MotoGP is a fantastic sporting series in that the human element of it is extremely visceral. You can see the determination and effort that every rider puts into a race as they wrestle their motorcycles around corners and down straights at ridiculous speeds. You see the strain and the emotion every time they enter their pit box, be it furious anger or boundless joy. And you see the relationships between the riders, both from how they talk to one another and how they describe their rivals during interviews.
2022 is set to be one of the biggest seasons this sport has ever seen. 24 riders will contest the MotoGP title across 21 rounds, the longest season in the history of the sport. It will be a marathon. Riders will have good days and bad, injuries will occur, enemies will be made. There simply isn’t room in a championship like this to be best friends with everyone; eventually, you will stir someone up the wrong way, and it can very easily bleed out onto the track.
As if all of that weren’t already enough, this season poses a very interesting situation in the backdrop. Thanks to the cyclical 2-year nature of contract talks in the factory teams within MotoGP, there are currently 8 out of the 12 factory seats for 2023 without a name on them. Riders will be itching to prove themselves not just within the championship, but against their closest teammates and rivals in order to nab one of the few ‘top’ seats within the paddock. In today’s article, I’m going to talk about what I perceive to be some of the most important battles we’re going to see play out over the course of the 2022 season.
Miller vs Martin
This particular showdown has been brewing for a while. Since the mid-point of last year, it has been clear that there were too many talented riders within the Ducati fold than could fit within a singular factory squad. Bagnaia seemed like the obvious first pick even before he started bagging race victories, and his unbelievable form at the end of the season simply cemented him as Ducati’s first choice moving forwards. The obvious question that follows that is: who will be joining him in the factory squad for 2023?
The two main contenders are, in my mind, Jack Miller and Jorge Martin. Miller is heading into his second season with the factory team, and put together quite a strong season in 2022 himself. His second and third wins in the premier class were backed up by a promising qualifying record and a number of podiums, but a lack of consistency stopped him from being a real championship contender at any point. On the other side of things, Martin started 2022 as a rookie but had an astronomical rise through the ranks, taking a win, several podiums and a slew of pole positions. The only thing that really held him back was the terrifying injury he sustained in Portimao, which saw him sidelined for much of the first half of the season.
Both riders will head into the season knowing full well what the stakes at play are. Performing well in the opening stages will curry favour within Ducati management, and if either of them can cement themselves as a championship contender then they should be able to pen the deal for 2023. It will be a fascinating showdown to watch play out, especially when you consider that they’ve both at very different stages in their careers. Miller has been in the class since 2015 but is only now starting to hit his peak, whereas Martin is barely getting started in MotoGP and already making waves. Whatever happens, it should lead to some fascinating action during the upcoming season.
Bagnaia vs Quartararo
These two were the top dogs of 2021, and both will head into the coming season feeling confident that they’ll be having another crack at the title. Quartararo was the epitome of consistency throughout last year, taking six victories and only really struggling on two occasions (one of which happened after he had already wrapped up the title). Bagnaia’s start to the championship was a bit more subdued, but his second half of the season was astronomical, converting a fairly dominant qualifying record into a respectable four race wins and cementing himself as second in the title race.
The funny thing is, we actually didn’t see many cases of the two of them going toe-to-toe on track. Other than the Austrian race, in which mixed conditions brought a number of the top riders into close proximity with one another, both of these men took the majority of their race wins far apart from one another. A number of Bagnaia’s worst results came on weekends where his French rival was taking searing victories, and when Bagnaia was turning good at the end of the season Quartararo was easing up on the gas to take the championship. They were both incredibly competitive, but a proper scrap on track never really formed.
Should they both enter this season at the same level as they ended 2021, that should all change very quickly. Both men look like serious challengers for this year’s championship, and if they find themselves up at the front together then I anticipate things will get rather interesting on track. Quartararo wants to prove that he can back up his results from last year with a second title, and Bagnaia wants to prove that he’s the man best suited to take that away from him. Assuming they both have the bikes and the strength to back that up, then the battles they wage should be rather entertaining indeed.
