The US startup Faraday Future is positioning its new Super One BEV as a stepping-stone to more affordable EVs, targeting the domestic market among others.

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The European Commission wants to see stronger EU-wide cooperation over malicious drones via a new action plan. Proposals include a central counter-drone test facility, changing the current rules governing civilian use, and a development boost to Europe's own drones and counter-drone systems.…

Following the kinetic rush of Hidden Allure, Conor CC returns to his Origin CC imprint with Air, a darker, more deliberate cut that trades peak-time velocity
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Pokémon Pokopia can be described as a pocket monster-themed take on Animal Crossing with a hint of Stardew Valley thrown in for good measure. And if you're like me, that alone is probably enough to sell you on the game. However, after getting a chance to play a preview of it for around half an hour, it became immediately clear that the game's coziness levels are off the charts, but it also offers some fun twists on the genre.

Co-developed by The Pokémon Company, GAME FREAK and KOEI TECMO, instead of playing as a generic trainer, you take control of a lonely Ditto who wakes up in a cave only to be greeted by Professor Tangrowth, the last surviving inhabitant of what used to be a bustling town. While the professor might look like an extra-large version of the original pokémon with glasses, its role is to guide you as you rebuild and hopefully repopulate the surrounding area.

As a Ditto, you naturally have the ability to transform into other Pokémon, though the process is sort of incomplete, meaning you can only learn one skill from the monsters you befriend instead of their entire moveset like in the mainline games. This is where the first twist on the traditional life sim comes in. Instead of crafting them or earning money to buy tools, you can transform into other Pokémon (like Lapras or Dragonite) to use their abilities to traverse obstacles or shape the world around you. For example, turning into a Squirtle lets you shoot a water gun that will revitalize dry patches or thirsty plants, while transforming into a Scyther lets you slice through objects similar to the HM Cut. 

From there, you can use these skills to do things like create clusters of shrubs that will serve as homes for other Pokémon, allowing you to entice fellow creatures to return to the once desolate landscape. Another twist I really appreciate is that after appearing, new monsters will give you quests or just hang out. They will even talk and respond, and I don't mean like the 8-bit cries from other Pokémon games. They speak in full sentences, which is a wonderful departure from previous titles that really gives you the feeling that you're making friends and rebuilding a community instead of just being on a crusade to catch them all. 

The Stardew Valley part of the equation comes into play after you leave the first tutorial area and you come upon an abandoned Pokémon Center that's in dire need of a renovation. You can do things like collect materials and do more quests to clean up the area to eventually turn the building in the heart of the town. Unfortunately, that's where my preview ended, aside from quickly hopping into a multiplayer session where I was able to see a much more developed village, complete with multiple buildings, roads and benches. You know, all the sorts of things you used to furnish and decorate your island with in Animal Crossing. 

This gave me a nice glimpse at just how many things you can build in Pokopia and how easy it is to visit other people's towns. However, it didn't answer some of my bigger questions about the game, like what's the deal with Peakychu and Mosslax, whom we've seen before in previous trailers. Are they just one-off versions of existing 'mons with unusual typings (i.e. ghost and grass) only for this game, or are they going to be a bigger part of the Pokémon world going forward? Perhaps more importantly, it was hard to tell if there will be any sort of PVE content like The Mines or Skull Cavern in Stardew Valley. I'm really hoping there is because it seems like Ditto's abilities could translate quite seamlessly to spelunking or battling your way through dungeons in search of rare items or building materials. 

That said, just being able to build a community of friendly monsters while injecting life back into a forgotten town has good vibes radiating from every corner. So if you need a super cozy game to keep you busy this winter/spring, Pokémon Pokopia is shaping up to be the digital version of a fluffy blanket and a cup of hot chocolate filled to the brim with all of your favorite 'mons. 

Pokémon Pokopia is available for pre-order now, with official sales slated for March 5.

A group of activists gathered outside the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas last July 4 with fireworks and plans to mount more than a polite protest.

They were there for less than an hour before things took a turn: A police officer was wounded by a gunshot.

Only one member of the group is accused of pulling a trigger, but 19 people went to jail on state and federal charges. Attorney General Pam Bondi labeled the defendants terrorists, and FBI Director Kash Patel bragged that it was the first time alleged antifa activists had been hit with terror charges.

Months later, the Trump administration recycled the label to smear Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Minneapolis residents who were shot and killed by federal immigration agents. They were supposedly dangerous left-wing agitators, in Pretti's case legally carrying what the government said was a "dangerous gun." The videos of Good and Pretti's killings disproved the administration's lies.

