Marc Marquez became the first rider to win the MotoGP title in his debut season, doing so on a factory bike that he wouldn’t have been eligible to ride just a year earlier.
After clinching the Moto2 championship in 2012, the Ant of Cervera stepped up to MotoGP with Honda and immediately made an impression. He finished second in his debut race in Qatar, catching the attention of Valentino Rossi.
It didn’t take long for those concerns to become reality. Marquez went on to finish the season with six wins and 16 podiums from 18 races, edging out Jorge Lorenzo by just four points.
What made it even more surprising was that under previous rules, Marquez wouldn’t have been allowed on that bike. Until then, rookies were barred from joining factory teams straight away.
It was only after satellite teams LCR and Gresini pushed for change due to worries about line-up stability that the rule was scrapped ahead of the 2013 season, clearing the path for Marquez’s move to Honda HRC.
Redding discusses MotoGP rookie rule changes
Appearing on Full Chat, Redding reflected on the 2013 rookie rule change and raised concerns about how MotoGP has leaned towards Spanish and Italian riders, a trend reflected in the current makeup of the grid.
“I don’t want to talk bad on the Championship, because it’s the best in the world, but when you look at the lineup of riders on factory bikes, especially the last three years, they’re all Spanish and Italian.
“All factory bikes, Spanish and Italian. There was a rule when, the year before Marquez went to MotoGP, new and up-and-coming riders need to do one or two years on a satellite bike, and then you can go on a factory bike. You know what? Fair, cool.
“And then the year Marquez comes up, that rule’s scrapped, you go straight to Repsol HRC. And that’s the thing. You look at it, it’s all Spanish and Italians on factory bikes.
“So when you’re at that level, not only do you have a disadvantage because the majority of the time you’re on a satellite bike, there’s also the funding side of it.
“It’s hard to kind of go, ‘Well, I’ll take that amount of money, which is nothing to what a Spanish or Italian guy should be getting, but I still also need to pay for training. I need to go to Spain and Italy and be riding three times a week.’
“You need to pay for that. And it’s on their doorstep. They’ve got the money. That’s where the championship breeds, which is fair enough. But I do feel now like it’s in favour of them.”
The former Aprilia rider noted that teams often have limited spots for non-factory riders while also pointing out that many others do not have access to those opportunities.
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