MotoGP needs to heed the warning signs as riders drop like flies

Getting a load of stories about injured MotoGP riders in your feed? It's not your algorithm! They really are falling at an alarming rate.

This past weekend in Qatar, with a reduced grid of 18 bikes - Yamaha having pulled out due to the regional conflict - no fewer than three riders pulled out with fitness trouble. To use a standard yardstick, that's 17% of the field. 

MotoGP couldn't have drip-fed the news better if it tried. First up was Francesco Bagnaia on Saturday, who was out of the weekend the moment he went flying in the sprint. Then, between warm-up and grand prix on Sunday, Luca Marini pulled out. Finally, in the race itself, Diogo Moreira had to cry enough.

At one point on Saturday evening, it also looked as though a demoralised Maverick Vinales might call it quits. But a suspicion that this was just Maverick being dramatic proved true as he went racing the following day.  

Even as the weekend unfolded, then, you had to wade through a steady stream of injury stories to find out what was going on with the racing itself. A shame, really, because the few riders out there gave us plenty to talk about with their work on the track. 

Remember, we already had a litany of health-related storylines before anyone arrived in Qatar. Most ridiculous of all was super-sub Iker Lecuona jumping off Fermin Aldeguer's Ducati, switching to the other side of the Gresini garage and getting aboard Alex Marquez's. Because Aldeguer was returning from his third injury break of the year just as Alex was embarking on his second. Lost? I don't blame you. As they say in cricket circles, it's all a bit 'village'.

It was a slim field that started the sprint in Qatar - and it lost a further two riders before the grand prix

Photo by: Mahmud Hams / AFP via Getty Images

The even broader context is this: fewer than half the riders on the season entry list have managed to start each of the 19 grands prix so far. Every member of the top three in the championship has missed at least one Sunday race. Even if we give Fabio Quartararo, Alex Rins and Jack Miller a free pass considering they didn't miss Qatar due to injury, a mere nine of 22 riders have been fit for each grand prix.

Adding to the sense of farce is that even the replacement locker is beginning to look bare. Go-to substitutes like Aleix Espargaro or Takaaki Nakagami have had wounds of their own to nurse of late. Others, like Cal Crutchlow, Lorenzo Savadori or Michele Pirro, are getting on a bit, battling to hit an acceptable level, or both.

And then there is the more sinister development we've seen at Honda in recent weeks. The MotoGP injury list is no longer just a bunch of broken bones. Fatigue, blurred vision and dizziness are altogether more worrying symptoms - and they're what's being reported in the works Honda camp. Both Joan Mir and Marini sat out Qatar with issues of that nature. Nor were they passing moments: each has been battling for a while already.

Unless MotoGP plans to welcome a massive new crop of fresh, unbroken young riders every season, it's fair to say most of the grid will start a given year more susceptible to injury than it did the year before

I ought not to venture hypotheses about what's going on with Marini and Mir, but I do hope the qualified professionals are looking into all possible causes and ringing any alarm bells that need to be rung.

Why this isn't just a coincidence

Let's be absolutely clear: what happened in Qatar fits into a wider trend. This has been building since the start of the season. And it is absolutely no surprise that we've got to where we are at the back end of a double-header and a triple-header. Already a potent schedule, it has featured long flights, tropical heat, desert dust and icy winds off the Southern Ocean. Even a hardy young backpacker would be exhausted by it all.  

The riders have spoken endlessly - albeit with increasing resignation - about the effects of this triple-header. Lecuona said he was "done" after Qatar - a rider who had done five race weekends in a row counting in the back-to-back rounds the World Superbike championship held to complete its season before he ventured on to the MotoGP Australia-Malaysia-Qatar triple-header. Vinales somehow went from optimism in Sepang last week to despair at Lusail. Marc Marquez said he was "completely exhausted" after three weekends in a row. And it would have been worse had the riders not been gifted the first Sunday off by Phillip Island's weather.  

