The calendar of 21 races and the increasingly physical bikes push to shorten the sporting longevity of the MotoGP riders.
MotoGP requires more and more physical and athletic effort on the part of the riders. In the last ten years the prototypes need strength and a very good state of health to be pushed to the limit and therefore age plays a predominant factor. It is no coincidence that builders are focusing above all on nurseries and young people. For example, the new Ducati philosophy of “on foot” has proved successful Andrea Dovizioso And Daniel Petrucci to bet instead on Pecco Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin, as well as the various Marco Bezzecchi, Luca Marini and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
The threshold of 35 years seems to be a difficult limit to cross and in this sense Valentino Rossi, who retired at 42, is perhaps the last example of longevity in the premier class. In the MotoGP ’23 season the oldest on the track will be Aleix Espargarò, born in 1989, back from his best year in the World Championship. Astride the Aprilia RS-GP22, he collected the first victory of his career in the GP of Argentina and another five podiums (there should have been six without the carelessness in Catalunya, in front of his home crowd).
Aleix Espargarò’s latest contract
He signed a contract renewal with House of Noale to higher figures than the previous one, winning the long push and pull with the top management of the company. He will race until the end of the 2024 World Championship, then it will almost certainly be time to say goodbye to his racing career. “Right now I don’t see myself in MotoGP beyond 2024. What Valentino Rossi has done is fantastic, but I don’t think I will have the strength to do like him“, he admitted in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin.com.
Furthermore, not only the bikes have changed, but also the calendars, with ben 21 Grands Prix which will force riders and teams to stay away from home for two months in the championship finale, when the races will be mainly concentrated in the East and at close range. Sprint racing will increase intensity and risk from 2023.
In 2014 Aleix Espargarò married his childhood sweetheart Laurafour years later the twins were born Max and Mia. His dream is to dedicate as much time to them as possible. And it is also true that once you reach the age of 35, it is no longer easy to keep your physical preparation high and recover quickly from an injury: “Before the athletic part was not very relevant in our sport, but now we are physically at an extremely high level and we are all very careful about what we eat, how we train and how we recover“.
