virage du raccordement

To me, seeing what people thought of a sport is just as interesting as studying said sport and this is why I was glad to be able to conduct this survey another year and hear about directly from fans like me.

The answers to this survey were gathered between the 17th and the 30th of November 2025.

about people who answered the survey

A total of 250 people answered this survey (more than twice than last year, thanks again to every person who took the time to give me their opinion on this handful of questions).

Data on when the people surveyed started watching MotoGP

About a fifth of people surveyed have already been watching MotoGP for over a decade while half of the people surveyed started watching very recently, in either 2024 or 2025.

63.2% of people (about 2 in 3) watched the entirety of the season, catching up if a race couldn’t be watched live. The number goes up to 70.8% if we remove fans who only started watching MotoGP in 2025. Then :

• 21.6% of people said they missed a race here and there,
• 7.6% said that they watched at least half of the season,
• The remaining 7.6% watched less than half of the season (of the 19 people who picked that answer, 12 started watching the sport during the year).

In terms of which parts of the race weekends were watched :

• About half of people surveyed (48.8%) watched everything available (practice sessions, qualifying, sprint race),
• A quarter (24.8%) found the time for everything but the practice sessions,
• And the remaining quarter (23.6%) watched at least the moments where points where at play (sprint and race).

Interestingly enough, those results are extremely similar to the ones I obtained in 2024.

about the season overall

on riders

who impressed people the most

« Which rider(s) impressed you the most? » – Unlimited choices – 250 answers

Considering the answers received, I want to consider three tiers of riders.

• Tier 1 : Marco Bezzecchi (190 votes), Marc Marquez (180) and Alex Marquez (167)

Unsurprisingly, the top 3 of the championship —albeit not in the order they finished in the standings— were deemed the most impressive riders by the majority of people (from 66.8% for Alex, up to 76.0% for Marco).

In an interesting way, all 3 of them were impressive for different reasons.

If he had an impressive 2023, the Italian had a disappointing 2024 with only one podium in Jerez. During the 2025 season, with his 5 poles, 3 sprint wins (6 podiums) and 3 race wins (9 podiums), Marco Bezzecchi definitely did better than what most people expected of him.

And it might have been one thing to win the championship but doing so that early in the season (the first time a season wasn’t decided in the last round since 2021, the first time it happened that early since Marc’s own championship win in 2019) and accumulating the most amount of poles, wins & podiums with a margin on the others, while missing 4 rounds, sure was a feat to admire.

Alex had obviously shown his potential in past seasons (he’s still a Moto3 and Moto2 champion who had a couple of podiums and two sprint wins under his belt before 2025) but this year he went above and beyond to be the best of the grid once Marc removed. He was considered a title contender at least until the break and his P2 in the standings was never truly challenged at any point of the season.

• Tier 2 : Fermin Aldeguer (120) and Pedro Acosta (93)

There is a bit of a gap between them but I do believe that the only rookie of 2024 (who received a vote from 37.2% of the people who answered that question) and the best rookie of 2025 (one vote from almost half of the people who answered) do belong together here.

On one side, Fermin Aldeguer, after a bit of a rocky start, proved himself to be the best rookie, achieving his first podium in Le Mans (P3, round 6), a second podium in Spielberg (P2, round 13) and finally his first MotoGP win in Mandalika (round 18).

In addition to that, Fermin didn’t pale in comparison to the other Ducatis of the grid. His races AFP of 8.4 was just half a point shy of Fabio Di Giannantonio’s 7.9. Qualifying wise, Fermin only stayed in Q1 6 times and his average qualifying position was a 9.5 (one point behind Diggia).

On the other side, Pedro Acosta, who had more expectations put on him after a good rookie season and now riding for the factory KTM, also had a bit of slow start and things gradually improving, especially with his 3 podiums in the last 5 rounds of the season.

