Spielberg, Austria

2025 Provisional MotoGP Calendar: 22 Races, Kazakhstan, India Out, Hungary, Brno In

By David Emmett |

The 2025 MotoGP calendar has been published at last, at least in its provisional form. The calendar contains 22 rounds, starting on March 2nd at Buriram in Thailand, and ending as usual at Valencia on November 16th.

The calendar looks a little different this year, in several different ways. Firstly, Qatar is now the fourth round, being held in mid April, rather than the first round. Argentina and Austin follow the season opener in Thailand, with MotoGP heading back to Europe after Qatar.

Jerez and Le Mans are in their traditional places, at the end of April and the middle of May respectively, before MotoGP heads to Silverstone, and a much earlier date for the British GP at the end of May. From the UK, the series heads back to Spain, to Aragon, again a much earlier race at the beginning of June. From Aragon, the series heads to Mugello in the middle of June, in a race that is back-to-back with Assen.

Davide Tardozzi And The Pit Lane Spy

By David Emmett |

After the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, a video emerged on social media of Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi in an altercation with a person dressed in Aprilia teamwear in the pit lane, just before the pit lane walk for fans. In it, Tardozzi could be seen getting up close to the presumed Aprilia staffer and lecturing him forcefully. 

Maio Meregalli Interview: "I Have Been With Yamaha Since 2011 And I Have Never Seen This Level Of Commitment"

By David Emmett |

Since winning the MotoGP title in 2021, things have gone downhill for Yamaha. From winning races and consistently fighting for podiums Fabio Quartararo and his teammates have slid slowly down the order, to the point where they are now struggling to get inside the top ten.

The causes of the decline are hard to pinpoint exactly. A switch to a different engine character - adding horsepower at the expense of rideability - played a role, but the biggest factor was that the traditional approach of Japanese manufacturers was unable to keep up with the pace of development of the European factories.

While Ducati, Aprilia, and KTM were willing to bring updates to the track and try them with the risk they would fail, Yamaha and Honda were far more conservative, wanting only to bring parts that had been thoroughly tested and they knew would work to races. While Yamaha and Honda were making small steps, the European factories were progressing in leaps and bounds.

Yamaha were the first factory to recognize they would have to make radical changes to the way they are working if they were to start to close the gap to the European factories. In a process started in late 2022, led by Yamaha Managing Director Lin Jarvis and MotoGP Project Leader Takahiro Sumi, there has been a move to involve Yamaha's European arm YMR (Yamaha Motor Racing) based in Gerno di Lesmo near Milan more directly in the development of the M1.

Austria MotoGP Sunday Round Up: Unwatchable Perfection, Managing Rear Spin And Front Slide, And Making Up For A Poor Start

By David Emmett |

If you thought Saturday's sprint race at the Austrian GP in Spielberg was a bit of a snoozer, just wait until you see the Sunday GP. Saturday's 14-laps sprint races saw the top ten separated by 16 seconds. The gap from first to tenth in Sunday's GP was 30 seconds. The sprint race podium was covered by 7.5 seconds, on Sunday, it was 7.35 seconds. This is a far cry from the spate of closest ever top 10 and top 15 finishes of just a couple of years ago.

The racing in MotoGP is once again reminiscent of the dark days of the 800cc era, when passing was impossible and your finishing position was pretty much determined by where you qualified. I remember that period very well. Because I had to write about it every Sunday.

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