The Race MotoGP Podcast

Aprilia beat the brakes off MotoGP's usual dominant force Ducati in a fascinating 2026 season opener - so how worried should Ducati and star rider Marc Marquez be after a dispiriting Thai Grand Prix?

Simon Patterson and Val Khorounzhiy discuss the chief storylines from Buriram, including the last-second deflation of a weekend Marquez looked to have salvaged, the source of Aprilia's dominance and a potential career-best weekend from new championship leader Pedro Acosta.

Plus, why did Yamaha keep its riders from the media on Sunday - and how bad was its 2026 bike's competitive debut? And what of rookies Diogo Moreira and Toprak Razgatlioglu?

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This might not be the most unpredictable season MotoGP has ever gone into, but there is very good reason to expect a much more open and intriguing 2026 campaign compared to 2025 - as Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer explain on The Race MotoGP Podcast.

Why some form of title fight is potentially on and who’ll be giving Marc Marquez the most headaches is our main topic, and we also make our predictions for who’ll make the biggest improvement over 2025 and who’ll go in the other direction.

Plus Matt has a few ‘one-line-only answers’ curveball prediction questions for Simon and Val too.

Enjoy 90% off your first month with The Race Members' Club: Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more.

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MotoGP’s 2026 pre-season is over, so with the shakedown and two main tests complete and the season-opening Thai Grand Prix looming next weekend, who’s got most (and least) to smile about?

Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer debate that as The Race MotoGP Podcast delves into both the data and the vibes from the final days of winter running.

Enjoy a 7-day free trial to The Race Members' Club: Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more.

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MotoGP is dropping one of its most iconic and beloved tracks as Phillip Island loses the Australian Grand Prix to the Adelaide street track. But is it really feasible to make Adelaide MotoGP-safe, and is the long game actually to take the race somewhere else entirely? Simon has some very strong views on it all.

And as well as a circuit dropping out of MotoGP, we're also looking at which riders might be squeezed out (and who'll replace them) as we tackle the latest batch of The Race Members' Club's questions about the big 2027 moves and machinations.

Enjoy a 7-day free trial to The Race Members' Club: Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more.

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Is Ducati taking a huge risk in potentially putting Pedro Acosta alongside Marc Marquez for 2027, especially when it still has Fermin Aldeguer on its books too?

Why has Ducati never seemed interested in Fabio Quartararo? Would Pecco Bagnaia be making a huge mistake if he picked Yamaha over Aprilia?

Those are just some of the many, many questions from The Race Members’ Club that Val Khorounzhiy, Simon Patterson and Matt Beer tackle as The Race MotoGP Podcast answers your queries and points about the headlines of the wild 2027 rider market so far.

And we delve into the philosophy of the paddock deals and how they’re communicated too, exploring everything from how and why leaks to the media happen, what salaries different teams might offer and why riders and teams seem so determined to commit to long term contracts way earlier than appears sensible.

Enjoy a 7-day free trial to The Race Members' Club: Sign up to our motorbike-only Riders tier on Patreon for our 2015 revisited series, ad-free listening and more.

Follow the Race Moto channel on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠
Check out our latest videos on ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.