MotoGP begins the European leg of its 2024 season at Jerez this weekend, and that's often when the championship takes on its defining shape. But several riders arrive in Spain fighting for their future and several teams fighting to salvage their season already. On this week's episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast, Matt Beer invites Simon Patterson and Valentin Khorounzhiy to nominate the riders or teams they think are in most trouble after the opening three rounds - and to assess the extent of their plight on a 1 to 5 ranking where 1 equals 'will be fine by Mugello in June' and 5 equals 'may as well write the rest of 2024 off'. Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have we been wrong about Maverick Vinales all along? The man with the reputation for going backwards in MotoGP races won from 11th place at Austin with a supreme performance in an absolutely epic race. Regular Vinales defender Valentin Khorounzhiy and regular Vinales sceptics Simon Patterson and Matt Beer therefore have plenty to debate in The Race MotoGP Podcast as they assess what Vinales achieved in the Grand Prix of the Americas, why it hasn't happened more often and whether it can keep on happening. What Marc Marquez's season looks like from here after a crash from the lead that leaves him a distant eighth in the championship, what Pedro Acosta's latest insanely good performance means for not just the other KTMs but everyone else on the grid, Jorge Martin's title credentials and Pecco Bagnaia's odd lack of form are also delved into. And does a race like Austin's Sunday event show modern MotoGP isn't as bad as aero critics and detractors suggest?  Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Has Fabio Quartararo made the right decision by keeping faith with Yamaha for his MotoGP future despite all the frustrations he's endured? Is this just a case of the money being too good to turn down or is Yamaha definitely a better prospect than Aprilia for the next phase of the 2021 world champion's career? That's what Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer debate in part one of the latest episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast. But that's only half the episode, as we also have an exclusive interview with MotoGP sporting director Carlos Ezpeleta about the championship's future and upcoming new rules era. Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Davide Brivio - architect of Yamaha's Valentino Rossi glory years and Suzuki' shock 2020 title - is back in MotoGP after his truncated Formula 1 detour, but he's not in the part of the field you might expect. In an exclusive chat with The Race MotoGP Podcast, Brivio explains why he picked newcomer Trackhouse Racing for his return to the motorcycle racing world, and what he hopes this NASCAR-to-MotoGP wildcard can achieve in both 2024 and beyond. And he also opens up for the first time on exactly why he thinks his switch to F1 with Alpine didn't work out. Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should motorcycle racing fans be delighted or worried that a deal's in place for Formula 1 owner Liberty Media to buy MotoGP promoter Dorna? In an extra episode, the Race MotoGP Podcast delves into what the Liberty news mean for MotoGP, as Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer look at what it's likely to mean in terms of practical reality, and address some of the concerns motorcycle fans might have based on some the F1 world's least positive impressions of Liberty. They also outline what they want to see from the new ownership, and explain why Liberty is confident this deal can go ahead despite the fact that the last time MotoGP and F1 nearly came under the same ownership the process rapidly turned into MotoGP being sold off. Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first big flashpoint of Marc Marquez's Ducati career came in just his second MotoGP race weekend with his new employer, as he and reigning champion stablemate Pecco Bagnaia collided in the Portuguese Grand Prix. Who was most at fault? And what does it mean for the title fight and Ducati internal relations? Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer debate that in The Race MotoGP Podcast. We also get into Pedro Acosta's incredible podium in only his second MotoGP race weekend. Are his performances more impressive than even Marquez's (eventually title winning) rookie season? One of our panel reckons so. Maverick Vinales' breakthrough win and weird grand prix exit, whether sprint wins really count, Jorge Martin's new maturity and title chance and Ducati's growing 2025 rider headache also feature. Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're answering your questions on The Race MotoGP Podcast this week, including on the prospect of mid-season rider changes at two teams in particular. Might KTM want Pedro Acosta in its factory line-up sooner rather than later, and if his Tech3 team-mate Augusto Fernandez's struggles continue is there a danger of him not seeing out the season? Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer tackle those plus questions on whether a rotation system could be used to trim the calendar, how Moto2's Pirelli switch has changed the series and whether it's a good or bad thing, MotoGP's next-generation regulations and how we'd define 'natural talent' in motorcycle racers.  