Aldeguer returned to action after an injury absence and caused havoc

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

Losing 17% of the field to injury during the third of three race weekends - we're not even counting Alex Marquez or Mir, who pulled out ahead of time and got replaced - is not an accident. What if the calendar had allowed Marini and Moreira a weekend off? It seems a reasonable punt that MotoGP might have saved some injury headlines. 

While Bagnaia's accident could have happened anywhere and at any time, KTM star Pedro Acosta made an interesting link between incidents and injury layoffs. He noted that Aldeguer, whose massive misjudgement under braking caused Bagnaia's shunt, had been absent for two races.

"It's not easy on the first week back in MotoGP," said Acosta. "To get used to the aero and to what the bike does, because sometimes it's a bit unnatural. For this, everyone can make a mistake."

If Acosta is to be believed, then, a rider being injured can be a factor in another rider getting hurt when he returns to action. 

Why it would be crazy to ignore the warning signs

One might take the view that these things will happen at the end of a long season but, hey, it's nearly over and then the riders will get a fresh start next year. But one would be mistaken in that view. 

Never mind the fact that the off-season is very short and is punctuated by testing. The main point is that it would not be a fresh start. Because most rider injuries take months, maybe even years, to truly heal. 'Fit' is a relative term in the wild world of MotoGP: even when they do take part, these riders have vestiges of old injuries just waiting to be compounded.

An old injury resurfaced in Qatar for Moreira

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

Marc Marquez is the most prominent example. His original right arm injury went back to that accident in 2020. The same weak spot came into play when he crashed in Indonesia last season, half a decade later. You can't just wipe the slate clean when a new season comes around. Bodies don't work like that. 

Moreira provided more evidence of the phenomenon in Qatar. When he pulled into the pits on Sunday to retire, it was down to elbow pain dating back to a Moto2 crash in the middle of 2025. Pain that just happened to resurface at the end of a triple-header at the end of the season. There's a clear message: push these guys too hard, and their old niggles might come home to roost.  

Unless MotoGP plans to welcome a massive new crop of fresh, unbroken young riders every season, it's fair to say most of the grid will start a given year more susceptible to injury than it did the year before. Ignoring that won't stop it being fact.

If the powers-that-be continue to handle MotoGP scheduling in the same more-is-more way as Formula 1, pretending competitor fitness isn't an issue, they will have egg on their faces

Even if MotoGP thinks it's good for the show to have riders coming and going all the time, it cannot rely on an endless supply of substitutes. We've already noted that the pool has its limits. And things in Qatar would have been even more tricky if the World Superbike season wasn't already over. Superbikes are the number one source of replacements, but those riders also have places to be during their season. 

Raiding the Moto2 paddock for short-term replacements isn't something MotoGP can count on either. Not under the current structure, where Moto2 races on the same card and teams have their own aspirations.

So yes, there's a problem. And no amount of ostrich behaviour is going to make disappear.

MotoGP faces a very real injury crisis

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

What's the answer then?

First of all, it's already worth asking whether it was really so smart for MotoGP to get rid of wildcard riders for next season. If things carry on as they are, grid fillers might be welcome sooner rather than later.

As for the bigger-picture fix, it's nothing the riders haven't suggested many, many times already. A reduction in competitive track time, particularly the number of sprint races. Make triple-headers absolutely taboo - and if that means cutting a couple of races from the season, so be it. It really isn't rocket science.

Of course, that won't guarantee healthy grids. The sport had its moments long before the time of sprints and 22-race schedules. (Then again, safety measures in those days were lacking compared to now.) But it will help reduce the risk. It will also promote the wellbeing of the riders - and, by extension, the championship.   

If the powers-that-be continue to handle MotoGP scheduling in the same more-is-more way as Formula 1, pretending competitor fitness isn't an issue, they will have egg on their faces sooner or later. They may live in fear that fundamental change will cost them revenues. But how much more will it cost them if there are no riders left to race?

Acosta is the highest-placed rider in the championship not to have missed a grand prix this year. HIs KTM team-mate Binder has also started every Sunday

Photo by: Mahmud Hams / AFP via Getty Images