MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

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.

At the end of every Friday practice, the riders like to remind us that it is only Friday, and we shouldn't read too much into the times. Fat chance, of course, but they have a point. But "it's only Friday" takes on extra potency at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, given the changing nature of the track. Especially after it rained heavily overnight, and the track started the day wet and took a long time to dry out. High humidity and low temperatures add another layer of complexity, just to liven things up.

The track started off cleaner than expected. "Yesterday when I made the track walk, I thought that the track was more dirty," Marco Bezzecchi said at the end of the first day. "But when I rode the bike this morning, to be honest it was much much better compared to the past times we came here."

The track may have started from a better base, but the grip levels were still changing on pretty much every exit as more and more rubber got laid down. That makes working out where riders stand relatively complicated, though we can take a stab at it by looking at the timesheets.

The vagaries of politics meant that MotoGP missed out on going to the Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina in 2024, and the vagaries of politics mean we are going back again in 2025. Probably for the very last time, as next year there will be a race in Brazil, at Goiania, and possibly another near Buenos Aires, where Dorna Chief Sporting Officer Carlos Ezpeleta visited in February.

The vagaries of politics are why Termas de Rio Hondo was built and then upgraded to host MotoGP in the first place, the regional government hoping to attract tourism and economic activity to a relatively remote part of Argentina. That makes it one of the longest and most tiring journeys for everyone in the MotoGP paddock, and also one of the most expensive. And given the diminishing returns from all forms of journalism, it means there are fewer reporters on the ground than there are working class people on an F1 grid.

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.

It's Only Friday, as the riders like to say to hype-hungry journalists after the first day of practice. That is of course true, but this It's Only Friday has brought a whole ream of fascinating stories to follow. It is far too early to be drawing conclusions for the rest of the season, but so far, 2025 looks a lot less like 2024 than we feared.

Yes, Ducati is still clearly the strongest manufacturer. The Márquez brothers topped the timesheets on Friday, Gresini's Alex beating Lenovo's Marc by half a tenth of a second. And in terms of pace, Ducatis are looking strongest as well: Marc Márquez was running 1'29.9s on old tires, teammate Pecco Bagnaia 1'30.0s.

But there are signs the other factories are catching up. There are as many Aprilias in the top 10 and directly through to Q2 as there are Ducatis (three). All five manufacturers are straight through to Q2. There are two Hondas in the top ten, Joan Mir an impressive sixth fastest. And Pedro Acosta is both quick over a single lap and running just a tenth or two off Pecco Bagnaia's pace on used tires. It has been very interesting day indeed.

In many ways, the 2025 MotoGP championship promises to be one of the more interesting in recent years. Perhaps not the most closely contested - the general consensus among fans and pundits alike is that you can take your pick of whether it will be Pecco Bagnaia or Marc Márquez who ends up lifting the 2025 MotoGP crown - but behind the title fight, there are some fascinating developments to watch out for.

We may as well start with that title battle. The dominance of Ducati was so great last year that it is hard to imagine anyone other than Marc Márquez or Pecco Bagnaia walking off with the title. Despite the fact that they are sticking with their GP24 engine - a little more on that later - both Bagnaia and Márquez showed pace during the test, Márquez' race simulation at Buriram almost fast enough to win a sprint race.

In any other season, the MotoGP engine homologation rules are relatively straightforward. Or as straightforward as they can be when engines are sealed and set for a single season, with concessions for underperforming manufacturers.

But the imminent change of technical regulations for the 2027 season has added another layer of complexity. To reduce costs, and prevent factories from having to develop an engine for the 2026 season, as well as a completely new 850cc engine with a maximum bore of 75mm, engine development is also frozen for the 2026 season.

What this means in practice is that the engine design manufacturers in Concessions Categories A, B, and C (Ducati, KTM, and Aprilia) present for homologation before the opening grand prix of the 2025 season at Buriram in Thailand will have to remain unchanged for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

Trust the process

That sounds simple, but there is a little more to it than that. So I have set out the process below.

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?