MotoGP breaks attendance record despite people think interest is dwindling due to Marc Marquez’s tyranny

2025 MotoGP World Championship is over and the 2026 pre-season will officially begin this Tuesday at 10am at the Comunitato Valenciana circuit in Ceste, and it’s time to take stock before the important training session and first test begins. This is because the information is collected in order for factories to operate during the winter. As soon as the MotoGP race ended, Dorna released its most valuable data: that of the direct spectators of the Grand Prix. With no fewer than 3,660,716 cases, all previous records were broken.

And it has established an atmosphere of absolute tyranny in MotoGP. Marc Marquez He had won 14 sprint races and 11 GP races out of the 18 GPs he had competed in, winning the title with five grands prix left, but he had lost interest. It was quite the opposite. There was a desire to witness the cruelest return to the summit in MotoGP history, starring Marc Márquez, and a page in the history of the World Championship, where the Márquez brothers wrote with both hands an unprecedented double of final standings and both 11 sprint races and 6 GP races.

The MotoGP Awards Gala reflected what 2025 will look like in MotoGP. Marquez’s team was there just to win trophies, with Marco Bezzecchi finishing third in the World Cup and Fermin Aldeguer the Rookie of the Year. Marc won all the major prizes and Alex won the prize as an independent (or satellite team) driver.

Ducati has survived thanks to Marquez

With seven races remaining, Ducati had won the Constructors’ Trophy for the sixth consecutive year and seventh time in its history at the end of the Grand Premi de Catalunya sprint. People from Borgo Panigale have lived almost exclusively off the coast of the Marqués River. In addition to the drivers’ title, Marc also contributed to 14 sprint wins and 11 GP wins. The remaining Ducati wins were Alex Marquez’s 3 sprints and 3 GPs, Bagnaia’s 2 sprints and 2 GPs, and Aldeguer’s 1 GP. Despite its success, Ducati has experienced a difficult year that has given them food for thought. Marc has shown that he can get the most out of whatever bike he is given, and Alex and Fermin have continued to extend their great GP24 championship run in 2025. However, Bagnaia, a two-time world champion in 2022 and 2023, has had a suspenseful year in GP25, with no one yet saying whether it was the fault of the driver or the brand.

Aprilia has its best year yet

Aprilia is the brand that has made the most progress and its example shows the importance of concessions. They finished second in the Constructors’ Championship for the first time ever, contributing to three sprint wins (all for Bezzecchi) and four GP wins (three for Bezzecchi and one for Trackhouse Satellite Team and one for Raul Fernandez), making this another one of the big surprises of the final third of the year. Noale’s top priority will be to renew Bezzecchi, who joined as part of Plan B. No one in life is as unlucky as the person who reached the number 1 box. Jorge Martin Despite suffering four serious injuries between February and November, it carries the pride and quality that helped make Aprilia a brand to rival Ducati.

KTM is having a tumultuous year

The Austrian company lost second place to Aprilia in the Manufacturers’ World Championship in a very turbulent year, and the viability of the project was not guaranteed until almost the summer. Pedro Acosta He took advantage of Bagnaia’s weakness to finish fourth in the World Championship, the highest individual finish for a KTM rider in MotoGP, but was frustrated without a win until this Sunday when he declared: “The season was a little disappointing because I wasn’t fighting for anything. It was like a lost year of my life.” Until his injury at the Sachsenring, Maverick Viñales led the way and achieved results, and after Brno Acosta started contributing to the podium. However, the two drivers who won the GP, Binder and Bastianini, suffered greatly.

Honda responds by losing the D concession.

Only in the final race of the year, thanks to Luca Marini’s seventh place finish, Honda was able to prove what seemed like a contradiction to outsiders. The plan is to lose the D range, which is the biggest concession, and move to the C range, which receives the same subsidies as Aprilia and KTM. Johann Zarco won the Le Mans Grand Prix and was second at Silverstone, while Joan Mir took two podiums (third place) and the first official team podium after Marc Marquez. These were the green shoots of the year that showed clear signs of technological progress. In fact, they added 210 points more than they did all of 2024.

Yamaha is betting everything on engine changes

Yamaha has ended its manufacturer classification, and you can no longer even see the green sprouts that appeared in your neighbor’s garden in Japan. It’s been a year to forget, but it shows how much concessions are needed as they continue to go downhill. They are going all in on a change in engine concept in 2026, looking to keep pace with other teams by opting for a V4 “for better acceleration, better handling under braking and better adaptability to modern tires and aerodynamic requirements.” Quartararo finished in the top nine in the championship thanks to a miraculous second place in Jerez.