{"id":401878,"date":"2026-01-09T11:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401878\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T11:37:07","slug":"one-race-winners-scathing-review-of-modern-motogp-it-doesnt-excite-me-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401878\/","title":{"rendered":"One race winner\u2019s scathing review of modern MotoGP: \u2018It doesn\u2019t excite me much\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five-time MotoGP race winner Marco Melandri issued a scathing assessment of the current state of the championship, revealing that \u201cit doesn\u2019t excite me much\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>One-time 250cc world champion Melandri raced in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP<\/a> between 2003 and 2010 full-time, riding Yamaha, Honda, Ducati and Kawasaki machinery during that period.<\/p>\n<p>He scored his first premier class victory in 2005 on a Honda, winning twice that year on his way to second in the standings, before adding three more in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Melandri moved to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/wsbk\/news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Superbikes<\/a> in 2011, though made a brief return to MotoGP in 2015 as part of Aprilia\u2019s first season back in the premier class.<\/p>\n<p>However, he did so against his wishes and only completed eight rounds before being replaced.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>MotoGP enters the final year of its current regulations platform, though aero development and ride height devices have in recent years has led to a decline in overtaking in the series.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with Gazzetta dello Sport, Melandri was critical of modern MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s not that I really like making comparisons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, I don&#8217;t like it at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s true that today&#8217;s races don&#8217;t excite me much.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd it&#8217;s evidently no coincidence that on social media, on YouTube, they often show the 2006 races.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause there were three or four of us within a second.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s not possible now, because with the speed they have, they can&#8217;t afford to even break away a meter later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From 2027, MotoGP will introduce 850cc engines, outlaw ride height devices and restrict aero on bikes, which it hopes will improve safety and the on-track spectacle.<\/p>\n<p>However, the new rules have already received criticism &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/news\/1079595\/1\/casey-stoner-2027-motogp-rules-wrong-way\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">most notably from Casey Stoner<\/a> &#8211; for not going far enough.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>In the same Gazzetta interview, Melandri also spoke of his biggest career regret.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would have liked to be Valentino [Rossi\u2019s] team-mate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause we\u2019ve been together since we were kids, and I\u2019ve always been competitive with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five-time MotoGP race winner Marco Melandri issued a scathing assessment of the current state of the championship, revealing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,5745,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-401878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motogp","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}