Motor Sport finds Moto2 starlet Senna Agius studying a bottle of red wine in the dark, industrial Intact GP hospitality unit in the Mugello paddock. The place is almost empty before the pre-lunch rush and the tall, wide-eyed 20-year-old (21 next week) is photographing the label with his phone. We ask if he’s a connoisseur and get a blank look. “I have an app that scans labels — I like to see where it’s from and what it’s worth.” Senna doesn’t drink, but it’s immediately clear we’re in the company of an inquisitive mind.
Agius is articulate, thoughtful, quietly spoken. Cerebral. Young riders are forced to grow up fast in the high-speed, occasionally brutal world of elite motorsport, and the Andorra-based Australian shares a common trait with his Moto2 peers: he seems older and more mature than his years.
Outside the Intact GP windows, MotoGP is in a state of flux. Contracts are being signed behind closed doors at a feverish pace — between riders and teams, teams and manufacturers, and teams and promoter MotoGP Group. The paddock has never been good at keeping its biggest secrets, and most of the high-profile moves appear settled. But at Mugello, the remaining spots on the 2027 and 2028 MotoGP grid were the hottest topic of conversation. “Nothing has been decided,” Tech3 principal Guenther Steiner told Motor Sport on Thursday. “But most of the other teams have signed riders, so our candidates have nowhere else to go. We’re pretty relaxed. When you are last in the draft, the draft is yours.”
Satellite KTM and Aprilia outfits Tech3 and Trackhouse appear to be the last available berths, with names like Alex Rins (30), Jack Miller (31), Luca Marini (28), Brad Binder (30), and Franco Morbidelli (31) all waiting in the wings. Joan Mir (28), Enea Bastianini (28), and Maverick Viñales (31) have also been mentioned, though with less conviction. The appearance of Mugello Saturday sprint winner Raul Fernandez, 25, on the list — potentially ending a three-season stint with Trackhouse — raised eyebrows, but also confirmed that MotoGP riders now need multiple strings to their bow as the series evolves into as much of an entertainment product as a racing one.
Moto2 graduates are on their way. “We can take a chance with a Moto2 rider — it could be an opportunity for us,” Steiner added. The premier class is expected to feature rookies Daniel Holgado (21), Izan Guevara (21), and David Alonso (20) from 2027. The two Spaniards and the Colombian share two world championships between them and each has wins across Moto3 and Moto2.
Agius is increasingly being mentioned alongside his contemporaries as a candidate for the step up — a topical subject, not least because his team-mate Manuel Gonzalez is comprehensively leading the early stages of the Moto2 world championship for the second year running. The Spaniard dominated the Italian Grand Prix and has three wins this season, missing the podium only once so far in 2026. Gonzalez, 23, made an impressive mid-season MotoGP test appearance for Trackhouse at Aragon last year as a stand-in for the injured Ai Ogura, but — reportedly to his frustration — hasn’t been linked to a permanent MotoGP seat.
His 2025 title campaign did fade in the second half against a determined Diogo Moreira, but the runner-up’s focus and consistency arguably match or exceed that of Holgado and Guevara. Alonso, meanwhile, has been managing an injured right shoulder in 2026, though his outgoing personality and marketability remain strong selling points. Perhaps Gonzalez simply doesn’t fit the profile MotoGP is chasing — and sharing a nationality with several other candidates can’t help, especially with the series potentially losing its two native English speakers for 2027. (There hasn’t been a full-time British rider since 2020, or an American since 2015.) MotoGP Group has been known to back certain riders and teams to diversify its roster.
Agius admits he wants to move up to MotoGP in 2027
Intact GP
Agius credits Gonzalez with helping accelerate his own riding evolution — this is only his third full season in Moto2. The two are linked by unconventional routes to grand prix contention: Gonzalez came through World Supersport and Supersport 300; Agius via the Moto2 European Championship. It mirrors how current BK8 Gresini Ducati rider Fermin Aldeguer used the unlikely path of MotoE and Moto2 fill-in rides to earn his break.
On the recruitment side, manufacturers still prioritise proven MotoGP results and experience — and that will matter even more as they develop the new 850cc machines from 2027. But Moto2 riders may face their simplest-ever transition to the premier class, thanks to the engine capacity reduction and the switch to Pirelli tyres. Agius and his peers will already know those tyres intimately, while established MotoGP riders must adapt after a decade on Michelins. There will still be a mechanical learning curve for incoming factory rookies Guevara and Alonso, and electronics to master, but 2027 should initially emphasise raw rider ability over aerodynamic or technical advantage. That plays directly into the hands of Moto2 riders who must squeeze every last drop of performance from arguably the most competitive class in grand prix racing.
Within that arena, Agius has progressed quickly. He scored a podium in his rookie Moto2 season in 2024, doubled that tally and added two wins in 2025, and already has two more wins in 2026. He has climbed from 18th to 10th and now sits fourth in the world championship. The potential is beyond doubt — and crucially, the timing feels right. “To go there next year? I would say that right now I’m not fully ready,” Agius told Motor Sport in the summer of 2025. “The more competitive you can be in Moto2 and go there with form, the better.” Back-to-back wins in the USA and Spain this season have only strengthened his case, as Moto2 continues to spread its victories across a wide and unpredictable field.
Agius stands out on a 2027 MotoGP grid that looks set to be largely Spanish and Italian, with a Brazilian, a Turk, a Japanese rider, and two Frenchmen completing the picture. But nationality is the least of it. He has reached this point primarily through skill and a relentless drive to improve — most visibly in his technical work on the level-playing-field, Triumph-powered 765cc Moto2 machinery. “My technique on the bike has come a long way,” he says. “I had extreme strong points and extreme weak points, and they would sometimes cancel each other out.” Such as? “Turning with the rear and not being decisive enough with the front. I wasn’t the best at corner entry, and in your rookie year when you’re not qualifying at the front, that hurts. If you don’t have any margin with the front then you’re not going to make any brave overtakes — and in Moto2, if you’re not overtaking in the first part of the race, you’re being passed.”
