailed the later stages of the campaign.

Team Owner, Simon Gabriel, and Team Manager Shaun Simpson had seen enough. Their remit with KTM saw them providing Dutch teenager Gyan Doensen with a berth in 2026 EMX250 but they pushed for a stock KTM 450 SX-F for Oliver in his forced age-related move to MXGP and their first dabble in the premier class.

Oliver has subsequently turned heads. His rapid starts, attractive riding style and fearlessness has given him opportunities to run at the front of the field in two of the five rounds to-date. In Arco di Trento and the last outing for the world championship he posted his first top ten results with a P8 and P10 for 9th overall.

So far, so rookie. What’s the big deal; you might think…? Well, the narrative falls squarely into that classic underdog role. Oliver finished ahead of nine former Grand Prix winners, a world champion and three championship runner-ups as well seven factory bikes In the first moto at Trentino.

The #83 says “I’m learning new things on a bike I’d never ridden before – such as the changes we’re making to the suspension and the feeling I have - but the thing I like the most is that every race I feel the margin for improvement”, but for all his open-mindedness to the task there is a natural blend with the bigger motorcycle, compared to what he had in MX2.

“I always thought the 450 would be a good fit for me because from the 125 days and even the 250s I liked to ride long gears,” he told us. “On the 250 I could click into third and use that for a whole lap, especially for tricky places like Arco di Trento. I don’t get on the gas too aggressively. I ride gently and with low revs. So, I suspected I could be fast but I also don’t yet know how to push it fully, and I’m learning. For example, in Arco the track was different to anything I really ride or train on, so it was a good experience to use the motor and also make changes to the WP suspension to get more out of the bike. I think I’m a ‘light’ rider. I’m not a factory guy but I think I’m smart with what I do. I have a good base; which is important.”

“I know that when some riders move to the 450s they ask their team to lower the power, in my case I feel the more the better!” he admits. “I haven’t ridden a factory bike…but I like having the full possibilities of the engine because I can be fine with the throttle.”

“In MX2 I was more preoccupied [about the bike],” he adds. “Going to the gate knowing that it was not at the level of the factory ones next to you did not give extra confidence. It didn’t phase me…but it was on my mind. Now, I don’t have that feeling. I have a competitive bike and that means I only have to worry about one thing: me. It helps a lot to know that I can start well and be right at the front and with the team we have trained and practice a lot for this. We’ve tried different things, and in Sardinia we figured out the way to start consistently good. My confidence is up.”

Defending and seizing track positions from rivals with far more experience and silverware is not a daunting prospect. “It gives me even more motivation to work,” he reveals. “I love motocross and I love being in this category.”

The loss of his friend and fellow racer Enzo Badenas towards the end of 2025 after a training crash seems to have hardened a mental resolve. He took a podium finish at the Internazionali D’Italia on his 450 debut in Sardinia less than two months after the tragedy. He wrote on Instagram that he was ‘happy but not satisfied’ with 9^th in Italy last week and for all his humility (and the dwarfing might and resources of his opposition) Oliver is aiming for bigger prizes, much in the same way that Simpson himself subverted the MXGP establishment and, to this day, is still the last winner from a privateer set-up with his effort at the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix (at Assen later that year he was steering a works KTM 450 SX-F).

Simpson says that Oliver is as fit as a fiddle, focused and (crucially) modest with his set-up and entourage. Ironically, for what was meant to be a team dedicated to the progressive steps of youngsters, Gabriel SS24 KTM is now moulding a flowering talent at the elite peak of the series, as well as vying for a British Championship. Oliver’s story is one to watch. He dropped back into the clutches of the field during the Sardinian Grand Prix and the difficult sand of Riola Sardo for round four but was stubbornly resistant seven days later in Arco.

“Things had gone well at Riola but that’s a hard track and I’m still in the ‘process’ with the 450,” Oriol explained. “It was positive…but the results not so much because I got tired, honestly. It’s one of the toughest tracks, together with Lommel. Starting at the front was a big lesson for me and I stayed there as long as I could by giving the maximum and not saving much energy. I sunk! But I concentrated on recovery after Sardinia. I hardly touched the bike and got ready for Arco, where my lap-times barely changed through the moto and I was happy about that. We’re almost there and we can use these weeks without a GP now to work really hard and reach the next level.”

MXGP might obsess with the title fight between Jeffrey Herlings, Lucas Coenen and Romain Febvre, or dwell on the rookie efforts of ex-world champs Tom Vialle, Kay de Wolf and Andrea Adamo, or chart the course of Ducati’s second year…but there are also other stories of merit in the premier class and Oriol Oliver and Gabriel SS24 are doing all they can to grab glory as well as the cameras.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer.

During a gripping first MXGP moto at El Ciclamino there was a full-volume cry from the endlessly animated circuit commentary team: “la furia!” It was belted out in reaction to Jeffrey Herlings’ race-winning charge from 5th and past teammate Tom Vialle and dumbstruck world champion Romain Febvre. Herlings somehow found a brace of laps four seconds faster than the Frenchman, and the moto was done. “I just got into a flow, and it got better and better,” the five-times world champion said of his most emphatic performance yet on the works CRF, and only his ninth GP start on Japanese machinery. “I was in traffic all the time; I picked up lines and saw some good spots. I had to be creative but at one point I just had a really good flow.”

Herlings’ enduring ability to surprise MXGP fans and followers has been one of the characteristics of the series since the Dutchman’s shock emergence as a Grand Prix-winning 15-year-old in 2010. Through an elongated, untimely sequence of comebacks, comeback charges, spats, crashes, injuries, debuts, wildcards…MXGP is rarely staid when the #84 is moving; except for 2018, where he won practically everything and filled Grand Prix with a withering sense of inevitability with every gate drop.

“It’s so stacked right now and it’s so good for the sport, for the GPs and for everyone,” he said after his second overall victory from five rounds, elevating him to four points of a curiously ‘off’ Lucas Coenen (“I didn’t have expectations because this track does not suit me,” the 19-year-old offered after finishing 7th). “It will bring a lot of people. Back in the day when I was winning by over a minute with Tony [Cairoli] it was quite boring to watch. People always want to see some rivalry; maybe Haiden Deegan way is too much for the European side…but it’s what people want to see and why they come to the races.”

Or because they can witness a master in motion. On Saturday Jeffrey had dropped the Honda in the Qualification Heat but some rainfall on Sunday had helped slow and roughen the rocky Italian soil (optimistically mixed with sand and softer dirt by the circuit organisers) and he looked less ‘lost’ against the formidable speed of Coenen, who had soundly defeated Herlings and co seven days earlier in the Sardinian sand.

Coenen’s error on the first lap caused a groan in the Red Bull KTM camp and continued the ‘one-on, one-off’ podium streak for the Belgian who somehow had to plot a route from outside the top 25 to 12th. Febvre himself was fortunate to be anywhere near the front after a technical issue on Saturday left him with the 39th gate choice, but a lucky open slot eight/nine places from the inside opened for the Kawasaki man, like the softest, fastest and most inviting rut. He was bumped back to reality and the outside for the second moto, and had to claw back to 12th.

People might speculate that Ciclamino is not a definitive Herlings circuit but the 31-year-old actually dominated the very first Grand Prix at the site in 2013 with a 1-1 in MX2 (Cairoli delivering the same results on the KTM 350 SX-F that day in MXGP). He logged another four visits to the top step since and his 1-2 on last Sunday meant six career triumphs at a course that Tim Gajser claimed is: “not easy at all on a 450”. HRC teammate Vialle, who was 3rd overall described it as “a slow track. I think I rode the whole thing mainly in 2nd gear. I shifted to 3rd a couple of times. It’s slow, very technical and small bumps. Pretty fun.”

