Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/476137
2015 MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW P98 cially modified to let him in at 15. Alongside him, Spaniard Jorge Navarro, who ran half-a-season last year. Eleven KTMs see Binder and Oliveira backed up by Romano Fenati, the super-fast Italian joined in Rossi's Sky-VR46 team by new boy Andrea Migno. The Honda Horde is now 12-strong, from veterans Efren Vazquez and Alexis Masbou (both winners last year) to rising stars Niccolo Antonelli and Enea Bastianini, with Kent also switching to Honda. Mahindra has nine bikes on the grid, with Bag- naia and Guevara in the prestigious Aspar team. Remy Gardner, son of 1987 champion Wayne, makes his full-time debut on a MGP3O, while Daryn Binder is latest younger brother to join the lists. Last year, the top three finished within half a second at 13, and at Phillip Island the first six in less than a quarter of a second. Expect more of the same. CN Rabat was pretty dominant last year, winning seven times, and it is hard to predict he will not be again. His closest rival was teammate Mika Kallio, who has switched teams to Italtrans. The strongest challenge could again be from within his own Marc VDS team, which has gained Estrella Galicia sponsorship, along with the Spanish beer brand's strongest rider--Moto3 title winner Alex Marquez, Marc's younger brother. He won races and the title quicker than his sibling. And by the example of previous Moto3 champ Maverick Vinales, it needn't take a good rider long to adapt. Vinales was third last year, but has gone to MotoGP. Plenty of other talent includes several former champions: Sandro Cortese, Thomas Luthi and Julian Simon all won in the smallest class; Sam Lowes World Supersport. Let's not forget late developer Dominique Ae- gerter, who won his first race last year. And then Alex Rins, another Moto3 star who has moved up. Any of the above could win at least one race. In Moto2, you never quite know what will happen next. M O T O 3 : T H E M A E L S T R O M C O N T I N U E S Last year's title rivals Jack Miller and Alex Mar- quez have gone, but the talent pool is still over- flowing, as KTM and Honda rejoin their high-level battle, and the Mahindra challenge takes a step up to factory status. KTM had taken control of the "low-cost" class, swallowing the expense and hoisting the technol- ogy. Honda fought back last year, and emerged victorious, if only narrowly. Mahindra also will now service customer teams, with one enjoying top status. For KTM, it's the Red Bull/Ajo squad, with Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira replacing Miller and Danny Kent, while Karel Hanika stays put. For Honda, Marquez and Rins have been replaced by one rank and one relative rookie. Much is expected of new boy, Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, after the age-limit rules were espe- >> F R O Z E N The 2015 season marks the end of an era, as the last year when the factory bikes still have some vestige of freedom to continue the technical adventure. From 2016, the so-called Factory Option will be a thing of the past, and all bikes will run under Open rules, using stock one-size-fits-all electronics, and pooling development. The technical adventure is nowadays mainly electronic, but that comes to an end after less than half-a-season. From the end of June, after eight of 18 races, further electronic developments will be frozen. Factory teams already have engine development frozen, and may use only five engines per year against 12 for Open bikes. They also get only 20 liters (5.3 gallons) of fuel, compared with 24 (6.3 gallons). It made little difference to their domination. Will frozen electronics have a bigger effect? They do say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Is the opposite true? Unlikely. The factory teams will continue to hold sway both before and after the dividing point; and probably on into the future as well.