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In the 2025 season, which is set to kick off on February 28 with practice for the Thai GP in just over two months' time, everyone's eyes will understandably be on the category's big players, many of whom have gone through a variety of seat changes. From Marc Marquez "todo en rojo" (all in red) riding the official Ducati GP25, to Bagnaia who will once again sport the #63 plate and fight to take back the crown, to Jorge Martin who stole it from him before arriving in Aprilia alongside Bezzecchi. From Bastianini making his debut in KTM, to Acosta on whose shoulders rest the aspirations of the Austrian manufacturer that is going through a period of economic difficulties.
Di Giannantonio, the only other rider on the GP25, has all the right cards to do well, as does Morbidelli riding the albeit competitive GP24. Finally, let's not forget "El Diablo" Quartararo, whose talent is held back solely by the competitiveness of his M1, with a Yamaha that, however, it must be said is investing a lot and moving in the right direction.
So there is a lot of meat on the fire for a season that on paper proposes a lot of new talking points and a change in the form factor. The battle for the title promises sparks, but another battle, that for rookie of the year, could also hold sway. In fact, 2022 was the last time that we saw a real battle for the new face of the premier category.
In that year it was Bezzecchi who triumphed over Di Giannantonio and Raul Fernandez, while in the following two years we saw the arrival of Augusto Fernandez in 2023 and Pedro Acosta last season. Both showed up fresh from the Moto2 title, but had very different fates. In fact, after two years of underachievement, the MotoGP adventure for Augusto Fernandez ended with his non-renewal with KTM, although we will still see him on track as a test rider for the Yamaha project.
As for Pedro Acosta, on the other hand, the Spaniard promised sparks given the very high expectations at the beginning of the season, and which cannot be said to have been unfulfilled thanks to the podiums achieved in the first races. Despite the fact that victory eluded him together with a drop in performance and many crashes in the middle of the season, the rider from Mazarron finished the season 6th, quickly establishing himself as the new benchmark in KTM and as one of the potential protagonists of this coming season.
Making a debut in today's MotoGP is therefore no easy feat, talent alone is not enough, where a few tenths make the difference between a Q1 and a Q2 resulting in an uphill struggle, adaptability, a competitive team behind you and a lot of hard work are needed first and foremost. As many as three new faces will be performing in the top category this year: Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer, Japan's Ai Ogura and Thailand's Somkiat Chantra. Each of them with a different story behind them, each of them potentially one of the future protagonists of MotoGP, because let's not forget that even three-time world champion Bagnaia, as well as current champion Jorge Martin, needed time to mature and rise to the top rungs of the competition.
Fermin Aldeguer, Ducati's new promise in Gresini.
The first of the three riders to make the move to MotoGP official at the start of 2024 at the behest of Ducati, the Spanish rider class of 2005 is also the youngest with his 20 years he will arrive at in April. With a passion for motorcycles since childhood, photographed with a toy Ducati, he ended up actually getting on one.
Jokingly portrayed in a pool that harkens back to the historic cover of Nirvana's Nevermind, the Spaniard will be riding Team Gresini's GP24. After his beginnings with a title in MiniGP 110, Aldeguer followed a nonlinear path through the minor categories. In fact, he first raced in Superstock 600, winning the European title in 2020, and then participated in the MotoE championship the following year along with some wild cards in the Moto2 world championship.
This makes him the first rider to have moved from the electric racing competition to the world championship. A two-year period the one in Moto2 that culminated with a 3rd place in the 2023 standings behind Acosta and Arbolino, and a 5th this year despite several penalties and missteps that affected the final result. In both seasons in the intermediate class, the Spaniard riding the Speed UP team's Boscoscoscuro has quickly demonstrated adaptability, competitiveness and the ability to bring home good results, thus representing a solid investment for Ducati's future.
Ai Ogura, the new Japanese face in MotoGP at Aprilia Trackhouse.
With the farewell of Nakagami, now a test rider for Honda in his homeland, MotoGP was in danger of being without any Japanese riders despite the fact that two of the major constructors come from the rising sun. Saving the day was Ai Ogura, newly crowned world champion in Moto2, the first Japanese to win the title after a 15-year winless period. The last Japanese to triumph in this category was in fact Hiroshi Aoyama in 2009 in the then 250 class.