Unlike the Minneapolis shootings, the full events at Prairieland were not caught on video. Instead, a jury in federal court will hear evidence against nine defendants at a trial starting next week, which will serve as the first major courtroom test of the Trump administration's push to label left-wing activists as domestic terrorists.

"I wonder how they are going to make it stick when their attempts at framing Alex Pretti didn't work."

Court hearings in the case have taken place under heavy security, with police caravans whisking defendants to and from an Art Deco courthouse in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Inside the courtroom, straight-backed officers maintain a perimeter.

The odds once looked long for the Prairieland group given the conservative jury pool and the seven defendants who pleaded guilty before trial, including several who are cooperating with the prosecution. The protests, crackdowns, and killings in Minneapolis, however, may have shifted perceptions of what happened seven months earlier in Texas.

"When they were crafting this indictment, they came up with that there is such a thing as a 'north Texas antifa cell,'" said Xavier de Janon, a lawyer representing one defendant in state court. "I wonder how they are going to make it stick when their attempts at framing Alex Pretti didn't work, fell flat on its face."

Jurors in the Prairieland case will be faced with key questions about protest in the Trump era. Are guns at protests a precaution or a provocation? Can the government succeed in using First Amendment-protected literature, such as anarchist zines, to win convictions? And how far can activists go when they believe their country is sliding into fascism?

Federal investigators and a support committee for the defendants offered starkly different takes on the purpose of the late-night gathering at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.

For the feds, it was a planned ambush of law enforcement staged with guns, black garb, and bad intentions. Prosecutors described the defendants as "nine North Texas Antifa Cell operatives." Supporters of the defendants say the protest was an attempt to conduct a noise demonstration, of the sort that have since become common outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings in places like Chicago and Minneapolis.

Related "Antifa" Protesters Charged With Terrorism for Constitutionally Protected Activity

The Prairieland facility, which was built to hold 700 people, housed over 1,000 by the spring of 2025. The privately operated detention center was in the news again this week, when the family of a Palestinian woman detained there since last year on alleged visa violations said she had been hospitalized after weeks of deteriorating health.

On July 4 last year, a larger group of protesters had staged a traditional demonstration of the conditions inside the lockup. That night, a group of people who had conferred on an encrypted chat app arrived outside the detention center.

Around 10:37 p.m., the fireworks started flying, according to the testimony of an FBI agent at a pretrial hearing. Some of the group of a dozen or so slashed tires on cars in the parking lot near the detention center and sprayed "ICE Pig" on one car.

Guards called 911. Local police showed up. Within minutes, an Alvarado police officer who answered the call had been shot in the neck.

The U.S. attorney's office alleges that the shooter was Benjamin Song, a former Marine Corps reservist who was a fixture in local left-wing organizations such as the Socialist Rifle Association and Food Not Bombs.

At a preliminary hearing in September, prosecutors painted a dramatic picture of the shooting: Minutes after police arrived, Song allegedly shouted "get to the rifles" and let loose with an AR-15 that had a modified, binary trigger designed to fire at a fast rate.

At the same hearing, however, defense attorneys poked holes in the government's narrative that the shooting had been planned.

Prosecutors' case that the group wanted to commit violence depends heavily on messages that members of the group allegedly sent through the encrypted messaging app, Signal, or at an in-person "gear check" before the action.

"I'm not getting arrested," Song allegedly said at one point.

Defense attorneys objected to the idea that such ominous-sounding statements were proof that the group planned an attack.

Read our complete coverage

Chilling Dissent

Under questioning from a defense attorney, an FBI agent acknowledged that no one had talked about killing police that night in the Signal group. Meanwhile, in addition to guns and black clothes, the protesters brought bullhorns.

One defense attorney asked an FBI agent on the case whether the group's members might have thought they needed guns for self-defense from police.

"A person peacefully protesting, I would say there's no risk to be killed by law enforcement," said the agent, Clark Wiethorn.

When asked whether he would acknowledge that at least some of the protesters had no plans to commit violence, the agent pushed back.

"I would say every person out there had the knowledge of the risk of violence," Wiethorn said.

While the government has portrayed the group as a disciplined team of antifa attackers, the messages show members of the group squabbling.

"All this stuff was kind of ad hoc," said Patrick McLain, the attorney for defendant Zachary Evetts. "When I'm reading these texts, they were just all over the place, and they're getting into stupid arguments with each other."

Song, the former Marine accused of shooting the officer, managed to escape a massive police response that night. According to testimony at a pretrial hearing, they hid in brush for 24 hours before supporters whisked them away.

