How shut was Aprilia to becoming a member of Yamaha and Honda?

Aprilia was the one producer to beat Ducati to a race victory within the 2024 MotoGP season, having taken the highest spot within the Americas Grand Prix in addition to the dash races in Portimao and Barcelona 1. Nonetheless, it additionally got here near being downgraded to the bottom class in a single space. 

For 2024, the concession system was overhauled to be much less restrictive and supply extra technical and growth freedom to struggling marques. All 5 producers are divided into 4 classes – A, B, C and D – based mostly on outcomes on the finish of the yr – and up to date on the midpoint of the season.

Class D gives probably the most beneficiant concessions however it’s also the least envied since it’s reserved for producers who scored fewer than 35% of the out there factors within the constructors’ championship. This classification is calculated based mostly on the best-placed rider of every producer in a race, be it the dash or a grand prix. Ducati’s stranglehold over 2024, illustrated by a historic top-eight lockout within the Thailand Grand Prix dash close to the tip of the season, disadvantaged its rivals of massive factors.

By scoring 722 factors out of a potential 740, Ducati wrapped up the producers’ championship on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with a 3rd of the season nonetheless to run at that time. The Borgo Panigale marque thus secured 97.57% of the out there factors, effectively above the 85% cut-off, which suggests that it’ll stay in Class A of concessions for the beginning of 2025.

Ducati’s rivals had been left to choose up what was left. KTM scored 327 factors (44.19% of the absolute best rating) and Aprilia 302 factors (40.81%), and due to this fact each will stay in class C. Each producers scored fewer factors in 2024 in comparison with the earlier yr, with KTM’s end-of-year tally falling from 373 to 327 and Aprilia slipping from 326 factors to 302.

Furthermore, Aprilia’s factors haul was solely 43 above the 35% threshold. Had it failed to succeed in the goal, it will have been relegated to Class D. It was solely in Australia, with simply three occasions remaining within the season, that it lastly attained the requisite quantity. For comparability, Ducati reached that tally as early because the eighth spherical of the season in Assen.

As for the Japanese manufacturers, the concessions they loved this yr didn’t enable them to bounce again and run nearer to the entrance. With 124 factors (16.76%) for Yamaha and 75 for Honda (10.14%), each remained removed from the 260-point mark they wanted to maneuver as much as Class C. As such, they are going to proceed to benefit from the freedom given to producers in Class D.

Identical to KTM and Aprilia, Yamaha and Honda additionally fared worse in 2024 than the earlier yr. Yamaha dropped from 196 factors in 2023 to 124 this yr, whereas Honda’s hunch was even worse because it tumbled from 185 to 75 factors.

Meaning KTM’s rating fell by 46 factors, Aprilia’s by 24, Yamaha’s by 72 and Honda’s by 110. This was regardless of there being an extra dash race in 2024 in comparison with 2023, when the short-distance race at Phillip Island was cancelled on account of poor climate.

Subsequent season, Ducati will as soon as once more not be allowed to area wildcard entries and also will get restricted testing alternatives in comparison with KTM and Aprilia. Yamaha and Honda can undertake extra personal assessments because of a bigger variety of tyres. Each will even have the choice of letting their race riders take a look at in any respect the circuits visited by the championship. The 2 Japanese marques will even be capable to use extra engines, evolve their specs through the yr and homologate extra fairings.

The concession system for the 2025 season: