Australian up-and-comer Senna Agius has made no secret of his desire for a MotoGP race seat as soon as next year, and the 20-year-old has caught the eye of one of the sport’s legends in his own backyard as the three-time Moto2 race-winner looks to make the step up to the premier class.
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Elsewhere, a six-time Grand Prix winner who looks set to lose his MotoGP seat for 2027 has been singled out as a rider who illustrates the sport’s lack of diversity for one former rival, while reigning world champion Marc Marquez has discussed the “madness” a MotoGP rider requires in a revealing interview where he admitted he considered retirement had he not been able to orchestrate a move to Ducati for 2024.
There’s that and more in MotoGP Pit Talk, your news wrap of the stories behind the headlines ahead of the resumption of the world championship this weekend at Jerez in Spain for round four of the season.
Marquez takes out Diggia in opening lap | 00:23
AGIUS GETS KUDOS FROM ‘THE DOCTOR’ AS MOTOGP QUEST CONTINUES
Valentino Rossi was left “super impressed” with Senna Agius after the young Australian was one of a number of world championship riders to race at Rossi’s famed VR46 Motor Ranch in Tavullia in Italy late last year, with the seven-time MotoGP world champion full of praise for his talent.
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Former Grand Prix rider and three-time World Superbikes runner-up Chaz Davies is part of Agius’ management stable – which also includes Daniel Ricciardo’s former manager Blake Friend and ex-Red Bull Racing F1 communications manager James Ranson – and took Agius to Rossi’s ranch late last year to have him compete against a star-studded entry list including current MotoGP riders Marco Bezzecchi, Pedro Acosta, Francesco Bagnaia, Luca Marini, Diogo Moreira, and Agius’ compatriot Jack Miller, along with Rossi himself.
“I see Senna in all walks – trails bike, motocross bike, flat track, you name it – he’s extremely adaptable,” Davies told the Paddock Pass Podcast.
“I took him last year to the ‘Ranch’ at Valentino’s, and he’d never been there before … I’d been there back in the day. I know Senna is a quick flat-track rider, but the 100km race start … he’s leading it and he was in the top few fastest guys during the race.
“He ended up crashing during that first stint, but that was the strategy … I was like ‘go there and make a splash and let’s see what happens, and at least you’ll turn some heads’.
“Valentino, in the evening at the party (afterwards), he said – and I won’t say exactly what he said – “beep, that was super impressive … beep, beep, Senna’s got some skills’. So, I’ll take that from him.”
Agius, who won the most recent Moto2 race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, has won three races in the past 11 months in the category that is a stepping stone to MotoGP, and sits sixth in the intermediate-class standings after finishing 10th overall last year.
Agius skipped the entry-level Moto3 category after coming to the world championship via the European Moto2 scene, and Davies feels his relative lack of experience with racing in the world championship is starting to become less of an impediment.
“I’m 100 per cent convinced that, although this is his third season in Moto2, he never did Moto3 … usually the kids get to make those mistakes in Moto3, or learn the nuances of each track when they have the years in Moto3,” Davies said of Agius.
“Senna entered the championship in Moto2, so he’s had 2024 and 2025 to really understand the ways of the paddock, the different circuits. This year is a consolidation year for him. For me, his talent is not in question. I believe that his trajectory is very sharp, and he’s a real sponge for information, he gets better and better all the time.”
With so many seats for next year – the first of MotoGP’s change to 850cc machines with a reduction of rider aids, aerodynamic devices and all-new Pirelli tyres – unconfirmed as the sport’s manufacturers remain in negotiations with MotoGP promoters MSEG for a contract to run the championship, Agius’ name has been discussed as a possibility to step up to join Moto2 rivals David Alonso and Dani Holgado, who are believed to have already signed contracts with Honda and Ducati respectively.
Yamaha, and the Tech3 KTM team owned by ex-F1 team boss Guenther Steiner that is excepted to change to Honda machinery next year, are considered to be Agius’ best bets for a promotion.
“We’re working on that opportunity at the minute, we’re trying to explore what the opportunities are in MotoGP,” Davies said.
“Right now is the key moment to step into MotoGP because of the regulation changes, tyre changes. For a Moto2 rider, moving on to slightly less power, the probability of higher corner speed – the Pirelli front tyre should be a little more trustworthy – with less rider aids … I do think that’s an opportunity for team and for rider to make a splash.
“This is a key moment, and Senna is well placed and at the top of his game at the minute. He’s a very well-rounded, eager individual … I think he has a lot to offer.”
‘HE SHOULDN’T BE THERE’: FORMER RIVAL SINGLES OUT SPANISH INFLUENCE
The likely move of Japanese rider Ai Ogura from Aprilia to Yamaha for next season looks set to end the premier-class career of incumbent Yamaha factory rider Alex Rins, which former rival Scott Redding feels should have happened sooner.
Rins, 30, has won six premier-class Grands Prix from 148 starts and has finished on the podium 18 times, but the Spaniard has struggled mightily since breaking his right leg at the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, missing most of the remainder of that season.
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Since joining Yamaha’s factory outfit in 2024 as teammate to 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo, Rins has finished no better than seventh in a race – last year’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, where he won for Suzuki in 2022 – and no better than 18th in the world championship (2024).
Ogura, a former Honda protégé who came to MotoGP last year with Trackhouse Aprilia, looks likely to join Yamaha’s factory squad as part of an all-new line-up with 2024 world champion Jorge Martin next season, with Quartararo moving to head up Honda’s factory team.