Herlings revelled in the billing that came with his furious charge (career win #114 and 13 above previous record holder Stefan Everts) and hinted that the pliability of the Honda helped. “It’s hard to make big margins on this track; in practice there were four riders in 0.1 [of each other]. It’s really close. I felt that the bike helped me a lot. On the KTM it was not the easiest track for me, so I feel like I gained on that. I’m super-motivated, I still love it. If I get a win I just get so hyped-up and it makes me train even harder the next week. If I get beat…it depends on how. In Sardinia I was not the fastest guy. I was beat and I was fine with it.”

Ciclamino pulsed with vigour (any airhorns, flares and chainsaws left in the rest of Italy?) as Herlings chased and passed. The packed attendance cheered his every move and the display of efficient overtaking. This, in itself, was quite a role reversal. From 2017 to 2021 Herlings was the semi-perennial scourge of local hero Tony Cairoli. Last weekend he was the darling of the crowd; Tomac-esque.

Pietramurata is flanked by majestic grey 1000m mountainous peaks and it was fitting that the two monoliths of the series pressed their weight. Herlings and Gajser have claimed six of the last ten MXGP titles between them. They now also have six wins each at the venue. Ciclamino split the moto honours as the Slovenian profited from another Coenen slip to glide that fetching Alpinestars Valentino Rossi dedicatory gear into the lead during moto two and then defied Herlings’ best attempts to pressurise. “I was pushing but he did not make a mistake,” Jeffrey admitted. “He did a good job.’

Gajser’s first success in Yamaha colours comes after an erratic start to the campaign in which he has totalled three podiums but also crashed and has yet to find holeshot potential. It’s hard to know whether Tim is now set to challenge for 25 points regularly. His steady but unspectacular first moto run to 3rd was followed by some unspecified set-up changes for the second moto. “I was pushing way-more. I felt way-better,” he said. That the 29-year-old found his way is already impressive as he dealt with the legacy of his fall in Sardinia. “I didn’t expect a lot. I had that crash…and broke some ribs,” he revealed. “I felt like the fans were giving me something to keep pushing,” he added, in refence to the large, smoke-toting Slovenian contingent that make the short annual pilgrimage to the Dolomites.

Pietramurata feels so contradictory. For all the excellent attendance and dynamism of the fans it was also overly congested in the paddock (where the throughfares become hazardous lanes of bikes, pitbikes, cars, lorries and bicycles, even dogs), access tunnels and passages were rammed and the parking for public and campers outside of the single-road entry was an inventive exercise in logistical opportunism. Mobile phone coverage was a guess.

Also, for the tinted windows of the teams’ goldfish bowl trailers (and factory bikes mounted on F1-style 360 dollies) and HRC’s assembly of five truck trailers housing workstations, storage, and two for hospitality – the most impressive and comprehensive MXGP set-up I’ve ever seen in 25 years covering the sport - the rest of the paddock was disparate, with scant amenities for food, sanitation or promotion.

For the wholesome full start gates there were also 18-lap motos and gripes of backmarkers. If MXGP grows further, then what can be done about places like Pietramurata and all its stunning beauty? Do tickets become limited and priced higher? Can this GP become ‘boutique’ or does it give the impression of spilling over the edge, and dilutes the fan experience? If the crowds are filling the venue then there is clearly a vibe of ‘not broken, so no fixing required’…but there is undoubtedly scope for more at this Grand Prix and Pietramurata is still a draw, even in the post-Cairoli era.

“It’s not my favourite track but definitely my favourite race,” Gajser said, unsurprisingly.

“There are some others like it; five-six other rounds that are also quite hyped up but Arco is usually the first big one,” claimed Herlings.

This year MX2 is underwhelming compared to MXGP but Ciclamino was a fitting home for the ‘Sacha Coenen Experience’ and the irresistible start combination of Red Bull KTM 250 SX-F power and his diminutive frame.

Coenen’s dedication and wilful abandon is admirable and his style is unusual: he commits to ruts and corners sometimes with blind faith, leaning off the front part of the bike to such a degree that the motorcycle won’t be saved if it goes. Holeshots, speed and mistakes are part of the Sacha Coenen ‘ride’. Precision is not yet part of his arsenal, neither is sustained focus, but once (if?) these rough edges are smoothened then he’ll be unshakable. If he increases the percentages in the rest of the 2026 then MXGP could be in the unlikely position of two brothers, two twins, not only fronting their respective categories but also running towards the titles. His first victory of the season was a rout and puts him just four points behind a curiously lacklustre Simon Längenfelder.

MXGP is a long weekend. After Sunday press conferences the clock is nearing 7pm and this scheduling is partly because of the championship’s willingness to pack European Championship support classes into the program. The relevance and role of EMX250, the last tier before MX2, seems more prevalent than ever, as the speed and ability of the riders narrows and European competition is more attractive and popular option compared to the world championship. It’s a subject for a deeper dive - coming soon - and I spoke at length with the FIM and team reps at the weekend about it.

At the moment, the MXGP class is a powerful distraction. Yes, there are Triumphs and Ducatis on track but the big hitters are still making the big plays; that’s four different moto winners now from the ten held so far, seven different podium finishers. “It will be a difficult year because it is not just Lucas; it is Tim, Romain, so many guys who can also be in between,” Herlings assessed. “If you have a bad day…there are still many guys with GP wins or championships.”

Less than 30 minutes and 20km south of Pietramurata lies Lake Garda; the largest stretch of water (52km in length) in Italy. The region is apparently one of the most seismic in the country. Depth and rumblings: perhaps MXGP is very much at home here.

By Adam Wheeler. SardiniaGP photos by JP Acevedo.

Jeffrey Herlings made the dream start to his HRC career at the 2026 MXGP opener in Argentina but Lucas Coenen has since upped the ante, and with two conclusive sandy victories to boot. The 19-year-old Belgian is the Dutchman’s heir apparent on the motorcycle that Herlings helped shape from the Red Bull KTM confines that he called ‘home’ from the end of 2009 up to 1st January this year. It’s an elite duel that could shape the championship arc of 2026.

Coenen is in the ascendancy, but Herlings is hardly dragging his feet after his high-profile team and manufacturer switch and is the only athlete to have appeared on three podiums from the first four Grands Prix. He sits just 14 points behind Coenen, who is the third rider to have held the red plate already. This total equals the same amount from 2025 and is the most since the fabled 2021 title dispute…which Herlings conquered.

Lucas triumphed in the sand of Andalucia and Sardinia, and Jeffrey had to play runner-up on both occasions. Coenen’s combined race-winning time in Spain was a hefty 30+ seconds. In Riola last Sunday it was just over 20, after he’d tripped up and crashed, resulting in a grandstand finale that was decided by just 1.2 at the flag. Put simply, Coenen has been largely without peer and has dealt with one of the best sand racers of all-time quite comprehensively.

In Spain Herlings graciously gave Coenen his dues during the post-race interview. In Sardinia he was equally as effusive as the strong winds rattled through the media centre and (figuratively?) through the Grand Prix paddock “He’s on a level now…[and] even though I’m maybe Jett Lawrence’s biggest fan; I don’t think even Jett Lawrence would have stayed with the boy next to me,” he said in the press conference Sunday afternoon. “I think currently he is one of the fastest in the world.”

Coenen has looked stronger and more assured in 2026 so far compared to his record-breaking rookie term last year and his speed across the mind-bobbling bumps of Almonte and Riola (and also the ruts of Frauenfeld in Switzerland when he wasn’t being limited by racing incidents) show that the youngster is hitting a stride. He is still prone to mistakes though, and while not as frequent or dramatic as his twin’s in MX2, these lapses could be countered by the mental resilience that has long been formed in the heat of premier class competition by the likes of Jeffrey, Romain Febvre and Tim Gajser. Being simplistic for a moment, we could talk about the aged racing trade-off: youth, vigour and abandon against steel, consistency and weathered experience. Jeffrey Herlings, for so long MXGP’s exponent of the former category, is now firmly into the latter but this is not to diminish his powers, nor to undercut the reenergising effect of trying to take Honda back to the top of the pile.

