Everything you need to know from the fascinating world of MotoGP racing, with host Matt Beer, The-Race.com's MotoGP correspondent Simon Patterson and MotoGP edi...
MotoGP’s fallen/recovering giants Yamaha and Honda held back to back 2025 season launch events in the final days before pre-season testing begins in earnest, and Simon Patterson has returned from them with very different impressions of the two once-great teams.
He joins Matt Beer on The Race MotoGP Podcast to explain why Yamaha looks so much more convincing going into 2025 - and it goes far deeper than just a better executed (and better timed and located) launch event.
What both teams have changed behind the scenes and how their riders feel about those efforts, whether Honda’s big signing will be allowed to do his best work and whether Yamaha is definitely as set on a V4 engine switch as everyone expects as among the other topics discussed.
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53:31
Crisis-hit KTM's bullish start to 2025
At a time when you might’ve thought it would want to avoid too much questioning given its parent company’s financial crisis, KTM boldly made its entire MotoGP rider and management line-up available for the media as it launched its 2025 programme on Thursday.
Fresh from quizzing them all, Val Khorounzhiy joins Matt Beer for an extra episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast to discuss what KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer revealed about the firm’s future, 2025 preparations and even hopes of still being on the grid for the 2027 rule changes.
We also discuss how the riders are handling the unusual situation, and ask whether new factory team boss Aki Ajo’s assessment of what KTM still lacks might be a touch optimistic.
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51:14
Changes at KTM - but could Rossi make a play for Acosta?
As KTM prepares to launch its 2025 MotoGP campaign under the cloud of insolvency, is a series legend trying to lure away the Austrian firm’s greatest asset?
Valentin Khorounzhiy and Simon Patterson discuss reports that Valentino Rossi has sounded out Pedro Acosta over a MotoGP future together during the latter’s appearance at the Ranch.
Is it even possible that Acosta would leave KTM early - and are things actually looking up for its MotoGP project following the latest news from its insolvency process and its recent CEO change announcement?
Plus, with Franco Morbidelli officially ‘debuting’ as a VR46 rider during its own season launch, is it really possible that Rossi would willingly sideline Morbidelli?
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48:39
Introducing... MotoGP 2015 Revisited
We’re winding the clock back to the epic and hugely contentious 2015 MotoGP season in a series of mini-podcasts exclusively for The Race Members’ Club on Patreon this year.
As voted for by the members, Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy, Megan White and Matt Beer are reliving 2015’s unforgettable Valentino Rossi vs Marc Marquez vs Jorge Lorenzo three-way title fight round by round, with a few bonus detours along the way.
To give you a free taste of what it’s all about, here’s a segment from MotoGP 2015 Revisited’s first episode on the Qatar Grand Prix, which is available in full through The Race Members’ Club on Patreon now.
MotoGP now expects Ducati to dominate, but back at the start of 2015 it hadn’t won in half a decade and was only just finding its feet again - with a little help from Dorna’s rule concessions but also as its new technical chief Gigi Dall’Igna began to work his magic.
But Ducati still had to take on Yamaha’s legendary Rossi + Lorenzo line-up, and even they weren’t really expected to beat Honda rider Marquez to the championship given how he’d crushed the field in 2014 and followed up his astonishing 2013 title win as a rookie with an even more impressive campaign.
His 2015 campaign didn’t exactly begin well, though… here’s what Simon, Val, Megan and Matt made of it all.
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17:10
Ducati launch: Inside Marquez and Bagnaia's debut as team-mates
Simon Patterson reports from a pause in the four days of festivities, multiple unveilings and ski races that kicks off Ducati’s 2025 MotoGP season to join Val Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer on The Race MotoGP Podcast.
They discuss how Marc Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia and Ducati bosses tackled the potential pitfalls of the new superteam all-champion line-up.
With all the talk at the launch extremely measured and polite, is this just the calm before an on-track storm or a sign of how Marquez and Bagnaia will actually get on during a title fight? Or are we past the ‘age of the bastard’ these days?
All that, their difference in racing ethics, whether Ducati will be more or less dominant in 2025 and everything both Marquez and Ducati have given up in order to get together is discussed too, as well as how Marc’s old team Gresini kicked off its campaign at Imola a few days earlier.
Want more MotoGP podcast content? Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for that episode, ad-free listening and more. Head to Patreon.com/therace
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Everything you need to know from the fascinating world of MotoGP racing, with host Matt Beer, The-Race.com's MotoGP correspondent Simon Patterson and MotoGP editor Valentin Khorounzhiy, plus special guests. We'll be talking about all the races, the big storylines, and taking the occasional trip back into the sport's rich history as well. Join us for the ride!
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