Moto2 World Champions Augusto Fernández and Pedro Acosta didn’t face much competition to win the MotoGP Rookie of the Year award in 2023 and 2024 with Hervé Poncharal’s GASGAS Tech3 team. But 2025 will be very different, as will 2021.
Next year, in fact, there will be a tougher fight for the Rookie of the Year, as we expect three Moto2 riders to move up to the premier class: Fermin Aldeguer (most likely to Gresini Racing), Ai Ogura to Trackhouse Aprilia and Somkiat Chantra to the LCR Honda team; he could replace Nakagami after six years in MotoGP without a podium. By the way: Ogura was close to replacing Nakagami after narrowly missing out on the 2022 Moto2 world title against Augusto Fernández.
As a reminder: No less than five newcomers to the class (Remy Gardner, Raúl Fernández, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Darryn Binder (coming directly from Moto3)) have moved up to the 1000cc class for the 2022 season.
Following the coronavirus 2020 season, it was Moto2 world champion Enea Bastianini and runner-up Luca Marini who ventured into the MotoGP class – and have already achieved considerable success that has earned them places in the factory Ducati and Honda teams.
Only Johann Zarco (2015 and 2016 world champion) has successfully defended his Moto2 world champion title.
And MotoGP Rookie for 2010:
Dopo 2010: Toni Elias, Karel Abraham
After 2011: Stefan Bradl, Michele Pirro
After 2012: Marc Márquez, Bradley Smith
After 2013: Pol Espargaro, Scott Redding, Andrea Iannone
After 2014: Maverick Viñales, Jack Miller
After 2015: Tito Rabat
After 2016: Jonas Folger, Johann Zarco, Alex Rins
2017 Dopo: Franco Morbidelli, Tom Luthi, Takaaki Nakagami and Hafizh Syahrin
After 2018: Pecco Bagnaia, Miguel Oliveira, Mir, Quartararo
Post 2019: Alex Márquez, Brad Binder, Iker Lecuona
After 2020: Enea Bastianini, Luca Marini
After 2021: Remy Gardner, Raul Fernandez, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Gianntonio and Darryn Binder.
Dopo 2022: Augusto Fernandez
Multiple results in the Moto2 World Championship are not always the only thing that makes successive winners and world champions in the MotoGP category.
Even world runners-up like Luca Marini have made a strong impression in MotoGP as long as they have competitive machinery at their disposal. The 2020 Moto2 World Championship runner-up has finished all of his first 32 MotoGP races on a Ducati and has achieved two MotoGP podiums so far! Fabio Quartararo has not won a Moto3 World Championship race and has only contested one Moto2 GP race, finishing tenth in the 2018 Moto2 World Championship on a Speed-up. However, as a rookie at Petronas Yamaha in 2019, he achieved six pole positions and five podiums, also won the 2021 World Championship and was runner-up to Bagnaia in 2022.
Joan Mir also made the jump to MotoGP with Suzuki Ecstar after his first season in Moto2 in 2018 and sixth place in the World Championship. In his second year (2020), he surprisingly won the world title.
Alex Rins finished the Moto2 World Championship in second and third place overall before moving up to the MotoGP class after the 2016 season. He has already taken six wins and finished third in the 2020 World Championship aboard the Suzuki GSX-RR.
Malaysian Hafizh Syahrin also achieved just three podiums in the Moto2 World Championship in ten years (2012 at Sepang, 2017 at Misano and Motegi) and never finished higher than ninth and tenth overall (2016 and 2017). Despite this, he was promoted to the Tech3 Yamaha MotoGP team for 2018 following Folger’s illness.
Iker Lecuona even joined the Tech3 KTM team as the twelfth overall Moto2 rider after the 2019 season because Johann Zarco terminated his KTM contract for 2020 early. Binder was then transferred from Tech3 KTM to the Red Bull KTM factory team and Iker Lecuona earned his first MotoGP stripes at Tech3 KTM alongside Oliveira.
Casey Stoner has also never been a world champion in the 125 or 250cc classes. However, he dominated the MotoGP World Championship in 2007 with Ducati and in 2011 with Repsol Honda, taking an incredible total of 38 MotoGP victories from 2007 to 2012.
But even proven talents like Raúl Fernandez, Remy Gardner and Augusto Fernández have had difficulty adapting to the tough premier class.
KTM Motorsport Director Pit Beirer knows the reason. “The transition from Moto2 to MotoGP is really brutal. It will take time and work to find the next MotoGP talent within the KTM family. At the moment none of our riders are ready to step up to the premier class of GP racing. Even in the other teams I don’t see a Moto2 rider ready for MotoGP.”