And with a major piece of rider market news having broken with the announcement that Ducati is definitely promoting Fermin Aldeguer into MotoGP 2025, we also explain why Ducati has so much faith in the Spanish teenager and why it can't yet say which of its teams he'll be riding for. Click here to take our quick survey about your podcast habits and you could win £/$100 worth of Amazon vouchers Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pecco Bagnaia showed exactly what he's a double MotoGP world champion by controlling the Qatar Grand Prix despite a slightly shaky qualifying and sprint. But will this race really be remembered for the debut of another champion? Though it only resulted in ninth place in the end, Pedro Acosta's swashbuckling style on and off the track made a huge impression on The Race MotoGP Podcast panel Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer - who debate how long it'll take Acosta to win races, and whether KTM can wait to get him into its main team. KTM and Aprilia's chances of challenging Ducati this year, how Marc Marquez's title prospects look after his Ducati race debut, and miserable weekends for a 2023 title contender and fallen giants Honda and Yamaha also come in for plenty of discussion. Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow the new Race Moto channel on Instagram and Twitter Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc Marquez's move to Gresini Ducati is a huge curveball for the 2024 MotoGP season, but will he actually be a title contender? Or will this be a repeat of last year's epic Pecco Bagnaia versus Jorge Martin battle? And either way, who'll come out on top? The Race MotoGP Podcast gathers Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer to predict the 2024 championship order - and argue over each other's choices. As well as plenty of debate about Marquez, Bagnaia and Martin, we also discuss whether how far up the title fight pecking order Enea Bastianini's winter progress might take him, and why Marco Bezzecchi seems set for a much tougher season. There's also plenty of chat about who's best placed among the non-Ducatis - and who we really don't expect to get anywhere near the top championship placings. Join The Race's GridRival league and you could win $5000. Free to join. Free to play. Click here to sign up. FEBRUARY IS FREE! Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With 18 of the 22 riders on the grid out of contract at the end of the year, multiple past champions either unhappy with their current machinery or clearly in stopgap mode with their 2024 teams, and uncertainty over which brand some satellite teams will actually be with next season and what that'll mean for their line-ups, the 2025 MotoGP rider market is set to be a wild one. But can The Race MotoGP Podcast accurately predict how it will turn out. Simon Patterson and Val Khorounzhiy pitch their cases for Matt Beer to adjudicate on as our panel attempt to improve on the 50% success rate they had last time they tried to predict a full grid rider line-up a whole year in advance. Who'll be on the move? Who'll reluctantly sit tight due to a lack of options? Who's heading out of MotoGP, and who's usurping them from the grid? How much will Simon and Val disagree on? Listen to find out. FEBRUARY IS FREE! Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reigning double MotoGP world champion Pecco Bagnaia ended 2024 pre-season testing with a ferocious burst of pace in Qatar that makes him an instant strong favourite for the opening round there next month and the title itself. But while Bagnaia has the edge and bags of confidence right now, he's far from the only rider looking strong at the end of the winter, as Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer discuss on the Qatar test episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast. We look at the off-season transformation of Bagnaia's team-mate Enea Bastianini, the test form of last year's runner-up Jorge Martin and of course Ducati's superstar new signing Marc Marquez - who also answers a few of your questions in this episode. And we assess who has the best chance of barging into the potential Ducati 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 formation, and analyse whether Yamaha and Honda are actually making any progress yet. FEBRUARY IS FREE! Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez joins The Race MotoGP Podcast for an exclusive interview less than three weeks before his competitive debut on the Ducati. In a candid chat with MotoGP writer Simon Patterson, Marquez discusses the short-term ambitions of his Gresini Ducati move and how everything about it is being influenced by his keen awareness of the inexorable march of time. He sets out his targets for 2024 and emphasises the impact of his injuries on the competitive picture, while also giving his assessment of Honda's MotoGP developments since their split. Finally, he gives his expectations for how the 2025 silly season will go for him. FEBRUARY IS FREE! Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With one MotoGP pre-season test down and one to go, several riders go into next week's final two days of running in Qatar with significant problems to solve. And those problems have implications beyond the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix and even the 2024 campaign too, given how wild this year's rider market is set to be. Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer look at who's under pressure and how that pressure is multiplied by the moves teams will already be making towards their 2025 line-ups in a year when only four of the 22 riders on the grid have a contract for next season sorted. Those 2025 prospects weigh on everything in MotoGP at the moment, with even Honda's launch of its strikingly Repsol-light new livery turning into chat about whether Marc Marquez will be back there as early as next year. Speaking of Marc Marquez... he will be our very, very special guest for an exclusive interview on the next episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast, and we'll put some of your questions to him. Send them to podcasts@the-race.com and we'll pick a selection of the best to fit into Simon's one-on-one with the seven-time MotoGP champion later this week. FEBRUARY IS FREE! Join The Race Members Club