2025 Australian MotoGP

When Raúl Fernández graduated to MotoGP in 2022, many paddock people (including, I suspect, the man himself) thought he might be the next Marc Márquez. After all, he had broken Márquez’s rookie Moto2 victory and podium records the previous season.

Fernández’s 2021 Moto2 performance with Aki Ajo’s Red Bull KTM team certainly suggested he was another special one, because the jump from a Moto3 bike (60 horsepower, 80 kilos and skinny tyres) to a Moto2 bike (140 horsepower, 150 kilos and big, fat tyres) is so big it’s confounded many Moto3 champions.

Danny Kent, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Izan Guevera and Jaume Masià all disappeared without trace when they moved up to Moto2. And that’s why Moto3 bikes will soon change from 250cc singles to 700cc twins, to narrow the gap between the two classes.