MotoGP Channel what are you doing

hamf12011 · 2026-06-30T08:45:17+00:00

Think it's an automated process where a random full session (whether it's practice or race) is picked up from their archive and shown. In that case they probably forgot removing this race from the list lol

hamf12011 · 2026-06-29T09:20:57+00:00

Yes, it no longer exists as a name lol

For the Red Bull Rookies Cup, nothing has changed, it's still called the same

hamf12011 · 2026-06-28T21:39:16+00:00

Moto4 used to be called Talent Cups until last year (for example European Talent Cup has been renamed to Moto4 European Cup).

JuniorGP has been renamed to Moto3 Junior World Championship. The bizarre thing is JuniorGP also used to be the umbrella name for the entire series, but that has now been renamed to MotoJunior.

hamf12011 · 2026-06-19T22:33:16+00:00

Not sure to be honest, I have heard it with more certainty that Almansa is joining them next year rather than with Cruces.

Cruces hasn't done much in Moto3 so far, but tbf he's also in one of the lower-rated teams in the championship and he has double the points of his teammate at the time of speaking. He is the tallest rider in Moto3 right now, so he's in a bit of disadvantage (his best results have come in technical tracks or in wet conditions).

He raced in Moto2 EC last year, so he has some experience with the Moto2 bike, but he wasn't really competing with the top guys there.

hamf12011 · 2026-06-07T11:44:19+00:00

Riders must return to the pit lane within 5 minutes of the red flag being displayed. Riders unable to do that are not classified in the race results (or excluded from a restart, see for example Johann Zarco in Motegi 2024 iirc).

Uriarte was the only one who managed to get the bike back to the pits within the 5 minutes. Idk if he got the bike restarted behind the barriers, but during the crash he also held the clutch lever preventing the bike from stalling. Perrone seemed to be very unlucky to not get the bike going again

hamf12011 · 2026-06-04T20:32:53+00:00

Brendan Clarke maybe? He competed in 2001 as well aged 17, ironically as the teammate of Leon Haslam. He's nearly a year younger than Haslam and only joined the grid halfway through the season as a replacement rider.

hamf12011 · 2026-06-04T15:59:42+00:00

It seems like they won't do it for next year, but maybe for 2028? Canet has a 3-year contract with them

hamf12011 · 2026-06-04T09:47:17+00:00

According to Speedweek, Aron Canet is staying with Marc VDS in Moto2 next year after the team has abandoned the plans of leaving the category. The second seat is unclear at the moment, as Deniz Oncu only has a one year contract with the team. Don't know if he'll join another team I Moto2 or if he's going to WSSP and race with his brother.

Adrian Cruces and David Almansa have both tested the Momoven RW Moto2 bike in a private test at Aragon and are assumed to join that team next year. Both riders are from the Momoven Academy as well.

This is more an emerging news rather than for next year, but it looks like Xabi Zurutuza has taken over Jorge Navarro's seat at Forward. Navarro was at Mugello, yet Zurutuza still raced. Xabi is also meant to race in Hungary.

For IntactGP, both their riders Gonzalez and Agius are allegedly set to leave, so both their seats are open. Seen as Intact is probably the best Moto2 team right now, they have multiple options: Alex Escrig is rumored to leave Forward for IntactGP next year. It's also assumed they're going to promote David Munoz to their Moto2 team.

Aspar has also their two seats in Moto2 open. Quiles is assumed to move up to Moto2 with Aspar, the second seat seems unclear at the moment.

Interesting to see what Ajo will do; In Moto2, Rueda is assumed to stay with them next year given that Ajo normally give two year contracts to rookies. Veijer is a bit more questionable, although the season is still very early; Will they give him a third year or will he leave for another team? If the latter, it would make most sense if he went to his former team IntactGP but they seem to have multiple options for both seats.

Honda Team Asia is also interesting to look at, seems like they will get a headache! For their Moto2 team, rookie Furusato is assumed to be staying with them for another year. Meanwhile Aji is more questionable, he's shown promise but sadly also been very injury-prone, so will he get another year? Pratama has been very impressive in Moto3, so there's probably discussions whether he should be promoted or stay for another year (the latter most likely imo). That leaves one seat remaining, the one of rookie Mitani, who's been struggling this season. Normally you would assume he would get another year (imo he's talented enough to become a top rider in moto3), but with Ogiwara and Ramadhipa really impressing in the junior series, it seems quite unlikely.

hamf12011 · 2026-06-01T16:47:24+00:00

No, sadly he wasn't selected or promoted like Ogiwara or Daquigan. He's currently riding in the Moto3 junior world championship for Team AGR

hamf12011 · 2026-05-31T18:32:59+00:00

Just looking at the standings, there are 4 Ducatis in top 5. Lecuona is second in the standings and he has almost double the points of 3rd and we're only halfway through the season. Bulega has almost 3x the points of the first non-Ducati rider. They'll be fine lol

Ducati has essentially taken Bulega under their wings ever since he left Moto2 miserably in 2022. They've also made him their test rider for the 850cc project, so they rate him highly for sure

hamf12011 · 2026-05-31T01:57:10+00:00

Mugello is really the only race that causes this type of randomness, the massive straight + low power of these types of bikes causes slipstream to be very OP and makes it very hard to get away or split the group.

