MotoGP World Championship starts without champion and with Oliveira in new team

The World Speed ​​Championship kicks off this weekend without the reigning champion, Spaniard Jorge Martin (Aprilia), due to injury, and with Miguel Oliveira (Yamaha) making his debut in the Prima Pramac team , which gave the riders' title to the Madrid native.

Thailand hosts the first of 22 Grands Prix scheduled for this year , with Portugal joining the calendar for the sixth consecutive year, again in November, from 7 to 9 , the penultimate race of the season.

After a year marked by injuries at Aprilia, which earned him 15th place in the MotoGP championship (the premier class) in 2024, with 75 points, the Portuguese rider from Almada moved to Prima Pramac, which won the Teams' World Championship in 2023 and the Riders' World Championship in 2024 with Jorge Martin. The difference is that, from this year onwards, the Italian team will be supplied by Yamaha instead of using Ducati bikes, which have dominated the MotoGP World Championship.

Ducati kept the former champion, the Italian Francesco Bagnaia , but added the Spaniard Marc Márquez to the official team, doing away with Jorge Martin.

The Madrid native felt wronged and left the Italian manufacturer to sign for Aprilia. However, a fall during a training session at the weekend left him with “complex fractures in his left hand” and left ankle, which, according to the team’s statement, means he will miss the opening round of the championship. The Spanish rider underwent surgery yesterday in Barcelona, ​​for the second time this season, after having already undergone surgery on his right hand, which he fractured on the first day of winter testing in Malaysia.

The pre-season was one of the most eventful in recent years, with multiple team changes. Marc Márquez's promotion to the official Ducati structure was one of the most high-profile, with the Catalan rider looking to equal Valentino Rossi , who won seven MotoGP World Championships (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009).

After the injury ordeal he has suffered since 2020, Márquez is confident that he will be able to fight for the title again , which has eluded him since 2019 (he was champion in 2013, 2014, 2026, 2017, 2018 and 2019).

The two Ducati riders are the main contenders for the world title, but Frenchman Fabio Quartaro (champion in 2021) showed during the pre-season that Yamaha is evolving, ranking as one of the fastest in the tests.

Also Spaniard Alex Márquez (Ducati), from the private Gresini team, was in good form with the 2024 Ducati, which seems more stable than this year's version.

KTM, meanwhile, is starting the season under the specter of bankruptcy. BMW has already shown interest in acquiring the Austrian manufacturer, which is struggling with a serious financial crisis that could jeopardize its continued presence in the MotoGP World Championship beyond 2026.

For now, Spaniard Pedro Acosta , on a KTM, remains a potential candidate for the podium places. While for the satellite team, Tech3, the manufacturer has signed Spaniard Maverick Viñales and Italian Enea Bastianni .

Honda is looking to emerge from the sporting crisis it has been plunged into over the last two years, which culminated in last place in the championship in 2024.

With a racing model similar to that of the last two years, with Saturday hosting qualifying and the sprint race and Sunday reserved for the main race, the peloton will also have three newcomers: Malaysian Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda), Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) and Japanese Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia).

The Thai GP starts on Friday , with two free practice sessions for the three categories in dispute: Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP.