MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

After the sprint race on Saturday in Argentina, I wrote about how Marc Márquez' victories are the natural consequence of putting the best rider on the best bike. On Sunday, he rather proved my point, even though brother Alex made it considerably tougher for him than he had in Thailand. Tougher or not, the outcome was the same: Marc Márquez took another win with a comfortable margin, making it a clean sweep of the first two races. At both Buriram and Termas de Rio Hondo, the Ducati Lenovo rider took pole, sprint win, GP win, and a new lap record.

Once again, Márquez dropped behind his brother Alex after a few laps, before passing him again at the end. But this time, it wasn't because of tire pressure or a sign of control. At the start of lap 4, Marc made a mistake and outbraked himself going into Turn 1, running wide and allowing Alex through. And then the elder Márquez brother found himself stuck behind the younger, incapable of getting past again. Until 5 laps to the end.

There is an entirely unsubstantiated rumor, which I have personally decided to believe regardless of the evidence, that Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta worked hard to prevent Ducati from signing Marc Márquez to the factory team. After two sprints and a GP, you have to concede that he would have been right to try to interfere. So far, Márquez has looked pretty much unstoppable. Exactly as you would expect when you put the best rider on the best bike.

MotoGP riders learned a new English word last Sunday at Buriram. Typical of this was Joan Mir, who had crashed out shortly after the halfway mark. "I have burns," he explained to journalists, before turning to the Honda HRC Castrol press officer to ask "como se dice? (how do you say that in English), before journalists jumped in with the word "blisters". "Ah, the tire also!" Mir joked.

Blisters were a common theme. Official air temperature of 36°C (measured in the shade) meant there was little respite for rider nor machine. The combination of blazing sun, 300 horsepower, and hot air meant that the heat produced by the engines was not being dissipated to the air, but heating up frames and chassis as well. Temperatures of metal parts were reaching nearly 100°C.

A couple of decades ago, when Valentino Rossi was at the height of his powers, Rossi's crew chief Jeremy Burgess was interviewed. Burgess explained that if he was shown a photo of Rossi riding, he could identify what lap Rossi was on.

Is this some kind of weird superpower? Not really. Burgess was looking at Rossi's position on the bike, and dozens of tiny telltale signs of how he was adapting his riding to the bike and tires as they changed during race, as the fuel tank emptied and the tires wore and degraded.

If you have the kind of intimate knowledge of a rider's talent and habits that a crew chief does, you can spot those subtle changes. Or if you are an ex-rider and have been watching a particular rider for a long time, you can pick up on those signs too.

We are off and running. The first points in the 2025 MotoGP season have been handed out, and we have a championship. So far, it is running pretty much as it did last year: three Ducatis on the podium and a race that was spaced out and predictable pretty much from the start. But that didn't stop the Saturday Sprint race at Buriram from being interesting, if not exciting to watch.

The atmosphere more than made up for the lack of on track action. The grandstands were once again packed with enthusiastic and loud MotoGP fans, vindicating Dorna's decision to start the season in Buriram instead of Qatar. That may not suit European broadcasters - a 9am CET start time is less attractive to TV audiences than either 3pm for a race in Europe or 6pm for Qatar.

(And yes, I am aware that the 3pm Buriram time is much more convenient for viewers in Australia, and to an extent on the West Coast of the US. The trouble is, TV audience sizes in those countries are nowhere near what they are in Spain, Italy, France, and the UK.)

The Buriram MotoGP test confirmed Ducati as the preseason favorite, with Aprilia a close second and KTM possibly on the prowl. But what about the Japanese manufacturers? After a couple of years in the wilderness, are they any closer to regaining competitiveness?

After the Buriram test, it looks like Aprilia have raised their game to start to disrupt Ducati's domination of the series. And it also appears they might have overtaken KTM, with Marco Bezzecchi just a fraction slower than Pedro Acosta, and much stronger in race pace.

So where does the Austrian manufacturer stand? And how are their signings of Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini to the Tech3 team working out?

While all eyes were on Ducati at the Buriram MotoGP test, especially because of the choice they faced between racing the GP25 or sticking with the GP24 and looking for improvements, it was easy to miss the other big stories on the grid. Stories which directly affect Ducati, as it happens. Because unlike last year, where Ducati pretty much had a free run at the MotoGP championship, it looks like the other manufacturers have made a big step in competitiveness.

Not enough to make betting on anyone other than Ducati winning the championship look extremely foolhardy. But enough to cause Ducati more than just inconvenience. MotoGP in 2025 does not look like being a one-horse race any longer.

Stepping up

It may sound strange, but Aprilia has come out of testing quite well, despite Jorge Martin injuring himself in the first couple of hours of the Sepang test. The bike is a big step forward, which I'll come to later. But the bigger step has been for Marco Bezzecchi, who has really grown in his role as factory rider in Martin's absence.

"This test, these tests don't mean anything, but it means a lot in the same time," said Joan Mir on Thursday after the MotoGP test at Buriram had finished. Though the Honda HRC Castrol rider was talking about the progress made during the test rather the results, he has succinctly summed up precisely how to view the outcome of preseason testing for 2025.

The standings at the end of the Buriram test do not set the outcome of the 2025 MotoGP season in stone. But the times set and the work done do give a good indication of where everyone stands ahead of the first round of the season, and the paths they are headed down. The results of preseason testing should be taken seriously, but not literally.

So what can we say about the outcome of the Buriram tests? A few thoughts, spread over several articles. Starting with Ducati. Why did they revert to the GP24? And does that mean they are going backward?