There was something invincible about Coenen in the Sardinian powder, however. Even Herlings’ trademark final laps attack could not dislodge his peer in the second moto climax. “You have to be perfect everywhere,” Coenen said of the sun-kissed sand.

To see Jeffrey outpaced in ‘his’ terrain in this way raises questions…but then we must remember that this is not the young man who once lapped up to 2nd place in the Lierop sand in MX2 or the animal that raced to victory in the Arnhem sand with a fractured shoulder. Even a superpower like Jeffrey Herlings has to bow to time, age, mileage, stiffness and pain, and his comments in recent years – in the wake of the momentary paralysis, broken necks, concussions, plates upon collarbone plates, shattered ankles and knee reconstructions – have recognised his powerlessness to fate and destiny while on track. The Herlings risk-minimalization strategy has still been enough to rack the GP wins.

Mitigations. There might be work ahead with the CRF (and this most certainly seems the case with Gajser and the factory YZ450F Yamaha) and Herlings’ caution is well founded, considering he has completed only two interrupted seasons since his masterpiece in 2018. Sizeable injury setbacks coming into 2024 and 2025 mean he must be given some leeway for a steady build into 2026. Encouragingly, his feeling with the Honda was good enough to lead MXGP from the off, despite just two months of riding time his first non-Austrian steed. His starts have occasionally been a past vulnerability, but these have also improved in regularity with Honda trickery. Such is Herlings’ might, his thirst, his experience and his pain-staked longevity that he simply cannot be ruled out of podium contention, and this means he will nudge Coenen and co all the way unless a doctor intervenes.

The bad news for Jeffrey (and the establishment) is that Coenen is at the front of a queue. #84 will know more about teammate Tom Vialle’s rookie potential and will also have some insight into countryman Kay De Wolf’s formation, even some of former teammate Andrea Adamo’s slightly slower development, considering both the Dutchman and the Italian are steering the 450 SX-F basis that Herlings up until recently regarded as an extension of his anatomy. There have already been seven different riders on the four MXGP podiums of 2026 and two of those are debutants to the class. Herlings was not playing lip service in Sardinia when he said: “I don’t feel ashamed. I feel that the competition is very strong here in MXGP. The top ten are all top, top riders in top teams with great bikes and great facilities so it is not a shame to be second but…second is the first loser.”

“I was the best of the rest again,” he added.

De Wolf was particularly rampant, even with two injured thumbs, to make the podium for the first time with the Nestaan Husqvarna (and the team’s first premier class trophy). “I was almost off 10 times but held on for dear life,” he said endearingly in the press conference. “I don’t have much to say. I just pinned it. This class is no joke, even P15 can be really fast. It’s fun and a nice experience but I still need to work a lot to catch up to these two.”

Tony Cairoli, Jorge Prado, Tim Gajser, Romain Febvre: Herlings has defeated some of the best and most successful Grand Prix riders in the modern era and Lucas Coenen is his latest challenge as he extends that all-time GP win haul up to 113 and counting. If anything, Lucas should be rubbing his hands in glee. 2026 is his chance to collect a distinguished set of scalps before the AMA beckons and they don’t get much more decorated than a resistant Bullet’s.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer (podium shot by SuperMotocross) Thanks to Lewis Phillips and his bashful stats.

I woke up Sunday morning in Austin, race day for the USGP, to catch the highlights of Detroit Supercross, round 11 of 17 in 2026 AMA Supercross, and found myself captivated - once again - by Ken Roczen. For sixteen years the German has raced his own way, made his own decisions, paid for his own misjudgements to maintain a unique strain of excellence.

From his startling emergence as a bony 15-year-old at the 2009 Portuguese Grand Prix (round five of the season because he was too young to begin the year in MX2) the hype that had been emerging from Suzuki (a major force between Japanese factory and German-based European racing divisions at that time) and from the then-distant European Championship was immediately justified.

Ken was a European kid with American looks. A German with near faultless English. A teenager but with a cliched ‘old school’ awakening in terms of determination and realisation of the commitment his sport required. He was also feisty and fearless, modern and refreshing. He respected the greats and the sport but then had zero qualms in surging ahead. He swiftly refined a natural flamboyance into a riding style that was more brutally economic and efficient. Even his name was cool. Roczen was a factory rider but then individualistic with his heavy rock tastes, Fox-branded imagery and his assured views. For instance, he barely disguised his frustration at the lack of development of the Suzuki RM-Z250, then after 2009 and 2010 in yellow he vaulted into Red Bull KTM in 2011 to realise his world championship ambitions despite a close history with the Japanese brand (that would later, of course, be resurrected). He pulled away from the training and testing KTM regime and the routines of the factory set-up in California to initially follow his own agenda with father Heiko, joined Aldon Baker’s champion-making programme but then left and departed a flowering KTM set-up just as the SX-F machinery was hitting a highpoint of competitiveness for a satellite Suzuki effort at RCH.

Broken arms, viruses, illness, a lucrative HRC episode, A1 suits, Motocross of Nations triumph but also despair, World Supercross, Stark bikes, kickstart levers, expectations of fans’ decorum: Roczen has been a charismatic (and hugely marketable) component of the American and international supercross scene since 2012 and 2026 might be the best chance of landing the big prize, the 450SX crown. Ken has won 450SX main events in 11 of his 13 years in the category but the scorecard has also been littered with ‘DNS’ and ‘DNF’ entries. This term, indoors, has been his strongest and most resistant in half a decade.

Throughout the ‘near misses’ for the championship Roczen has always displayed the same unorthodox and skilled modus operandi that he employed from his first days in MX2. He does things a little differently on the bike. He looks for alternative places to pass or make time (no easy feat on a supercross track). Watching him you can observe a nuanced athlete with elevated tactility, almost breathing with the terrain whether it’s a complex rhythm section or a deep sandy sequence.

Roczen was only 15 years and 54 days old when he won his fifth Grand Prix start, his home round at Teutschenthal no less with a 2-2 score (after moto winners Marvin Musquin and Steven Frossard could rise no higher than 5th in their other outings that day). In 2009 and 2010 he would sit in press conferences alongside rivals and older riders like Musquin, Gautier Paulin and Rui Gonçalves, Steve Ramon, Max Nagl, Ken De Dycker and undercut their (rightful) complaints about woeful track preparation and the difficulties of overtaking by quipping “you can always find places to pass”. 17 years later and Roczen’s open-mindedness and ability means he was still able to exploit opportunities around that rough Detroit soil and then bewilder supercross once more a week later in St Louis. If the history of the sport and Ken’s own trajectory teach us anything then the situation could pivot drastically this weekend in Nashville but that’s no reason not to celebrate this wonderfully enduring talent.

It was in Nashville where I last sat down for a long interview with KR, just over two years since he had crumpled his left forearm in that horrible Anaheim 2 crash at the beginning of 2017, leading to a grizzly Instagram chronicle of the multiple operations to get him back on two wheels and with a degree of regular use of the limb. “I don’t know if a lot of people write-me-off – if that is the right way to say it – but they might be wondering ‘what’s going on with him?’ and dude, I’m trying just as hard to get a sense of normalcy back…” he told me, also in the wake of further health problems while trying to lead Honda’s supercross charge in the pre-Lawrence days. “I want the races to seem normal to me because at one point it wasn’t.”

