What to watch for in MotoGP 2025 – From a Marc Marquez title challenge to the ascension of Pedro Acosta and new rookies

The 2025 MotoGP season gets underway in Thailand on Friday and you can watch every race live on TNT Sports and discovery+ as Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia bid to snatch the title away from Jorge Martin.

With new faces on the paddock and old faces in new places, there is plenty to get excited about as we prepare for what already seems like an extremely intriguing MotoGP season.

Ahead of the new term, we have examined the key storylines that you should be tracking across the season. Let’s dive in.

The re-emergence of Marc Marquez last season on the Gresini - after his monumental break-up with Honda - was one of the stories of the season. Marquez had a couple of tough weekends but also produced a number of magical moments that more than demonstrated the ability that still resides within him, eventually finishing third in the standings.

His reward was a move up to the main Ducati team alongside double-world champion Francesco Bagnaia. It is a mouthwatering line-up and quite possibly the best we have seen in MotoGP. With a faster bike under him and more distance between his most recent injury, Marquez seems set to challenge for a ninth world title and seventh in the premier class. It would cap a remarkable return to the top after a difficult end at Honda combined with his various injuries, and would only further cement the Spaniard's legacy as one of the greatest to ever do it.

His battle with Bagnaia will be absolutely fascinating because it will tell us so much about both of these riders, and of course there is the added dynamic of not only them taking points off each other, but the fact that it seems Ducati will not step in and issue any team orders this season, letting the two great rivals race each other hard.

Could that open the door for Martin to defend his title? It is possible, but of course after off-season injury issues, his pre-season has been extremely disrupted and he is set to miss at least the first race of the term. Not to mention that after Ducati chose Marquez over him for the top seat, Martin chose to move to Aprilia to race alongside Marco Bezzecchi in their top team. We have not yet seen enough to know if Martin will have the required pace to keep up with his two main rivals.

The arrival of Pedro Acosta last season was hotly anticipated, and the talented young Spaniard did not disappoint. We really got the full Acosta package with plenty of jaw-dropping moments and, in the end, the results came. He secured one pole, five podiums and a couple of fastest laps to finish sixth in the standings.

Now everyone is eagerly anticipating year two of Acosta. Not everything is rosy, particularly given some of the reports about KTM’s situation away from the track. And there remain some minor worries about the crashes and his tyre usage.

But Acosta is just too good; he has shown too much already and he is too talented to not figure this out. Even if the bike does not match up to the Ducatis and Aprilias, it feels as if his talent will surpass the bike. Perhaps we might have to wait one more year for that elusive first win but more podiums are surely on the cards. Regardless of what happens, he is just must-watch TV and someone you will not want to miss.

Speaking of fun young riders, this crop of young riders coming into the sport is extremely exciting.

Firstly, 19-year-old Fermin Aldeguer is the latest in a long line of talented young Spanish riders and he signed a deal with Ducati in March 2024. As a result of that contract, he has been placed at Gresini as the replacement for the elder Marquez. Aldegeur comes into MotoGP with perhaps not quite as much hype as Acosta, not least because his 2024 Moto2 season was not as good as his 2023 showing, but he definitely has a lot of noise, given he is already under the Ducati umbrella.  

However, he and the rest of the pack were left in the dust of Ai Ogura in the 2024 Moto2 Championship. Ogura finished 40 points clear of Aron Canet in second and - after receiving a deal to move into the Trackhouse line-up alongside Raul Fernandez for the 2025 and 2026 seasons - he exploded, with his consistency in the second half of the season driving him towards the title. His early performances in 2025 have people very excited, and he is certainly one to watch in the opening races of the season.

Finally, we come to Somkiat Chantra, who has joined up with Honda at the age of 26. Chantra has shown clear development in the junior ranks but it has been a slow development. It has taken him a while to get here. Nevertheless, with Thai motorcycling racing on the rise, it is going to be fascinating to follow his journey at the top table.

Last season was a rough one for the two Japanese constructors. They combined for 199 points, less than a third of Ducati's haul. Even Aprilia, who finished third behind KTM and Ducati, had 302 points, over 100 points more than Yamaha and Honda combined.

There are two distinct stories here. Towards the end of the 2024 season, we saw real progress from Yamaha, with Fabio Quartararo getting five top-10 finishes in the final eight Sunday races of the season. Plus, they are now welcoming Prima Pramac into the set-up, giving them an extra pair of riders each weekend, which should speed up their development given the extra data at their disposal.

For Honda, the road to competitiveness initially seems longer. Now, it is worth pointing out that the winter testing results were encouraging, and the riders and the team are making positive noises. Does that mean race wins? Almost certainly not this year. But top 10s and eventually podiums? Now that would be exciting to see.

Stream every race of the 2025 MotoGP season live on TNT Sports and discovery+