Shawn Smith, an assistant U.S. attorney, said at the hearing that the fact that so many people were willing to help Song "speaks to the kind of personality of Mr. Song and what he can motivate." At another point, he likened Song to a cult leader.

In the weeks that followed, investigators arrested and charged people with far looser connections to the action at Prairieland.

One of them was Dario Sanchez, a soft-spoken teacher who lives in a Dallas suburb. He was at home on the morning of July 15 when officers ripped open his door and tossed flashbangs to gain entrance.

In an interview with the Intercept, Sanchez said he was taken away in handcuffs. Law enforcement attempted to question him in a car, warning him that he faced decades in prison if he did not cooperate. Sanchez said he told his interrogators that he knew nothing about the July 4 protest - but that did not stop them from arresting him.

The allegations, Sanchez would later learn, centered on the claim that he purposefully booted a defendant accused of helping Song out of a Discord group chat operated by the Socialist Rifle Association.

Sanchez was arrested twice more, once when he was rearrested on a new charge, and another time on an alleged probation violation.

He faces only state charges in Johnson County, Texas, and he plans to take his case to a trial that has been set for April, after the federal proceeding is over.

Law enforcement has delved deep into messages among the protesters that night that appear to show allegiance to antifascism.

To boost their case against the defendants, the government has secured the services of a witness who works at a right-wing think tank, the Center for Security Policy, that was founded by Islamophobic conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney.

Related The Feds Want to Make It Illegal to Even Possess an Anarchist Zine

Prosecutors also highlighted the pamphlets and zines that two of the defendants were publishing from a garage printing press, and the membership of some defendants in a local leftist reading group, the Emma Goldman Book Club.

The titles the government spotlighted at the September hearing include "Safer in the Front," "Our Enemies in Yellow," and "Why Anarchy."

One defendant faces charges solely for ferrying such materials from one residence to another at the request of his wife, which advocates say essentially criminalizes the possession of materials protected by free speech.

"I think what they're going to be poring through in those things is any writings in there that advocate violence or harm, and somehow they are going to try to stretch that out," McLain said. "They are really stretching."

Judging by the Signal messages obtained by the government, many of the Prairieland defendants self-consciously distanced themselves from more mainstream protesters. Still, the case could have implications beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth anarchist and socialist scenes - even though at the September court hearing, a prosecutor appeared to express surprise at schisms on the left.

"They actually don't like these liberal protesters who are out there just holding signs?" Shawn Smith, the prosecutor, asked the FBI agent, who agreed with him.

"These people can't imagine that someone would care about someone else."

The Trump administration cited Prairieland as part of a supposed wave of antifascist terrorism backed or encouraged by nonprofits and Democrats. In his National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, or NSPM-7, issued in September, Trump cited both the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the Prairieland action as proof of a wave of organized political violence from the left.

"A new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required," Trump said.

Although many of the Prairieland defendants had already been arrested by the time of NSPM-7 was issued, it was only in October that the government obtained its first indictment charging some of them with material support of terrorism.

Sanchez believes prosecutors have pursued the case so aggressively because of a "weird antifa delusion."

"These people can't imagine that someone would care about someone else, really," Sanchez said. "Why the hell would a bunch of people show up to protest outside an ICE detention center? Why would anyone care about these people? They can't fathom that people would have that amount of empathy, and so in their minds, they have to cook up the idea that this has to be some kind of weird conspiracy."

The post Texas "Antifa Cell" Terror Trial Takes on Tough Questions About Guns at Protests Against ICE appeared first on The Intercept.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by www.motogp.com

MotoGP certainly nailed its second annual official championship launch in two aspects and chuckled at the best attempts of the Malaysian tropical weather to drown proceedings.

Firstly, it looked stunning. The downtown Kuala Lumpur location, in the beaming light of the PETRONAS Twin Towers, gave power and prominence. The vast proscenium setup and neon branding also transmitted the impression of a major show. Watching the stream, it radiated through a screen and clearly wowed the public on the ground, despite the awkward rainy conditions. MotoGP gained a sense of elevated significance; you only had to look at the expressions and reactions of the riders themselves when they took their turn to come on stage. There were mixes of elation, bemusement, a little surprise and perhaps some appreciation. The 'thank yous' flowed freely from almost everyone who had a microphone shoved into their face.

It was also an 'in-your-face' reminder of the emotion and the fandom towards their endeavours. The Grand Prix paddock had just completed a week of draining testing activity 37 miles south at the Sepang International Circuit and in front of empty grandstands, and the launch was a splendid way of breaking that intense bubble. Of momentarily throwing away the blinkers.