Ken’s definition of normal is another way in which he varies from the pack. His attitude to racing has always been underpinned by a juvenile thirst for fun and self-entertainment. Being a factory rider, a Red Bull and Fox athlete and having snared a world title, Motocross of Nations spoils and a 250SX crown all before his 20th birthday means that certain areas of a Pro career had been ticked: money, fame, acclaim and identity. His durability beyond his last championship - 450MX in 2016 – has been based on that quest for kicks. “As a fifteen-year-old all I did was ride my bike, train and have fun,” he told me in Tennessee. “There was nothing else, and I guess that was quite normal because I was just a kid but also it wasn’t normal because most people don’t do GPs at that age and most are still in school…”

It came from an organic approach to the sport. “I did not say I wanted to be ‘world champion’, I said I wanted to be the best rider in the world. With my family, when I was younger, we never talked about taking up motocross as a profession, we just kept on racing and travelling and seeing where we could go,” he told me in another interview in 2012 and the fringe of his first U.S. campaign. “A lot of guys have the talent to ride a bike…but they don’t have the support behind them, usually from parents. Mine were fully behind me. I was fast and they could see that and took the decision to help me get better.”

Roczen also had backing from key people in Suzuki during his rapid-fire formation. At the 2009 German Grand Prix, in a report for RacerX, I wrote that he was ‘perhaps the most emergent figure to hit the GP scene this century’ and it did not feel like an exaggeration, even in the wake of Ben Townley, Tony Cairoli, Christophe Pourcel and Tommy Searle. Ken had been submerged by fans and expectation that weekend: the fuss was overwhelming and he looked pale and exhausted for the post-GP celebration photo. “I don’t know what to say; this is amazing for me,” he had commented to us on Sunday in Germany. “After my first two GPs I saw that the podium was possible. I always do my best and I hoped for a podium here, with a bit of luck, but didn’t expect the win. All the attention has come quickly…and it isn’t always easy to give people what they want but I try to do what I can!”

As a journalist Roczen was the epitome of what I then labelled as the new ‘video generation’; where riders were dashing off quips and soundbites rather than the usual lengthy and skilful explanations of racing expounded by older competitors to hook the last remnants of print media space. He was constantly in demand but was mostly courteous, if brief, with his time. The clamour surged to new peaks once his supercross chapter begun and it was not unusual to spot writers and reporters patiently waiting outside his motorhome for a slight opening of the door that might never come. With age and maturity Ken has become a fine exponent of the art of his craft and the underlining playfulness of his riding does not disservice how much he works and analyses and strives for the highest level.

This was true of how he became quickly versatile in Grands Prix and adept at sand riding and then again when he honed an acumen for supercross, having previously only ridden a rudimentary layout at his family’s home in Mattstedt. “I feel what I did in Europe was kinda thrown out the window in terms of how we raced,” he said of the transition to the U.S. from Grands Prix and where he initially embraced time in California to later relocate to Florida. “Everything was a lot more fast-paced here and the set-ups are so different. I think, back in the day, the KTM bikes I had for Supercross were not the best and we pretty much started from absolute scratch. The team was very new, I had to do all the testing, there was not much help with that…and everything was thrown at once and it felt like what I’d done in Europe didn’t really help.”

One of Kens better throwaway lines to me came in 2012 and the description of his first season-opener: “When I got to Anaheim 1, my eyes were everywhere apart from the track. I was nervous….” Perhaps because of constant repetition, he was also able to articulate how he had grasped the intricacies of supercross. “You have to be quick and have tight lines because there is a lot going on and the track is so compact,” he reflected. “Outdoors you can try something and if it doesn’t work then that’s fine but in supercross if you are not committed to the jumps and the lines then you are not fast enough.”

Trying to nail the specifics of Roczen’s talents has never been too easy. He has prime aptitude for improvisation as well as superior dexterity and motor skills, as well as the confidence and conviction in the momentary choices he makes. The seeming effortlessness of his riding is classic ‘going slow to go fast’ and he rarely gets it wrong. “Watching Kenny as a Lites [250SX] guy he was a very smooth rider,” Ryan Villopoto told me in 2014. “If you are smooth on a Lites bike then it will transition very well to the 450. He’s got that ‘Euro’ style with rolling speed and can ride the KTM very well. He uses those things to his advantage, and it works for him.”

This observation was repeated by Kelly Lumgair, his mechanic at the time of his U.S. KTM tenure between 2012 and 2014. “The majority of Ken’s power preference is at the bottom of the band; he doesn’t rev the bike. He wants everything down low and with a very smooth delivery,” the South African said. “He doesn’t get on the gas super-hard all the time. I don’t think he even knows what the top-end of this bike is even like because he doesn’t use it up there.”

Roczen’s cleverness, his personality and longevity, his refusal to be limited by injury and his deserving ‘generational’ tag strike parallels with Marc Marquez. I think it also says something about Kenny’s persistent youthfulness that Pedro Acosta carries the same verve and motorcycling X Factor in MotoGP both on and off the bike.

Roczen’s injuries and setbacks have pegged him as the ‘nearly man’ of supercross and when he simply could not match the relentlessness of Ryan Dungey or Eli Tomac or Cooper Webb. However, a ratio of 117 top five finishes in 172 Main Event starts with four different teams and three different brands points to a rider that has always stayed the course. The forced absences in 2017, 2018, 2022 and three races at the end of 2024 may have also helped to extend his zeal to be on track and in the gate. “When I got hurt I was at the top of my game and I felt like it was hard for anyone to touch me,” he reflected on the 2017 smash in Nashville. “In the beginning my arm was a total mess and I didn’t know if I would ever ride again. At that point I took a breath. I thought ‘this is what it’s like…’ [not to be a racer anymore]. Before the big injury, I’d never really missed a race. In the beginning, for the first months, all I did was therapy morning and night. I was busy but I did not have to be anywhere…”

Ken still has places to be.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer/TLD

OK, it’s subjective; I know. My idea of ‘cool’ could vary greatly to yours. However, from the nine rounds of 2026 SMX and opening event of MXGP to-date can we agree that Alpinestars seem to be edging ahead in the style-stakes? Their Supertech, Techstar and Racer gear lines (all with varying levels of features, functions and tech within the fibres or construction of the jersey and pants) just seem to pop or gel aesthetically with their racers and their motorcycles. Eli Tomac, Chase Sexton, Hunter Lawrence, Simon Längenfelder and Maxime Renaux/Tim Gajser have been unmissable (and easy to spot) on track and the Limited Edition offerings have sprinkled extra fairy dust. For a gathering of the product then check out the link HERE.

Through 13 years with ‘On-Track Off-road’ magazine, I was lucky to speak to a number of people in the industry about the creative process of motocross apparel. There were clearly two sides to the development: the graphics and colours, and then the R&D with materials and fabrics as brands rushed to make lighter, tougher, stretchier, better performing (moisture-wicking) and better fitting garments. Each side complemented the other. Nobody would buy the latest textile engineering if it looked dated or boring and the same could be said for appealing designs on cheap items that would soon fall to bits.

I wasn’t surprised that some of the leading design figures of the last decade, like Dave Durham at Fox, Marc Blanchard at 100% or Maki Ushiroyama, a long-term Troy Lee Designs pioneer, were taking their cues and stimuli from diverse sources. “Many visual places like Instagram, Pinterest but also just going out and watching people, shopping malls, museums and art: daily stuff,” Ushiroyama told me in a fantastically open and personal interview at the TLD office, pre-pandemic. “I’ll even go somewhere like the opticians and think ‘oh, those graphics are quite cool’. It’s easy to get inspired.”

What was eye-opening was the lead times; the guessing game of predicting consumer’s tastes in the future, and the gamble to set trends in terms of blocks, shapes, presence, lettering and more, a year sometimes two or three in advance. As entities like Alpinestars market and sell their 2026 range, the 2027 line-up will be ready to go and design teams will already be thinking about 2028. When Fox launched their innovative Flexair a decade ago it years in the making and was an example of how the aesthetic had to sync with the performance aspects: the emergence of four-way stretch and athletic fit.

“I think it was around four years of development to make that happen,” Durham told me. Dave is an industrial designer who was head of Fox’s creative team of 20 people at the company’s hub in California. He was at the firm for two decades until setting up his own shop ‘The Followed’. “It was a challenge to buck the system and go from a highly durable feel-and-effect 900D fabric to a stretch material and to still have it durable enough, and perceived to be strong enough. It was a challenge internally - and also externally - but I feel like we found the right fabric and it ended up being a great product for us.”

