Marc Marquez sealing the 2025 MotoGP title is a formality - to such an extent that the only controversy surrounding it is how to properly count the achievement in the history books.
The 2025 crown will mark the 32-year-old's seventh championship triumph in grand prix racing's premier class, MotoGP, but his ninth world championship - together with the crowns in 125cc and Moto2.
And it is understood that series promoter Dorna (more so than new owner Liberty) is keen on accentuating the MotoGP-specific statistic - something that goes against historical convention and, it's believed, Marquez's own preference, after he celebrated his previous crown in 2019 as title number eight (pictured above).
Most grand prix world titles
Giacomo Agostini - 15
Angel Nieto - 13
Valentino Rossi/Mike Hailwood/Carlo Ubbiali - 9
Marc Marquez - 8
John Surtees/Phil Read - 7
Most premier-class titles (500cc/MotoGP)
Giacomo Agostini - 8
Valentino Rossi - 7
Marc Marquez - 6
Mick Doohan - 5
Geoff Duke/John Surtees/Mike Hailwood/Eddie Lawson - 4
When asked about this by The Race at Motegi, Marquez said: "It's not in my hands.
"I always say, when I will retire some day, it doesn't matter. Of course the numbers matter a lot! But most important is that the people remember me as that I gave everything on track.
"For example, the value of this [2025] championship inside of me is more than others. But in the end, on numbers it's the same.
"In the end, numbers are numbers. It's not in my hands - but most important is to increase those numbers. Doesn't matter how."
His brother Alex, a champion in Moto3 and Moto2, said: "I think [new owner] Liberty comes here and they've spent a lot of money to buy the championship, so they need to change things and they are trying to change.
"But, you know, it will be difficult to change millions of fans, that they have a history of 76 years in MotoGP, will be difficult to change that.
"But if they want that, I have zero titles so we need to go for one in MotoGP!"
And two-time Moto2 champion Johann Zarco said: "I got my two titles. So that's the main thing. Then for sure if I lose some contract or some sponsor in the future because my titles would mean less - it would be a pity. But I guess that as long as I'm performing in MotoGP this value remains quite important."
This has bad consequences for Moto2 and Moto3
Simon Patterson
No one within MotoGP promoter Dorna is ever going to say it out loud, but it's hard to argue that there's not a gradual erasure of the importance of titles outside the premier class happening right now.
Broadcasters told to call Marc Marquez a six-time champion, a flood of social media posts about his looming seventh title, and rumours of a row about how he'll celebrate should he win his ninth world crown this weekend at Motegi are all indicative of that, and while he might not want to say it out loud, his own words ("it's out of my hands") very much show that he too thinks it's happening.
On one level, it's an awful decision if you're a traditionalist, a fan (like me) of our sport's long and storied history. Grand prix motorcycle racing is older than erstwhile rival turned Liberty stablemate Formula 1. We've always rewarded championships in different categories as perhaps not completely equal, but at least worthy of being mentioned in the same level.
After all, they're racing on the same tracks on the same weekends and, up until the Dorna era at least, it was entirely possible to make a career as a specialist in smaller capacity. In fact, much of Dorna's own success is built upon the groundwork laid by Spanish legend Angel Nieto and his 13 titles in the 50cc and 125cc classes.
More than that, though, it's creating the risk of real harm for the long-term goals of the sport in return for short-term marketing successes. Fans identify with racers long before they even arrive in MotoGP, because of the attention they receive as they work towards arriving there; Pedro Acosta is absolutely a fan favourite these days because of his Moto2 and Moto3 successes, yet he's still to even win a MotoGP race.
Keep on this path of cutting away at the smaller classes, and you're going to cut not just their audience but in turn also their sponsorship attraction. I want to see the best in the world, not the best funded (which is what you generally now see in the F1 feeder categories), but we're on a path that will ultimately end up with teams needing to follow the Formula 2 example and needing racers with funding if they want to stay afloat rather than teams being able to attract their own sponsors and then pick on talent - as most can now.
Moto2 and Moto3 just don't count the same now
Val Khorounzhiy
The fact of the matter is, modern Moto3 and Moto2 titles are a different beast to modern MotoGP titles - and lumping them all in together as a category, while inoffensive, does not accurately represent the reality of grand prix racing today.
It is tempting to argue this point with a relative strawman - i.e. 'do you think this upcoming Marc Marquez title should count the same as Lorenzo Dalla Porta winning the Moto3 title in 2019 or Jaume Masia winning it in 2023?'. I believe that is an accurate point to make, but not every MotoGP title is born equal.
However, the best argument instead is that virtually nobody stays in Moto3 to win more Moto3 titles, ditto for Moto2. In Moto3, since the category's introduction in 2014, every single champion has moved up to the intermediate class next year. In Moto2, there have been exceptions - there likely will be one this year in Manu Gonzalez - but if those riders got a good MotoGP offer, every single one of them would have moved on from Moto2.
When I asked Ai Ogura earlier this year whether it was more important for him to win a Moto2 title or secure a good MotoGP chance, he said the latter was "a lot more important". That's just how the modern grand prix racing structure is.
It doesn't mean winning Moto3 and Moto2 aren't phenomenal achievements. It doesn't even mean they're unworthy of being world championships - they are worthy, for it's clear the level is high enough and they sure do enough rounds around the globe.
But it's just not the same thing. If it was, riders would stick around in Moto3 and Moto2 to hunt more titles - and they demonstrably do not do it.
