MotoGP: The 2020 Grid. How did we get here

Coming into the second half of 2019 most people thought that there wouldn’t be much of a MotoGP silly season for 2020, but with Johann Zarco’s departure from KTM and Jorge Lorenzo deciding to retire after one year at Repsol Honda the rider market offered up plenty.

The silly season for 2020 has been one of the most bizarre ones yet, in Austria there was a rumour that the injured Jorge Lorenzo had been in talks with Ducati about a ride for 2020. And of course, the rumours didn’t slow down at the last round in Valencia, with the talk being a seat swap between Jack Miller, Pramac Racing and Danilo Petrucci, Ducati Team for the test the week after the race.

The speculation turned to free agent Johann Zarco, potentially signing for Avinitia Ducati, but with the Frenchman saying the Avintia squad “was not a good team”, just days later they secured a deal with Ducati to become an official satellite team from 2020 and having two GP19’s. Leading to this week, where Zarco announced he will ride for the Avintia Ducati squad in 2020.

As you have probably begun to see, Johann Zarco has been quite the catalyst in all the shifts on the grid for next year having stunningly left the Factory RedBull KTM Team after Misano in September. Test rider, Mika Kallio stood in for the rest of 2019. Some predicting that Tech3 RedBull KTM rider and rookie Miguel Olivera would progress onto the Factory squad alongside Pol Espargaro, however, Moto2 star Brad Binder who had signed for Tech 3 for 2020 would be fast-tracked to the Factory Squad, leaving the Tech 3 team without a rider. Iker Lecuona was announced as Brad Binder’s replacement but made his debut a lot earlier than anticipated standing in for Olivera at Valencia and showing excellent potential.

As was announced at Valencia, Repsol Honda’s Jorge Lorenzo was announced he would retire bowing out of his contract one-year early, early rumours linked (yep! you guessed it) Johann Zarco as being favourite to replace the 5-time world champion, however, this was quickly stamped out by the announcement that Alex Marquez would join brother Marc in 2020 creating an all Marquez Repsol Honda team.

Perhaps it was fitting that Zarco was the one that completed the grid.

Here is the entry list for the 2020 MotoGP World Championship:

[table id=38 /]