MOTOGP GETS A NEW CHAMPION IN ITS MOST UNPREDICTABLE YEAR
One way to describe MotoGP in 2020 would be to compare it to a Rammstein concert. It was full of fireworks, shocks and ridiculous action, and left you in a constant state of bewilderment in its breathless 14-round run from 19 July at Jerez to 22 November at the Algarve Circuit. That it happened at all is testament to the dedication Dorna Sports’ CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has to his series.
Just a week before the originally scheduled opener in Qatar, the season was put on hold as the horror of the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world. A schedule centred on Europe was eventually finalised, and numerous cost measures for 2020 and 2021 were put in place to ensure the series’ survival. MotoGP’s independent teams, as well as all squads in Moto2 and Moto3, received financial support from the championship during lockdown.
When MotoGP came out of the frying pan and into the fire at Jerez, it was business as usual. Honda had endured a tumultuous winter with its 2020 RC213V, as the new-for-this-season Michelin rear tyre construction threw it – and more notably Ducati – a real curveball. Honda also had problems with its new aero package in testing, and had only discovered this on the final day of the Qatar test.
Honda basically came into 2020 with a bike not that far removed from its previous year’s challenger, a machine that LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami would ride. But reigning champion