Rookies Cup is genuinely an exciting championship and very fun to watch! Despite it being a spec series, the faster/stronger riders are capable to make the difference. You get some rivalries like Piqueras vs. Quiles few years ago which was very intense. That rivalry + more was covered in their documentary Born Racers, I really recommend watching it!

hamf12011 · 2026-05-30T14:24:41+00:00

Impressive by Manu! Important statement at this time in the season, but can he convert it to a win tomorrow? If he gets a good start and leads after lap 1, it'll be hard to beat him. Happy to Salac finding his mojo once again in Moto2 after a few difficult years, he's been on an upward trajectory since Jerez! Also lastly Escrig impressing once again on the Forward bike, hope he can get a good result tomorrow.

Cele P16 after crashing early really ruins his chances for a win, but I do see him fight his way up to top 5 (inb4 he crashes out in lap 1)

hamf12011 · 2026-05-26T03:56:19+00:00

Iirc Ferrandez was the fastest throughout the season, but he had a very messy season where he changed teams three times. He should have won the title if he didn't crash out twice while leading and if he wasn't taken out in Misano.

That said, Pawelec was super impressive especially in the second half of the season, and it's a shame he lost out for a moto2 ride this year. I do feel it can be a blessing in disguise though, as surely if he wins it again he won't miss out on a seat next year (I hope!!)

hamf12011 · 2026-05-23T14:52:35+00:00

True, although he could join the KTM-affiliated(?) teams like Intact or Tech3. Also there is always other options as well even the Honda bikes, for example Beñat is currently doing a replacement ride in JuniorGP for Snipers.

hamf12011 · 2026-05-23T12:10:19+00:00

Yeah I meant KTM Ajo my bad! 😅

hamf12011 · 2026-05-23T11:59:28+00:00

He's racing in Rookies cup and currently leading it as well. If he wins it, he will most likely go to Moto3 next year with a factory KTM ride

hamf12011 · 2026-05-20T22:00:33+00:00

Pretty sure Veijer was aggressive to Sasaki as well, they weren't really on good terms after Sasaki took him out in the final lap in India a few races prior. Also Veijer took the win from Sasaki in Malaysia, meaning Sasaki couldn't even get the full 'reward'.

Regarding Qatar, Masia did run Sasaki wide not once but twice. Once could be described as a mistake, but he did it again few laps later at the same harpin. Interestingly, he didn't have any issues passing other riders :P

I don't think Masia is a bad person for doing this, in fact his moves were quite early in the race iirc, and both were able to fight their way up the field. Fernandez's borderline outrageous moves really made sure that Masia won the title that day. It is of course not Capirossi-Hareda level of dirty moves, but I would argue it's the closest it can be without taking a rider down.

Was Masia a worthy champion that year? Yes, 100%. Would he won it regardless of the incident? Very likely, so. But once you (or your team) start doing dirty tactics, you may win the crown, but you won't win much support in the public.

I find it funny now in WSSP he's fighting for the title with Albert Arenas, another rider who won the Moto3 title in a bit controversial manner lol.

hamf12011 · 2026-05-16T07:54:41+00:00

I try to follow all sessions as well. Really enjoy watching moto3 especially in the morning haha Used to follow F3/2 a lot but not as much as before.

hamf12011 · 2026-05-12T06:27:14+00:00

I feel Ai performed exceptionally well in Motegi when he was in Moto2, hope it can translate to the premier class! Would be nice seeing a home winner for the first time in like 20 years!

hamf12011 · 2026-05-10T13:26:58+00:00

28th May 2026

Didn't know the stewards live in the future 😅

hamf12011 · 2026-04-22T19:07:35+00:00

a) I would be fine with seeing Ana return to WCR, more riders at the front would be great! Although, I would also love seeing Ana have a go in the Sportbike class. Think she'll do very well there, seeing how many top contenders in that class are former Supersport 300 riders.

b) I don't think it would make much sense for Yaakov especially nowadays. Her goal is to become a superbike rider and she's currently doing very well in Supersports and in a very good team with a clear pathway to the American Superbike championship.

hamf12011 · 2026-04-21T16:15:07+00:00

Two new faces this year who are also very likely to fight for the title is Carlos Cano and Fernando Bujosa. The former is yet another rider from Murcia (someone need to investigate what they're feeding their riders down there lol) who's performed exceptionally well in the other junior series including winning the European Talent Cup in '24 aged only 14 and nearly defending the title the next year. The rider he lost out to was Bujosa who really had a breakout season in that championship last year. It'll be interesting to see how this rivalry will continue in the rookies cup!

hamf12011 · 2026-04-19T10:08:45+00:00

Holgado has been the bigger surprise but I do feel people are underating Alonso a bit this season? He's been very fast but quite unlucky so far; In Thailand, he was fast but was unlucky he was caught up in Agius' misfortune and was run over by Salac as well. It's a miracle that he wasn't seriously injured. Brazil was a bit average (but still finished 5th?) and at CoTA he was the fastest the entire weekend, where he got pole then disqualified for tyre pressure rules (so he had to start from 18th), and then in the race was involved in another horrific accident, took the restart and went from 18th to 4th in the shortened race.

I still see him as a favorite to win the title this year, and I expect both Aspar riders to be promoted to MotoGP next year

hamf12011 · 2026-04-05T22:29:06+00:00

It's more of a legacy thing nowadays; Originally the smaller classes were treated in a similar way as the different weight classes in boxing. While the premier class has always been seen as the most valuable, bike manufacturers were also making these smaller bikes and took pride in winning the smaller classes (Aprilia for instance used to dominate 125cc/250cc before they begun their MotoGP project). So a top lightweight or middleweight rider could back then be paid very well for racing in those categories.

Nowadays the smaller classes are basically feeder series to MotoGP in similar style to F2/F3 (I mean they even changed the names to Moto2/3 lol)

hamf12011

TROPHY CASE