“Deadlines come fast so you have to make informed decisions very quickly,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t have the breath to explore more…and in design you can often explore endlessly! It is hard to say ‘right, I need to draw a line and take a direction with this’ because you often feel you can push it a bit more.”

Troy Lee Designs, renowned for their helmet art but also their impact in other products, counted on Ushiroyama’s leanings and vision for thirty years. The Japanese then launched the Groove Machine Inc but TLD still seems to be the principal client. Maki was insightful, and willing to share his methodology as well as outline the compromises of the job.

“It’s where the ‘good designer’ or ‘bad designer’ kicks in because a good one will know there is a limit to what a certain fabric can do aesthetically,” he described. “Sometimes it can be as simple as a colour block or even just a colour to get the ‘wow’ factor and bring in the newness. Troy Lee Designs is a graphic-driven product company, that’s what we are known for, and I want to push a lot of graphic into the product but at the same time I am also the one that is eliminating graphics. A lot of the time the mentality can be ‘more is more’ but I have a ‘less is more’ mentality too: stripping back graphics to get to the core design. I think Troy started getting it; an empty space to him is scary. He has to fill it in some way. To me it can also be beautiful and can complement something else. It is all about the balance. To me, a single colour can still be a graphic! When it is super-simple it can blend in. It kinda becomes like a wall.”

“I’m a product designer with a graphic designer mind,” he added. “It’s like I design the form of an F1 car, but I am also responsible for the livery as well. Both are equally important. Functionality without style means that people will think something is ugly. A terrible graphic will ruin the first part of the product. So, you have to marry both together.

Focusing more on the artistic side, where does it all stem from? “Coming up with designs is never an issue,” Maki said. “I have almost way-too many ideas. I have ten+ years of sketchbooks full of stuff. There has to be a bit of heart and soul in the stuff that comes out. That’s why sketching works. I cannot go straight to a computer or a screen. It is small things, small doddles: many ideas where you just connect the dots. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t, and sometimes you can get too far ahead: it might be an idea that is already ten years old but it’s still not ready for the market. I can be late too! I might have a great idea but someone has already done it. I might have made something look a bit different…but it was not exciting enough.”

“I love creative energy,” Durham explained. “I love architecture, but when it comes down to inspiring our line and what we do every day then what really affects it most is very creative people. Usually, it surrounds some kind of underground culture and the expression; it could be custom bikes to what people wear to separate themselves at a music festival. It is about how people are really passionate about something. Usually there is something that drives these people to be individual and make some inspiring stuff.”

“Every couple of months I have to download the contents of my phone and organise it,” Maki said. “Half of the stuff I’d had similar ideas…but the other half is very new and I don’t know what to do with it! If I think something is cool then it is already brewing, and in my heart, I am ready to use it. The new stuff is also exciting…and I think ‘how can I link the ideas?’ or ‘how will one link or bounce to the other?’

It seems that the fear of the ‘blank page’ doesn’t really exist for these designers. But then they are constrained by the ticking clock of product timelines (Maki: “we are all driven by the deadline right?! Those ‘oh s**t’ moments can also bring up some ideas…”), the ingenuity of the competition and then the worry of repetition.

“I like to hire competitive designers…and I am also like that,” Durham said. “If I look at the track over a weekend and I see something [good] that someone else has done then it kinda irks me.”

“Priorities. The first is: did I come up with an idea that nobody has? If we have a second year of gear and it has the same feel or vibe as the one before then I reject it,” Maki says. “The sales guys want something comfortable so they can sell it all day long - so we have something that looks like TLD but also the regular stuff - but I try not to go there. My job is to try and bring something original. Doing something timeless is always my design ‘street’.”

While Fox can call on classis designs like the zebra or cobweb schemes, for TLD the Polka dot livery raised some eyebrows. “It definitely shocked a few people and turned some heads,” Maki recounted. “And a lot of people hated it! The industry wasn’t ready and – although I don’t want to pat my own shoulder – I did something to wake everybody up. It was time to change. When I showed Troy for the first time he ‘got’ it; he knew that everybody would hate us. I said ‘are you ready? Because I believe in it’ so we went with it: TLD style. It kinda sold OK. It’s not like we sold millions of sets…but it was another to cover the costs.”

TLD also caused a stir in a brief alliance with sportswear giants Adidas, initially for shoes but then for the premium Ultra LE riding gear. Ushiroyama’s story about the union shows how the curiosity and creative might of two prominent teams can come together.

“A representative from Adidas came up to us and said ‘Hi, I work in the Future Department’…and we said: ‘What does that mean?!’ He was part of the advance team that is working on projects five-ten years ahead. They were keen to have some of Troy’s artistry on some of their products and we thought ‘that’s cool!’ First of they gave us a small range of shoes and asked us for the TLD ‘touch’ as we’d done with helmets. We did a bunch and they loved it and that triggered all the next steps. They did a study for us. I remember them saying: ’this is a new fabric, by the way its hundred dollars a yard!’ It was a bit advanced for the market but they made a prototype mock-up and a video to show all the stretch. If Adidas were going to make a motocross pant…then that’s how it would be. We were shown a presentation and we were blown away.”

The Ultra LE was quite reserved by TLD’s standards. “They give us a little more freedom…but the true story is that we couldn’t put much of a graphic because of the nature of the fabric. There is a lot of multi-functional stretch. It is very calculated and if that is the main marketing story then maybe we don’t need a graphic.”

Back in 2019 Ushiroyama may have had more creative licence than others thanks to Troy Lee Designs’ slight independent and alternative status but that didn’t mean he could freestyle wildly. “If our gear and graphic is presented without the logo can people still identify our look?” he poised, rhetorically. “Sometimes it is graphics, sometimes colours, sometimes shape. Of course, we are living in a ‘make the logo bigger’ world! Somehow people still love the big logos. I’m the first person to want to remove logos and just let the graphic speak – which I have started to do here and there – but every time I do that then I have to be aware that people are also buying as a branding/bonding loyalty thing. I understand that. So, it’s a balance again.”

Some gear can be applied to specific partnerships: Fox with HRC (and they are currently in a very high-vis situation with Jeffrey Herlings, Tom Vialle and Ruben Fernandez in MXGP) and Alpinestars with Red Bull KTM and Monster Energy Yamaha (the blue/yellow Techstar Knif line suits the Renaux/Gajser pairing nicely). Fly Racing with KTM as well.

But spare a moment for the teams and the forces behind the items that racers are using and testing. Elite product design is rife in so many areas of motorsport, but motocross and supercross permits an extra artistic edge; a place where a flash, a spark and an idea can influence more than just the stopwatch. This brings its own satisfaction but also extra angst.

“When I design and finish the concept then I am the ‘king of the world’!” Maki grinned at me. “I’ll think ‘this is the best design I could come up with’ but then I’ll look at it again in the next days and think ‘oh man, that’s s**t!’ It’s like writing a love letter in the night and you read it the next morning and you’re like ‘what was I thinking?!’ Same thing! But I will go back and make sure it will be the best design I can do at that time and be confident in it enough to present it, whether it’s to a customer, the sales department or Troy. At least I will have put 100% into it. If it doesn’t sell…then tough s*t! I’ll do it again and keep trying, keep trying.”

Perspiration is a given, but the weight of inspiration and science that flow into the ‘best looking’ kit is gloriously uneven; hemmed by deadlines and then judged by the public and consume. Or…it could be as simple as Maki states: “A good rider makes everything look good.”

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Polarity Photo.