Fernandez vs Gardner
Last year’s primary Moto2 championship contenders have both risen to compete in the premier class this year, and find themselves once again as teammates pitted against one another. Fernandez and Gardner had an absolutely astonishing season last year, taking a combined 13 wins and taking down both the riders and teams championships. Fernandez impressed the world as a rookie breaking some rather impressive records, and Gardner finally came good on the promise he had shown previously to steel his nerves and take the intermediate class crown. It was a natural progression that both riders would make the step to MotoGP for this year, and given the funnel-like nature of KTM’s talent pool it was almost an inevitability that they would remain teammates for 2022.
All of this would be fine, except for the fact that some tensions began brewing between these two at the end of last year. It was actually kind of a miracle that things remained civil between the two riders for as long as it did – championship rivals tend to not have the strongest relationships, and these two were neck and neck for much of the season. The issues only started to creep in after the season had ended, when Fernandez made a claim to Italian media that his team had gotten in the way of him challenging Gardner for the title, and describing himself as the ‘moral champion’ of the Moto2 season. Gardner fired back saying that the claim was preposterous, and the media went wild.
Interviews with both riders and team members in the leadup to the 2022 season definitely paint the picture of things being more civil now between the two rookies, but there is no guarantee that things will remain this way for their first premier class season. Both riders are equipped with the same bike and will therefore go into the season on a fairly even playing field, and both riders will want desperately to outshine the other one over the course of the year. This isn’t just a battle for rookie of the year, it’s a feud that has already lasted an entire season and will likely continue on past this one.
Bastianini vs Martin
I want to make it clear here that I’m not actually trying to vilify Jorge Martin by having him twice on this list, but rather highlight just how much tension there is within Ducati at the moment. Not only do they arguably have the most competitive bike heading into this season, but they have a wealth of options in terms of riders to sign for next year. As I mentioned previously, there is only one spot available within their factory team for 2023, but there’s also plenty to play for when it comes to their satellite squads. This is where Bastianini comes in.
Bastianini was one of the few riders last season to be placed on an older motorcycle, and thanks to the covid-induced engine freeze he ended up on the equivalent of a GP19 Ducati. When compared to the 2021-level competition, the bike simply wasn’t up to par, and Bastianini suffered a lot of tough results at the start of the season as a result. What surprised most of us was just how well he was able to turn his situation around, and the Italian ended up taking two podiums in the latter stages of the season and bring himself right back into contention for rookie of the year, facing off with Martin himself. Martin would end up being victorious in that fight, but it was far closer than what many of us expected.
Now the two riders are sophomores, and they both have a lot to prove this season. The riders that you step into the MotoGP class with are often the best reference points for how you’ve grown and strengthened as a rider, and so the two Ducati men will be sizing each other up as they battle their way through the season. There’s no prize for being top sophomore, but should Jack Miller retain his factory seat then these two will be in hot contention for the top satellite seats within Ducati’s monster lineup. And since they’ve done battle with one another at every stage of their careers in world championship racing, I have no doubt they’ll put each other to the test once again in 2022.
Vinales vs Yamaha
In one of the more surprising results of the rider market last year, we’ve ended up with only one significant manufacturer change for the existing riders from 2021. Maverick Vinales started last season in the factory Yamaha squad, but a bitter fallout led to them separating after the Austrian round and Vinales finding new life within the factory Aprilia team. It was an extremely tense situation to watch play out from afar, but Vinales looks to be fully recovered from whatever emotions were driving the decisions in question. Now he is looking ahead to 2022 with what appears to be the most competitive Aprilia the grid has ever seen, and he’ll be looking to put together a strong season with his new employers.
It’s not just that Vinales will want to one-up Yamaha now that he’s with Aprilia, but more that he will want to prove that he made the right decision in leaving. The Spaniard made it clear that he felt they were prioritising Quartararo within the team and that he deserved better, and while relations between Vinales and the Yamaha crew appear fine externally there’s no doubt in my mind that the way things ended will have left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths. If he were to outshine the majority of the Yamaha riders on his brand new Aprilia, it would make it clear that he has found an employer that is giving him the technology he wants, and solidify him within the paddock.
He’s got a great chance to perform, too. The RS-GP for this year looks fast, more so than any previous model we’ve seen from Aprilia, and Maverick looks comfortable and prepared heading into 2022. If he does go toe-to-toe with Quartararo or any other Yamaha riders, he’ll be able to do so knowing that he has a package underneath him that can support him and perhaps even give him an edge in the ensuing battle. That will certainly give him a lot of confidence.
Solomon Talks Bikes 