He remains Australia’s latest hope to make it to MotoGP
Intact GP
Like the best riders, Agius has a finely tuned sensitivity for how his motorcycle behaves. In grand prix racing, the standouts combine bravery, late braking, analytical thinking, and tyre management. The margins are tiny. It’s in those details where Agius seems to excel.
“I had to work hard on my braking technique and corner entry — rotating the bike on the front and getting it off the edge of the tyre,” he explains. “A couple of times in 2024 I suddenly cooked the tyres, like in Germany when I was running with the leaders. I had to ride that way just to stay with them. You have to be precise picking up the bike and that wasn’t something I was good at. I improved last year, and this winter I made a big step by focusing specifically on corner entry and front-end technique.”
Watching his team-mate has been instructive. “When Manu joined the team in 2025, his style is completely front-led. He’s consistently the most efficient at getting off lean angle — he never spends much time at maximum banking. He gets it done and then rotates with the chassis. That’s why he’s always consistent in races and you never see him suffer a big drop-off.”
Agius is managed by former World Supersport champion and World Superbike race winner Chaz Davies. “Senna has always been able to break down his own riding,” the Welshman tells Motor Sport. “He was doing it three or four years ago and it makes you question what you yourself knew at that age — and I knew nothing. I figured things out year by year, but his understanding is quite otherworldly.”
“His dad has worked hard to surround him with the right people, and that’s given him a strong technical framework for analysing every phase of his riding,” Davies adds.
‘Thinking’ but then ‘doing’ can be the bottleneck for some. Agius is aware that time is of the essence, even if he is inexperienced at world championship level compared to some of his Moto3-schooled rivals. “If there is one thing limiting performance then you need to change it immediately,” he states. “Whenever I’ve done that, I found that I’ve never lost anything. What I’ve done with the front tyre I don’t think I’ve taken anything away from another areas I would normally do.
Agius jumped straight to Moto2, skipping Moto3
Intact GP
“What separates the good riders from the not-so-good ones is how much you can adapt on the track. Everyone can have trial-and-error [but] we don’t have time with the practice schedule to go out and do something wrong in practice for forty minutes and learn something in the lunch break.”
“[Moto2] is a good and a bad thing because he is doing his learning in a category that is one step away from MotoGP, so you are not excused the ‘dips’,” Davies says. “I have to defend – and make people aware – that he never did Moto3 to iron out the creases or get circuit knowledge. I don’t want to make excuses – and Senna is the sort of person who doesn’t want excuses at all – but you cannot shortcut experience. Year three is where we can take that excuse off the table, and he’s worked his arse off.”
Data is one of Agius’s obsessions; trackside video footage is another. “It’s more raw and real. If I see another rider on screen I can almost visualise being right behind them.” Self-reflection, too, can be a double-edged tool. “Sometimes I think too much. I’m a big visualiser.”
“You can become too technical or too overanalytical,” Davies warns. “It’s something I would like Senna to adopt is a little bit more: not overthinking. Or to find a middle ground with his skills and mindset.”
Motocross plays an important role in Agius’s training, as much for the mental discipline as the physical and handling benefits. “Moto2 is about being consistent every single lap, so motocross is a big part of my preparation. Every metre of a dirt track is different. Miss a line or fall out of a rut and you crash — you’re always chasing grip. On a road circuit, if you go wide nothing really happens. In motocross, you have to be perfect.”
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He comes across as a perfectionist, so it’s no surprise to hear him describe his race mindset as unusual. “It’s a weird one,” he half-smiles, “but for some reason I’m not really ‘present’ in a race. I feel like I’m watching myself. It doesn’t feel first person. I’m pre-empting things before they happen. It’s a strange state and I’ve only ever felt it on a race bike.”
His climb to fourth at the Italian Grand Prix may have been aided by extra time on track — Agius and his father Jonathan rode publicly at Mugello ahead of race weekend, part of a pattern of relentless preparation. The family splits its time between Europe and Australia for most of the year, with Jonathan a constant presence.
“He didn’t know Mugello that well,” Davies explains. “He was struggling with it, so they got a bike and came over. His dad has been driving around Europe to circuits and they’ve been flat-out grinding — taking any session they can get. I’m fully convinced that the bigger the bike you put that kid on, the more he unlocks within himself. I’ve seen him ride everything, and he has that innate ability to figure it out.”
Plans and employment will eventually surface publicly in a matter of weeks. With Gonzalez in close quarters does he has any sympathy for the Spaniard’s predicament, and the looming realisation of timing and fate?
“Sympathy is perhaps not the right word,” he thinks aloud. “Everybody has their own difficulties. His is being the same nationality as other riders. He has won things, but then I have come from the other side of the world and that means you can get taken advantage of, and you don’t do the right things because you don’t know. You can find mutual friends and be influenced by people you find in your career, but nobody is telling you where to live, what to do and what teams to start with. I ‘ate’ s**t for years. I guess I do feel sympathy for him because it’s a tough moment, but we all have our own problems.”
For now, Agius is trying to keep his focus on Moto2 and not get swept up in the MotoGP conversation. “If I had to name my biggest goal, it’s to be in MotoGP next year,” he admits. “I’m excited to talk about it, but it’s also directly connected to what I’m doing right now — and if I’m not fully focused on Moto2, the results won’t come and I’ll jeopardise my own chances. It’s a very contradictory thing.”
