It looked like Lucas was going to win leading into Lommel, he had so much momentum, and the way Romain stopped that momentum in Lommel, says a lot about who Romain Febvre is as a racer doesn’t it?
We had two studio shows in that period, one with Jeffrey Herlings and one with Ben Watson. We were getting to the pointy end of the season, and I asked them both, Romain or Lucas, who is your money on, and both said Romain, he has too much experience having won the championship before and they were correct. Lucas will only get stronger and the last two years he has been second in MX2 and second in MXGP, so it will be interesting to see how he bounces back in 2026, which brings us perfectly to 2026 Geoffrey.
Exactly what I was going to ask next. What about 2026? You have been around a long, long time, as a fan, a racer and now a commentator and I have been around GP racing as a media guy for three decades. For me, it could very easily be one of, if not the greatest Grand Prix season in history. Maybe not in what happens, but just so many question marks, so many team changes, riders coming up from MX2, so much to look forward to.
There is a lot, a lot in terms of 16 GP winners and 8 of those are world champions. If you count the riders who have won in MXGP alone and the world champions, just like the US, we have a lot of team changes and class changes. Everyone knows where everyone is going, even though we cannot discuss that yet. We have two world MX2 champions coming up in De Wolf and Adamo, so a lot of talent and massively looking forward to it.
I mean, Kay moving up, he might be even better than what Lucas was in 2025, and Adamo will also be very good, then we have the team changes for Herlings and Gajser. Also, Thibault Benistant, he might also be very impressive on a 450. Most of the guys who have won championships in the last 20 or 30 years, have been on teams they have ridden for some period of time, not starting over in a new team, so it will be interesting to see how Herlings and Gajser do. Do you have an opinion on what might happen?
I really don’t know and it’s the fascination and so many unknowns. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tim and Jeffrey can get a sixth world title, or will Romain get a third, or Lucas his first. How will Kay be in the MXGP class, and the others. So much to talk about before the season even starts. As we get closer, we won’t have a great idea, because pre-season means little. Look at Tomac for instance from the WSX on the KTM, he looks the same as on the Kawasaki and the Honda and the Yamaha. With Prado, he was having trouble with the bike change, he just didn’t look right. So, these pre-season races, we might see how Tim and Jeffrey look on the new bikes. We might be pleasantly surprised.