Speaking to the Full Chat Podcast, Redding – who competed against Rins in MotoGP from 2015-18 and had two premier-class Grand Prix podiums in 90 starts – felt Rins staying on the grid for the past two years shows how difficult it is for riders outside of Spain and Italy to remain in the sport.
“There are excellent riders … I don’t want to take anything away from them, but there are some like Alex Rins who’s been riding an official Yamaha for a couple of years, and I ask myself ‘why?’, Redding said.
“He’s a good rider, but he’s had a lot of injuries and isn’t consistent. In my opinion, he shouldn’t be there, but he’s Spanish. Maybe there’s some small connection somewhere that could help him. Spain and Italy are the heart of this sport, that’s where the money is.
“I don’t want to speak badly about the championship, it’s the best in the world. But if we look at the riders on factory bikes, especially over the last three years, they’re all Spanish and Italian.”
No British rider has raced in MotoGP full-time since 2020, when Cal Crutchlow (Honda) and Bradley Smith (Aprilia) competed in their final full-time seasons, while race-winning Moto2 rider Jake Dixon – who had two MotoGP starts in 2021 – left the world championship for World Superbikes this season.
“You have to play the hand you’re dealt, and being British doesn’t make things any easier,” Redding said.
“It’s crazy that there aren’t any British riders in MotoGP or Moto2. When you’re at that level, you’re not only at a disadvantage because you’re riding a satellite bike most of the time, but also because of the funding issue.
“In addition to accepting sums that are nothing compared to what a Spaniard or an Italian would get, you also have to pay to train, you have to go to Spain and Italy to ride three times a week.”
Of this year’s MotoGP grid, 15 riders hail from either Spain or Italy, with rookies Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkey) and Diogo Moreira (Brazil) swelling the number of countries represented to eight, France (two riders), plus Australia, South Africa and Japan (one each), completing the 22-strong grid.
MARQUEZ OPENS UP ON RETIREMENT, FEAR AND ‘MADNESS’
Reigning world champion Marc Marquez has spoken about retirement, his nerves after leaving Honda at the end of the 2023 season and balancing courage with consequences in a revealing interview with Spanish podcast Imagin Tengo Un Plan, with the 33-year-old Ducati rider indicating his body, not his mind, will determine how long his career continues.
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Out of contract at the end of 2026, Marquez – the second-oldest rider in the sport behind Honda’s Johann Zarco (35) – said the injury toll of repeated major surgeries on his right arm and shoulder have made him reconsider his future.
The Spaniard, after winning his seventh premier-class world title last season, crashed and injured his right shoulder at the Indonesian Grand Prix last October, missing the final five rounds of 2025 following surgery. His start to 2026 has been muted as he returns to full fitness, Marquez sitting fifth in the standings after the opening three rounds in Thailand, Brazil and Texas.
Marquez told Imagin Tengo Un Plan that leaving Honda for Ducati satellite team Gresini Racing – walking away from a contract reportedly set to pay him 20 million Euros (A$35.6 million) in 2024 to ride for free for Gresini – was an attempt to chase satisfaction from the final stages of his career, which hit a roadblock in 2020 when he was injured in the opening Grand Prix of the year at Jerez and missed the rest of the season after having won the previous four titles.
“I would have retired if I had no other choice, but I wouldn’t have been 100 per cent satisfied,” he said.
“I would have been at peace because I would have tried, even if it hadn’t worked out, but I wouldn’t have retired 100 per cent satisfied. At peace, yes … satisfied, no. Now, when the time comes, I’ll be able to retire at peace and satisfied, but as long as I’m active, I’ll keep giving 100 per cent.
“I’m aware that moment (retirement) is getting closer and closer. It’s a phrase I’ve used often in the past … ‘I’ll keep going as long as my body holds up’, and I intend to keep going as long as it does. I know I’ll end my career sooner because of my body than because of my mind or my desire to continue.”
Marquez detailed the anguish that came with leaving Honda, after winning six MotoGP titles between 2013-19, after the Japanese manufacturer could achieve only intermittent success with Marquez between 2020-23 as he was continually recovering from injuries and surgeries.
“It was like a romantic relationship … it wasn’t toxic and you didn’t want to leave, but you knew you had to because it was the best thing for you,” Marquez said of Honda.
“I didn’t feel it with my heart, but with my head. Obviously, it would be nice to come full circle, but for me, that circle is already closed. I didn’t want my career to end that way after the 2020 injury. (Honda) hasn’t won again since then, but I’ve started winning again. I’ve done it, I’ve closed the circle, and now I’m at peace with myself.
“The day I felt most nervous was when I tested the Ducati for the first time at Valencia (2023). People know who Marc Marquez is, so it was about whether I’d be fast on that bike or not, I wondered if I’d be able to ride a Ducati. The engineers told me I was being silly.”
Marquez said his long injury layoffs and the wisdom that comes with age has helped him balance the risk-reward ratio.
“My instinct has always been to risk everything, whether it’s a simple practice session or a race where you’re fighting for the world championship,” he said.
“It’s one of the aspects my team has had me work on throughout my career, as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to understand it. But it was the injuries that really made me understand it.
“Sometimes I hear people say ‘these riders are crazy’, but it’s not the craziest who wins, it’s the one who knows how to make the most of their madness. You have to have a touch of madness, otherwise you won’t ride a bike at 350-360km/h, you won’t make passes, you won’t collide with another rider at 200km/h battling side-by-side.”