As I wrote yesterday, it doesn’t seem right to spend so much of a 2026 MotoGP preview by talking about the 2027 season. But even more so than the factories, when talking about the riders, it is even more difficult to concentrate on the current season. More than half the grid is changing factories and teams. A quarter or so of the grid currently look like they will be out of MotoGP next year. The lucky few – currently two, for certain, at the time of writing – know they will be back in the same team for 2027.
Coincidentally, that could turn out to be a significant advantage. They will get a head start on developing the 850cc bikes for 2027, while the rest of the grid has to wait until Valencia to get to work on the bikes they’ll be racing next year. And possibly to try out the 2027 Pirelli tires for the first time. Every time you think you have peeled away all the complications of 2027, another layer appears.
