With 35 MXGP confirmed riders across 20 official MXGP teams for 2021, it is little wonder we are all excited for the season to start up again. A little while ago Infront sent out the list of riders for MXGP and taking a look at it again today, I am just blown away by the amount of factory riders. 16 in total and half of the start gate will have factory support, and that is just unbelievable and shows the progress of the sport Worldwide.

I know it was one of the goals from Giuseppe Luongo to have as many factory teams possible involved as much as possible, to make sure that the riders are given the salary they deserve, and KTM in Austria should be commended for their efforts in bringing us seven factory riders between the Red Bull KTM Factory team, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team and the GasGas Factory racing effort.

"It’s amazing to have so many factories," Luongo said recently. "It’s a dream and I believe in the next two years there will be one or two more manufacturers entering MXGP.  It will be fantastic to have all factory riders on the starting grid, but we have to be realistic, and what we have now is already fantastic."

A massive Worldwide television and online coverage of MXGP has seen it a bigger audience than ever before, and we are not talking massive crowds like we saw in Russia or Belgium in the 1950s, 80s and 70s, but I am talking Worldwide, from USA, to Australia, South African and many of the leading motocross countries around the World.

But what about these factory efforts. Big dollars are being spent in Austria, Japan and Italy on these factory teams, but obviously, it wouldn’t be possible without the support from Kimi Räikkönen, Claudio De Carli and Tim Mathys, who have invested heavily in putting their teams in place, and with the major support from KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas.

But it doesn’t stop there, HRC, Yamaha and Kawasaki have put a lot of money into their efforts, but again, we have to applaud Thierry Chizat Suzzoni (Kawasaki), Louis Vosters (Yamaha) and Giacomo Gariboldi (HRC), some big-time businessmen who love the sport and have also invested big time to make these teams happen, again, with big support from Japan.

So, while we sit and wait to see the outcome of the first Grand Prix, it is Infront, Japan, Austria and these amazing businessmen who have all put a massive effort into the sport, but it doesn’t stop there.

19 privateer riders will line-up against the factory boys and in that group are some teams that have been around for decades, like the Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee, JK Racing and JM Racing, along with a long list of new teams. Both the old and new of the MXGP paddock deserve huge respect as it is commonly known that running a team is an expensive and time-consuming job, and you only do it because you love the sport, 100% sure not to make money from it.

I have said it before, but with 22 World championships (Cairoli 9, Herlings and Gajser 4 each, Prado 2, Febvre, Jonass and Tixier 1 each) in the MXGP class, there has never been a championship in the sports history either in Europe or America with that type of depth, and the starting gate in 2021 will be full of motocross legends. 

Sure the 1980s were special with Dave Thorpe, Eric Geboers, Georges Jobe, Andre Malherbe and Hakan Carlqvist or the Stefan Everts, Joel Smets, Ben Townley, Mickael Pichon season of 2005, but none had 22 World championships racing together, and while that 1980s legendary group of riders might have eventually held 17 World championships, or that 2005 group eventually had 14, many of those championships were garnered (for sure the 1980s) after the golden era of lets say 1984 until 1989. 

Jobe won two of his in the early 1990s when the 500cc class was a shadow of the mid 1980s, and Geboers won his last in 1990, when Thorpe, Malherbe and other had already retired. This 2021 group could end up with anything around 30 World motocross championships in total, as Herlings, Gajser, Prado and others are not even in their primes yet.

Statistics don’t lie, and once again, we are seeing records broken by the MXGP riders as we remain excited for this era of Grand Prix motocross. It is little wonder the World motocross championship riders rule the World and that is something we hadn't seen since the 1970s, long before the Americans or Australian were at their peak.

MXGP Starting Gate 2021

Tim Gajser           Team HRC
Mitchell Evans   Team HRC
Antonio Cairoli  Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Jorge Prado        Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Jeffrey Herlings  Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
Glenn Coldenhoff            Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team
Ben Watson        Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team
Jeremy Seewer  Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP Team
Thomas Kjer Olsen           Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing
Arminas Jasikonis             Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing
Pauls Jonass       Standing Construct GasGas Factory Racing
Brian Bogers       Standing Construct GasGas Factory Racing
Romain Febvre   Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team
Ivo Monticelli     Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team
Jeremy Van Horebeek     Beta SDM Corse Factory team
Jimmy Clochet   Beta SDM Corse Factory team
Shaun Simpson  SS24 KTM MXGP
Adam Sterry       Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee
Nathan Watson Honda SR Motoblouz
Benoit Paturel    Honda SR Motoblouz
Arnaud Tonus    hostettler Yamaha Racing
Valentin Guillod hostettler Yamaha Racing
Alvin Östlund      JK Racing
Michele Cervellin             JM Honda Racing
Henry Jacobi      JM Honda Racing
Jordi Tixier          JT911 KTM Racing Team
Miro Shivonen    JWR Honda Racing
Vsevolod Brylyakov         JWR Honda Racing
Petar Petrov       KMP Honda Racing
Tom Koch            KTM Kosak Team
Anton Gole         Motostar.se
Alessandro Lupino           MRT Racing Team
Brent Van Doninck           Team Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing
Calvin Vlaanderen            Team Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing
Kevin Strijbos     Team Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha Racing 

MXGP and MX2 – 2021 Calendar

23 May KNMV Oss The Netherlands
13 June MFR Orlyonok Russia
20 June Lamsf Kegums Latvia
04 July IMI Borobudur Indonesia
11 July IMI Bali Indonesia
25 July ACCR Loket Czech Republic Women
01 August FMB Lommel Belgium Women
8 August SVEMO Uddevalla Sweden
22 August SML Iitti-KimiRing Finland
29 August MFR Igora Drive Russia
12 September TMF Afyonkarahisar Turkey Women
19 September TBA TBA TBA
03 October DMSB Teutschenthal Germany
10 October FFM St Jean d’Angely France
17 October RFME Intu Xanadu-Arroyomolinos Spain Women
24 October FMP Agueda Portugal
31 October FMI Tba Italy Women
07 November CAMF Tba China
14 November CAMOD Neuquen Argentina
Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations
26 September FMI To be announced Italy