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With 2023 Moto2 sensation Fermin Aldeguer signing up for his MotoGP future before the 2024 intermediate-class season even kicked off, it means that so far there hasn’t been much attention on which other rookies are likely to step up alongside the Spaniard.
However, with Aldeguer’s form dipping as the 2024 championship has got underway and with other young talents in the middleweight class starting to shine instead, it seems that there’s now a renewed focus on some of the other prospects.
The Moto2 revelation
First among them is unsurprisingly the current Moto2 championship leader Sergio Garcia. Winning two races in the first six rounds of the season, he’s bounced back in exceptional form from his tough 2023 rookie season in the class, the former Moto3 runner-up establishing himself already as one of the hot names.
Where exactly he’d fit in remains to be seen, though - and Garcia's options may well depend on the ongoing confusion about how many Ducati teams there will be next year.
Unlikely to be a Ducati option himself given that the Italian marque is trying to retain as much of its current talent as possible - and has already signed Aldeguer - Garcia would be an obvious candidate instead for a newly-rebadged Pramac Yamaha team.
There might also be some interest, should his form continue, from KTM satellite squad Tech3 - with the Gas Gas-badged French outfit set to lose Pedro Acosta to the factory team next year and with former Moto2 champion Augusto Fernandez not performing the way KTM has expected, according to team boss Pit Beirer’s latest warning shots across his bow.
And despite KTM’s normally-stacked talent ranks, Garcia - who already represented Gas Gas in the past - might have a chance of breaking back into its system next year simply because KTM has reached something of a gap in the progression of late.
It's got a number of hot young talents signed up in Moto3, with the very in-form David Alonso an obvious candidate for a MotoGP future - but Moto2 has offered slim pickings of late thanks in part to a switch for Pierer Mobility Group-representing teams to KTM's in-house brand WP Suspension that has had a knock on effect on results so far this season.
MotoGP's next Briton?
It might mean that former MotoGP prospect Jake Dixon has picked exactly the right time to deliver some good results, mind you.
Finally back on the podium last time out in Barcelona, it comes after a rough start to 2024 that’s seen him struggling with injury as well as a Kalex machine that’s been outclassed by Garcia and Aldeguer’s Speed Up bike even for those who haven't switched away - like Dixon's CFMoto Aspar team has - from Ohlins suspension.
The British racer had been somewhat bullish about his MotoGP prospects in the past, thanks in part to a serious push from series bosses Dorna to have a rider from the UK in the premier class. Yet, speaking exclusively to The Race after Montmelo, it seems that Dixon, aware that KTM might need a stop-gap for 2025, is taking a more measured approach this time around.
“F**k knows what’s going on!” the 28-year-old Brit joked to The Race when asked about his chances. “I just keep trying to do my job, keep focused on trying to make WP better and the bike better as a whole, and if they feel like I’m doing a good enough job, then they’d hopefully reward me by getting another Brit back into MotoGP.
“I owe a big thanks to WP and to KTM as well for listening to me when I’m trying to develop the thing. I’m not saying that 'now I’m here, we’re going to continue from here at the next race'. I’m a realist. We need to keep building.
“It’s difficult when I’m trying to go for a MotoGP seat next year and we’re not getting the results, but I said that to them and they’ve made it clear that they understand the situation that I’m in and that they’ll take it into account.”
MotoGP's next Japanese?
There's also room to graduate for another rider on a Boscoscuro chassis.
A win last time out for Ai Ogura, his first in a year and a half, has coincided with suggestions that Honda will once again evaluate putting him into the Idemitsu-backed half of the LCR roster, as the replacement for veteran Taka Nakagami.
Honda is known to have tried to do so already in the past, only for Ogura himself to pump the brakes on such move, but - now 23 and after injury compromised his Moto2 campaign last year - he may well consider that if he passes up a second opportunity, there may not be a third.
MotoGP's next American?
Finally, there’s one other Moto2 racer whose name keeps being mentioned in conversations about MotoGP next season.
But it’s not yet certain how much serious interest there is in American Joe Roberts and how much of the chatter about him is wishful thinking from Dorna, the series promoter perhaps even more keen to get an US rider onto the premier-class grid than a British one.
The natural fit for Roberts, of course, is in the Trackhouse Racing team - but with boss Justin Marks insistent since day one that Trackhouse would only promote a US racer who was ready for the premier class and not make a solely passport-based decision, it means that the onus is very much on Roberts to continue his strong start to 2024 if he wants to get the nod.
