Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOLUME 62 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 18, 2025 P121 you are Ducati. Score less than 35 percent, Category D, Honda and Yamaha. There's nobody currently in Category B; Aprilia and KTM are in Category C, with 35 to 66 percent. Denizens of Category D receive the most concessions, including greater freedom for aerodynamic updates. The most important concern is testing and engine development; the latter is the most crucial. Testing concessions allow full-time riders to test as much as they like at any grand prix circuit, until they run out of tires. They are allocated 260 for testing, while Ducati gets 170, less than two-thirds as many, while full-time riders only run at official tests. The engines matter most. Honda and Yamaha are allowed two more than any of the oth - ers, but that's not the important thing. For all the rest, develop- ment is frozen, engine spec set at the end of the preseason tests. They're stuck with it for the year. This had a huge impact in 2025. Ducati's new GP25 engine of- fered more power, but it proved problematic because the latest unit had issues with engine braking and corner entry. They were able to modify it some- what before homologation, but the architecture was different enough from the GP24 engine that it needed a different chas- sis. No time to fix that, so they couldn't just go back to last year's motor. As we have seen, the GP25 proved highly erratic for both Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio. Results varied wildly. Bagnaia, for instance, scored a double win in Japan, and was then double last in Indonesia, or would have been if he hadn't fallen off. Only Marc Marquez, with his otherworldly skills, could actually regularly win on it. In this way, thanks to the concession system, Ducati was hostage to its previous success. Now the other side of the coin. Honda. After years of becoming increasingly less competitive, the Big H assuredly turned the corner in the latter part of 2025. Zarco's wet win at Le Mans, the first since Marquez's last for the company back in 2021, was a freak of nature. But podium finishes in the dry for Joan Mir at recent races were not. They reflected, as he freely said, that they had been able to find an effective development direction, to regain forward momentum. Thanks to the concessions. And of course, a great deal of highly focused hard work, plenty of testing with newly recruited retired GP winner Aleix Espar- garo, the help of ex-Aprilia tech boss Romano Albesiano, and the guidance of long-standing Spanish team boss and former GP winner Alberto Puig. Honda changed its way of working, and in so doing changed the way the bike worked, too. But have they not done well enough, while doing a bit too well? They're not yet winning races, but recent results have changed their percentage score. This is written on the eve of the final race at Valencia, but if either of their official riders, Mir or Luca Marini, score nine points there, which is to say if they finish in the top seven, then Honda will lose Category D status, and move up to join Aprilia and KTM in C (Ducati definitely stay in A, after winning all but four of 21 races so far). Bang go the concessions that has helped Honda recover at least part of its former empire. Is this a bad thing? "No," says Alberto Puig. "It's a reward for our progress." "No," the riders agree. What they have been able to discover is the right direction. "We don't need a new engine now, just a few small things," said Marini. Well, that remains to be seen. Further progress isn't guaran - teed. Just look at Yamaha, con- demned to stay in Category D even if either Quartararo or Rins is to win both the Sprint and the final GP. Then again, with a new V4 en - gine to develop, even if it is only for the last year of the 1000cc formula, Yamaha currently needs all the help it can get. CN