[Porschefire]

After a crackling 2023 season where Ducati Lenovo's Francesco Bagnaia was crowned the World Champion in the final race of the season in Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, MotoGP returns in 2024.

Provisional 2024 Calendar



Testing

Apart from the GPs, there will be three pre-season and in-season testing held at different venues with the final Valencia test focusing on the 2025 season.



Rider and Team Lineup



Key Highlights

- Portugal and Indian GPs are subject to contract extension, and Kazakhstan GP is subject to contract and circuit homologation.

- The MotoGP Selection Committee, comprising members of FIM, IRTA and Dorna Sports, have decided not to select the CryptoDATA MotoGP Team for the 2024 season due to repeated infractions and breaches of the Participation Agreement affecting the public image of MotoGP. The Selection Committee will be reviewing applications for a new Independent Team, using Aprilia machinery and Aprilia contracted riders - Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, to join the MotoGP class grid for 2024.

- A new system of concessions for manufacturers has been introduced, effective immediately as of the 28th of November, the first day of 2024 testing in Valencia. There are now two windows in which each factory’s performance is assessed: from the first event to the last event of the season and from the first event after the summer test ban to the last event before the summer test ban of the following season. This allows factories to more quickly gain, or lose, their concessions based on their most recent form – ensuring competition can stay as close as possible. A high level summary as below -



- The first pre-season testing for 2024 has just concluded on the 28th November with Maverick Vinales claiming the top spot.



Source

https://www.motogp.com/en

[Porschefire]

Weekend Rundown

The full rundown of the weekend is as follows -

Friday
− Free Practice 1 (FP1): 45 mins
− Practice (PR): 60 mins, timed for entry into Q2

Saturday
− Free Practice 2 (FP2): 30 mins
− Qualifying 1 (Q1): 15 mins
− Qualifying 2 (Q2): 15 mins
− MotoGP Tissot Sprint (SPR)

Sunday
− Warm Up (WUP): 10 mins
− Race (RACE)



The Free Practice sessions (FP1 and FP2), as the name suggests, are the sessions that the riders, teams and factories can use to set up, dial in and anything else.

The Practice session on Friday afternoons will be the sole practice session timed for entry into Q2. This is when the riders need to set those fast laps to secure a place in the top ten and that crucial spot in Q2 qualifying. The ones who lose out on the top 10 will move to Q1 on Saturday.

The qualifying sessions will then be followed by a sprint race that covers half of the actual race distance and half of the points that are usually awarded during the Sunday race.

[Porschefire]

Trackhouse Racing, an American stock car auto racing organisation that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series will take their racing ambition onto two wheels as they join MotoGP as an Independent Team, partnered with Aprilia to run their RS-GP MotoGP prototypes that was previously managed and run by the CryptoDATA MotoGP Team.

They will run two Aprilia RS-GPs, ridden by Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez. The full 2024 livery will be revealed early next season but as part of the launch, the team unveiled a symbolic American flag-liveried bike, paying tribute to both previous testing colours used by Nicky Hayden and to the incredible motorcycle racing heritage of the USA.



Source: https://www.motogp.com/en

[Thalla]

Expecting another great season in 2024. Hopefully, we will see more competition from other teams with Ducati.

[Porschefire]

News Feed

1) Ducati confirm Marc Marquez will ride Johann Zarco’s GP23, not Francesco Bagnaia’s or Jorge Martin’s.



The official statement -

“On the bikes of Pecco Bagnaia, Jorge Martín and Enea Bastianini we introduced some more evolutions, but they gave us some problems, both in terms of reliability and performance.

"So we do not believe that these evolutions that we introduced are easy to use in private teams.

Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...-s-or-martin-s

Why do I get a feeling the Ducati management doesn't want to make life easy for MM93 from the get-go?

2) “No member of the Marquez family can be in Yamaha” revelation leaked. Alex Marquez was supposed to debut on the Petronas Yamaha in 2021 but was denied a seat due to the MM93 - Rossi rivalry back in 2015.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...elation-leaked

3) KTM set deadline to decide on running a second satellite team in 2025 but have their task cut out as majority of the contracts in the MotoGP grid expire in the end of 2024.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...satellite-team

4) BMW to debut the XM Label Red Safety Car that will replace the M3 Competition.


