Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi says if Yamaha wants to win again in MotoGP it must match the effort Ducati and Honda are making with their staff levels “closer to Formula 1”. After a disappointing 2017 season, Yamaha endured an even worse campaign

Get unlimited access for free You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Aprilia MotoGP boss Romano Albesiano says his team has “no excuse” not to do better in 2019, as Andrea Iannone and Bradley Smith will join the team. Aleix Espargaro was paired with rookie Sam Lowes and then Scott Redding over

Jorge Lorenzo has revealed he feels “safer” on Honda’s MotoGP bike because it is more “compact” than the Ducati he has been riding. Lorenzo tested the Honda RC213V for the first time in post-season testing last year, after Ducati gave permission for him to ride the bike while under his existing contract with the Italian

Ducati will benefit from the “simplification” that will come with fielding fewer MotoGP satellite bikes in 2019, reckons its technical chief Gigi Dall’Igna. Six privateer Desmosedicis competed alongside the works Ducatis last season, with Nieto and Avintia both running 2016-spec bikes in addition to year-old GP17s. Nieto will vanish from the grid in 2019, replaced

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez says that trying to stop Jorge Lorenzo joining the factory Honda MotoGP team would have been a “sign of weakness”. Lorenzo secured a shock move to the Repsol Honda outfit earlier this year after his relationship with Ducati fell apart,

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Former MotoGP rider Scott Redding says it is “insane” that some of his grand prix racing peers pay as much as they do for their seats. Redding was part of the MotoGP paddock since joining 125cc in 2008, but has now departed

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Jorge Lorenzo says he felt like “the king of the world” after making a breakthrough with Ducati’s MotoGP bike during the 2018 season. Lorenzo had a poor start to the campaign and was only 14th after the opening five rounds. But a

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Jonathan Rea didn’t make the most of his chance in MotoGP when he made two starts for the factory Honda team in 2012, believes fellow four-time World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty. Rea stood in for an unwell Casey Stoner at the Repsol

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Johann Zarco says Jorge Lorenzo’s eventual success on a Ducati gives him hope he can make a success of his KTM MotoGP move. Zarco had a low-key start to his KTM career in post-season testing after moving from the Tech3 Yamaha squad.

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez would still win races in MotoGP if he ever decided to leave Honda, says five-time champion Mick Doohan. Marquez racked up his fifth MotoGP title this year with three rounds to spare and sealed the ‘triple crown’ of riders’, constructors’

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Aprilia has officially announced that former Ferrari Formula 1 man Massimo Rivola will join its MotoGP project as racing department CEO from January 7 2019. The move, predicted by Autosport last month, is part of a range of changes Aprilia is making

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Alex Rins say he is “not afraid” of the Suzuki MotoGP team repeating its infamous 2017 engine specification error, as it prepares to select its ’19 version. Suzuki’s 2017 campaign was derailed by Andrea Iannone making an incorrect selection of engine specification

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Five-time 500cc champion Mick Doohan believes Jorge Lorenzo will have “no excuses” not to beat to Marc Marquez at the factory Honda MotoGP team next season. After two up-and-down seasons at Ducati, three-time MotoGP champion Lorenzo has switched to Honda for the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Dani Pedrosa has hit out at Honda team boss Alberto Puig for suggesting he lacked the desire to become a MotoGP champion. Puig acted as Pedrosa’s manager until the end of the 2013 season before he moved into an advisory role with

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Honda MotoGP boss Alberto Puig says Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi is “having a hard time accepting” that he is no longer the premier class’ benchmark rider. Rossi has established himself as a MotoGP legend by winning seven titles, but has been unable

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Aprilia MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone believes the feedback he has provided the manufacturer in the 2018 post-season tests has “taken it a bit by surprise”. Ex-Suzuki rider Iannone made his Aprilia debut in post-season testing at Valencia and said he found the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Newly-promoted factory Ducati MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci says he wants to avoid the strained relationship his predecessor Jorge Lorenzo had with Andrea Dovizioso. Petrucci was promoted from the satellite Pramac team to replace Honda-bound Lorenzo for 2019, and made his debut outing

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Three-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo has admitted he was “very close” to retiring before he sealed a deal with Honda ahead of the 2019 season. Lorenzo signed a two-year contract with Ducati for 2017-18, but he had a tough first season and

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. KTM rider Pol Espargaro believes the addition of Tech3 to the manufacturer’s MotoGP stable will allow it to “double or triple” its development rate. After making its full-time MotoGP debut last year KTM has been largely fought for the lower reaches of

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. MotoGP and its supporting categories will introduce a new rule on how to classify riders who finish a race separated from their bikes. The rule change was approved on Friday at a meeting of the Grand Prix commission, which is comprised of

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez underwent successful surgery on his left shoulder on Tuesday. The works Honda rider revealed back in October he would require surgery on his shoulder at the end of the season, having dislocated it on a number of

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Dani Pedrosa will make his first MotoGP test outing for KTM later this month after obtaining permission from Honda, which still has the Spaniard under contract. As revealed by German publication Speedweek, Pedrosa will get his first taste of the RC16 at

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi has urged Lewis Hamilton to visit his motorbike training ranch in Italy following the five-time Formula 1 champion’s recent Jerez Superbike outing. Hamilton was out on track at Jerez on Saturday with Yamaha World Superbike racers Alex Lowes

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso says this year’s post-season tests at Valencia and Jerez were the best he has experienced since joining the manufacturer. Championship runner-up Dovizioso concluded last week’s two days of Jerez running eighth fastest, 0.347 seconds off the pace

Get unlimited access You have 10 articles remaining to view this month. Three-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo will undergo his second surgery in just over a month on Monday to address discomfort in his right foot. Lorenzo was thrown off his Ducati in a violent highside crash a corner into the Aragon Grand Prix, dislocating

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Maverick Vinales believes that Yamaha’s 2019 bike is good enough to make the team a title contender again based on his experience in winter testing. After topping both days of last week’s first pre-season test at Valencia, Vinales also figured strongly on

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi has parted with rider coach Luca Cadalora following the 2018 campaign. Cadalora, a grand prix champion in 125cc and 250cc and a race winner in the then-premier 500cc class, joined Rossi’s crew ahead of the 2016 season.

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. LCR rider Takaaki Nakagami topped the final day of MotoGP testing of 2018 at Jerez, edging out Honda stablemate Marc Marquez by just 0.025 seconds. Nakagami, riding injured team-mate Cal Crutchlow’s old 2018-spec Honda, logged his fastest time of the day, a

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Andrea Dovizioso says he is in “big pain” after crashing on day one of MotoGP’s post-season Jerez test and will need his discomfort to be “acceptable” to ride on Thursday. Dovizioso ended the penultimate day of 2018 running second-fastest behind new factory

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi says the engine developments Yamaha brought to the Valencia and Jerez MotoGP post-season tests will not be good enough to elevate the manufacturer into contention for victories. Rossi was only 17th on the first day of the post-season Jerez test