The second distinction was the appearance of the Grand Prix bikes, as each team took their turn to motor up a small 'urban circuit'. "What better noise is there?" new Red Bull KTM Tech3 Team Principal Gunther Steiner admitted to the presenters while Maverick Viñales and Enea Bastianini gingerly revved the RC16s along the street. The rainfall had put a dampener on things and nullified the chance of any burnouts or stoppies but the thunder of MotoGP bikes bounced off the skyscrapers to such an effect that it could be felt through the livestream. Placing two of the most charismatic riders on the grid - Jack Miller and Toprak Razgatlıoğlu - into the run first was a shrewd choice as the Australia and Turk decided to slide side-saddle. The soaking street did deprive us of another one-handed Marc Marquez sliding burnout however.

In 2025 the riders steered road models of their respective brands in central Bangkok which was a commercial and convenient workaround, but the multi-million-pound prototype race bikes are as much a character of the series as the riders and it was a smart move to have them included. This has to be an essential ingredient for the future.

The 2026 launch was shown through the MotoGP App, YouTube (where it logged over 200k views) and through respective TV broadcast partners like DAZN so it was easy to find. It happened before lunch CET and early morning EST (middle of the night PST) and the aped the weather in terms of flooding social media channels. The teaser of the MotoGP grid group photo in front of the PETRONAS towers on Friday whet the appetite and underlined that the series has ambition to scale.

Kuala Lumpur was 'safe' territory. MotoGP is popular in the country, and the Malaysian Grand Prix is a reliable hotbed of attendance with a record 191,000 spectators in 2025, building on another record-buster of 184,900 in 2024. The fans were there in their thousands, even with the troublesome skies.

For 2026 KL was also practical. The logistics and the costs for the teams were relatively low. Bikes and staff were already in the country, and the launch required only a few extra nights in a central hotel. By using Malaysia, Dorna have now tapped into two of their prime Asian fanbases in two years and perhaps only Jakarta remains on the shelf in terms of the full canon of guaranteed public, willing hosts and partners and cost-effective solutions (all potential barriers to a European-based equivalent, outside the power-foundations of Spain and Italy).

Shows of this ilk can tend to drag but the production pace was swift, questions to riders were brief and humorous and the transitions from stage to bikes were seamless. Yes, the continuous hype of the native presenters can grate (my personal favourite was the query to the laconic 12-season veteran Franco Morbidelli if he was familiar with the Sepang International Circuit. "Yeah, I'm familiar with the track," the Italian smirked) but their job is to sensationalise…and it was all in English. Perhaps a more sensitive blend between whipping up the crowd and sustaining the interest of the larger streaming audience should be a goal for 2027?

Noises from the teams and paddock staff were very complimentary, even if behind-the-scenes there was more chaos than anticipated when it came to communication and planning. But, apparently, Dorna hustled admirably as a unified crew to cope with the ruinous appearance of the rain. Spectacles of this size should be treated accordingly - Dorna should invest further in a specialised organisational team and experienced event staff - to minimise any 'seat-of-the-pants' risk, and to foster collaboration with all the parties involved.

Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali and Head of MotoGP Communication, Artur Vilalta, told me in Italy in January that the Ducati Lenovo Team launch needs six months of planning between the respective groups and people like Madonna di Campiglio, Audi, Ducati Corse, sponsors and other stakeholders. The Italians have been running the three-day 'Campioni in Pista' gathering for four years in a row now. Kuala Lumpur was Dorna's second attempt and undoubtedly there will an internal debrief. What could have been better? More national or regional emphasis might have been engaged with more warning. As an example, how can someone like Honda Malaysia allocate budget and resources within their annual event schedule for large activation, and piggyback MotoGP without the earliest possible warning?

Why does this matter? Perhaps it doesn't but more hands to the pump might lead to a better pump.

Emails for the 'MotoGP 2027' fixture should be drafted now.

The MotoGP launch also lacked a commercial presence through the stream. Yes, promotional slots for the series' main partners may have overinflated a near two-hour ceremony but there are surely other creative ways to give some exposure to key groups?

One of the salient questions in the wake of social media footage still dripping into people's feeds is: who is the launch for? All that expense and effort for an already partisan market? Is it a TV bonanza? If so, what can be done to harness that further? To hammer home MotoGP's messaging, brand and potential?

