MotoGP's calendar is up to 22 rounds and 44 races - but every round and nearly every session within that round has the potential to change the narrative on one rider or another.
Those swings can get dizzying even at halfway point, so - with the summer break approaching its end - let's see who has actually strengthened their value as a MotoGP asset, and whose stock has taken a hit.
After 12 rounds of ranking every rider on the grid, I've leaned on that data to help inform my conclusions - but I've also committed to assigning a ↑↑ (big reputational gain), ↑ (slight reputational gain), ↓ (slight reputational loss) or ↓↓ (big reputational loss) to every full-time rider, even for cases where just writing 'he's still evidently the same rider he was 12 rounds before' was tempting.
Before that, here is how the riders compared by average ranking.
1 Marc Marquez - 3.6
2 Alex Marquez - 6.0
3 Fabio Quartararo - 6.8
4 Pecco Bagnaia - 7.8
5 Pedro Acosta - 8.4
6 Maverick Vinales - 8.8
7 Fabio Di Giannantonio - 9.3
8 Marco Bezzecchi - 9.4
9 Johann Zarco - 9.8
10 Fermin Aldeguer - 10.9
11 Luca Marini - 11.0
12 Franco Morbidelli - 11.3
13 Ai Ogura - 11.9
14 Joan Mir - 12.3
15 Jorge Martin - 12.5
16 Jack Miller - 13.1
17 Brad Binder - 13.3
18 Raul Fernandez - 14.0
19 Enea Bastianini - 15.3
20 Alex Rins - 15.5
21 Miguel Oliveira - 15.8
22 Somkiat Chantra - 20.0
Now here's where I reckon those riders' reputations have changed - going through them manufacturer by manufacturer:
Average: 3.6
Highest: 1st (6 rounds)
Lowest: 14th (COTA)
This ongoing spectacular run of form has hardly told us much new about what Marc Marquez can do. In fact, the main takeaway from his performances is 'man, the GP23 was so much worse than the GP24 last year'.
He has completely upended the Ducati rider hierarchy, but that can only be surprising to those who haven't really followed his career.
Average: 7.8
Highest: 3rd (COTA)
Lowest: 15th (Le Mans)
Pecco Bagnaia's season has not been appalling. He's been baseline competitive, and he's caught a couple of tough breaks that have served to artificially limit his scoring.
He has also been obliterated by his new team-mate Marquez, to such an extent that he can probably never recover the lofty position he had held within the Ducati structure - while shocking form in sprints in particular risks making him untenable as a future title contender.
Average: 6.0
Highest: 1st (COTA)
Lowest: 22nd (Brno)
Virtually unimpeachable for so much of the season, with only a messy Qatar GP and an unacceptably rough Czech GP notable as real low points.
The evidence has piled up for the 2024-spec Ducati that Alex Marquez has being the best bike on the grid, so that helps, but his fellow GP24 riders show it's not an automatic ticket to podium after podium after podium.
Average: 10.9
Highest: 3rd (Le Mans)
Lowest: 20th (Termas)
Good enough to have more or less banished the concerns about him coming out of Moto2, even though MotoGP Aldeguer doesn't look all that different to Moto2 Aldeguer - heady peaks enabled by special talent, with some head-scratchingly slow or messy sessions sprinkled in.
Average: 9.3
Highest: 2nd (COTA)
Lowest: 21st (Brno)
A rider whose rather high average ranking is making me question whether the metric is worth anything at all - but who does enjoy a bit of leeway thanks to the ever-present GP25 question mark and that silly pre-season injury that scrambled his early-2025 momentum.
But that leeway is running out, and the lead-in into the summer break wasn't anything to write home about.
Average: 11.3
Highest: 5th (Termas)
Lowest: 21st (Mugello)
Six riders in, saying this one has improved his reputation feels like the first controversial take - because the neutral fan's impression of Franco Morbidelli increasingly appears to be that of an overaggressive rider who's far outstayed his welcome in one of the grid's premium seats.
That assessment isn't even entirely unfair, but coming off a first Ducati season that convinced few - which itself was coming off a near total minus of a factory Yamaha stint - Morbidelli has at least reasserted his basic viability as a MotoGP rider.
Average: 8.4
Highest: 2nd (Brno)
Lowest: 16th (Buriram)
This is a better season than it's given credit for. There's a reason why Pedro Acosta has nearly double the points of all his fellow KTM riders, and that reason is because, to put it in overly simple terms, he's never slow.
But a reluctance to accept the bike's limitations will not have endeared him to his current employer and will be something future employers remember - even if it will never actually stop anyone from signing Acosta.
Average: 13.3
Highest: 6th (Jerez)
Lowest: 22nd (Silverstone)
A catastrophic season for Brad Binder's future prospects and his standing in the MotoGP rider market.
He has always had his quirks as a rider, but they have never, ever been as acutely exposed as they are right now, on a 2025-spec KTM RC16 that he seems to have a fundamental disagreement with.