Source: https://www.bmwblog.com/2023/11/25/b...ed-safety-car/

[Thalla]

Ducati have made fantastic improvement in the last few years and we are likely to see another season where they are going to dominate.

[Porschefire]

News Feed

1) Mooney VR46 (Pertamina Enduro VR46 for 2024) Team Director, Alessio Salucci, talks about Bezzecchi, Diggia and importantly, the path forward for the Tavullia based team.
While they have the option to stick with Ducati for 2025-26, they aren't particularly happy to play with the hand-me-down machinery, unlike the Pramac team that has access to the latest and greatest tech. Hence, a partnership with either KTM or Yamaha could be a possibility, Uccio says.


Source: https://www.gpone.com/en/2023/12/16/...-to-yamaha-and

2) Jorge Martin talks about his 2025 goal to ride for a Factory team and his frustrations on losing the factory Ducati seat to Enea Bastianini in 2022, and losing the championship by 39 points to Pecco in 2023. He feels, no matter what or how much he does, is never enough.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...-valencia-test

[Porschefire]

News Feed

1) Ducati announced that long-time sporting director Paolo Ciabatti will step down from his role within its MotoGP team to focus on the marque’s motocross programme.
Ciabatti has seen Ducati win all of its MotoGP titles, beginning with Casey Stoner’s 2007 success and then being a key part of the management structure through the Italian marque’s return to championship-winning ways in 2022 with Francesco Bagnaia.
He will now serve as general manager of Ducati’s new off-road division, which is preparing the marque’s step into motocross competition from 2024.
Mauro Grassilli, who previously served as its sporting, marketing and communications director will replace Ciabatti.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...gement-shakeup

2) Gresini Racing's official presentation for the upcoming campaign with Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez will take place on January 20th.


Source: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2023/...uary-20/486885

[Porschefire]

News Feed

1) VR46 tipped to unveil new Pertamina MotoGP colours later this month. While VR46 is yet to confirm a launch date, Pertamina brand communications manager Asmirandi Noor Huda told TMC Blog that the unveiling will take place in Italy on January 24th at 14:00 CET.

That would mean they slot into a hectic week of MotoGP launches that begins with Gresini Ducati on January 20th, followed by the factory Ducati Lenovo team on the 22nd and Trackhouse Aprilia on the 26th.

Meanwhile, a picture has been doing the rounds mentioning the potential livery has been leaked to the press.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...rs-later-month

2) Alex Rins takes on Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales in MotoGP hat-trick battle. MotoGP wins for three different manufacturers is a feat that has eluded the likes of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, while current stars Maverick Vinales and Jack Miller have so far fallen short.

Vinales is a race winner for Suzuki and Yamaha, has been chasing a first Aprilia victory since joining the Italian factory in mid-2021.

Miller had taken his first MotoGP victory on a satellite Marc VDS Honda in 2016, followed by three factory Ducati victories from 2021-2022.

Rins has won with Suzuki and Honda (the sole Honda victory in 2023) and now sets sight to win with factory Yamaha.



3) Aprilia confirms 2024 RS-GP bike for Miguel Oliveira.


Source: https://motorcyclesports.net/aprilia...rom-the-tests/

4) Jack Miller has received major backing from KTM, despite his team claiming he was “distracted” last year. While Miller started reasonably well in the first half of the season, he faded during the second half and KTM boss Pit Beirer felt that he was distracted during the second as Miller became a father during the summer.

With KTM's plan of expanding in the future, having the likes of Pedro Acosta bringinging fresh energy into the team, teammate Binder out performing in the second half of the season and a looming possibility of MM93's arrival for 2025, KTM continues to back Miller.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...ce-jack-miller

5) Fabio Quartararo - "Yamaha changing a lot, but I don’t expect to fight for 2024 MotoGP title". After Yamaha’s first winless season since 2003, Fabio Quartararo went into the winter break confident that the Japanese factory is changing to a more European ‘mentality’ of bike development.

The bad news is that Quartararo feels it is unrealistic to expect the M1 to transform from last year’s three podiums and tenth in the world championship into a 2024 MotoGP title contender.


Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...ght-2024-title

[thebikemaster]

Year by year, Ducati is getting stronger and stronger, with respect to bike and also the riders. The performance from the KTMs and Aprillia's were not consistent as well. It seemed like they will pull the Ducati's down, but nothing seems to be working well with them.