If the Spaniard is still looking for his first MotoGP win (the lack of achievement there might be one of the reasons 15 people found his 2025 season disappointing instead of impressive), he was still miles ahead of the other KTMs in terms of performance. He has a races AFP of 6.0 compared to his teammate’s Brad Binder 8.5 and qualifying wise, his AQP is of 7.0, 7 positions over Maverick Viñales’ 14.2 and Brad Binder’s 14.3.

If you want to read more about everyone’s stats, I have written an entire article about it here.

• Tier 3 : Raul Fernandez (74), Fabio Quartararo (66) and Luca Marini (62)

Finally, 3 riders who had wildly different seasons and also, wildly different reasons to be picked by 25% to 30% of people for this question, in my opinion.

After an incredible 2021 Moto2 season, Raul Fernandez had high expectations set on him upon his arrival in MotoGP. Unfortunately he kind of faded in the background and I believe that few people expected of him the achievements that happened in the last part of the season, namely his first MotoGP podium in Mandalika followed by his first MotoGP win in Phillip Island and a little after, the P2 in Valencia to finish the season.

On the contrary, Fabio Quartararo has already shown what he’s capable of when the bike works for him. The issue in 2025 —a season where Fabio only scored one podium on Sunday, 2 on Saturdays— has been the Yamaha. Fabio still managed to obtain 5 poles and score more championship points than the 3 other riders of his factory. Like with Pedro, some people (13 votes) still hoped more from him (especially when he wasn’t able to convert his good qualifying results into good racing results, I believe).

Finally, one of the (if not the one) most improved riders from 2024 to 2025 : Luca Marini. The Italian may not have often been the focus of the broadcast because he didn’t get a podium or a front row (best qualifying : P6, best sprint : P4, best Sunday race : P5) but Luca Marini improved his races AFP from a 16.0 in 2024 to a 9.1 in 2025. Luca was P22 in the standings last year and he finished second best Honda in P13 (behind Johann Zarco, 6 points and one spot separating them).

who disappointed people the most

« Which rider(s) disappointed you the most? » – Unlimited choices – 237 answers

Once again, the results allow me to work with 3 tiers of « top » answers.

• Tier 1 : Pecco Bagnaia (191)

The Italian was the MotoGP champion in 2022 and 2023. He finished the 2024 championship only 10 points behind Jorge Martin and he was still riding a Ducati in 2025. Pretty much everyone expected him to put up a fight with his teammate (if not beating Marc, at least battling with him on track, sticking close results wise) but Pecco never even saw the second place of the standings. He held onto P3 for a while and was eventually overtaken by Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta at the end of a very complicated season.

If Pecco had a decent start of the season (7 podiums and one win before the break), things got insanely worse after the summer (only one win / podium, the one in Motegi) and he couldn’t even finish a Sunday race in the last 5 race weekends of 2025.

Overall, it’s one thing to see him far from Marc but that P5 in the standings, so far from Alex Marquez the second best Ducati, is not where Pecco was expected to be considering his past results and the bike he was riding.

• Tier 2 : Jorge Martin (77) and Franco Morbidelli (71)

The next step after Pecco is rider who received a vote from about 30% of people who answered the question.

On one side, Jorge Martin was coming in 2025 as the crowned world champion, holding a title to defend. Unfortunately for him, his multiples injuries (twice in pre season, then in Losail and then in Motegi) didn’t really leave room for him to defend said title. Do said injuries and the lack of time on his new bike excuse him from his performances (far under what his teammate Marco Bezzecchi achieved)? Well, I can’t be the only judge of that (and that’s why the survey is there).

(It could also be that people found his season disappointing but not necessarily Jorge Martin himself.)

On the other side, Franco Morbidelli ran most of the season (only missed the round in Brno). He had less podiums than his teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio (2 vs 3 in sprints, 2 vs 4 in races) but their results were still quite close (I’ll have a full study of that coming out in a few weeks). Morbidelli finished P7 in the standings with 231 points while Di Giannantonio finished P6 with 262 points. Yet, Diggia only disappointed 18 people to Franky’s 71.

