2025 MotoGP rookie is already showing an open ‘disdain’ for his media duties

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MotoGP will welcome three new rookies to the grid for the 2025 season. Pedro Acosta won the Rookie of the Year award last season by default, but there will be a genuine battle this time.

The rider with the toughest task is perhaps Somkiat Chantra. Chantra must prove that he deserves a spot in MotoGP – and isn’t solely there for commercial reasons – after finishing 12th in Moto2 last year.

But the Thai rider, who will make his debut at his home Grand Prix at the start of March, may find himself on the worst bike on the grid. LCR finished second from bottom in last year’s standings, only ahead of suppliers Honda.

On the other end of the scale, Fermin Aldeguer joins the dominant Ducati stable with Gresini. Aldeguer would have been disappointed to only finish fifth in Moto2 last year, but he will ride the GP24 bike that Jorge Martin steered to the world championship.

VR46 are second in the Ducati ranks, rather than Gresini, but he should still be able to score big results. Somewhere in between the two sits reigning Moto2 champion Ai Ogura.

Ogura will ride an Aprilia bike for the Trackhouse team after leaving Honda. It’s not a Ducati, but he will enjoy 2025 machinery as the Noale outfit look to leapfrog KTM for second in the overall pecking order.

Trackhouse MotoGP rider Ai Ogura ‘quite openly hates’ his media commitments

Trackhouse became the first team to reveal their 2025 livery earlier this week. Unlike Aprilia’s lavish launch, there were no press attendance in North Carolina.

That’s good news for Ogura, who clearly doesn’t like doing interviews. Speaking on The Race’s MotoGP podcast, journalist Simon Patterson said the Japanese rider was ‘honest’ about his stance.

Patterson clarified that the 23-year-old hadn’t shown any disrespect. In fact, he finds it oddly ‘charming’.

“He’s got what I can only describe as a pleasant disdain for doing media,” he said. “He quite openly hates it, and a result he lets you know that with his body language and his words.

“You don’t really moan about it, because he’s quite honest – that’s how he feels and he’s not really here for it. It doesn’t at all feel disrespectful, which is the part that makes it quite charming.”

Patterson’s colleague Val Khorounzhiy suggested he may be wary of the press because English isn’t his first language. He wouldn’t want to create headlines by using the wrong word in an answer.

Why Davide Brivio admits it was a ‘risk’ to sign Ai Ogura

Ogura is one of eight Moto2 champions in the 2025 field, alongside Acosta, Enea Bastianini, Marc and Alex Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco. In just their second MotoGP season, it’s a statement signing for Trackhouse.

But team boss Davide Brivio is wary that Ogura will be eyeing a factory seat. He’s signed a two-year deal, but the ‘risk’ is that a manufacturer will snap him up for 2027.

Ogura goes up against Raul Fernandez, entering his fourth year in the championship. Brivio has warned Fernandez he ‘has to’ deliver this season after an unconvincing start in the premier class.

If Ogura is able to beat Fernandez in his rookie season, it could be fatal for the Spaniard’s top-level career.