Watching Jorge Martín win the 2024 MotoGP World Championship was a special pleasure for everyone involved in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup.
The 26-year-old Spaniard has always acknowledged the vital role the Cup played in his road to World Championship success. He did so again in the world champions’ press conference at the weekend.
“Without the Red Bull Rookies Cup, I wouldn’t be here. This, I can assure you.
“Because we were a normal family, not that we were poor, but normal. So when I went to the Rookies Cup (Selection) the first time, I was quite young, I never tried a 125, but I was fast. They told me, you are young, come one year after.
“I came and I was the fastest. So thanks to that advice I was improving and when they took me it was so emotional because if they didn’t pick me at that time I think I would have left the motorbikes.
“I’m so happy, I remember at that time Raul Jara was a coach, I’m so proud of them, they gave me the opportunity.
“I was three years in the Rookies Cup and finally I won it so it was a really important moment in my career.”
Working hard all the way:
Martín finished 12th in his first Rookies Cup season. In 2013 he stepped up, won two races and was second on the points table. The 2014 season his and he dominated, taking six wins on his way to lifting the Cup.
He moved up to the Moto3 World Championship the following year but was on less than wonderful machinery.
Success has never been instant for him, but he made full use of a better opportunity in 2017 and the hard work paid off with his first GP win and his finishing fourth in the title chase.
In 2018 he was unstoppable, seven wins took him to the Moto3 World Championship.
Two years in the Moto2 class produced two more GP wins but not a championship.
Taking on the big guns:
Moving up to the MotoGP class in 2021 he recovered from a nasty injury to score a win in that debut season.
The 2022 season wasn’t an easy year either, but in 2023 he came very close to winning the MotoGP world championship, missing out at the final round while giving it everything.
This year he has put it all together, matching incredible pace with title-winning consistency.
Ten years in the three world championship classes have netted him the Moto3 and MotoGP world titles, 18GP victories and a total of 60 podiums.
Martín is just one of three world champions … or four:
Martín is the most successful ex Rookie but incredibly his total of 18 GP wins was matched this year by David Alonso on his way to taking the Moto3 World Championship.
The 18-year-old Colombian won the Cup in his second season, 2021. He won four Moto3 GPs in 2023 and a record 14 this season, the past seven in a row.
The Moto2 world championship was also won by an ex Rookie, 23-year-old Japanese Ai Ogura. He contested the Rookies Cup in 2016 and 2017, winning two races in his second year and finishing fifth in the points despite missing four races.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, the 28-year-old Turk made it four world titles by winning the Superbike World Championship for the second time.
He was a Red Bull Rookie in 2013 and 2014 and won the Superbike World Championship for the first time in 2021. This year he was dominant, winning 13 races in a row.
Photo courtesy Red Bull
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