Recently the FIM announced that a major change will be made to the Moto2 formula. Since its introduction, the “control everything” formula has seen Honda as the engine supplier and the only major variable factor being the ability of teams to choose which frame they wanted to use. Kalex has been the preferred option with the frame being used in all but two of the championship winning bikes since then.
From the start of the 2019 season (how did we get to be nearly 20 years into this millennium, by the way?) Triumph will replace Honda as the engine supplier. While the FIM might have felt that it was time for a change, it seems to me that the change is merely one of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The fact is that Moto2 is really a nothing formula that, if it ever had any direction, lost it pretty soon after it was introduced.
As an intermediate formula to provide a stepping stone between the baby class and MotoGp, Moto2 has been a dismal failure. The fact that teams are already selecting promising riders from Moto3 and bypassing Moto2 altogether is a clear indication that Moto2 is becoming increasingly irrelevant. These facts are pretty much indisputable. Of the 8 years in which the formula has been operating only two graduates have made it all the way to a “works” team in the big game and they are Marc Marquez and Maverick Vinales. In both cases, they were always going to do so regardless of what the formula structure was.
Here is a list of the Moto2 world champions so far.
| 2010 |  Spain |
Toni Elías | Moriwaki | 17 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 271 | 70 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 |  Germany |
Stefan Bradl | Kalex | 17 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 3 | 274 | 23 |
| 2012 | Spain |
Marc Márquez | Suter | 17 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 5 | 324 | 56 |
| 2013 | Spain |
Pol Espargaró | Kalex | 17 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 265 | 40 |
| 2014 | Spain |
Esteve Rabat | Kalex | 18 | 11 | 7 | 14 | 5 | 346 | 57 |
| 2015 |  France |
Johann Zarco | Kalex | 18 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 1 | 352 | 118 |
| 2016 | France |
Johann Zarco | Kalex |
Thanks to Wikipedia for the table.
Now, where are these former champions now?
Tony Elias is racing superbikes in the USA. Stephan Bradl failed to cut the mustard in MotoGp and is now racing in WSBK. Pol Espargaro is still in MotoGp but not looking anything like becoming a champion. Tito Rabat’s future in MotoGp is looking dodgy but he certainly hasn’t impressed in the top game even if he does stay for another season. Zarco has been the star of Moto2 for the last two seasons and has had a stunning MotoGp debut season, but, as noted with MM93 and MV25, he probably would have got there without Moto2 such is his talent.
Why are team managers trolling Moto3 for their next MotoGp prospects and bypassing Moto2? Mainly because Moto2 isn’t producing consistent results for both riders and bikes. The formula is so patchy; one week you can be on the podium and the next week you qualify in 22nd and finish 17th. The podiums are a dog’s breakfast of both riders and bikes. Now it must be said that this year there has been a bit more consistency and Morbidelli, a stand-out rider, will graduate next year almost certainly as the reigning champion. But the history of the formula so far just doesn’t provide team managers with a consistent playing field from which they can choose. AND, when they HAVE chosen, the Moto2 graduates who have made it to the big game, have, for the most part, floundered.
And I have no doubt that the fact that it is a control formula is mainly to blame. While the races often do provide entertaining racing, they are patchy, as already mentioned. The announcement this week that Honda has persuaded Luccio Cecchinello to run a two-bike MotoGp team next year with the second rider being the Japanese Nakagami is a classic case in point. When he turns up he is at, or close to the pointy end, but his form is so woefully inconsistent that it makes me wonder just how much money Honda has given LCR to take him on because it must surely be against this better judgement. Remember that it was LCR who gave Casey Stoner his start in 2006 so Luccio is obviously a good judge of talent.
If the only variable in Moto2 is the chassis then the bike’s performance is predominately at the behest of the engineers, not the rider. MotoGp is also controlled but the riders are a far more integral part of the formula than they are in Moto2. That is why we see so many of the Moto2 graduates flounder when they hit the big time, the game is just SO different. The size of the fields in Moto2 is also an indication. While not cheap, it IS affordable of a team wants to get in. But the fields, while deep, are not deep in terms of talent with many riders either paying for a ride or getting in because of their nationality or connections. If you put most of the Moto3 riders in a Moto2 field my feeling is that they would obliterate the majority of the existing Moto2 riders.
The bottom line is that Moto2 is failing to live up to its charter. The Moto3 races are always entertaining and live up to expectations; the Moto2 races can be brilliant or they can be utterly boring, unfortunately you never can predict which it will be . But, as a feeder class that is going to produce the next generation of MotoGp stars, I’m sorry, Moto2 just isn’t cutting it. Increasingly, team managers will be bypassing Moto2 and selecting their next prospects from Moto3.
