Schwantz on MotoGP's 2015 themes to watch

Dominance usually dulls a sport's public appeal, but the combination of Marc Marquez's swashbuckling style and character, plus the subplot of Valentino Rossi's renaissance, made the 2014 MotoGP season relentlessly captivating - even as Marquez won 10 races in a row on the way to a second title in two years in the premier class.

With Jorge Lorenzo seemingly having shaken off last year's demons, Ducati setting the testing pace and the Rossi revival unlikely to abate, the champion won't have it easy in 2015, either.

Here's our rundown of the 10 themes to watch ahead of this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix season-opener, with the thoughts of 1993 500cc world champion Kevin Schwantz.

CAN MARQUEZ BE STOPPED?

During his 10-race winning streak at the start of 2014, it felt like it could be years before Marquez was beaten to a title. Then he provided some reassuring reminders that he is actually human with a flurry of late-season errors.

He's yet to face Lorenzo or Rossi at their absolute best for a full season - not that Marquez's titles have been inherited in the slightest, but his rivals could have made it harder for him had they been in better mental or physical shape at key moments. Marquez starts 2015 as the man to beat, but having proved he's not unbeatable.

Schwantz's view: He was really dominant for the first half of last season, but with the exception of Austin it wasn't by a whole bunch. He was coming from the back and getting through the field and winning races by a couple of seconds - he wasn't winning them by 10 or 15 seconds.

He's going to have to stay sharp and stay right on his game, because from what I've heard about testing, there seems to be a new, revitalised Lorenzo out there and the old man Rossi is just getting smarter and smarter.

I think once Marquez got past the 10th race of last season and finally started getting beaten, he quit thinking the race scenario out all the way through. He made that mistake chasing Rossi at Misano and just ended up leaning over so far he came to a stop. The crash in the wet at Aragon was him not paying attention to what would happen as the weather changed.

He'd got such a big cushion, it was as if he was saying, 'I'm not even going to think these things through any more'. Hopefully he's taken note of all that and he won't make those mistakes again. You don't get many opportunities to make those mistakes, give 50 points away, and still win the championship with a couple of rounds to go.

I don't think Marquez is going to have it his way like he did last year. But he's the guy who's got the #1 plate so he's the guy you've got to wrestle it off, and unless he starts making some mistakes early, that won't be easy.

AN EIGHTH TITLE FOR ROSSI?

Rossi went into 2014 with a self-imposed 'show you're still good enough to be here by Mugello or go home' deadline and a new crew chief in Silvano Galbusera, and ended it runner-up to Marquez in the championship, a double race-winner and top dog at Yamaha. He reckons he's now in the best form of his life. Does the incredible Rossi tale have a final title (or two) in its denouement?

Schwantz's view: He's just turned 36 this year, and I really thought at 34 that was going to be it. Last year when he was 35, doing what he did... I think Valentino's learned a little bit more, and can apply that to this season.

He's got to figure out how to go quicker earlier to stay with those guys. He's always had the pace mid-race on. I don't know if it's a different training process, or does he need to work on his fitness to go 110 per cent for the first six or eight laps of the race?

At Misano I saw him really beating the Honda getting off the turns, which had seemed like one of those places where the Honda really had the advantage. He was just putting bike lengths on Marquez coming off the corner. I talked to the guys on the team and they said they could run a softer tyre at Misano and make it last. Valentino really just seemed at home that day, as dominant riding the bike as he could be.

If he can keep making the bike and tyres work that way, I think he could be a threat for the championship.

LORENZO WITH A POINT TO PROVE

In 2013 Lorenzo seemed superhuman, dragging an injury-ravaged body and a Yamaha not on Honda's absolute pace to unlikely result after unlikely result and so nearly denying Marquez the title through grit and determination. There was little sign of that character last year, in a slump reminiscent of how Mika Hakkinen started the 2000 Formula 1 season, lacklustre after the monumental effort of 1999 drained him. Hakkinen never got back to his peak; Lorenzo is adamant he can and will.

Schwantz's view: I talked to Jorge after the Austin race last year and he just didn't seem to have the focus that he needed. I don't know if that came from having that crash in Qatar and then basically giving another 25 points away before he even got to the first turn in Austin.

Did he get a little lax on his fitness? I couldn't really tell. But it's one of those things that this sport will bring out in you: if you have any weakness at all in your fitness or in your confidence in your ability, if mentally you're not bulletproof, then you're not going to have the season that you could have.

Hopefully he's got some of that confidence back. He didn't really have a great finish to the season - I would've thought that with Marquez having the championship sewn up, Jorge could've won a few races and gone into the off-season really confident.

Still, if Jorge can get back to the form that he had in 2012 and '13, then he can consistently give Marquez a run for his money.

DUCATI IS BACK IN BUSINESS

After a massive restructuring effort (and a leg-up from some rules breaks), Ducati begins the 2015 as testing pacesetter with its all-new GP15, despite the bike hitting the track half a year after Honda and Yamaha's new machines. Andrea Dovizioso reckons the team is now in better shape than in Casey Stoner's glory years - and even if that proves wildly optimistic, it won't be a surprise to see Ducati's long losing streak end. Expect great things from Dovizioso's explosive new team-mate Andrea Iannone too.

Schwantz's view: I hope this can be the year Ducati starts winning again. Ducati's done a bunch of hard work and I'd like to see somebody upset the apple cart at the front. They're the ones with the best opportunity to do that. With Dovizioso and Iannone on the bikes, they've got guys that put forth a good effort, that's for sure.

It looked so promising in Austin when Dovi finished third last year. We all thought, 'wow, OK, this is going to be good, we're going to get to see those Ducatis close to the front every weekend and mixing it up for a win'. To do that in the second race made me expect a lot more. It was always a good bike in practice and qualifying but they never seemed to get that into a race result.

SUZUKI IS BACK ON THE GRID

Suzuki was a title-winner in Schwantz's era but occasional podiums were its limit when its trimmed-down one-bike factory programme skulked out of MotoGP at the end of 2011. It always promised it would come back with a proper effort, and the testing pace since 2015 riders Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales have got involved suggests this will be a very respectable campaign.

Schwantz's view: They seemed to be pretty good in testing. But testing's always a tough call, and even after Qatar I don't think we'll know a whole lot. Until you come to Austin and race in the daylight on a track that doesn't vary so much from day to night, I don't think we know how the championship's going to play out. But I would like to think that they're top-10 bikes early on, and that by the middle of the season they're sneaking up to being close to the podium.

Dorna has made it so difficult by limiting testing, though. It's really made it hard for a team that hasn't been involved to catch up, and that's exactly what the manufacturers at the top want. Honda feel like they've done all their work and they don't want to give that up. It needs to be that if you weren't in the top five in points last year, then pre-season you can test all you want.

REMEMBER PEDROSA?

Four riders' titles have gone to factory Honda men during Dani Pedrosa's nine seasons at HRC. None of them were won by Pedrosa, who watched from the other side of the garage as Nicky Hayden, Stoner and Marquez (twice) took the crowns.

If Pedrosa was going to win a MotoGP title, he surely would've done so by now. But he still has a chance to prove he's more than just part of the furniture at Honda and a stress-free number two for Marquez. It was Pedrosa, don't forget, who finally halted the Marquez wins at Brno last year. He hopes a fresh crew chief in the promoted Ramon Aurin will trigger the required shake-up for 2015.

Schwantz's view: The one guy you can't stand to get beaten by is your team-mate. If it's a Yamaha, a Honda or a Suzuki beating you then you can just say, 'well their bike was better today'. But when it's your team-mate, you're on the same stuff and it's a pretty tough pill to swallow.

We saw the effect that Marquez has had on Pedrosa over the past couple of seasons. Dani can still be that guy on any given weekend that can stick it on pole and just absolutely dominate the race, but he hasn't been able to figure out how to do it consistently.

He was pretty close to Marquez in the tests. Maybe Dani's figured something out. But I think the Yamahas will threaten Marquez more then Dani will.

CRUTCHLOW'S NEW START

The Ducati adventure didn't work out for Cal Crutchlow, though more because of an ill-timed injury (which coincided with the rise of Iannone) than the sort of fundamental discomfort on the Desmosedici that stymied the likes of Marco Melandri and Rossi in their years in red.

Now the ex-Yamaha and Ducati man has a Honda, factory-spec but satellite-run by LCR. Some rapid testing times hint at a return to the underdog fireworks Crutchlow produced at Tech 3.

Schwantz's view: It would be great to see Crutchlow do some stuff like we saw on the last day of the Sepang test - stick that thing right up there near the front. We know he's plenty capable.

He only had one tough season on the Ducati so with him getting back on a bike that maybe handles a bit more like he wants or expects it to, I'd look for big stuff from Cal on the LCR bike.

REDDING ON A PROPER HONDA

Following a learning year on the disappointing 'production' Honda at Gresini, rising British star Scott Redding gets a factory-spec RC213V fielded by Marc VDS - the team behind the Moto2 heroics that nearly took him to a world title in 2013.

Marc VDS has been the best outfit on MotoGP's fringe for some years and has ex-Kawasaki MotoGP team chief Michael Bartholemy at its helm, so won't take long to find its feet.

Schwantz's view: I think Redding's going to have a really good season. It could be a break-out year for him. It may be that he's going to have to rely on his experience on a MotoGP bike to help get that team through early in the season, but once it all starts to gel a little bit I think we'll see some really big things from Scott. I hope so, anyway.

MILLER'S HUGE LEAP

After narrowly missing out on the Moto3 title to Marquez's younger brother Alex, Red Bull-backed Aussie Jack Miller is skipping Moto2 and going straight up to MotoGP on LCR's second-string Honda. He's tipped to be the 'new Stoner', with a spicy attitude to match his talent and Honda keeping a close eye on his progress.

Schwantz's view: Jack's taken a big step. But you know what? If that's where you want to be, then that's what you need to do. The quicker you get on them, the quicker you start learning about them.

Why go through Moto2 and waste a year or two trying to race a Moto2 bike if judging by Jack's size the MotoGP bike is where he needs to be?

It looks like in testing he's just been taking his time and working his way through. I didn't see him tearing up a bunch of equipment, which is promising.

As long as he realises for this first season you just do what you can, learn what you can and the more laps you get, the more experience you get. I think he's a smart enough kid and hopefully that's what he's going to do.

HOW LONG WILL MELANDRI LAST?

Aprilia has brought 2005 MotoGP runner-up and six-time race-winner Marco Melandri back into the field for its new works project with Gresini, but the Italian has made it clear he would've rather stayed in World Superbikes than ride the interim bike around, on which this learning and development season will be based.

Amid illness and discomfort with the set-up, Melandri was firmly last in most tests - although team-mate Alvaro Bautista wasn't exactly soaring up the timesheets either.

Schwantz's view: I've seen that Melandri was at the back of all the tests. Man, if he doesn't want to be there, they've got to get someone in there who's going to do some work for them.

I know how keen Alex Hofmann is and he's done some work with those guys at Aprilia. Maybe Hoff's who they need - to get somebody out there that really wants to be there.

I can't think why Melandri wouldn't, at this point in his career, take it as a big job to try to test and develop something. Realise what your position is - and you know what, just get on with the job!

But you get used to racing at the front and racing for a win, so when you're just struggling to get points, that can make you have a change of attitude.

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