An offseason of mostly following inconclusive Marc Marquez updates has (finally) landed us at MotoGP’s round 1 of 2021, and for that matter with the traditional Philip Island WSBK season-opener being postponed, round 1 of international bike competition full stop. In a sign of the half-measure of normality we get in these times, the season’s starting at Qatar again, but then next weekend they’ll still be there for round 2. Perhaps we should have one thread for both.
Do I sound unenthusiastic? There’s nothing to be unenthusiastic about. MotoGP last season was a feast of unpredictability, crazy swings in performance, last lap battles, rookie wins, unexpected successes, desperate failings and generally the sort of things that make a very compelling video montage. 14 races yielded up 9 winning riders spread across four brands of motorcycle, none of which were the previously all-conquering Honda. The asterisk of fate being to signify that Marc Marquez, motor sport’s definitive smiling assassin, badly broke his arm in round one while trying to make up ground on the leaders, and despite some tentative attempts at a return that seemed to do him more harm than good, never made it to another starting grid in 2020. Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati, long pegged as “Most Likely To Beat Marquez”, did not rise to the challenge as their relationship disintegrated, and Yamaha’s occasional pace proved deceptive, as Fabio Quartararo faded, Maverick Vinales flickered, Valentino Rossi never shone, and Frankie Morbidelli rather summed up the team’s season by outscoring the three works riders with a year-old bike. Austrian trellis frame fanciers KTM scored three wins and many podiums, but it was ultimately Suzuki, the little Japanese factory powered by dreams and some petrol, who stood to gain from Honda’s catastrophe, with 2017 Moto3 champion Joan Mir securing six podiums and a solitary win, which proved too much for his late-charging teammate Alex Rins and the abovementioned Morbidelli.
That was 2020! It was a good year. 2021 will probably be good as well. Series promoter Dorna and the FIM have served up a (provisionally) 19-race calendar, beginning with two rounds in Qatar (now), passing through most of the usual European and Asian stops, including a return of the Finnish Grand Prix (yay!) excluding Brno (boo!), and still including picturesque deathtrap the Red Bull Ring (boo x2!), and rounding off the year with the traditional November finale at the always-uninspiring Valencia circuit. There is also a curious “reserve” round at what is terrifyingly described as a street circuit in Indonesia. Sounds like a intriguing mix of delight and fear to me!
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Round one and two will take place in your second-favourite Middle Eastern petrostate Qatar, who when they’re not building World Cup venues and fostering widespread disillusionment in organized sport, host a decent if poorly-attended motorcycle Grand Prix under big floodlights at Losail. Losail is one of those big and sterile tracks that was built in the 2000s for the purposes of attracting major races, and having snared one in 2004 has held onto it ever since. The track’s silhouette looks a bit like the Wicked Witch of the West mid-melt, which is to say it’s got a long pit straight and three spurs that kind of look like arms and a head. The track surface is grippy and there’s a wide variety of corners, if not a particularly flowing layout, and for some reason Yamaha tend to do well here. The race didn’t take place last year owing to most of the MotoGP field being stuck in Italy as the Coronavirus pandemic got going, but the intermediate and junior classes were already there for a test, and did race, yielding up victories for Tetsuta Nagashima and eventual Moto3 champion Albert Arenas respectively.
When’s the thing getting underway? Practice is on Friday between 1.50pm and 8.45pm (local time, subtract 3 hours for GMT) and after an afternoon of practice on Saturday, qualifying takes place at 5.30pm (Moto3), 6.25pm (Moto2) and 8pm (MotoGP). Sunday afternoon sees warm-up sessions for the three classes, and then races at the following times:
5pm: Moto3
6.20pm: Moto2
8pm: MotoGP
Don’t ask me what that’s going to be on Sunday because the clocks are going forward and I am hopeless.
So, that’s (roughly) when it’s happening. Who will be happening? See below. As I said, six manufacturers, organized roughly in order of how they did in 2020.