The 23-year-old Japanese began racing in the footsteps of his older sister, a curious detail in the racing world. Unlike Aldeguer, Ogura followed the "classic" path traveled by many other riders. For most of his career his name for many years remained linked to Honda, which had invested heavily in him. He first raced in the Asia Talent Cup, Rookies Cup and CEV Moto3. He finally landed in the Moto3 world championship in 2018 with the first wild cards, his 3rd place two years later earned him a move to Moto2 where he was already close to the title in 2022. Then a setback due to injuries and a change of direction: he left the Honda umbrella and stepped onto the Boscoscuro of the MT Helmets team, which earned him the title.
Just the divorce from the union with Honda was a further snub for the Japanese manufacturer, if we think that in the same year the Golden Wing manufacturer also lost Marc Marquez, who turned to the more competitive Ducati of the Gresini team. The title earned him a call from Aprilia, in search of young talent on which to build its future, and in 2025 he will ride the Trackhouse team's RS-GP alongside Raul Fernandez, the only survivor of Aprilia's previous lineup. The Veneto manufacturer, aided by the difficulties of KTM and the development lag of the Japanese manufacturers, could prove to be the main contender to Ducati's dominance, and Ogura's adaptive skills, which proved successful in Moto2 with the switch to Pirelli, could create a new winning combination in the near future of the premier class.
Somkiat Chantra, the Thai pioneer riding the Honda LCR.
Third on the list of new entrants, the 26-year-old Thai is already in history by being the first rider from his own country to arrive in MotoGP. Also coming from the Asia Talent Cup and passing through CEV, he made his debut in the Moto3 world championship with a wild card in 2018, before moving directly to Moto2 the following year with the Asia team, in which he will spend time in all the following years. A friend of Ogura's with whom he also shared the box in 2021, although he can boast fewer wins on his resume, the last one in 2023 in Japan also taking pole and fastest lap, the Thai rider has shown growth in recent years that earned him the LCR team Honda seat alongside veteran Frenchman Zarco.
His arrival in the premier class represents an opportunity not only for him, but also for the championship itself to become more and more international, in a MotoGP currently with mainly Italian-Spanish traction and which has every need to renew itself and expand its future prospects.
What season can we expect from the new faces of MotoGP? Who among them will stand out by becoming the new rookie of the year? Difficult to make predictions, after all, there are many unknowns: the ability to adapt to the bike, the tracks and the pace of the weekend (with the addition of the sprint, absent in the other categories). Basic talent is important but it is not enough, one must also consider the technical support of the team as well as the psychological aspect in having to handle the pressure of competition at the highest level.
Of course, given the delay in development on the part of Honda, which has invested in and places great trust in Chantra, it is difficult to think of a striking debut for the Thai in terms of results, although in motorcycle racing anything is possible.
After all, given the current level reached by MotoGP, the bike is now a crucial factor, but his presence remains an added value. On the other hand, it will be a different matter for Aldeguer and Ogura, both of whom have excellent potential on paper. On the one hand, the competitiveness of the Ducati cannot be questioned, which could be a determining factor for Aldeguer, but the Aprilia has also shown that it can conquer the top step as Vinales demonstrated last year in Austin.
With the arrival of Fabiano Sterlacchini at the helm of development, therefore, the future does not appear so clear-cut. Ogura is also the reigning world champion in Moto2, an accomplishment achieved with an impressive 92 points difference over his Spanish rival last season. And while there have been many Spanish rookies of the year in past years, to find a Japanese we have to go all the way back to Daijiro Kato in 2002, on a Honda of all places. A success of Ogura in this sense would therefore also take on an intrinsic and historical value, in a sport in which riders from the Land of the Rising Sun, as well as Japanese manufacturers, have always been major players.
In their first timed testing clash in the end-of-season winter tests in Barcelona, the two finished close together at the bottom of the standings, with a gap of five tenths separating Aldeguer's Ducati from Ogura's Aprilia, but MotoGP races, as well as Sprint races, are challenges of a very different magnitude, and curiosity to see these new faces of MotoGP, Chantra included, at work is indeed high. The next time we will see them at work will be the Shakedown test at Sepang in Malaysia from January 31 to February 2, to be followed by the first official test from February 5 to 7.
