Ducati ended the 2025 MotoGP pre-season by going back to its 2024 engine and chassis - permanently in one case, probably temporarily in the other.

But it still looks like it’ll dominate the season even after that change of plan, as Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer explain on a slightly delirious end of pre-season testing episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast.

We assess where the Marc Marquez vs Pecco Bagnaia power balance stands, and how the works team’s switch back to largely 2024 kit affects those who thought they might have an early advantage from running older Ducatis - particularly Marc’s brother Alex.

Our star of pre-season isn’t actually a Ducati rider: it’s Aprilia signing Marco Bezzecchi. We explain why, and give our take on what Bezzecchi’s strong test in injured champion Jorge Martin’s absence means for Aprilia’s season.

Plus what to make of Yamaha, Honda and KTM’s test form.

Want more MotoGP podcast content? Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more. Head to Patreon.com/therace

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yamaha was the big winner of the first full MotoGP test of 2025, with genuine evidence of a breakthrough over the winter and Fabio Quartararo looking the most likely rider in the field to take the fight to Ducati at the front right now.

Simon Patterson and Val Khorounzhiy join Matt Beer on The Race MotoGP Podcast to look at Yamaha’s progress, the reasons for it and whether that makes it a little race winner or even title challenger or just a firm second best to Ducati.

Which Ducati is even fastest right now, though? We also discuss the dilemma facing factory team-mates Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez, and the opportunity for the three riders on the very well sorted 2024 Ducati to make a spectacular start to the season.

Honda’s perplexing test, how Aprilia fared in Jorge Martin’s absence and the many question marks around KTM are also assessed.

Want more MotoGP podcast content? Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more. Head to Patreon.com/therace

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three riders are out injured after only one day of MotoGP 2025 pre-season testing proper, headlined by world champion Jorge Martin.

Simon Patterson joins Matt Beer on The Race MotoGP Podcast for an additional episode digging into what we know about the cause of Martin’s horrible crash on his first run with the 2025 Aprilia, what the prognosis is for his recovery and what it means for his and Aprilia’s season.

For the other two injured riders, a heavily compromised pre-season might be even more of a blow.

It’s the third time in his four MotoGP pre-seasons (and second in a row) when Raul Fernandez has been injured in a testing crash, while for Fabio Di Giannantonio it’s a fresh injury on his first day following major shoulder reconstruction surgery. And it seems the circumstances of the crash were pretty embarrassing too…

Injuries aside, there’s also a look at what we could learn from the times, upgrades and riders’ moods on day one.

Want more MotoGP podcast content? Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more. Head to Patreon.com/therace

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

Want more MotoGP podcast content? Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more. Head to Patreon.com/therace

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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?

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Race MotoGP Podcast's coverage of the 2025 launch season begins with a two-for-one special, covering the presentations of Aprilia and its satellite team Trackhouse.

Val Khorounzhiy is joined by Simon Patterson on-site at Aprilia's event to discuss champion Jorge Martin's first public appearance as a fully-fledged Aprilia rider - which featured the confirmation that he will run the champion's #1 this year.

Will Aprilia be enough for Martin, what does it need to take the next step, and how are the two parties looking as a combination? And is there already confidence that Marco Bezzecchi, another new Aprilia hire, will overcome the problems that wrote off his 2024?

Plus, Simon explains why he found the Trackhouse launch alarming - while Val quizzes Davide Brivio on Trackhouse's faith in extracting Raul Fernandez's potential.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Race MotoGP Podcast has a reputation for making bold predictions, and a record that varies between getting them spookily spot on and wildly way off the mark and not a lot in between.

So how will Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy, Megan White and Matt Beer's 2025 MotoGP predictions age?

They answer questions suggested by the MotoGP Podcast community in The Race Members' Club on Patreon, and it's as much about how new team/rider relationships and cross-garage pairings will play out as it is about the final results on track.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices