MotoGP Features

Team: Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Riders: Pol Espargaro, Johann Zarco Test Riders: Mika Kallio, Dani Pedrosa Bike: KTM RC16 Best placed rider, 2018: Pol Espargaro, 14 th Best result, 2018: 3 rd , Pol Espargaro

Team: Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Riders: Aleix Espargaro, Andrea Iannone Test Rider: Bradley Smith Bike: Aprilia RS-GP Best placed rider, 2018: Aleix Espargaro, 17 th Best result, 2018: 6 th , Aleix Espargaro

With MotoGP pre-season testing starting tomorrow, 2019 is gathering pace ahead of the new campaign.

Tech3's new partnership with KTM not only means a switch from Yamaha in MotoGP, but the end of their own chassis project in the Moto2 class.

Bradley Smith has always been one of the main go-to guys for the media when it comes to explaining the intricate details of MotoGP riding.

Caution is needed when a new fairing appears during MotoGP testing, for two main reasons.

UPDATE: We can now see that the switch does indeed lower the rear of the bike for the race start...

Aprilia are 'super happy' with the work of new test rider Bradley Smith and plan five MotoGP wild-card race appearances for the Englishman during the 2019 season.

A dream came true for British Superbike star Bradley Ray at Sepang on Sunday when he got half-an-hour on a Suzuki GSX-RR MotoGP bike around the Malaysian Grand Prix venue.

Having stepped into Honda’s factory team during the 'reign' of his country’s inaugural 500cc world champion Wayne Gardner, five-time world champion Mick Doohan knows a thing or two about competing alongside – not to mention beating and outlasting - a heavyweight team-mate.

Dani Pedrosa kept his cards close to his chest, but it was well known that the 31-time MotoGP winner was in discussions with the new Petronas-backed Sepang Yamaha team after losing his Honda seat to Jorge Lorenzo.

With Ducati being the first MotoGP team to present its 2019 line-up it created a platform to send out a statement of intent and a few warnings to its rivals.

During the 2014 season, MotoGP development was broadly grouped into three areas - engine, chassis and electronics. But the appearance of winglets on the front of the Ducati during 2015 pre-season testing kicked off a 'fourth dimension' of performance; aerodynamics.

With pre-season testing preparations being finalised and targets being drawn up for the 2019 MotoGP world championship, Crash.net looks over what key objectives each manufacturer will be desperate to get right.

Of the four rookies in MotoGP this season, Joan Mir is the least experienced, with just a single year in Moto2 and total of three seasons in grand prix under his belt.

Having celebrated sixth in the MotoGP championship, three podiums and two pole positions with Johann Zarco during its final season with Yamaha, Tech3 dropped to the tail of the timesheets during the start of its new partnership with KTM.

Valencia - not only the scene of the year’s final grand prix, but a place that offers scope for reflection. There a long, arduous season grinds to a close. And as it does, performances, strategies and relationships from the 18 previous rounds can be judged with some distinction.

Not long after 15.30 on a rainy autumn afternoon outside Valencia, the curtain came down on one of modern grand prix racing’s more distinguished careers. Come the evening of November 18 th , Dani Pedrosa was reflecting on the last of his 289 grand prix in a stellar 18-year career.

A new year welcomes in a brand-new season of MotoGP and naturally everything is to play for with familiar faces in new places, teams at crossroads and a couple of new eras which begin in 2019.

With the Christmas almost here and the racing world taking a rest, it is the perfect time to look back on the year and pick out some of the highlights of the year.

The opening MotoGP test at Sepang in January took place without a Malaysian rider and certainly no sign of a Malaysian team.

When Johann Zarco shot from fourth on the grid to lead after just a few corners of his very first MotoGP race, many had to pinch themselves to believe what they were seeing.

Repsol Honda pulled off the biggest upset of the 2018 MotoGP silly season by reaching an agreement with Jorge Lorenzo, just before his breakthrough debut Ducati victory.

Nicolas Goubert, executive director of the new FIM MotoE World Cup, has pledged that the new electric bike class will be able to race flat-out from start to finish during its inaugural 2019 season.