MotoGP 2023, no "Rookie of the Year": Fernandez the only new-entry

After getting a taste of the GASGAS-branded RC16 during testing at Jerez, Augusto Fernandez cannot wait to make his real debut in the reigning class. The current Moto2 champion will line up for his first MotoGP race at Portimão, for the first of a packed schedule of events. The Spaniard’s rivals will include Marco Bezzecchi, Rookie of the Year 2022. The team Mooney VR46 rider will have no successor next year, in that – unless there are any other late entries - there will be no contest for rookie of the year.

 

Fernandez and Fernandez, watch out for the names!

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Fernandez will ride a RC16 and Fernandez will ride a RS-GP. Both share the same surname and so it would be easy to confuse them in the comments. Perhaps we should refer to them by name, Augusto and Raul, the pair set to ride for GASGAS and CryptoData Aprilia RNF respectively.

They also differ in terms of career status, in that 2022 was Raul’s rookie year, the Spaniard competing for Hervè Poncharal’s Tech3 team. Augusto won the title in the intermediate class last year, flying the flag for Ajo KTM. As the only rookie in the 2023 MotoGP championship, "Fernandez number 2" has nobody to compete with for the Rookie of the Year title.

 

Guintoli and Rabat, lone new-entries in 2007 and 2016

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Looking back at the MotoGP four-stroke era, there have been only two seasons in which just one rookie landed in the reigning class. In 2007, when Sylvain Guintoli joined the Dunlop Yamaha Tech3 team, powering the M1 to overall sixteenth place. And in 2016, when Tito Rabat rode for Honda EG 0.0 Marc VDS, finishing twenty-first aboard the RC 212V. As the only new-entry that year, he too could not be recognized as rookie of the year.