Is this a GP24 versus GP25 consideration or bias from Morbidelli’s latest mistake in Valencia? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

• Tier 3 : Enea Bastianini (44), Brad Binder (38) and Somkiat Chantra (29)

To finish, two riders who received a vote from at least 16 to 18.6% of people. Somkiat Chantra is a little behind them (12.2%) but there is a gap from the rest of the grid after him so that’s why I’ve decided to include him here.

In an opposite way to Luca Marini, Enea Bastianini is the rider who had the biggest downfall from 2024 to 2025 (I’ve mentioned some number in my mid-season article). The transition from the Ducati to the KTM was rough, the Italian trading front rows and second rows for stays in Q1 and podiums for P7s to P17s (with the two exceptions of his P5 in Spielberg and his P3 in Barcelona).

Another KTM rider who struggled and who in addition to that, was severely outperformed by his teammate, is Brad Binder. The South African’s best results were a P9 in qualifying, a P4 in sprints and a P5 in races. Overall, his averages are worst than in 2024 and he finished P11 in the standings, 152 points behind Pedro Acosta.

Finally, Somkiat Chantra, the rookie who was only able to last one season in MotoGP. Interestingly enough, he had numbers similar do what Luca Marini achieved in 2024 but the gap to the other Honda riders was quite large in 2025. Was the Honda that much better of a bike or were Chantra’s struggles still justified given his rookie status? Most people seem to agree with that last option considering the number of votes received overall.

who did both

Riders with split opinions

For this section, I’ve considered riders who have received at least 8 votes in both the « most impressive » and the « most disappointing » questions, while having a gap of less than 10 votes between the two.

(Note : to be quite fair, opinions were less divided this year than in 2024, hence the low threshold of votes for consideration.)

Two riders have a pretty split opinion amongst fans : Maverick Viñales and Joan Mir. Both riders had highs (the first rounds of the season for Maverick, the late podiums for Joan) and lows (an injury that complicated the second half of the season for Maverick, way too many DNFs for Joan) in 2025, which I think justify the votes here.

The two other riders have more of a tendency going one way. In Ai Ogura‘s case, people have been more positive. The Aprilia rookie did have impressive results in the first rounds of the season (including a P4-P5 in the season opener in Buriram) but didn’t exactly shine after that. On the other side, people have been more disappointed than impressed by Fabio Di Giannantonio. The Italian had a better 2025 than 2024 but people could have expected more from him on the GP25.

on races

to rewatch

« Which races have you rewatched/would you want to rewatch in the future? » – Unlimited choices – 223 answers

The 2024 survey answers was heavily influenced by Marc Marquez’ answers. This year, his presence is still there (after all, he did win 11 of those races and was on the podium of 15 of them) but overall, less so.

In the end, the championship celebrations help Motegi take the first spot in the list of races that people have rewatched or want to rewatch in the future. Misano is close behind, a race that was full of theatrics between the battles and the celebrations of both Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi.

Close behind, we have the incredible battles of Mugello‘s first laps; Marc Marquez, Pecco Bagnaia and Alex Marquez going for overtake after overtake in a show taking place in front of the Italian crowd. Close behind, a race that crowned a local after one hell of a scenario : the victory of Johann Zarco in Le Mans.

After that, two races that also had quite the action as well : Sachsenring and its 10 finishers, COTA and the insane start theatrics (along with Marc Marquez crashing, remounting before retiring, and the first of two Pecco Bagnaia wins of 2025).

surprising / impressive wins

« Any win(s) that surprised and/or impressed you? » – Unlimited choices – 227 answers

There is a clear top 5 emerging from this question, divided into two tiers.

• Tier 1 : Le Mans (137) and Phillip Island (122)

There are two wins that won over a vast majority of people (60.4% for the first and 53.7% for the second).

