Congratulations to Moto3 rookie Cormac Buchanan for making history during the 2025 MotoGP world championships.

Although I’m not sure congratulations is the right word, because the all-time record broken by Buchanan isn’t the kind of record anyone wants to break.

The New Zealand teenager crashed 35 times during the 2025 Moto3 championship, Buchanan, comfortably (although not comfortable at all) beating the previous all-categories record held by Briton Sam Lowes, who fell 31 times during the 2017 Moto2 championship. On average, last season, Buchanan had 1.5 tumbles per weekend, costing his Boe team a lot of money and therefore (looking on the bright side) making a decent contribution to KTM’s recovery from their financial nightmares.

Biggest crasher in the premier class was Johann Zarco, who slung his LCR Honda RC213V down the road on 28 occasions. Thus the French veteran was tantalisingly close to breaking the all-time MotoGP-class record of 29 falls, established by Marc Márquez, also riding an RC213V, in 2023.

King crasher in Moto2 was Jorge Navarro, on 21 falls, considerably fewer than Buchanan and Zarco. Moto2’s next biggest crashers were David Alonso on 17 falls and Aron Canet on 15. And that’s why the intermediate class is currently the most interesting story in MotoGP’s annual crash report.

During the five seasons from 2019 to 2023 there was an average of 19.3 Moto2 crashes per weekend, with a high of 21.4 per weekend in 2022. During the past two seasons there was an average of 12.9 Moto2 crashes per weekend, with a high of 13.4 in 2024.

What’s the reason behind this dramatic turnaround – almost 35% fewer crashes on average and a reduction of almost 40% during those peak years of 2022 and 2024? While at the same time lap and race records have been broken everywhere!

Tyres, of course. Moto2 used Dunlops for its first 14 seasons, from 2010 to 2023. Pirelli replaced Dunlop in 2024, the weekend crash average immediately falling by one-third.

Why the huge difference? The Pirellis famously use a softer construction, so the tyres deflect (squish) more. That movement in the tyres gives riders more information from the contact patch, so they know when they’re approaching the limit.

The same was true when Moto3 switched from Dunlop to Pirelli at the same time – the category’s 2024 weekend average of 13.1 crashes per weekend is almost 45% lower than Dunlop’s record of 23, back in 2016. However, the efforts of Buchanan and David Almansa (who fell 31 times) helped push the 2025 weekend average back up to 15.5. Moto3’s next biggest fallers were Guido Pini and Taiyo Furusato on 22 and 17 each, so Buchanan and Almansa were definitely outliers.

Second biggest faller in the premier class was Jack Miller, who crashed his Yamaha YZR-M1 25 times, the crasher’s ‘podium’ completed by championship runner-up Alex Márquez and Franky Morbidelli, both on 23 falls. Next came Joan Mir on 22 and Pedro Acosta on 21.

Special shoutout to Luca Marini, who, as usual, crashed less than anyone else. The factory Honda rider hit the ground just three times during the 22 race weekends, and one of those falls happened when he was taken out by team-mate Mir and another when he tangled with another rider. Marini attributes his ability to stay rubber-side down to his sensitivity for what the motorcycle is doing.

Marc Márquez fell 14 times, his lowest number since 2015, when he crashed on 15 occasions. Of course, the seven-time MotoGP king missed the last four weekends of 2025 after sustaining injuries during the Indonesian GP, where he was taken out by Marco Bezzecchi. He thus contested 18 GPs, same as the full 2015 season.

Márquez’s least painful season in the premier class was 2014, when he fell 11 times. This was also his most successful season, when he set an all-time win record of 13 victories, including a clean sweep of the first ten GPs.

It’s no coincidence that the Spaniard’s most successful season coincided with his lowest crash score, because when a rider feels totally at one with his motorcycle, making him super-fast, he will also crash less often.

Will Pirelli reduce the number of crashes in MotoGP when the Italian/German tyres take over from Michelin in 2027? No one can be sure just yet, but the feeling from riders and engineers following MotoGP’s first tests with Pirelli suggests that the tyres have retained their DNA, so they give more feel, so riders can better dance around the limit without tripping over it.

Michelin’s latest tyres give a huge amount of grip, but the French company’s front slick doesn’t give riders as much feel as they’d like, so it’s not easy to ride at the limit without tripping over it.

This, of course, is one reason why Márquez has dominated since Michelin took over in 2016, because he has super-sensitivity for the front tyre, so he can hear what the tyre is telling him when others can’t. He has won the title seven times during Michelin’s ten years as MotoGP’s sole tyre supplier. During the other three years he was either injured or riding a second-hand motorcycle.

In fact, many people wondered if Márquez would be able to maintain his early dominance of the championship when Bridgestone withdrew at the end of 2015. Bridgestone’s front slick is like no other front and it seemed that the tyre’s performance helped give Márquez a special edge when he graduated to MotoGP in 2013.

In fact, when Michelin arrived with their less grippy front in 2016, Márquez’s advantage increased, because he could play with the tyre’s lower limit, while his rivals could not.

“With the change of tyres for 2016, Marc couldn’t use the front like before, but he found a way because he has the talent,” says Andrea Dovizioso, who became Márquez’s greatest rival during Michelin’s early years as MotoGP’s tyre supplier.

Even now, Bridgestone’s front gives riders a unique feeling and unique grip, which is why Bridgestone teams dominate in the Endurance World Championship, the only major motorcycle-racing series to feature open tyre competition.

Obviously, Pirelli’s takeover of Moto2 and Moto3 has also decreased the total number of crashes across all three classes. The paddock’s crash rate reached a record of 62.5 falls per weekend in 2017. In 2025 that number dropped to 43.8.

Last season’s three-category total was 965 accidents across 22 weekends. The season total has exceeded one thousand on five occasions: 1062 in 2016 (18 GPs), 1126 in 2017 (18), 1077 in 2018 (18), 1106 in 2022 (20) and 1009 in 2023 (20).

In 1997 there were 493 crashes over 15 GPs and three categories (then 500cc, 250cc and 125cc), an average of 33 per event, so despite the recent reduction in accidents, the current crash rate is still around 30% higher than it was almost three decades ago.

You can blame that increase on much tighter competition – because riders have to take more risks to make the difference – and on safer racetracks and riding gear, because the inevitable consequence of increasing safety for professional riders bent on world-championship glory is that those riders are happier to push deeper into the danger zone in search of their goals.

The spectacular reduction in Moto2 crashes – and therefore crash damage – may have an unexpected effect. Kalex dominate the class, supplying more than half the grid. The German chassis makers are a small company with essentially one product line, so their pricing is based not only on the cost of a complete chassis but also on the cost of replacement parts during the season. If the demand for replacement parts plummets, so does Kalex’s income, to the point where their current business plan becomes unsustainable. So they may have to increase prices to keep going…