MotoGP, Tardozzi: "National championships are dead, the cost and the rules to blame"

The official announcement is still missing, but it looks like Toprak will make the much-coveted leap from SBK to MotoGP in 2026, on the Yamaha M1 of the Pramac Racing team. The Turk, world champion in the Superbike championship last year with BMW and currently battling at the top of the standings with Nicolò Bulega's Ducati, is an exception in the current MotoGP scene. Rarely do we now see riders arriving in the world championship coming from championships outside the world circuit. Since the introduction of the Red Bull Rookies Cup in 2007, it is from there that Moto3 draws its future talented youngsters.

It hasn't always been this way, however; in the past there were many Americans and Australians populating the paddock with a Superbike background. Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Lenovo team manager, when asked by Speedweek on the subject has his say, highlighting the limitations and causes of the current situation.

Do riders who have grown up in the GP paddock now have better training than in the championships outside?
"We don't have competitive national championships anymore" explained the Italian team manager. "It's the fault of the rules and money. There should be standardized rules. Neil Hodgson used to come to the World Superbike Championship with the GSE team and fight with Troy Bayliss, who was world champion at the time. He had the same bike and a good team. It's the fault of the rules and the FIM. Today sometimes you need too much money to be competitive in a national championship. When I see how much it costs to race in Moto3, or even Pre-Moto3 or Superbike in the Italian championship, it is honestly difficult. And if a young rider is fast, he's already in the World Championship at that age, so he's not racing in the national championship anymore."

Some riders have come along in recent years, but they are exceptions.
"In the last eight years, the 300cc class has produced only two riders who have made it to Moto2, which is not enough" he continued "It's Manuel Gonzalez and Adrian Huertas, the latter in great difficulty this year. I don't have a solution, but we have to think well about the future: the national championships are dead. Only the British championship is a small exception. But which riders does it produce? We saw Bradley Ray in the World Superbike championship, he was always at the back. And where's Ryan Vickers? It's the same story."