• Tier 2 : Mandalika (75), Motegi (63) and Silverstone (57)

Here : a variety of wins that were impressive or unexpected for 25 to 33% of the people who answered this question.

First off, another first MotoGP win with Fermin Aldeguer taking P1 in Mandalika in his rookie season. Then, it’s a victory that almost didn’t happen with how worrying the white smoke coming out of Pecco Bagnaia’s bike became in those last laps of Motegi. Finally, a race that was quite eventful in the beginning and that ended up crowning a rider who started from P10 and who hadn’t won a race since 2023 : Marco Bezzecchi in Silverstone.

• Additional notes

The 6th race here is the last first win of the season : Alex Marquez in Jerez. His brother Marc only appears in the rankings in 7th with the win in Losail.

things to change / cancel

As usual, I had the open-ended question asking people what they would change in 2025 if they could. My goal with that question is too see which one event people would want to alter if they had the power to do so, the little « what if » that they would like to know about.

(Full confession : I did ask for one thing but if several of them were mentioned by the same person, I did attribute a vote to every event.) (I promise it’s not biaising the answers that much, we’re good).

Note : A couple of people mentioned the horrific Moto3 crash that happened between José Antonio Rueda and Noah Dettwiler in Sepang and the way it was handled by the officials afterward. I considered it aside because the severity and seriousness of it was so big it goes beyond the « fun » what ifs of this question. I believe that everyone wished this incident never happened and continue to wish a good recovery to both José Antonio and Noah.

Now, one incident overwhelmingly wasn’t appreciated by a majority of the people who answered this survey : the Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi crash on the first lap of the race in Mandalika (91 mentions). Mostly, it made people worry about Marc once again injuring his right side and fans would have loved to see what Marc could do after his championship win.

Then, we have two concepts detaching themselves from the rest. First of all, the Fabio Quartararo ride height device issue that caused him to DNF from the lead in Silverstone (35 mentions). The Yamaha rider coming so close to his first win in 3 years was definitely heartbreaking to see.

Behind him, I grouped together all the Jorge Martin injuries, from the pre-season crashes to the Losail one and the Motegi one (25 mentions). Considering his world champion status and what Marco Bezzecchi was achieving on the Aprilia, people would have loved to see what the Spaniard could do in 2025 if healthy and actually riding.

Then, I’ll group together the things that were mentioned at least 5 times :

• Pecco’s whole season (the crashes, his bad luck, etc.) (9 mentions),
• Marc Marquez’s crash during the COTA race (8 mentions),
• The various tyre pressure penalties (5 mentions).

And finally, things that all got mentioned 3 times : the Alex Marquez crash in Assen, Yamaha as a concept and a wish for no more aero devices.

about favorites

race weekends

« Favorite race weekend » – 235 answers

Before diving into the top results, I want to mention the fact that a lot of people justified their choice by saying that they picked the race weekend they attented, which I personally find very sweet and very valid.

Now, if we look at race weekends which had everyone agreeing : we have a clear winner in Motegi (58 votes). For a vast majority of people, this was about Marc Marquez getting his 9th title and the celebrations that went with it but it’s worth noting that Pecco Bagnaia’s good race and Joan Mir’s podium were also things that people enjoyed in Japan.

The second race weekend is Mugello (22 votes). The reasons for that choice are varied : Mugello being a beautiful track, the nice battles we had there with Marc coming out on top or Italian pride.

Then, we had a handful of races receiving more than 10 votes :

• COTA (18 votes) : a lot of people attending and the Marc antics (before the race started and also during with the crash and remount),
• Le Mans (17 votes) : some French pride, a lot of the overall craziness of the weekend and the emotional win of Johann Zarco,
• Misano (17 votes) : the battles on track and the celebrations afterward (from Marco Bezzecchi and his wooden leg and Marc Marque taking his leathers off),
• Sachsenring (15 votes) : some people in attendance again, the insanity of only having 10 finishers and Marc being back to being King of the Ring,
• Phillip Island (13 votes) : a lot of (first time) attendance and people being happy for Raul’s win.

podiums

Note : Again, if several podiums were mentioned, I accepted the votes for everything listed.

