Moto2 World Champions Augusto Fernández and Pedro Acosta did not face much competition on their way to winning the MotoGP Rookie of the Year Award in 2023 and 2024 with the GASGAS Tech3 team of Hervé Poncharal. But 2025 will be very different – like 2021.
But next year there will be a tougher fight for the Rookies Award because we expect three Moto2 riders to move up to the premier class – Fermin Aldeguer (most likely for Gresini Racing), Ai Ogura for Trackhouse Aprilia and Somkiat Chantra for the LCR Honda team; he could be replacing Nakagami after six years in MotoGP without a podium finish. By the way: Ogura was close to replacing Nakagami after narrowly missing out on the Moto2 world title in 2022 against Augusto Fernández.
As a reminder: A massive five, class newcomers (Remy Gardner, Raúl Fernández, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Darryn Binder (who came straight from Moto3) - moved into the 1000cc class for the 2022 season.
After the 2020 coronavirus season, it was Moto2 World Champion Enea Bastianini and runner-up Luca Marini who ventured into the MotoGP class – and have already achieved considerable success which earned them spots in factory teams at Ducati and Honda.
Only Johann Zarco (World Champion 2015 and 2016) has successfully defended a Moto2 World Championship title.
The MotoGP Rookies since 2010:
After 2010: Toni Elias, Karel Abraham
After 2011: Stefan Bradl, Michele Pirro
After 2012: Marc Márquez, Bradley Smith
After 2013: Pol Espargaró, Scott Redding, Andrea Iannone
After 2014: Maverick Viñales, Jack Miller
After 2015: Tito Rabat
After 2016: Jonas Folger, Johann Zarco, Alex Rins
After 2017: Franco Morbidelli, Tom Lüthi, Takaaki Nakagami and Hafizh Syahrin
After 2018: Pecco Bagnaia, Miguel Oliveira, Mir, Quartararo
After 2019: Alex Márquez, Brad Binder, Iker Lecuona
After 2020: Enea Bastianini, Luca Marini
After 2021: Remy Gardner, Rául Fernández, Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Gianntonio and Darryn Binder.
After 2022: Augusto Fernández
Multiple top results in the Moto2 World Championship are not always the only thing that makes subsequent winners and world champions in the MotoGP category.
Also, Vice world champions like Luca Marini made a strong impression in MotoGP as long as they had competitive machinery. The 2020 Moto2 World Championship runner-up had finished all of his first 32 MotoGP races on the Ducati and has scored two MotoGP podiums so far! Fabio Quartararo did not win a Moto3 World Championship race and only one Moto2 GP race, he finished tenth in the 2018 Moto2 World Championship on the Speed-up. Yet as a rookie at Petronas Yamaha in 2019, he achieved six pole positions and five podium finishes, he also won the 2021 World Championship and finished second to Bagnaia in 2022.
Joan Mir also made the leap to MotoGP with Suzuki Ecstar after his first Moto2 season in 2018 and sixth place in the World Championship. In his second year there (2020), he surprisingly won the world championship title.
Alex Rins finished the Moto2 World Championship in second and third place overall before switching to the MotoGP class after the 2016 season. He has already achieved six victories and finished third in the 2020 World Championship on the Suzuki GSX-RR.
Malaysian Hafizh Syahrin has also only achieved three podiums in the Moto2 World Championship in ten years (2012 in Sepang, 2017 in Misano and Motegi) and has never finished higher than ninth and tenth overall (2016 and 2017). Despite this, he was promoted to the Tech3 Yamaha MotoGP team for 2018 following Folger's illness.
Iker Lecuona even joined the Tech3 KTM team as twelfth overall in Moto2 after the 2019 season because Johann Zarco terminated his KTM contract for 2020 early. Binder was then transferred from Tech3 KTM to the Red Bull KTM factory team and Iker Lecuona earned his first MotoGP spurs at Tech3 KTM alongside Oliveira.
Casey Stoner was also never World Champion in the 125 or 250 cc classes. Nevertheless, he dominated the MotoGP World Championship in 2007 on Ducati and in 2011 on the Repsol Honda, scoring an amazing total of 38 MotoGP wins from 2007 to 2012.
But even proven talents like Raúl Fernandez, Remy Gardner and Augusto Fernández found it hard to adapt to the tough premier class.
KTM Motorsport director Pit Beirer knows the reason for this. "The step from the Moto2 to MotoGP is really brutal. It will take some time and work for us to find the next MotoGP talent inside the KTM family. At the moment none of our riders is ready to rise to the top class of GP racing. Also at the other teams I do not see a Moto2 rider who is ready for MotoGP.