How the new MotoGP ladder could help British riders

Britain has produced plenty of motorcycle racing legends, but finding a British rider at the front of MotoGP has become increasingly difficult. Steve Sargent thinks the answer could partly lie much further down the Grand Prix ladder.

The Triumph chief product officer was speaking about the company's new Moto2 engine, which will make its competitive debut in 2027, but his comments about the relationship between Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP could have much wider implications for countries such as Britain.

According to Sargent, the three Grand Prix classes need to work as a coherent progression, giving young riders a manageable route from small-capacity machinery into the prototype bikes used at the very top of the sport.

"Our discussions with Dorna have always centred around ensuring there's a logical progression from Moto3 to Moto2 and then to MotoGP," Sargent told Visordown.

“We want the step from Moto3 into Moto2 to be manageable”

"As you've seen, Moto3 is also changing [to Yamaha chassis and MT-07-derived engines]. We want the step from Moto3 into Moto2 to be manageable for young riders. You could argue that gap has become too large in recent seasons, which is one reason Moto3 is changing … Likewise, there still needs to be a clear gap between Moto2 and MotoGP."

For a young rider, particularly one coming from a country without a huge domestic prototype racing infrastructure, the Grand Prix paddock is effectively the finishing school. Moto3 teaches riders how to race internationally, Moto2 introduces them to considerably faster and more powerful machinery, and MotoGP is supposed to be the final step. The problem is that those steps have never been particularly easy to climb.

Sargent's comments suggest that the next generation of Grand Prix machinery is being designed with that progression more deliberately in mind. Moto3 is changing, Moto2 will get a larger and more powerful engine in 2027, while MotoGP itself is moving to a smaller 850cc engine and less aggressive aero.

The idea is not to make the classes identical, but to ensure that the performance gap between them doesn't become an unnecessarily large barrier for young riders. And that could be particularly interesting for Britain.

The UK has a phenomenal motorcycle racing history. From Mike Hailwood and Phil Read to Barry Sheene, Britain once had riders capable of winning Grand Prix titles with remarkable regularity. Yet the modern MotoGP era has been a very different story.

Cal Crutchlow became Britain's most successful MotoGP rider of the modern era, winning three races, while Bradley Smith, Scott Redding, Sam Lowes and Jake Dixon have all reached the top table without being able to establish themselves as regular front-running riders. There is no shortage of British talent. The problem is turning that talent into a rider capable of making the final jump to MotoGP and staying there.

That is where Sargent's comments become particularly interesting.

The 2027 Moto2 engine is not simply a bored-out version of Triumph's current 765cc unit. Triumph has started with the race engine this time, developing the Moto2 powerplant first before eventually using the technology and knowledge gained from it in a future road-going engine.

The new engine will be lighter and produce around six per cent more power, with a completely redesigned cylinder head, new low-inertia valvetrain, higher-flow ports, a new airbox and intake system, increased compression and more torque. More importantly for the riders, Sargent says the changes have been made as part of a wider effort to keep Moto2 as manageable a middle step as it can be.

“We want the step from Moto3 into Moto2 to be manageable for young riders," he says. “You could argue that the gap has become too large in recent seasons, which is one reason Moto3 is changing.”

In other words, even some of the best junior riders in the world are still going to struggle if the machinery beneath them suddenly becomes an enormous step beyond anything they've previously experienced.

For British riders, there is another part of this equation that shouldn't be overlooked. Steve Sergeant believes the traditional route into MotoGP has been particularly difficult for riders from the UK, largely because it has historically meant committing to the Spanish racing system at a very young age, often requiring an entire family to relocate in the hope that their child might eventually make it to the world championship.

"The route through into MotoGP has not been an easy one for British riders for a long time," Sergeant explains. "Historically you almost had to go and move your whole family to Spain and race in the Spanish championship as a route through into Moto3 and then hopefully on your way up through into MotoGP. There's not a lot of families that can afford to do that. And even if they're willing to relocate that whole family for the chance that their kid might become a superstar, you're putting all your eggs in one basket."

Sergeant sees a potentially more natural route developing for British riders, one which could begin much closer to home before eventually feeding into the Grand Prix paddock.

"For me, the more natural route now for a British kid is I would personally go British Superbike, World Superbike, World Supersport, then try and get into Moto2 and then go from there," he says. "I think that could potentially be the route through for British riders going forward."

That is where the changes coming to Moto2, and the wider reshaping of the Grand Prix ladder, become particularly interesting. A British rider no longer necessarily needs to follow precisely the same pathway as a Spanish or Italian youngster, spending their formative years embedded in the Spanish domestic championship. There is now a potentially credible route through the British and World Superbike paddocks before making the jump across to Grand Prix racing.

There is already an example of that pathway in action. Adrian Huertas won the WorldSSP300 title before stepping up to World Supersport, where he also won the championship, earning his move into Moto2. His progress in the intermediate Grand Prix class has not yet matched the expectations created by that phenomenal run through the production-based championships, but the route itself is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

And that could be significant for Britain. If Yamaha's involvement in Moto3, the arrival of the new 800cc Moto2 machinery and the eventual move towards smaller-capacity MotoGP machinery create a more coherent ladder between the different classes, British riders may no longer need to make the enormous gamble of moving their lives to Spain at 12 or 13 years old, simply to give themselves even a shot at the top.

The irony, of course, is that Britain already has one of the strongest domestic motorcycle racing infrastructures in the world. What it has lacked is a straightforward bridge from that system into MotoGP. The emerging structure could finally start to provide one.

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