Marc Márquez’s injury in Indonesia will lead him to miss the Australian and Malaysian Grand Prix at the very least. The Spanish driver, who does not require operations for his recovery, wants to return before the end of the season, but he will only do so when he receives the approval from the doctors so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Jorge Martín will not be present at either of these two events. The man from Madrid, who has already operated on his broken collarbone, is working at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center on his recovery, where he has means that will speed up the process. In the same way, and after a catastrophic year in terms of injuries, the 2024 champion has in mind to return as soon as possible, but it will be the doctors who set that date.
And to top off the hat trick of absences in both Australia and Malaysia we have Maverick Viñales. The Catalan injured his shoulder during the German GP and a long recovery awaits him until he is back to his best. Although he has tried to return to action, the physical situation has prevented him from shining as he had done until now, and the best solution is to continue recovering without competing.
So three great values on the MotoGP grid, two of them the latest champions, are not going to be competing in any of the next two GPs and we have to wait to know if, finally, they will arrive in time to reappear before the end of the season.
In Australia and Malaysia not all the permanent drivers will be there, but it is something that has happened almost all year
A season in which, for one reason or another, the MotoGP grid has had practically no Grand Prix with the 22 starting riders at the same time. Injuries have been a constant in a championship of, precisely, 22 weekends, which in turn implies 44 races with all the risks that entails.
Marini, Morbidelli, Oliveira, Ogura, Bastianini and Chantra are other drivers who have missed at least one Grand Prix due to injury. This means that practically half of the grid has been injured so far this year, and that is taking into account that we still have four GPs left. A situation that, perhaps, should lead to considering discounting races, especially if we take into account that returns in many cases are hasty.
