Which 2025 MotoGP rookie could be the new Pedro Acosta?

For the first time since the 2022 season, MotoGP will welcome three new faces to the grid in the form of Fermin Aldeguer, Ai Ogura and Somkiat Chantra.

While MotoGP’s talent production system has been hot for a long time, the last two years have seen just one new rider step into the premier class. Augusto Fernandez joined Tech3 in 2023 as reigning Moto2 champion, while his successor Pedro Acosta followed in 2024.

Understandably, the hype surrounding Acosta was immense for his debut year, in which he scored a total of nine podiums across sprints and grands prix with the Tech3 GASGAS squad.

That same excitement hasn’t quite spread to 2025’s rookie crop, but Ogura comes as reigning Moto2 champion, while Aldeguer’s 2023 heater in Moto2 was enough to convince Ducati he was MotoGP ready at the start of last year.

Chantra’s arrival to the MotoGP grid has raised a few eyebrows given his career statistics to date - two grands prix wins in 106 starts. But he breaks new ground as Thailand’s first ever premier class star and his debut will be welcomed with thunderous applause at the opening round of the campaign in Buriram.

Inevitably, rookies are going to be compared to previous debutants who set a new benchmark. In this case, what Acosta did in 2024 will be (unfairly) stacked against what Ogura, Aldeguer and Chantra do this year.

Instead, Crash has decided to reflect on who each of 2025’s three new riders succeed as rookies in their teams and the benchmark set there.

Ai Ogura - Trackhouse Racing (Succeeds Darryn Binder)

The reigning Moto2 world champion was one of the shock signings of the 2024 silly season, though Trackhouse Racing’s contract with the Japanese star has aged tremendously well.

Ogura has been on the edge of a MotoGP debut for some time, though elected against a guaranteed step with Honda and LCR to pursue a project that will likely suit him better when comparing the current form of the RC213V relative to the RS-GP.

In an interview with Crash.net - which will be going live this weekend - Trackhouse team boss Davide Brivio explained that Ogura’s mentality and his resilience as a racer appealed to the US-owned team as much as his speed.

As Moto2 champion, Ogura will be the reference for the rookie crop this year. In terms of an intra-team comparison, he has the easiest benchmark of the lot. The last rookie to race for that team in its RNF guise was Darryn Binder.

The South African’s Moto3-to-MotoGP promotion with the then-satellite Yamaha squad was fully motivated by the financial backing he brought with him. He’d won just one race in his time in Moto3 and earned a bad reputation for his aggressive riding style.

As any young rider would, he seized his chance to get into MotoGP. But in 2022, on an older Yamaha package, he scored points on just three occasions, with a 10th in a wet Indonesian GP his best showing. When RNF moved from Yamaha to Aprilia for 2023, Binder was bounced into Moto2 where he’s also failed to make an impact.

In total, Binder scored just 12 points in his sole MotoGP year. Albeit in a time pre-sprints, Ogura shouldn’t have a problem matching this tally in his first year.

Fermin Aldeguer - Gresini Racing (Succeeds Fabio Di Giannantonio)

Aldeguer is arguably the most intriguing of the 2025 rookie roster. His route into grand prix racing was unconventional, though he was a dominant force in the CEV Stock600 series in 2020 and CEV Moto2 in 2021.

He also competed in MotoE in 2021 before coming to Moto2 full-time in 2022. The following year, on a Boscoscuro chassis, he won five grands prix - including the last four of the campaign - to finish third in the standings and firmly put himself into MotoGP seat contention for 2025.

Ducati secured his signature before the 2024 season began, which was just as well because Aldeguer’s form was wildly inconsistent. While there were still three victories, he ended up fifth in the standings, doing so on the same chassis that Ogura won the title on.

Aldeguer also faced some uncertainty over his future. Signing a factory Ducati deal, Pramac was expected to be his destination. Then the Marc Marquez factory deal happened, which led to Pramac switching to Yamaha for 2025. Ducati eventually found Aldeguer sanctuary at Gresini, albeit on a year-old bike now.

The rookie benchmark at Gresini for Aldeguer is Fabio Di Giannantonio, who made his MotoGP debut with the team in 2022.

Di Giannantonio’s first season was difficult. He didn’t score points until the seventh round of the year in France and only registered one top 10, when he was eighth in Germany. Of course, Di Giannantonio’s fortunes transformed in 2023 when he was paired with crew chief Frankie Carchedi and went on to win his first race in Qatar that year.

The Italian now has a factory Ducati with VR46 for 2025.

A haul of 24 points is what Di Giannantonio took away from 2022. But the Gresini team has proven itself to be a real family atmosphere in the last few years, and one not afraid to try any means necessary to help a rider get performance.

Di Giannantonio’s example may also come to help keep the pressure off Aldeguer if he endures a difficult first season of his two-year deal.

Somkiat Chantra - LCR Honda (Succeeds Takaaki Nakagami)

When Ogura signed for Trackhouse for the 2025 season, it was largely expected that this had saved Takaaki Nakagami’s seat at LCR for another year.

But LCR and Honda had other ideas, with Chantra getting the nod. With the Idemitsu-backed side of the LCR garage set up specifically for an Asian rider, Chantra’s signing comes with the backing of a MotoGP mad nation in Thailand.

Buriram will host the season-opener for the next two years, while the championship will stage an official launch event in Bangkok on 9 February. In a market as lucrative as Thailand is, Chantra’s passport definitely worked to his advantage.

But he is also one of two former Asia Talent Cup riders on the grid in 2025, with Chantra champion in the series in 2016 ahead of Ogura. Chantra does have two grand prix wins in Moto2 to his credit to get around accusations of simply being a hire purely for representation.

Chantra faces the toughest task of all three rookies in 2025. He is stepping onto the grid’s worst bike and is following in the footsteps of a fairly solid previous rookie for LCR in Nakagami.

The Japanese rider was a consistent points finisher in 2018 when he made his debut, ending the year with 33 points and a best result of sixth in a wet and wild Valencia GP finale. Nakagami, of course, went on to become a valuable figure for Honda in terms of bike development.