MotoGP Features

Suzuki MotoGP crew chiefs Jose Manuel Cazeaux (Alex Rins) and Frankie Carchedi (Joan Mir) explain why 'the rules of the game inside our garage' don't allow for a number 1 or number 2 rider.

After three seasons of moving up the championship table on year-old Honda machinery, Takaaki Nakagami gets his big chance for 2021 in the form of promotion to the latest-spec RCV.

By the time the chequered flag falls at the Doha Grand Prix, MotoGP riders will have completed at least five days of testing at the Losail circuit followed by six days of grand prix action, over the opening race weekends.

'

Satellite MotoGP riders won more races than Factory team riders last season, by a score of 8–6. That's quite a milestone. To put it into perspective, there was a not a single satellite race winner in MotoGP from Toni Elias at Estoril in 2006 until Jack Miller at Assen in 2016.

The gulf in performance between Franco Morbidelli and the Factory-Spec Yamaha riders during the end of last season prompted the likes of Maverick Vinales and especially Fabio Quartararo to wish they were also on the older A-Spec bike.

Test rider Dani Pedrosa has been credited by MotoGP riders both inside and outside of KTM for playing a key role in turning the factory's RC16 into a race-winning machine.

After fighting off Covid over the winter, Fabio Quartararo made his first official appearance as a Factory Yamaha MotoGP rider during the team's 2021 online launch.

One of Suzuki's main targets for its 2021 MotoGP title defence is to do better during qualifying – and it's not hard to see why.

Joan Mir's historic world championship winning season for Suzuki was characterised by a slow start - DNFs in two of the opening three rounds - then staying rock solid as the pressure rose in the MotoGP title fight.

The 2021 MotoGP World Championship is looming but which riders head into the new season knowing they have something more to prove...

In many ways, the 2020 season was a case of mission accomplished for Johann Zarco, who gave Avintia its first MotoGP pole position and podium (on a year-old GP19), securing his promotion to Pramac and the latest Ducati machinery for 2021.

It may not have been the 'corporate image' manufacturers wanted, but Cal Crutchlow has no regrets for speaking his mind throughout his MotoGP career.

After losing its MotoGP race to Covid last season, Qatar will make up for lost time by hosting two back-to-back rounds at the start of the 2021 campaign.

Last year's compressed 'Covid' MotoGP calendar, which saw 14 rounds in the space of four months, including the last nine races over eleven weekends, prompted renewed discussion of whether at least some race weekends should be reduced to just two days.

We chart some of the best and outright bizarre moves F1 teams made for new personnel, both from within the sport and outside it...

Repsol Honda has released the following interview - watch below - with its new MotoGP signing Pol Espargaro, joining the factory HRC squad in 2021 as team-mate to (currently injured) eight-time world champion Marc Marquez.

The departure of Cal Crutchlow (35), Andrea Dovizioso (34) and Tito Rabat (31) means Aleix Espargaro now becomes the second-oldest rider on the MotoGP grid, after Valentino Rossi.

On paper, Francesco Bagnaia finished the 2020 MotoGP season with one podium to his name and a lowly 16th place in the world championship.

Aprilia's announcement that it will give the second RS-GP race seat, the last remaining place on the 2021 MotoGP grid, to either Bradley Smith or Lorenzo Savadori is sure to add some spice to the team's pre-season testing.

Valentino Rossi is adamant Yamaha can improve its MotoGP engine performance for 2021, despite the current freeze on most areas of engine design. To help limit costs in response to the Covid pandemic, MotoGP announced that the usual in-season ban on engine development would be extended.

The Motorcycle Grand Prix history books will record that Franco Morbidelli got within just 13 points of becoming the first-ever satellite world champion of the four-stroke MotoGP era.

Suzuki may have claimed the 2020 title without the benefit of a satellite team, but it looks a question of 'when' not 'if' the factory expands its MotoGP line-up.

He finished third in the overall standings but we have ranked Alex Rins 'only' eighth in our Top 10 MotoGP Riders of the Year for 2020...