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The Red Bull Rookies Cup was invented in 2007 by Dorna, Red Bull and KTM in order to breed new talent for the Motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship. The new series was organized at some of the European GP venues and already presented an overall winner who went on to achieve Grands Prix wins in 3 classes (125 cc, Moto3 and MotoGP) a few years later: Johann Zarco, who also won the Moto2 world titles in 2015 and 2016.
2024 has been the 18th season with the KTM bikes from Austria. From 2007 to 2012 the races were run with the two-stroke KTM RC125, in 2013 the Moto3 specification KTM RC250 four-stroke was introduced. It delivers around 52 or 53 hp. Every single year since 2007 the Red Bull Rookies Cup (RBRC) brought a wide range of talented riders to the forefront. Let’s just look at the 2024 season which finished last weekend at Misano.
After the Misano GP former Rookies Cup riders are leading in all three GP World Championships:
MotoGP – 1st Jorge Martín (Class of 2014) – 4th Enea Bastianini (Class of 2013)
Moto2 – 1st Ai Ogura (Class of 2017) – 3rd Joe Roberts (Class of 2013)
Moto3 – 1st David Alonso (Class of 2021)
Ex-Rookies fill the top 7 places in the smallest GP category.
The Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup was created by Red Bull, KTM and Dorna to develop young road racing talents. Since the first season in 2007, 252 riders from 39 nations have taken part in the series. 224 Races in 18 years, 74 different winners. Ex-Rookies have achieved 214 GP wins and an amazing amount of 650 GP podiums!
- So far in 2024 all Moto3 podiums have been filled by ex-Rookies. In 2023, 18 Moto3 Podiums were Rookie lock-outs – only 2 non-Rookies stood on a podium all year
- Ex-Rookies have won 12 GP World Championships
- 9 riders have become GP World Champions
- 115 Rookies have made at least one GP start
- 50.88 percent of Rookies have graduated to GPs
- Of those that have graduated to GPs, 29.57 percent have won a GP
- 34 ex-Rookies are now GP winners
- Jorge Martín, Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira and Johann Zarco are the most successful ex-Rookies with 17 wins each. Pedro Acosta on 16
- Zarco (the first Red Bull Rookies Cup Champion, class of 2007) has also won 2 World Championships and stood on the GP podium most often, 62 times
- Pedro Acosta, class of 2020, was the most successful in 2023 with 7 RBRC race wins. He now has clinched a total of 16 GP victories and 2 World Championships
- Valencia is the most successful circuit for ex-Rookies with 17 GP victories.
- The top 11 in the 2013 Moto3 World Championship were all ex-Rookies
- Ex-Rookies scored 33 GP wins in 2023 (a record – the previous best was 25 in 2022)
It is not uncommon for the top three of a Moto3 World Championship race to all come from the Rookies Cup - for example at the 2013 Texas GP, where Jaume Masià won ahead of Ivan Ortolá and Xavier Artigas. At this Moto3 World Championship race last year at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), the first 14 places were taken exclusively by former Red Bull Rookies Cup participants. Iván Ortolá competed in this junior series in 2020 and 2021, winning a race each year with the KTM 250GP machines. Astonishingly, more than 50 percent of all ex-rookies have contested at least one Grand Prix. 33 percent of them managed a GP podium finish and 25 percent even claimed a GP victory.
Remarkable: Nine talents from the Rookies Cup have now become world champions in a GP class.
Here they are:
Jaume Masià, Honda, Moto3 (2023)
Izan Guevara, GASGAS, Moto3 (2022)
Pedro Acosta, KTM, Moto3 (2021) and Moto2 (2023)
Enea Bastianini, Kalex, Moto2 (2020)
Brad Binder, KTM, Moto3 (2016)
Danny Kent, Honda, Moto3 (2015)
Jorge Martín, Honda, Moto3 (2018)
Joan Mir, Honda, Moto3 (2017) and Suzuki, MotoGP (2020)
Johann Zarco, Kalex, Moto2, (2015 and 2016)
And during the last six years, former rookies have won five of the six Moto3 Junior World Championships, now called JuniorGP:
2018: Raúl Fernández, KTM
2020: Izan Guevara, KTM
2021: Daniel Holgado, GASGAS
2022: José Antonio Rueda, Honda
2023: Ángel Piqueras, Honda
Even in the Endurance World Championship (EWC), ex-rookies have been and continue to be among the front runners. For example, Josh Hook, Alan Techer, Karel Hanika, Markus Reiterberger, Florian Alt, Léandro Mercado, Philipp Öttl, etc.
These former Red Bull Cup Rookies riders are on the list of GP participants for the 2024 season:
MotoGP (10)
Johann Zarco (2007)
Enea Bastianini (2013)
Raúl Fernández (2015, 2016)
Pedro Acosta (2019, 2020)
Brad Binder (2009, 2010, 2011)
Joan Mir (2013, 2014)
Lorenzo Savadori (2007, testrider)
Fabio di Gianantonio (2014, 2015)
Miguel Oliveira (2008)
Jorge Martín (2012, 2013, 2014)
Moto2 (17)
Jaume Masià (2014)
Barry Baltus (2018, 2019)
Diogo Moreira (2021)
Alex Escrig (2019, 2020)
Filip Salač (2016, 2017, 2018)
Darryn Binder (2013, 2014)
Joe Roberts (2011, 2012, 2013)
Daniel Muñoz (2020, 2021)
Manuel González (2016)
Ayumu Sasaki (2015, 2016)
Marcos Ramirez (2012, 2013)
Mario Aji (2019, 2020, 2021)
Xavier Artigas (2017, 2018)
Deniz Öncü (2017, 2018)
Bo Bendsneyder (2014, 2015)
Ai Ogura (2016, 2017)
Izan Guevara (2020)
Zonta van den Goorbergh (2020, 2021)
Moto3 (16)
Tatchakorn Buasri (2020, 2021, 2022)
Ryusei Yamanaka (2017, 2018)
Filippo Farioli (2021, 2022)
Jacob Roulstone (2022, 2023)
Matteo Bertelle (2019, 2020, 2021)
Scott Odgen (2020, 2021)
Àngel Piqueras (2022, 2023)
Iván Ortolá (2020, 2021)
Noah Dettwiler (2019, 2020, 2021)
Luca Lunetta (2020, 2021, 2022)
David Muñoz (2020, 2021)
Taiyo Furusato (2021)
David Alonso (2020, 2021)
Collin Veijer (2020, 2021, 2022)
José Antonio Rueda (2022)
Daniel Holgado (2020, 2021)