There was a cheeky glint in Pedro Acosta’s light eyes. The Spaniard had plumped into the chair opposite us for his post Thai Sprint debrief, leathers open, beaded in sweat and understandably eager to despatch questions about his gripping and controversial duel for victory with Marc Marquez: the spat had lashed back the curtains on 2026 MotoGP in the most emphatic way. Acosta deflected and flippantly tackled most of the enquiries with a hint of impatience. The session was coming to a natural close so before he could escape, I asked: “Was that as much fun for you as it was for us to watch?” He momentarily paused and his demeanour flashed. “Super-fun,” he grinned. “My best battle so far in the championship.”

There were a few ‘layers’ to Acosta’s 13-lap dispute with Marquez, that was eventually decided by a ‘Drop one position’ penalty by Race Direction for the world champion’s line into the final corner of the penultimate lap, Turn 12, that ran Acosta wide. Despite the marginal time loss, Pedro gobbled up a few tenths on the last circulation. Marquez then conceded the lead, and slow-clapped the Race Tower on the slowdown.

21-year-old upstart versus 33-year-old multi world champion. Two Spaniards, one from the northeast, one from the south, similar in their personality DNA for their pursuit of victory, and their spectacular and adventurous methods to obtain glory. They are two of only three riders on the grid to have won both championships in the supporting classes. Pedro is a challenger for Marquez outside of his own family. Record breakers for youthful achievement (Marc is the youngest ever GP winner, Pedro the youngest Sprint) and, allegedly, future factory Ducati teammates for 2027 and 2028.

Saturday was a tantalizing hors d’oeuvre for not only 2026 but potentially for the coming two years of Grand Prix.

That Marquez would be strong with the 2026 Desmosedici, that his right shoulder would resist and he was back to fiery and manipulative form was not a surprise in Thailand. Instead, it was Acosta who has displayed headline-worthy forward steps, and for all the tempered excitement about Aprilia’s chances this year and Marco Bezzecchi’s persistent race-winning speed, it is the KTM man’s head-turning style, his fearlessness and his defiant attitude that is proving to be magnetic.

There are three pillars behind this development for #37.

Maturity

In 2024 Acosta was billed as the fast-tracked, generational MotoGP star of the future; the ‘next Marquez’ who even had the chance to rob #93 of his milestone as the youngest premier class victor. He was given time and margin to learn but then loaded a shovel of pressure onto his Red Bull Energy Station plate by leading the charge for KTM/GASGAS. In 2025, expectation and consternation with KTM’s commitment to MotoGP in the face of existential crisis turned to frustration and surliness as Ducati proved to be largely unbeatable once more. Acosta ended two seasons without a win but 10 trophies and 6th and 4th in the championship standings. Pedro had blended with Crew Chief Paul Trevathan to tremendous effect, and the Kiwi followed his charge from Tech3 to Red Bull KTM, along with several other key technicians. Trevathan’s homely vibe that worked so prosperously with Pol Espargaro was a bedrock of strength for Acosta but he had to calm and cajole his racer in line with the limitations of the RC16 and the possibilities of the technical package.

There was a short phase when Pedro stared at all of his toys on the floor and watched Maverick Viñales extract fresh potential out of the KTM (by adaptation and by sheer will), but he then reset, and waded into a second half of the year where he only dropped out of the top five twice from round twelve onwards.

Thailand is only a one-event sample size to deduce performance for the 21 fixtures to come, but it was a visual and literal post of progress. In 2025 Acosta crashed and circulated at the back of the pack to classify 19th after a limp 6th on Saturday. Twelve months later and he went 1-2 for the weekend to become KTM’s first ever world championship leader.

“I’m making less mistakes than two years ago and even last year,” Pedro said when I asked him in the official post-race press conference how he has improved as a MotoGP athlete. “Last year - even more [at the] beginning of the year I was getting quite, not nervous, but when the situation was not under control, I was always making mistakes or crashing or going wide or whatever.”

“It was not maybe the way to build confidence,” he added. “Now maybe I’m in a more chill mode, let’s say. Even when the bad moments come, I use more the brain. Maybe this is the biggest difference.”

The advancement coincides with more consolidation and activity from KTM during the winter. Acosta’s tendency to be more in ‘chill mode’ stems from fixes to the last iteration of the 1000cc RC16, and to the rider’s high-lean, corner speed emphasis. “It also looks like the bike is a bit stable and surviving a bit more,” he explained. “Before, I remember, we made three laps and the tyre was already gone. Now it looks like we are arriving to the first fifteen in proper good pace. Good, for this.”

“I am following my way with the bike,” he said. The orange is not completely ripe. Acosta griped about difficulties in the first two sectors of the Chang International Circuit and the KTM was the fourth fastest brand for top speed. “It looks like we’re stay the same speed as last year…our rivals are faster, that’s it,” he shrugged.

But the technical side of his job has had a definitive uptick. “It’s true that they [KTM] are 100% pushing to give me slight improvement during whole winter to try to survive a bit more in the races,” he observed. “It looks like we found something that is still a way to go. Not every GP will be that nice like that one, but we are working quite okay in the box.”

Round two at the unseen Ayrton Senna International Circuit in Brazil will be impossible to predict and maybe also difficult to gauge a trend but the USGP at COTA, where Acosta was 7th in the Sprint and DNF-ed on Sunday will be the next best chance to evaluate whether #37 is really in this.

Security

Acosta has been allayed by both KTM’s resurgence for 2026 and by the assurance of his future with, supposedly, a multi-year agreement with Ducati confirmed to replace Pecco Bagnaia. He will greet Marquez on equal terms (being the latest candidate for this unfathomable challenge) and, potentially, enter red as Gigi Dall’Igna’s future pet. Pedro has stonewalled every question about his plans and employment in MotoGP with impressive robustness and seemingly does not think beyond tomorrow. A typical exchange happened on Thursday and the eve of the GP at Buriram.

“Do you have an update on the future?

Of what?

Your future…

Ah, no. In the end I need to have good results and try to start the championship in a consistent way which is what I was missing last year to try and be a bit more in the top three. We need results.”

A worthy dodge. Year three with KTM, the same crew, the same teammate (who he accredited as being in resurgence but clearly feels he still trumps for results) and the knowledge that if the RC16 does again prove to be 0.3-0.4 of a second adrift of the track potential that he craves then he’ll soon be on a different motorcycle. These elements all combining to fashion a secure nest for Acosta to go about his business.

Returning confidence

This is perhaps less tangible but watching Acosta repeatedly out-braking Marquez into Turn 12 during the sprint while looking like one of the better riders ‘on the anchors’ was a stark sign of his belief in the bike. It also demonstrated how KTM’s data analysis and gains for sustaining the life of the Michelins was one of the biggest technical narratives of the Grand Prix. OK, the Tech3 pairing of Enea Bastianini and Viñales had their own issues as the KTM quartet were the most bi-polar of all the brands, but Brad Binder’s improved results backed-up the work done by the Austrian crew.

Acosta had not left ‘Back to the Future’ style fire trails behind him at the Sepang and Buriram tests in terms of lap-times…but the competitiveness was evident, even during the longer, more strategic 26-laps on Sunday where he rattled the Aprilias. “I’m in a really good moment, enjoying every time,” he beamed at one point in Thailand.

Pedro dismissed the significance of his current championship ranking. He also seemed a little sheepish about the Sprint win and the penalty given to Marquez. “I entered in the finish line like, ‘what is going on?’” he admitted when asked if he expected to be given the race lead again. But the sheer reverse of his dark 2025 Thai Grand Prix was the juice that made the KTM pitbox bounce.

Actions are louder than Spanglish and if Acosta sustains his front-foot approach and Marquez-esque attacking instinct then we’re in for an unexpectedly gripping campaign. #37 will rake-in fans and the series might have another face-off worth talking about.

“This is what makes MotoGP that exciting,” Pedro said of the back-and-forth with his countryman. “At the end you remember those kind of battles and these kind of moments…you know?”

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer.

As ever the launch of MXGP brings international motocross up to speed and, as ever, the reminder of Grand Prix pace and physicality comes strongly to the fore after a long winter break. The hike to the southern hemisphere for the first round of the championship feels like a long haul but the sun-kissed new site of Bariloche (home of the principal airport for the teams travelling to previous host Neuquen) offered a timely reminder of the climate relevance, especially with several pre-season motocross events in Europe being heavily affected or cancelled due to grim weather.

The ‘Bariloche MX Race Track’ was a soft topsoil build within the confines of a sparse industrial park and with an epic Patagonia mountain range and the gentle shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi for a backdrop. So far, so pretty. But Bariloche bit. Full credit to the Infront Moto Racing track crew for their prep work leading into the Grand Prix and then the modifications during the weekend. New tracks are typically and notoriously hard to read in terms of how the bumps and ruts develop: the layout of off-cambers, tight 180 turns and waves are part of the MXGP fabric but how the location-specific dirt evolves is anybody’s guess.

On Saturday the course was fast and rippled and offered little in the way of differential in lap-times (the kind of technical demands we’ve seen recently in SMX, where riders have more room for interpretation as well as mistakes). After extensive watering – made to contain the dust and resist the strong breeze that affected the second MXGP moto on Sunday – the ground was softer and more varied but also incredibly rough and slick. It was a draining first Grand Prix, and a thorough introduction to the physicality of the 450s at full pelt for the rookies like Tom Vialle and Andrea Adamo.

Aesthetically, Bariloche had that rough-around-the-edges look of a temporary construction. In one aspect the ambition and support of the local government to make the facility and the Grand Prix happen must be applauded. In another, it’s not the shiniest presentation for a series where the latest trend for sports ‘absorption’ or engagement is about image, brand and bite-sized ‘wow’ factors. The big win was the attendance and the enthusiasm of the fans. Apparently, pre-event, expectations from the local organisers were modest for the turnout, but the excellent TV drone work by MXGP showed a bounteous and eager crowd. The official figure was 43,325 for the weekend.

Could the Argentine Grand Prix have a new home? After the one-hit visit in Cordoba in 2025 and the allegedly defunct status of the Neuquen venue near Villa la Angostura there is some promise for Bariloche (especially with all the convenience and catchment of the 150,000 nearby populus) but the issue of funding and mid-long term commitment has always been shaky in this particular area of the world, irrespective of the motorsport.

1. Jeffrey Herlings banishes the mystery

The five-times world champion was not the most obvious bet for a 1-1 at the opening round. The odds were against the 31-year-old posting these kinds of results: new to the CRF450R, new to the Petronas HRC team, a first GP away from a KTM SX-F and WP Suspension and with relatively little riding and testing (and racing) time compared to rivals like Romain Febvre, Lucas Coenen, Maxime Renaux and even teammate Tom Vialle who had two extra months of prep . The great ‘unknown’ of the Herlings-Honda formula played out on Saturday in Argentina where he was fastest in Timed Practice but then crashed in the Qualification Heat and had to limp home in 12^th with a bike issue. “Shame on me,” he admitted.

There was none of this uncertainty on Sunday, however. The starts were typically Herlings: no holeshots but not too bad. He then rode like an experienced master in the second race to pursue and overtake the world champion. “I managed to close up to Romain before putting the hammer down with five-six laps to go,” he reflected afterwards.

Win #113 (now 12 more than the previous record held by Stefan Everts) means Herlings is just 9 MXGP victories away from equalling the total he amassed through seven seasons in MX2. The milestone achievement in Bariloche saw the Dutchman rolling out the expected platitudes about HRC, the team, the work and even a nod towards his amicable departure from KTM, and the manner of Jeffrey’s success was also par for the course: measured, unmatchable and intense. That he has such comfort and control over the Honda in just nine weeks is testament to his brilliance but also the methodology and organisation of the Giacomo Gariboldi-led set-up. Pre-GP the Italian took delight in showing off their stunning race workshop in the Netherlands: next level stuff.

So, a goal in the first minute of the Final. It’s impossible to predict how this will run for Herlings. We’re talking about a rider that can fashion one of the most comprehensive Grand Prix campaigns in the history of the FIM series (2018) but then one who can miss an entire campaign due to injury (2019/2022) or lob a promising championship tilt to the waste basket in a matter of seconds.

Jeffrey is not a man for trends or patterns. He has won the opening round in MXGP just twice in what is now his tenth (ninth if we discount the lost 2022) premier class attempt. His two MXGP titles came from P1 (2018) and P2 finishes (2021) at the opener however so Argentina 2026 was an encouraging marker. Ominously for the opposition, Herlings is only going to get better and quicker once he knows the full possibilities for set-up in different soil and start gate prowess. He then must face the biggest obstacle of all: avoiding the medical centre.

Oh, and also change the Fox gear. I know it’s a ‘eye of the beholder’ subject but the light orange was jarring. Alpinestars meanwhile are clearly winning in the 2026 design stakes.

2. A deep field pressurises start-gate performance

A small almost-insignificant change to the rulebook for 2026 emphasises how critical race starts have become in MXGP, and how essential they are when most of the field is present and the track invites a heavy throttle-hand while testing the fitness of these ultra-fit athletes. Pre-moto there is usually a lot of personnel and activity in the gate between team members, officials, media, and guests. It can be packed. Now, according to the regulations, nobody can touch the metal start mesh. Prior to 2026 it was politely discouraged, and teams were picky about the cleanliness and traction of their slot, with mechanics routinely carrying the rear end of the bike from the waiting area to the gate to avoid tyre ‘fouling’, but it not always enforced.

Starts have become a meticulous area of study for riders and teams. Devices, mapping, timing, ride-height and more. Tom Vialle, a Prado-esque holeshotter in his MX2 pomp, was all too aware of this for his MXGP bow and the Frenchman used his smarts from the line positively. “I didn’t know what to expect. Because there is a lot of good guys…so I’ve been working a lot on my start,” he said. Vialle went one better than his MX2 Grand Prix debut in 2018 where he appeared on a world championship podium in his second appearance. Here he assumed P3 despite a second moto bike stall that cost him precious seconds and ground.

At this fruitful stage of the season and before attrition inevitably hits MXGP (even though Argentina was round one it missed the feistiness of Isak Gifting with a shoulder issue and former MX2 world champ Kay De Wolf, who needed surgery on his thumb) we have to look hard at the flyers. One protagonist seeking rapid improvement will be Monster Energy Yamaha’s Tim Gajser who caught the eye in the second moto as he motored up to P3 but still almost ten seconds adrift of Herlings. The fact that teammate Maxime Renaux earned the holeshot indicates that the YZ450FM might be more capable in 2026. Lucas Coenen might also be seeking gains for more holeshot credence, but the young Belgian was hampered by a vision problem in his right eye and described his second moto as “racing blind.”

3. Febvre in for the long game

The world champion completed a calculating season in 2025 against the youthful verve of Lucas Coenen, and his runner-up result overall in Argentina was a continuance of the flavour: high level performance without outright rule of the category. The Frenchman looked to have the second moto under lock, with a comfortable margin over Herlings. “I looked back and thought it was Tom. I thought I had a huge gap,” he recounted. “With five-six laps to go I looked back again and saw it was Jeffrey. I then broke my roll-off with a lapper and I knew when he [Herlings] was on my wheels then it was going to be a little difficult…”

Febvre’s learning from 2025 meant he didn’t offer much resistance to his Honda-mounted rival but also said that the 2026 settings with the KX450F are work in progress: “I had better flow in the second moto. It was a bit easier to ride…but I didn’t feel myself. I need to work a bit more with the bike.” Romain still went P2 in Argentina for the third year in a row.

4.MX2 stirs the pot

1-1 for Simon Längenfelder who, with the help of Romain Febvre, meant we had the very rare sight of two #1 plates in the world championship. The German had a ragged Saturday with a first turn clash putting him 22^nd and adrift in the start gate but he showed his mettle with some purposeful speed at Bariloche.