Average: 8.8
Highest: 1st (Jerez)
Lowest: 21st (Buriram)
A season where the idea of Maverick Vinales seems to have overtaken the reality of Maverick Vinales somewhat. For as much as he has been heralded as KTM's revolutionary, there is no clear-cut case that Vinales has outperformed Acosta on the RC16 this year.
But getting someone who is there or thereabout with Acosta is still a very good return on investment for Tech3 and KTM.
Average: 15.3
Highest: 8th (Brno)
Lowest: 22nd (Le Mans)
The Czech GP was good, even accounting for the crash, but cannot outweigh the 10 rounds of slog that came before.
The five-round stretch from Le Mans to Assen - right after Tech3 team-mate Vinales hit form after his own rough start to the season - looked particularly hopeless for Enea Bastianini, but Brno proved the reputational damage can be undone.
Average: 9.4
Highest: 1st (Assen)
Lowest: 21st (Termas)
Marco Bezzecchi has pulled off almost a complete 180 as far as his season is concerned.
He was emblematic of Aprilia's spluttering start with a promising new RS-GP early on, but since about Silverstone in late May has been the grid's clear second-best rider.
Average: 12.5
Highest: 6th (Brno)
Lowest: 19th (Lusail)
Forgetting the contract shenanigans for a second, Jorge Martin has obviously not done enough on-track to change anything about his perception as a rider.
As with any long-term injury, eyes will be on him to prove he can get back to his previous peak level - but Brno suggested he will.
Average: 14.0
Highest: 5th (Mugello)
Lowest: 22nd (Termas)
Since Le Mans in May - or more accurately since the test at Jerez in late-April - Raul Fernandez has been the best MotoGP version of himself yet.
Before that moment he was maybe the most disappointing rider on the grid, and potentially headed for an early contract termination. But recent races always count for more.
Average: 11.9
Highest: 1st (Buriram)
Lowest: 22nd (Assen)
Very ropey since his return from injury, which will be a big concern if that form carries into the second half of the season.
But across the first few rounds, not just the obvious high point of Buriram, there was undeniable proof already that Ai Ogura can be something special in MotoGP.
Average: 6.8
Highest: 1st (Silverstone)
Lowest: 17th (Buriram)
Only a couple of rounds of bad work - Thailand and Aragon - against all those other rounds in which Yamaha would be crispy toast without this guy.
Not even Marc Marquez is this much of a difference-maker to his manufacturer's current ability to get results.
Average: 15.5
Highest: 8th (Qatar)
Lowest: 22nd (Buriram)
Alex Rins is no worse than he had been in 2024. I'm just not sure he's better, even if he's outscored his 2024 tally already.
The further he gets into his Yamaha tenure, and the further he gets away from that Mugello injury on the Honda in 2023, the more he becomes this Rins in people's minds - rather than the Suzuki star or the shock LCR Honda winner.
Average: 13.1
Highest: 4th (COTA)
Lowest: 21st (two rounds)
Has Jack Miller - who looked done in MotoGP at around this same time last year - made himself indispensable this year? Probably not, but he's given it a really good go.
His limitations are pronounced and well-known, but there's something to be said for his lightning-fast adaptation to new bikes, which makes him a really good barometer for a manufacturer like Yamaha (or, say, Honda).
Average: 15.8
Highest: 11st (Mugello)
Lowest: 19th (Le Mans)
Didn't get the fairest chance to show what he can do, but would also probably admit that even accounting for the injury the peaks haven't quite been there - the adaptation to the Yamaha simply not as smooth as Pramac team-mate Miller's.
Average: 11.0
Highest: 4th (Sachsenring)
Lowest: 15th (two rounds)
Has Luca Marini really kicked on compared to his first Honda season? In truth, probably not - though obviously the injury in Suzuka 8 Hours testing didn't help.
But while it's fair to have questions about his ultimate speed, Marini does provide Honda with the stability of finishes that the rest of its line-up isn't exactly geared towards delivering, hence his rather impressive 15th place in the points standings given a three-round absence.
Average: 12.3
Highest: 5th (Aragon)
Lowest: 22nd (COTA)
Fast, probably a fair bit faster than he was last year, and unlucky - but also still just plainly unreliable when it comes to staying on the bike, a fact of life not just through all of his Honda stint but the final months with Suzuki, too.
It could change (especially if the RC213V gets better), but that change is not something Honda - or any other employer - can really take for granted.
Average: 9.8
Highest: 1st (Le Mans)
Lowest: 20th (COTA)
The sample size is now big enough to be certain Johann Zarco is Honda's best rider.
His only shortcoming as a rider market entity is his date of birth. Being 35 is out of his control, unless he finds a really convincing documents forger somewhere.
Average: 20.0
Highest: 13th (Buriram)
Lowest: 23rd (Jerez)
Somkiat Chantra's injury before the summer break robbed him of a chance to change the narrative, and the narrative as it stands is a bad one.
The doubts over whether he is fast enough for MotoGP have only been compounded with rumoured question marks over his application to proving it.