I feel Japs will come back with some strong performance at least some races around the calendar. The concessions will sure make them to catch up the game.

Hope to see a bombastic 2024!

[Porschefire]

News Feed

1) Red Bull has now vanished from the list of sponsors on Repsol Honda's official website ending a successful collaboration since 2015. They will now sponsor Tech3 GASGAS team in the 2024 MotoGP season.

Repsol will continue their title sponsorship of Honda's factory team this year, their 30th together, which is the final year of their current contract.
Estrella Galicia, the Spanish beer company that sponsors both Marquez brothers, is already embedded within the Gresini team through Alex. But they remain on Repsol Honda's 2024 list too.





Source: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/10...honda-decision

2) Now confirmed - here are the first MotoGP team launches of the year!

[Porschefire]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

Now confirmed - here are the first MotoGP team launches of the year!

Attachment 2557475

Edit: Here's the complete list of team presentations -

[Porschefire]

Why should one watch MotoGP in 2024?

Here's a great article that provides insights on why we should expect 2024 season to be an absolute cracker -

https://www.the-race.com/motogp/eigh...-yamaha-honda/

Snippets -

1) Yamaha could be back

Of all the struggling manufacturers, Yamaha feels most like the one that has both identified its problem, got a chance to solve it, and has all the other ingredients to thrive once that problem is solved.

And that race rider line-up has had a massive upgrade with Alex Rins (an excellent development rider, incidentally) replacing the struggling Franco Morbidelli.

2) The Marquez Factor

His Gresini Ducati move opens up so many possibilities. The intrigue of how he might disrupt the Ducati hierarchy and the 2025 rider market.

If he actually underwhelms, that will be a huge story in itself.

If he does completely dominate, the context of his last few seasons plus his underdog team will make that return to the top one of the greatest sporting storylines MotoGP has produced.

3) Rider Market will be crazy

Barely anyone in the field has job security for 2025 and right now it’s impossible to predict with any confidence where the top riders will be in a year’s time.

Marquez is of course at the centre.

Quartararo’s post-race rants through 2023 were unsubtle ‘sort this or I’m off’/’come and get me’ messages to Yamaha and its rivals respectively.

Joan Mir is another world champion who can’t accept another bad season.

Aleix Espargaro has previously suggested he might make this season his MotoGP farewell

Jorge Martin won’t settle for less than a factory deal somewhere in 2025.

4) Honda's recovery begins

Just as Marquez gave up on Honda, Honda started finding its feet - with evidence at the post-season Valencia test that it its development was finally starting to make a difference.

5) 2023's big missing Storyline may come to fruition

Bastianini was a serious threat to Bagnaia’s Ducati factory team supremacy when he was signed.

Given a full pre-season build-up and injury-free year, he could make Bagnaia’s life much harder in 2024.

6) The 'Next Marquez' is here

There’s enough evidence both that Pedro Acosta will be the real deal and KTM will give him a better shot at proving it at its Tech3 Gas Gas offshoot than recent rookies there have been afforded.

7) Concessions are back

The new version is slightly more complicated on paper but might even have a better chance of creating and maintaining a new utopia.

It might not be enough to avert the prospect of some Ducati 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 formations this year, but it is enough to bring some major names back into the fight in a way that’s ultimately good for MotoGP.

8) Ducati has more title contenders than ever

Martin and Bezzecchi are going to be even bigger threats with all they achieved last year under their belts, and the arrival of Marc Marquez at Gresini means all four Ducati teams now have a potential title winner in their line-ups.

PS: For all the Formula1 fans out here, I urge you to give MotoGP a watch or two because it has the same euphoria, storylines, legends, teams, tracks, glories, downfalls, fights, strategies etc. with only one exception -

All of the above happens on two wheels rather than four, and that IMHO, is the single biggest reason to watch MotoGP.

[Porschefire]

Gresini Racing

The first Team Presentation of 2024 is done and dusted, eight-time World Champion Marc Marquez joining ranks and gearing up to partner two-time World Champion and younger brother Alex Marquez.









Surreal to not see MM93 in HRC colors!

[Porschefire]

Ducati Lenovo

The squad from Borgo Panigale unveiled the liveries of the Desmosedici GP24 machines with which they will participate in the 2024 MotoGP World Championship.