In the next season of MotoGP there will be at least three rookies, all of them youngsters coming from Moto2, and there is still the possibility of a fourth – Fabio Quartararo, who after starting to look into the intermediate category was soon associated with the new SIC Yamaha. Bradley Smith believes that this trend in betting on the youngsters very early in their careers is due to the fear of the teams losing the next talent like Marc Márquez.

Confronted by the Speedweek site with the ‘trend’ of searching for the youngest riders in MotoGP, the KTM british said: ‘This is exactly what is happening. But the world is always changing. And in the future we will have other situations again. At the end of the day, it seems like this: all the manufacturers are afraid to lose the next Marc Márquez. As simple as that’.

For Smith, there isn’t a new Márquez, but admitted that the manufacturers are afraid to lose a great new talent to a rival:

– If you ask me if there’s a new Márquez, then I’ll say no. But all team directors are afraid to waste such an opportunity. If you’re a manufacturer and you don’t take that risk, another factory evaluates talent and it works, and then you look stupid. And you missed a chance.