DOHA: A record number of 25 riders will feature in this season’s MotoGP World Championship, it was confirmed yesterday.
Last year 23 riders battled for the championship — which was eventually won by Marc Marquez for Honda Repsol.
Joining the MotoGP class of 2015 are Maverick Vinales, Marco Melandri, Jack Miller, Eugene Laverty and Loris Baz.
The strength of this year’s MotoGP grid can be illustrated by the fact that there are 12 riders who have won a Grand Prix world championship. This is the greatest number of Grand Prix world champions ever assembled on one grid.
These 12 riders have won a total of 28 World Championships titles among them — a new record for the full-time MotoGP entry list.
Seven riders on the list have won races in the premier class. These seven riders have between them won a total of 169 premier-class GP races, the highest number of accumulated premier-class GP wins ever assembled on the entry list.
Altogether 19 riders on the MotoGP entry list have had race victories in at least one of the three classes of Grand Prix racing. Their combined total of Grand Prix victories is a staggering 390.
If all of these GP winners line up on the grid in Qatar it will set a new record for the greatest aggregate number of GP wins for riders starting a Grand Prix race.
The current record is a total of 360 GP wins for the riders lining up on the grid for the final MotoGP race of 2014 at Valencia.
The oldest rider on the MotoGP full-time entry list is Valentino Rossi, who celebrated his 36th birthday in February. The youngest rider is Jack Miller, who will be 20 years and 70 days old when he lines up on the grid in Qatar. Miller is just six days younger than fellow MotoGP rookie Maverick Vinales.
Meanwhile, Moto2 World Champion Tito Rabat will be attempting to defend his title when he launches the 2015 season this Sunday.
The strength and depth of the Moto2 grid can be illustrated by the fact that 14 of the riders on the full-time entry list have previously won Grand Prix races. These 14 riders between them have 83 world championship race victories.
Four riders competing in Moto2 this year are previous 125cc or Moto3 World Champions — Julian Simon, Thomas Luthi, Sandro Cortese and Alex Marquez.
The youngest rider in the full-time Moto2 entry list for the second successive year is 18-year-old Lorenzo Baldassari.
The oldest rider is Anthony West, who is one of only three riders in Moto2 to have celebrated their 30th birthday before the opening race of the year in Qatar.
Once again the Moto3 class has attracted a host of young, talented riders to Grand Prix racing from around the world.
This influx of young talent means that at the opening race of the year only four of the riders on the full-time entry list will be over the age of 21: Hiroki Ono (22), Zulfahmi Khairuddin (23), Alexis Masbou (27) and Efren Vazquez (28).
THE PENINSULA