When talking about favorite podiums, there is a clear winner amongst them all and that is the race in Misano (33 votes). When justifying their choice, people mentioned Marc Marquez’ iconic celebration the most but Marco Bezzecchi and his wooden leg were listed as well.

Overall, this podium put together the riders that people enjoyed watching on the podium together, in general. 6 people said they loved seeing the Marquez sharing a top 3 and 6 other people said the same thing about Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi (which: so valid, we love brothers and old beefs being put aside in this house).

Then, two Sunday podiums received a lot of love with 17 mentions each : Motegi (Pecco Bagnaia win, Marc Marquez celebrating the 9th, Joan Mir getting his first Honda podium) and Jerez (first win for Alex Marquez, only Fabio Quartararo podium of the season).

Le Mans is right behind with the Johann Zarco win (16 mentions). Then we have Barcelona and the first Marquez 1-2 where Alex was in front of his big brother (12 mentions) and their first 1-2 ever for the first race weekend of the season in Buriram (11 mentions).

After that, the other first MotoGP wins share a position in the standings with 8 mentions each for Mandalika and Phillip Island.

The sprints that received the most amount of votes were Le Mans and Sachsenring (5 each). Overall, people said they enjoyed watching the Marquez brothers sharing a podium with Fermin Aldeguer (which happened in the Le Mans sprint and the Aragon sprint).

Two riders were also mentioned for the appreciation of their overall podiums apparition : Pedro Acosta and Joan Mir.

moments

The one moment that made everyone agree (receiving 77 mentions) was Marc winning the championship in Motegi, something that a lot of people were waiting on and something that came to conclude a beautiful comeback.

Then, we continue with a moment that was high in emotions and also the win that got the most amount of votes in the « most impressive / surprising win » question : the Johann Zarco victory in Le Mans (31 mentions here).

What follows was a rules-changing event and what I have decided to name « the COTA start shenanigans » (24 mentions), especially the moment where Marc Marquez started sprinting towards the pit lane.

After, with just one less mention (23), a variety of answers that I’ve decided to group under the umbrella of « Marco Bezzecchi doing well with Aprilia« , which included everything that had to do with the Italian doing well with the Italian factory overall and Marco Bezzecchi scoring the last two wins of the season.

Finally, two kind of answers received 21 mentions each : Alex Marquez getting his first MotoGP win in Jerez and the overall concept of the Marquez brothers celebrating various achievements together (in particular the dancing in Barcelona).

The rest of the answers received 15 mentions or less so I’ve decided to group them in categories (contains every answer that received at least 4 votes) :

• Battles : first laps in Mugello, the various Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi battles (and their relationship improving over the season), Portimao sprint, Sachsenring sprint,
• Celebrations : Marc and his leathers in Misano, Marco Bezzecchi proposing to his bike in Valencia, Marco Bezzecchi and his wooden leg in Misano,
• First wins : all 3 first wins were mentioned as a concept and Raul’s PI win and Fermin’s Mandalika win were also mentioned separately as well,
• Drama/Chaos : Silverstone first laps, Jorge Martin contract situation,
• Specific wins : Buriram (all of the Marquez brothers 1-2), Alex Marquez in Barcelona, Marco Bezzecchi in Silverstone, Pecco Bagnaia in Motegi (and the rest of that podium overall),
• Miscellaneous : Fabio Quartararo poles, Marc Marquez domination, Pecco Bagnaia horrors.

special liveries & helmets

Note : Full disclosure, I might have forgotten to include the question on special liveries and helmets in the beginning so the first couple dozens people who answered the survey didn’t get a chance to answer that one, which lowers the number of mentions every livery / helmet could have received. Sorry about that, in any case, I still think that the proportionality aspect of what was loved the most still works.

liveries

Then, we have two designs that were also compelling for a lot of people, first the Aprilia of Trackhouse and their Gulf livery (23 mentions) and another Ducati with the silver special that Alex Marquez ran in Valencia (21 mentions) to celebrate his P2 in the championship.

