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The Barcelona Grand Prix will not only be the final round of the season, but also the last (for the time being) race weekend for three MotoGP riders. Some due to reaching age limits and some due to lack of other opportunities, Aleix Espargarò, Takaaki Nakagami and Augusto Fernandez will not be on the lineup in 2025 and all will move to the role of test riders. While it has already been announced for Aleix and Taka that they will join the Honda test team, Augusto has confirmed on several occasions that he will join Yamaha as a tester, although there is still a lack of an official announcement.
MotoGP, with Espargarò loses its veteran. Born in 1989, the rider from Granollers debuted in the World Championship 20 years ago, when he made his first appearance as a wild card at Valencia. Aleix's career was very peculiar and often came close to ending before its time. He did not achieve any great results in 125 and neither did he in 250, with a 4th place in Assen in 2009, a season in which he was left without a ride after the Campetella team closed. He raced just two GPs (including the Dutch one) for the Balaton Racing team as a replacement for Balazs Nemeth, but he also had another opportunity that year: he was called by Pramac, which needed a replacement for Mika Kallio, who had been moved to the factory team to replace Stoner. Good placings on his debut in the premier class convinced Campinoti's team to sign him for 2010.
His adventure in the premier class, however, lasted only one year, and Aleix made his Moto2 debut in 2011 (getting a podium in Barcelona and little else). His chance came with the CRTs, the MotoGP 'minus something' wanted by Dorna. In 2012 and 2013 (in Aspar team colors) he was the best in the subcategory with the ART (an anabolic Aprilia SBK). Same result (when switching to Open) with the Yamaha of the Forward team in 2014, a season in which he also got a pole position and his first podium in MotoGP thanks to a 2nd place in Aragon.
At that point, Suzuki wanted him for his return to the premier class. Espargarò raced two years on the Hamamatsu bike before receiving a call from Aprilia. The Noale bike was the Cinderella of MotoGP, but the Spaniard agreed to put the project on his shoulders. It took time, from 2017 to 2020 there was a lot of pain and very little gain, but at Silverstone, in 2021 came the first podium.
2022 was a confirmation with Aleix's first career win in Argentina and 6 podiums. He doubled his successes in 2023, while this year he won the Barcelona Sprint. For Aprilia he had become 'the captain' and Martin's arrival at Noale was (also) his doing. After retiring from racing, however, he preferred to move to Tokyo rather than stay in Italy, taking his chief technician (Antonio Jimenez) with him and following Romano Albesiano to HRC.
Nakagami has been linked to Honda for virtually his entire career, if we exclude the two years with Aprilia in 125. The Japanese rider is also an old acquaintance in MotoGP, making his debut in 2007. He built his career in Moto2, where he raced from 2012 (with a couple of appearances in 2011) to 2017, picking up two wins and 14 podiums. MotoGP came in 2018, backed by sponsor Idemitsu. For six years, he was in the premier class in Lucio Cecchinello's team but, apart from the podiums, he achieved only one pole position. Logical for Taka to remain in the family in the role of test rider.
Of the three, Augusto Fernandez is the one with the resume that held out hope for a different career. The Madrid native had debuted directly in Moto2 in 2017 and in 2019, in his first full season, won 3 GPs with the Pons team. He will move to Marc VDS in 2020 and then to Ajo in 2022. It was his best season, the one in which he became world champion at the last race.
Unfortunately, his transition to MotoGP was not painless. KTM put him in the Tech3 team, in 2023 he made his debut, did not shine, and this year he did even worse, overshadowed by teammate Acosta. His future, as mentioned, seems to be in Yamaha, although the Iwata-based manufacturer has not yet communicated anything about it.
