By The Numbers: Who Really Deserves To Win Rookie Of The Year?

By The Numbers: Who Really Deserves To Win Rookie Of The Year? I have long believed that MotoGP should open up more of its honours and awards to a media-and-paddock vote rather than decide them in other ways. There should be a vote for Hall of Fame induction (is Andrea Dovizioso a Hall of Famer?); there should be a vote for ‘cleanest rider’; and there should certainly be a vote for rookie of the year. This is not a belief held out of egoism - I am probably not often enough in the paddock to be any sort of vote-eligible anyway. But deciding rookie of the year by the points standings, though it sometimes drums up some extra intrigue for the final couple of rounds, is inadequate - as this season will likely expose. Diogo Moreira should by all rights outscore Toprak Razgatlioglu this season, barring some points-skewing rain-race extravaganzas. Moreira has the fourth-best bike in MotoGP, Razgatlioglu has the fifth-best - but the gap between Razgatlioglu’s still-undercooked V4-engined Yamaha and Moreira’s unspectacular-but-refined Honda is probably around the same at best as the gap between the Honda and the class-leading Aprilia. Moreira should, by rights, score points in every round. Razgatlioglu should score in none. Valentin Khorounzhiy Wed, 13/May/2026 - 09:00 * Read more about By The Numbers: Who Really Deserves To Win Rookie Of The Year? * 1 comment * * Log in or register to post comments