Behind those, 3 liveries that all had around between 12 and 14 mentions :

• the dark blue Gresini bike in Sepang (14 mentions),
• the usual retro Fausto Gresini tribute in Misano (13 mentions),
• the Yamaha 70th anniversary special design in Assen (12 mentions).

The rest of the special liveries received 3 mentions or less, 3 liveries (or I suppose 4, actually) receiving exactly 3 votes : Fabio Quartararo’s Yamaha in Le Mans, the VR46 in Mugello and the Ducatis for Valencia testing.

helmets

Nominations for special helmets were a little harder to get but I think they’re generally less easy to remember than special liveries.

The top 3 special helmets are all from the rider who usually have the highest amount of special designs throughout a season : Marc Marquez. The design he used in Motegi received the most amount of mentions (24), then his retro COTA helmet (11) and the full red championship special (9).

After that, two helmets both received 6 votes : the Toothless design Fabio Quartararo had in Mugello and the Valencia tribute that Raul Fernandez had in the last round of the season.

Marc’s street art design in Barcelona received 5 votes while 3 designs all received 4 votes : the wood theme of Marco Bezzecchi in Misano, the dandelion dream of Franco Morbidelli in Misano and the indigo traditional Japanese design of Ai Ogura in Motegi.

miscellaneous

on Yamaha

The opinion on Yamaha’s 2025 season – 241 answers

Regarding Yamaha’s 2025, people were not impressed. Only 10% of people who answered thought they did well all things considered. Of the remaining answers, a majority of people (73.3%) are scared instead of hopeful for 2026.

on the 2025 Moto2 riders

« Is there any Moto2 rider (or more than one) you would have given a MotoGP seat if you could? » – 131 riders

Considering the formulation of the answers I have received, I have decided to divide the votes in 3 categories :

• Straight votes,
• Votes where it was obvious the answer was given from favoritism rather than results,
• Votes where people explicited that they were considering riders while giving them one more year of Moto2 experience.

Is this a little uncertain and at times up to my interpretation? Yes. Are we still going to work with that? Also yes.

The rider who was mentioned the most amount of times is, unsurprisingly considering he lead the championship for most of the season and even tested with Aprilia in the Aragon test in June, Manuel Gonzalez. A couple of people did mention that considering his end of the season, he should stay in Moto2 in 2026.

The second rider mentioned is Celestino Vietti, who didn’t have his best Moto2 season in 2025 but got to test the Ducati of VR46 in Valencia. A couple of people did mention that they wanted the Italian in MotoGP because he was their favorite but that’s still interesting to note.

David Alonso‘s second half of 2025 definitely left a trace on fans’ mind because 11 people said they already wanted him in MotoGP next year. 4 more said they could see him in the premier class in a year. This sentiment is echoed for his teammate, Daniel Holgado, who people also want in MotoGP in either 2026 or 2027.

To complete that top 6, we have two riders who have been in Moto2 for a while : Aron Canet (6 seasons, still in Moto2 in 2026) and Jake Dixon (8 seasons in Moto2, moving to World SBK in 2026).

A bunch of people mentioned that they thought that only Diogo Moreira deserved a seat, which obviously was already a done thing so I didn’t count those votes.

on the 2026 rookies

People’s opinion on the arrival of the 2026 rookies – 247 & 246 answers

People were feeling mostly neutral regarding Toprak Razgatlioglu‘s arrival to MotoGP. When explained, the reasoning was mostly that people don’t really know much about him but are curious about what he could do on the Yamaha.

In Diogo Moreira‘s case, the opinion is mostly positive (63.8% of people opted for « Good » as their answer). He was considered deserving of his MotoGP seat after his 2025 Moto2 season.