On paper, the MX2 class looks bereft of the same competitiveness we’ve seen in previous seasons and compelling duels between the likes of Geerts/Vialle, De Wolf/Coenen, De Wolf/Längenfelder but the potential shown by Yamaha’s Latvian Reisulis brothers, the fitness and maturation of Triumph’s Guillem Farres and Camden McLellan and possibilities for Kawasaki’s Mathis Valin and Honda’s Valerio Lata means that some new names and faces will be coming to prominence. The next wave.

Längenfelder’s toughest threat should come from his brandmate. Sacha Coenen won the Qualification Heat but, curiously, didn’t show his customary holeshot readiness on Sunday and was the same energetic mix of pure speed and heightened risk. His second moto DNF after a collision through traffic was bad luck but the diminutive twin needs to show more race smarts to be considered a title candidate through the rest of the 54 starts to come.

5.MXGP: As you were

Lots of box-ticking for MXGP. A busy pre-event for fans and public in Bariloche (but should this be done weeks in advance to generate even more local interest and media buzz for the GP?), the track lap, the pre-moto gate interviews but a lack of trackside insight. There was the dynamic drone camera work but some undercooked social media content, odd graphics and the same feeling of a long, drawn-out TV spectacle.

By no means do I want to compare MXGP to other motorsports like F1 and MotoGP but there is currently a lot of work and budgets in those series being allocated to who, where and how people are finding and enjoying the racing. So, how is MXGP trying to modernise, and explore how it can also grow and offer more to potential sponsors and more value to teams investing to compete?

Perhaps the series would benefit from ‘rebadging’ parts of the racing? How about a top satellite team rider getting a post-race interview and prize? How about a ‘Best Ride’ award for most positions gained? How about prioritising and rebranding the second motos? Maybe consider shuffling all European Championship races to Saturday at EU rounds and creating a platform and pinnacle for the MXGP class? Perhaps MXGP could get inventive with their YouTube presence and have an analytical show that could build its own audience and roam the stories in between the results? Paul Malin is one of the jewels of the championship and MXGP would be much poorer without his passion and intelligence but Paul is commentating on all races alone and also doing the Live TV Studio Show with Lisa Leyland and the track guide and then popping up in any ‘Behind the Gate’-type features: is there anyone else in the MXGP paddock that could help out and get people invested? If we take SMX as a near reference, then the amount of experience and expertise the Americans can call-on for punditry and further insight is leagues ahead.

MXGP still has an online PDF magazine, which I know from personal experience, is a dated medium. Instead MXGP could have an active, multimedia Blog to post stories, interviews, ‘Best photos of the weekend’, podcasts, competitions and more.

Infront Moto Racing spend a vast amount of their revenue on live TV production and their attempts to develop this with the timing, visuals and the drones is commendable but is MXGP’s young demographic really discovering the sport through a 45-minute moto broadcast with limited real-time information? It just feels that the series could reflect and then say, “MXGP could and should be different to other sports in another way…” rather than following a standard transmission format that is now decades old.

By Adam Wheeler. Photo by MotoGP.com

Marc Marquez’s busted wheel rim and grip frustrations for the likes of Pecco Bagnaia, Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio produced a rare ‘off-race-day’ for the reigning world champions in the Chang International Circuit cooker.

Coming into 2026 and the last splutter of the 1000cc ride-height-aero-defined era, there was only one major angle: Ducati’s enduring relentlessness in MotoGP and how their combination with arguably the greatest Grand Prix racer of all-time had reinforced that status.

It was a subject that attracted the passing interest of the open-minded folk on the Daily Telegraph sportsdesk, at a time when squeezing any MotoGP coverage into UK mainstream outlets is harder than ever. Why? Britain has not had any presence in the premier class for half a decade and currently only has two riders in the two others categories, and despite Silverstone being a brilliant, fast and challenging circuit for motorcycle racing – the longest on the calendar – the crowds have not flocked to Northamptonshire even with two variations on the date.

During their annual presentation at the Italian ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio in January, Ducati unveiled the statistical weight of their MotoGP white-out, including the proud record of 88 consecutive podium appearances and a trek that goes back to the summer of 2021. Interviews for the Telegraph story with Dall’Igna and Ducati Motor Holdings CEO Claudio Domenicali helped unearth some of the causes, reactions and measures that brought the company to this position, and should also see them primed for 2027-2031 and the lunge into the 850cc-Pirelli phase of Grand Prix.

Thailand was deflating but Buriram was also an elevated battle ground for countrymen Aprilia. The TV image of Dall’Igna looking aghast at Marc Marquez’s wheel drama on Turn 4 as he tried to chase two RS-GPs and Pedro Acosta’s KTM RC16 summed up the temporary horror but the engineer was probably far more sanguine later in the day: Marquez’s resilience in his first race appearance since October 2025 indicated his right shoulder was in fine fettle, Bagnaia’s malaise was a freaky contrast to his happiness after the two pre-season tests, and incoming recruit for 2027, Acosta, underlined his generational talent once more and complimented his skill with even more maturity to rest as P1 in the world come Sunday afternoon.

For neutral MotoGP fans, Thailand raised the small possibility (and the heartrate) that Ducati might be toppled in 2026 but factors such as Michelin’s harder carcass tyres for the higher temperatures (reaching the high 50s at the CIC) and the extra rubber poured onto the asphalt like a rich syrup by the other classes, as well as two days of MotoGP tests. Even torrential showers on Thursday afternoon did not have a major effect. It was not a Ducati day. There won’t be many more.

Make no mistake, MotoGP will stay red for the next nine months (even if lashes of orange and black will invade the picture, like the first licks of a Jackson Pollock collage). The Telegraph article ended up being trimmed and simplified from the original text…but still shows how and why the Bologna boys should remain as the main targets.

“A £39,000 Panigale V4 R sportsbike stands guard outside the Dolomite ski station chalet restaurant, unwillingly coated with ice and frozen to the spot. The machine bares resemblance to the Ducati’s multi-million-pound prototype Grand Prix steed; a motorcycle that has won the last four MotoGP world championships in the hands of three different riders and has been present on a record 88 consecutive Grand Prix podiums to-date, a streak stretching all the way back to the summer of 2021. Ducati have ruled the Constructors standings for the last six years. The Italians, who will celebrate a centennial this July, sit quite contentedly at the peak of the MotoGP mountain.

For the second night of the factory’s Ducati Lenovo Team’s 2026 presentation in Madonna di Campiglio, management, riders (world champion Marc Marquez and 2022 and 2023 winner Pecco Bagnaia) plus guests of various sponsors and entities like the Audi Group (Ducati Motor Holdings’ owner since 2012 and major investors in the opulent resort), are toasting the past and present and are optimistic of the future. The three-day shindig is the longest and most affluent of the 11 squads in the series. For the last four years Ducati have had something to celebrate. CEO, Claudio Domenicali, tells us that they like to “work hard, play hard”.

Ducati are the smallest manufacturer from the five in MotoGP, but they are Grand Prix overlords thanks to their Ducati Corse racing division, led by the ‘Adrian Newey of motorcycling’ Gigi Dall’Igna, and the company’s commitment to competition. That devotion is manifested by Ducati’s unmatched pursuit for technical innovation: winglets, tyre ‘scoops’, mass dampers, rider-activated front and rear ‘holeshot’ catches and the semi-automatic self-regulating ride height device all mean they have been trendsetters for the last decade – even above the Japanese who introduced genius concepts like the seamless gearbox to the championship - and have been copied by their peers.

From 2021 to 2024 four teams fielded Desmosedicis. Ducati leased current and one year old models, and had eight of the 22 bikes in MotoGP in play. This large catchment of data helped fast-track development, and surge Ducati to the front of the grid despite being throttled by the MotoGP ‘Concessions’ format limiting their scope for further testing. In 2024 the factory owned all but three of the 20 rounds. In 2025 it was 17 of the 22 Grands Prix and 19 of the Saturday Sprints….”

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