Looking toward the future.

Marc Marquez, the Moto GP rookie who has brought many to wonder about the type of riders that the new feeder series of Moto2 & 3, which have been implemented are producing. There is no longer the steep learning curve that many of the previous greats had to face. This new breed of rider is moving up from a 600cc inline four engine spec series; these bikes carry their weight very similarly to Moto GP machines. Though Moto2 bikes are smaller, down on power and top speed, it seems that the major adjustments for a rider have been the carbon-ceramic discs and electronics that are fitted onto a Moto GP bike. Carbon brakes push the braking marker much closer to the apex, require extreme temperature to operate at their peak performance, and the electronics are demanding 100% trustworthiness in their mechanical operation. In the past, riders from the feeder series of MotoGp had to adjust to a much larger engine displacement, advanced brakes, electronics and the increase of weight from the bikes they rode in the lower classifications. These reasons gave a slight advantage to riders that moved into MotoGp from the WSBK(Hayden, Edwards, Spies, and Crutchlow) series due to very similar displacements, electronics, and weights between the bikes in these two categories. Although these riders had to learn several of the tracks on the GP calendar, being that these two series run at many of the different tracks located throughout the world and thus giving the track knowledge advantage to riders moving up from the GP feeder series that run with Moto GP just about every race weekend.

This seems to be changing with the new breed of riders coming from Moto2, not only is there less adjustment to get to speed on a MotoGp bike, as Marquez demonstrated this year at Circuit of the Americas, winning in just his second outing. Their coming from a class that's running spec engines and tires which produces much tighter and closer racing. This leaves the rider and chassis to be the major difference between the field, but several teams run the same chassis package and electronics. This leaving just the rider to be the biggest difference on the track, where it's difficult to pull away from an equal field, producing a rider that's not afraid to rub elbows, squeeze through some very tight openings, or wait extremely late to apply the brakes to gain that slight advantage. It's the fourth year that Moto2 has been going head-to-head and the series has not disappointed, providing many of the rising stars of the series a future run at the MotoGp championship, with many more young future prospects still it the pipeline. Marquez, Bradl, Smith, Espargaro, Corti, and Iannone moved into MotoGp from the Moto2 feeder series and several more are making the step this coming year, making this fast scrappy type of rider a high demand to MotoGp teams and to the future of the World Championship.