Most anticipated MotoGP Team Launches of all time
Marc Marquez made headlines last week with his brand-new look in Gresini colors, but there are five other all-time great team reveals that challenge his anticipation…
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Team launches have always been a staple of the MotoGP culture and for a very good reason: We fans need something to talk about in the never-ending, gloomy winters of the pre-season. So, a spice of new colors and a fancy presentation are all we ask for before the action begins at the first preseason test of Sepang.
Last week Gresini Ducati made the most anticipated team launch for the 2024 season, with Marc Marquez making his debut in the Gresini light blue and red colors. And it’s not frequent that we see the best rider of the current generation switching to a different ride.
All fans and pundits are excited to see what Marc Marquez brings to the table in a highly competitive eight-rider lineup of Ducati, especially after a brilliant showcase of early speed in his first outing aboard the championship-winning GP23 in the Valencia test.
However, in this article, we will be looking at five other team launches that the fans could not wait to see.
5- Ducati 2011: Valentino Rossi chasing glory with a third manufacturer
2011 was a momentous year for MotoGP with many surprising rider movements spurred on by Valentino Rossi leaving Yamaha to join Ducati. The Italian megastar had already won championships with Yamaha and Honda and winning another one aboard a third manufacturer would’ve been a jewel in the crown, of what is already a prestigious career of the Italian.
It was a dream prospect, that seemed too good to be true; an Italian rider on an Italian machine winning the world championship for Italy! It was a dream scenario for the Tifosis.
Sadly, Rossi’s tenure at Ducati would be something that he and his fans would like to forget, and it would take Ducati a further ten years to achieve their first world title since Casey Stoner in 2007.
At least, for Rossi fans, it would be one of his proteges in Francesco Bagnaia who would go on to end that 15-year championship drought for Ducati by finally becoming the first Italian to win a world championship aboard an Italian machine.
See, Happy ending!
4- Repsol Honda 2019: Jorge Lorenzo’s ‘dream’ pairing with Marc Marquez
Talking about ill-fated dreams…
The prospects of seeing Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo on the same team seemed out of this world – even unfair to the rest of the field at the time. But Honda was able to lure away Jorge Lorenzo after he and Ducati decided to part ways.
Marc Marquez was coming off of three world championships on the trot, with a tally of seven world championships at the time. And if you add Jorge Lorenzo to the mix – the only guy to beat Marc Marquez to the world championship amidst his history-defining run, you just have every bit of the pie on your side.
Despite Jorge Lorenzo’s injuries going into the 2019 season, fans were still excited to see how Jorge Lorenzo would perform against a dominant Marc Marquez, after all, the last time he finished the Grand Prix at the time was a last-lap win against Marc Marquez in Austria in 2018.
Unfortunately, the whole concept of the ‘dream team’ would fall flat on its head with Lorenzo enduring a shocking 2019 season marred by multiple injuries that would ultimately force him into an early retirement. He would score no top tens the entire year and would finish the season in 19th the worst placing in his career.
Marquez would go on to enjoy his most impressive season to date, winning the rider’s world championship with the most points in a season and almost single-handedly bringing in the team’s world championship for Repsol Honda.
3- Ducati 2017: Jorge Lorenzo’s debut in red
Jorge Lorenzo’s decision to leave Yamaha after spending nine years with Iwata factory, marked an important moment in the sport’s history, resulting in a chain of events that would shape the modern landscape of the championship.
It left a power vacuum, which would ultimately result in the end of the ‘MotoGP alien’s’ stranglehold at the top of the championship.
In 2016, Ducati were looking for a rider to break into the Honda-Yamaha nexus at the top of the championship even if it meant breaking the bank for it. And they got their wish in the form of 5-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo.
With the arrival of Luigi Dal ’Igna and the progress made by their previous two challengers, the prospects of a strong Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati partnership were imminent.
Unfortunately, it would take Jorge Lorenzo a year and five races into the 2018 season to show up with championship-contending pace as he would go on to dominate the Italian Grand Prix but by that time the top brass at Ducati had already decided to go with Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci for the 2019 season.
A sad case of what could’ve been had Mugello happened one week earlier…
2- Repsol Honda 2006: Dani Pedrosa makes his premiere class debut
Everyone’s excited to see Pedro Acosta, right?
Well, that was the case with Dani Pedrosa back in 2006. For people who weren’t there at the time, let’s just say that Dani Pedrosa back then was 2006’s version of Pedro Acosta.
Pedrosa dominated the junior categories with three world championships in four years. With a solid 125cc debut year in 2002 finishing in 3rd, Pedrosa would go on to win three world championships on the trot – one in the 125cc category and two in the 250cc category and he won those titles not against some ordinary competition, but against future MotoGP world champions and legends, Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo.
Now that’s a crazy resume going into your premiere class debut, and it wasn’t a surprise that he would get a direct shot at the works Honda team as he was regarded at the time as the only solution to the problem that was Valentino Rossi.
2006 would eventually see a new world champion who would bring an end to Rossi’s six-year domination at the front but it wouldn’t come in the form of Dani Pedrosa but instead his American teammate in Repsol Honda Nicky Hayden.
1- Yamaha Racing 2004: Rossi shocks everyone with a surprise move
During Rossi’s time on the Honda, many inside his garage were convinced that more than Rossi himself, it was their RC211V itself that was responsible for their success.
For Rossi, these comments came across as discrediting to his role in their championship-winning success prompting the Italian to ditch his championship-winning Honda for a Yamaha for the 2004 season.
At that time, Yamaha hadn’t won a race in their 2003 campaign prompting many to believe that it was a mistake on Rossi’s part. But the prospects of the Italian doing his magic on the Yamaha were legacy-defining and built an air of anticipation like never before.
Honda even famously blocked Rossi from testing his Yamaha for the upcoming season but all their efforts were futile as Rossi would go on to win a last-lap thriller against Max Biaggi at the inaugural race of 2004 in Welkom and would go on to win 4 world championships with Yamaha.
It was this move to Yamaha that made Rossi a brand icon for the Iwata factory, making it the most anticipated team reveal in our list.
