The recent spate of official rider announcements means that the MotoGP rider line up for 2023 is nearly complete.
The official confirmation by Aprilia that Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez would be racing in the RNF Aprilia squad brings the total of confirmed riders signed to 18. All of the factory seats are now occupied, and just four of the satellite seats remain open.
With seven races left in the 2022 MotoGP season, we are approaching the final stretch. There are 175 points left to play for, and Fabio Quartararo has a lead of 32 points over Aleix Espargaro.
That means that Espargaro still has his fate in his own hands: he can become 2022 MotoGP champion by the simple expedient of winning every MotoGP race left, and if Quartararo finishes second in all seven races, the Aprilia rider would take his first championship by a slim margin of 3 points.
Any excuse to see some high-resolution photos of the KTM RC16 in its Tech3 livery – amiright???
The start of the 2022 MotoGP Championship season is rapidly approaching us, which means that the various grand prix teams are launching their racing efforts for the year.
My colleague David Emmett called the team launches glorified dog and pony shows, and that is largely because the bikes we see aren’t really the 2022-spec machines, and most of what is said at these events are platitudes written for sponsors.
I will retort though, that high-res images of some of the finest motorcycles on the planet never gets old, and the satellite Tech3 livery on the KTM RC16 is certainly a stunning combination that adds to the motolust.
Episode 253 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is our Moto2 and Moto3 follow-up to Episode 252, which focused on the MotoGP action from the Valencia GP at the Spanish circuit.
On the mics, we have Neil Morrison and Adam Wheeler, as they walk us through the on-track action in the support classes.
What will probably be our last time recording in a Mexican restaurant, the guys first cover the Moto2 Championship victory of Remy Gardner, before the diving into the Moto3 Championship win of Pedro Acosta.
Episode 243 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is our Moto2 and Moto3 follow-up to Episode 242, which focused on the MotoGP action from the Americas GP at Austin, Texas.
On the mics, we have Steve English, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they walk us through the on-track action in the support classes.
Another seat in the MotoGP is spoken for in the 2021 Silly Season, as Remy Gardner will be making the step from the Moto2 paddock into the premier class.
Signing with KTM, Gardner will find his rookie season inside the satellite Tech3 squad, though it remains to be seen which of the current Tech3 riders will be making way for the young Australian.
JD Beach has won the fifth edition of the Barcelona Superprestigio indoor flat track race. The American passed Toni Elias in the first couple of laps and led for almost the entire 16 laps of the Superprestigio Superfinal.
Beach entered the Superfinal as favorite, having won all three of the Open class final races to face off against the best of the roadracing world in the Superprestigio class.
Briar Bauman, the second American entry, finished in second, not far behind Beach, having fought his way through from fourth in the early laps.
Along with a thrilling weekend of racing, several interesting items of news emerged in Argentina. Brad Binder and Remy Gardner were injured, and face surgery.
Also, discussions were held in the Safety Commission regarding who progresses to Q1 and Q2. And at a press conference, Dorna announced that the WorldSBK championship will be racing in Argentina in 2018, at a new circuit in the west of the country.
Suter will not be competing in the Moto2 championship in 2016. In an official statement on their Facebook page, the Swiss engineering firm announced that it would not be applying for a constructor’s license for Moto2 in 2016.
Instead, Suter will be concentrating its efforts on working with Mahindra on their Moto3 machine, and supplying a range of parts for various teams and factories in the series.
The withdrawal from Moto2 was an inevitable consequence of the steady decline in the number of bikes Suter was producing for the class.