Suzuki
Don’t change a winning formula. World champion Joan Mir isn’t even taking the #1 plate for this year, which depending on your point of view is either wise or indicative of insufficient self-belief. Ostensible team leader Alex Rins is also back for another year on the metallic blue bikes, and presumably is one of the few people on the grid hoping for a return of the happier times of 2019 (well, on-track at least). One enforced change was the loss of team boss Davide Brivio, who is F1-bound (more on that, er, elsewhere).
Yamaha
Minor changes to a formula that wins occasionally, but not sufficiently. The exotically named Maverick Vinales is back for a fifth year with the Yamaha factory squad, and lighting a fire under him (or so goes the plan) will be 2020’s near-protagonist Fabio Quartararo. Again, expect them to be evenly matched. Unlike Suzuki, Yamaha have a customer team, operated by Petronas and confusingly the Sepang circuit. Franco Morbidelli, who’s been in MotoGP longer than Quartararo, will be joined in the Petronas team by Valentino Rossi, who’s been in MotoGP longer than it’s been called MotoGP.
Ducati
To lose one works rider may be regarded as a misfortunate, but to lose both looks like… ambition? The Bologna team is betting on that being the case. Regular front-runner Andrea Dovizioso has left for retirement, or perhaps testing Aprilias, and wingman Danilo Petrucci has departed in the transalpine way for KTM. Expediently, their B-team, Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia, have been promoted to replace them. Both are talented but they have a single premier class Grand Prix win between them. The B-team, Pramac Racing, is being replenished by exciting journeyman Johann Zarco and debutant Jorge Martin. Those four are on 2021-spec bikes – Ducati also have a second customer team, Esponsorama Racing, running 2019 bikes for newcomers Luca Marini and Enea Bastianini. Marini and Bastianini actually outscored the Covid-struck Martin in Moto2 last year, so the size of the chip on their collective shoulder can be safely imagined. Still, it’s a shop window of sorts: Pramac’s Johann Zarco brought his career out of the dustbin of history with eye-catching rides on Esponsorama’s superannuated machines.
KTM
The Austrians ranked as a major surprise last year but are reportedly struggling with their 2021-spec equipment. Another bone of uncertainty is the loss of their lead rider, former prodigy Pol Espargaro. Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira, prodigies of a more recent vintage and, significantly, premier class winners, will be attempting to make up the difference. KTM also have a B-team, run by the French Tech 3 squad and presumably underwritten by the Austrians and Red Bull. They’ve picked up ex-Ducati man Danilo Petrucci to go alongside somewhat unknown quantity Iker Lecuona.
Honda
World champions every season but two from 2011-19, the manufacturer’s challenge essentially ended after Marc Marquez (previously responsible for six of those championships) crashed badly at the first round in Jerez. We are promised more Marc in 2021, but he won’t be ready for Qatar so it’ll be last year’s stand-in Stefan Bradl for now. He’s joined in the factory Repsol team by Pol Espargaro, who spent four years with KTM before leaving as they were getting good. The LCR B-team is stocked by 2020 returnees Alex Marquez (brother of Marc) and Takaaki Nakagami (had a good first half-dozen corners at Aragon). Cal Crutchlow, whose year was debilitated by injuries in less spectacular fashion to Marquez, has gone to retirement, or testing Yamahas.
Aprilia
Finally, the little Italian factory who I still associate with building a 410cc bike for the 500cc class because who needs that last 20 percent of displacement anyway, Aprilia! The Piaggio Group’s Grand Prix division will start 2021 in the shadow of the death of team manager Fausto Gresini, who helped bring the Noale manufacturer back to the premier class in 2015 but died of Covid-19 this February. The team has two bikes: MotoGP’s other great journeyman Aleix Espargaro (brother of Pol) rides one, and former World Superbike guy Lorenzo Savadori takes the second bike that in another universe is occupied by Andrea Iannone, who is in this timeline banned for a doping violation. They've gone well in testing, so keep an eye on them when practice begins.
That's it! Enjoy!