and have a free month on us! Click here to sign up Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between Marc Marquez beginning life at Gresini Ducati properly, the massive changes many manufacturers were planning over the winter and the hints of something from Ducati that would change the aero game, the first 2024 pre-season MotoGP test was very eagerly awaited. Simon Patterson joins Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer on The Race MotoGP Podcast from Kuala Lumpur airport for an urgent dissection of everything we learned from three days of lap record smashing running at Sepang. Marquez's mood after a shaky first day, shifts in the Ducati power balance and some contrasting impressions of Yamaha and Honda's progress are among the many, many topics discussed. And when it comes to picking out a standout performer from the test, we get very excited about the 'next Marquez' - sole 2024 MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta. Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc Marquez's move from Honda to Gresini Ducati means a change of crew chief for the first time in his whole MotoGP career - and we've got his new crew chief Frankie Carchedi with us on The Race MotoGP Podcast for an exclusive chat. Carchedi talks Simon Patterson and Valentin Khorounzhiy through his experience of working with Marquez so far and his feelings about being at the centre of the biggest MotoGP rider move in years. And he also offers plenty of unique insight into MotoGP crew chief life and methods. Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After making very rapid waves in NASCAR, Trackhouse Racing enters a very different world in 2024 as it joins the MotoGP grid as Aprilia's new satellite team. Trackhouse chief Justin Marks joined The Race MotoGP Podcast for an exclusive chat about the creation of his team's first motorcycle racing project ahead of its launch event in Los Angeles last Friday night, opening up about what drew him to MotoGP and what he expects his team to achieve in its earlier-than-planned debut season. And Marks gave our regular panel Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer plenty to talk about, from where Trackhouse fits into MotoGP's plan to get itself back on the USA's radar to whether the team's 2024 riders Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez are just going to be inherited stopgaps rather than parts of what's clearly a long-term project. Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As 2024 MotoGP launch season gets into full swing, The Race MotoGP Podcast joins Simon Patterson on his Italian road trip from Gresini to VR46 via a four-day Ducati extravaganza. He keeps Matt Beer and Valentin Khorounzhiy posted as he follows up attending Marc Marquez's debut in Ducati colours with a factory Ducati team launch where the main revelation was news of an aero change too significant to risk revealing before testing. We explain why Ducati - for all its domination - is potentially vulnerable around aero development, despite pioneering wings on MotoGP bikes in the 2010s. As for Valentino Rossi's new-liveried team, we ponder the early dynamic surrounding new signing Fabio Di Giannantonio and whether the 2023-spec Ducatis can really keep up with their factory-spec brethren. We also discuss the off-the-record element of major launch events and how useful they can be for relationships with riders, plus Ducati's attempt to transfer its MotoGP and World Superbike domination to motocross. Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The MotoGP world finally got to see Marc Marquez in something other than Repsol Honda colours and Marquez finally got to share his thoughts on riding a Ducati when his new team Gresini held its 2024 launch on Saturday night. Simon Patterson dived straight from the Italian disco venue to join Matt Beer and Valentin Khorounzhiy on The Race MotoGP Podcast so he could report back on the mood at an event unlike any other satellite team launch MotoGP has experienced before. They discuss Marquez's reports on the bike and his expectations, hear exclusively from his new crew chief Frankie Carchedi, and explain why Gresini's livery looks exactly like last year's even though you might've expected an influx of new sponsors to arrive with Marquez. Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MotoGP could finally shake off its Valentino Rossi hangover in 2024 as Marc Marquez's team switch creates huge sporting intrigue in a championship that's already just experienced its best title fight in years. But while interest in MotoGP is clearly rising right now, is it accessible enough to new fans and can it keep them hooked? Are its approaches to television and streaming right for this era? Is the fan experience at races good enough? The Race MotoGP Podcast put your questions on all of this to Dorna's chief commercial officer Dan Rossomondo, and we debate his answers and everything else off-track MotoGP with our regular panel Simon Patterson, Valentin Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer plus The Race Media's creative lead Oliver Card - a recent MotoGP convert of exactly the kind Dorna needs to entice and keep on board. Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's episode, host Toby Moody sits down for an in-depth chat with a MotoGP legend: Sito Pons. A familiar face in the MotoGP paddock for more than 40 years, the Spaniard has achieved nearly everything possible in Grand Prix racing, winning the 205cc world title twice, managing a race-winning premier class team, working with some of the best riders in the sport's recent history, guiding Pol Espargaro to the 2013 Moto2 championship, and much more. Listen in as he discusses his incredible career - and why he's now chosen to step back from running a team. Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices