Who will sign under the new records in the 2016 season?

In 2016, the 68th season of the Moto GP World Championship will be written. The engines will first accumulate kilometers in pre-season tests in Sepang, Philip Island and Lausanne, and the first real test will await motorcyclists on March 20 in Qatar. Over the next eight months, eighteen races will be scheduled on four continents and in fifteen different countries. After 1997, the Austrian Grand Prix returns to the race calendar, where the winner will be decided on 14 August at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. The season will end on November 13 in Valencia.

Throughout history, the title of champion in this highest class has roamed the hands of twenty-six racers. The current starting lineup has three of them: Jorge Lorenzo (2010, 2012 and 2015), Marco Marquez (2013-2014) and Valentino Rossi (2001-2005 and 2008-2009). In addition, the return of the fourth world champion is promising. Casey Stoner is returning to Ducati as a test driver, recording two titles in 2007 and 2011. He also brought the first of both to Ducati as their first and only title.

The starting lineup will consist of more than twenty racers in twelve teams and five different factory manufacturers (Yamaha, Honda, Ducati, Suzuki and Aprilia). The country with the most representatives is Spain, which has nine competitors, followed by Italy with four and the United Kingdom with three, both of which boast a rich racing history. Germany, Australia, Ireland, Colombia and France have at least one racer each. Australian Jack Miller will be the youngest to fight for good rankings at just twenty-one years old. At the other extreme, however, is as the oldest thirty-seven-year-old Valentino Rossi.

Although the racers usually fight for the title before the start of the season, this year there is great potential for breaking other records. One of the milestones will be hunted among the Spaniards, where Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo will count the victories. Pedrosa has so far stopped at 2008 in the top class of the Moto GP, and Lorenzo has collected three less since his debut in XNUMX. Considering the absolute records of collected victories in all classes, the Yamaha racer can surpass the legendary Angel Nieto, who stood on the highest podium one hundred and thirty-nine times. He is four wins away from this achievement. Only Pedrosa (one hundred and forty-one victories) is higher than the Spanish racers.

If Honda's racer manages to reach the finish line first at least once, it would mean the eleventh consecutive season in which he has secured at least one victory, which so far only Valentino Rossi has managed between 2000 and 2010. In addition, he has collected fifty-one so far. victories, so the next one would mean tying the record with Phil Read.

The 2016 season is the next opportunity for nine-time world champion Rossi to be crowned for the tenth time. With a possible win, however, he would become the ninth oldest race winner in history, overtaking Phil Read. Currently, the oldest winner in the top class is Britain’s Fergus Anderson. He celebrated in 1953 in Montjuich at the age of forty-four and two hundred and thirty-seven days.

Furthermore, Rossi will have the opportunity to jump to victory on two racetracks, where he has never been the fastest in Moto GP, ie. in Austin and Aragon. On the other hand, Marc Marquez, who has won there for the past nine seasons, could continue his dominance on American soil. The only racetrack the Spaniard has not yet won in the top class is Motegi.

There will also be tensions among manufacturers. Yamaha promises to reduce the gap to Honda, which has one hundred and three, by adding to its sixty-fifth victories so far. Suzuki will be fighting for their first win since 2007, when the fastest Australian in France was Chris Vermuelen. Ducati’s last win also came from the hands of the Australian, namely Casey Stoner, who was looking forward to 2010 in his home race. Recently, we have been more or less following the dominance of Honda and Yamaha, which is mainly due to Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez, who "shared" all the trophies for victory since Stoner's on Philip Island in 2012.

In 2016, the Comunitat Valenviana Ricardo Tormo will host the final race for the fifteenth season in a row. In 2006, 2013 and 2015, it also decided on the world champion.

Last year we saw a completely Italian stage for the winners in Qatar and Silverston. In Valencia, we witnessed Spanish domination. Such an achievement is most often, ie. twenty-four times, succeeded by the Americans, followed by the British by twenty-three times. The British could equal or even break the record this year as they have Cal Crutchlow, Bradley Smith and Scott Redding on the starting lineup.

At the top of the record book in the number of victories in the highest class of motorsport are the Spaniards, who have so far reached the number one hundred and one. Ten wins behind them are the Italians, who can threaten the first place with quite a few potentials among the racers. Marc Marquez can overtake the experienced Dani Pedroso in the number of victories in Moto GP. In just three seasons, he managed to bring in twenty-four, which is exactly as much as the legendary Wayne Rainey or. four less than his current teammate.

Photos: Yamaha