Conjuring a ceremony that wows fans in a city centre but that also hold the attention of those watching internationally is a tricky elixir to perfect. After Kuala Lumpur 2026 it's clear that bringing MotoGP (and those motorcycles) outside of a circuit and into an 'alien' setting is a great conduit to make the series more accessible. In my opinion, the TV side is important - of course - but the launch should now be seen as Dorna's premium ticket for the uninitiated to hear and see what the technology and the people are about. These touchpoints sometimes happen throughout the season with proactive companies using their tie-in to MotoGP for regional marketing purposes (getting riders and bikes to signings in non-motorcycling settings) but nothing matches the now established size of the official 'opener'.

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The launch needs assets like more renowned musical acts (how can MotoGP work more with the likes of Monster Energy and Red Bull?) and then strong local promotion (pop-ups, flash-mobs, media deals etc) months before it happens. Why not aim for a Grand Prix-esque attendance on the streets?

2025 and Bangkok was a lunge in the right direction. 2026 in Kuala Lumpur showed that MotoGP can create sufficient 'wow' away from race asphalt and has further solidified the championship launch as a crucial date in the calendar. It created genuine buzz ahead of a season that many ingrained fans already know could be quite formulaic as the 1000cc era dwindles.

Where (and how) will Dorna and MotoGP take this flagship next?

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Yamaha Racing/shotbybavo

"If he is healthy then he is one of the candidates." Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing Team Principal Hans Corvers offers an apt summary of 25-year-old rider Maxime Renaux over a WhatsApp call. The amiable and straight-talking Belgian has already told us how Yamaha have made organisational changes to arrest a decline of results and a spell that has delivered just one MXGP win in two seasons, earned by Renaux (three in total since he moved into the premier class as MX2 world champ in 2022). He is now extoling the potential impact once more of his long-term athlete - the 2022 MXGP rookie of the year - as the Argentine Grand Prix draws closer.

The reorganisation for 2026 by Yamaha and team led to the initiative to employ former Honda stalwart Tim Gajser to sit alongside Renaux. The Slovenian is the most prolific MXGP world champion from the last ten years. His signature represents the first time Yamaha have signed a premier class title winner since Stefan Everts in 2000.

Gajser has coveted plenty of attention since his switch from red to blue (he rode for Honda since 2014) but Corvers, smartly dressed in his team sweatshirt ahead of the crew's first race appearance of 2026 in Sardinia, needs no prompting to talk about Renaux.

The #959 came into the Kemea team to win the MX2 2021 title and has been their lynchpin in MXGP after spending his entire Pro career on YZ machibery. There was a phase last summer where Renaux's frustration with his spate of injury problems and the waning competitive state of the YZ450F (neither Calvin Vlaanderen nor Jago Geerts were able to consistently fight for podium trophies; the South African making three 3rd positions throughout the course of the 20-round campaign) caused rife speculation that he wanted to end his Yamaha contract a year early. Allegedly discussions were held with Ducati and options were explored for Renaux to extradite himself from his deal but Yamaha held firm. The off-season brought a turnover and placated Renaux's concerns.

If Gajser and Renaux are fit and satisfied with the state of the 2026 YZ450FM then Yamaha have the best combination of experience and results, narrowly shading the titles and wins tallied by Kawasaki's Romain Febvre and Pauls Jonass. HRC and KTM will both draft rookies into the fray this season.

Corvers believes the recruitment of Gajser will give his French charge a 'poke' due to the equal billing. Renaux was eclipsed for wins and podiums by former teammate Jeremy Seewer in 2022 and 2023, but Gajser's slot in joint-P4 for the all-time list of titles (and 5th for career victories) is another level.

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"He's strong now and he has a 'gun' next to him," the Belgian says. "People have said to me 'there will be an internal fight' but, and I've said this before: I like this! I've known Maxime for many years and it was the same in 2020 and 2021 when Jago [Geerts] should have been the main guy for the [MX2] title, no discussion, and Max was the underdog. We know what happened. Max is our gun, beyond doubt, and Tim is not coming in above him or below but by the side and we believe strongly in him. The eyes are now on Gajser…and that will make Maxime dangerous. I think he needs it and it's the right moment. He will make a really strong season."

Yamaha have won just 12 Grands Prix in the six seasons since 2020 and one in the last two years. The MXGP team will focus on just two riders for the first time this decade but the potency of Gajser and Renaux - even if the former is new to Iwata technology - means they are well placed to boost the figures. Corvers acknowledges the high level of the competition. "Romain [Febvre], Gajser, [Jeffrey] Herlings, Maxime and [Lucas] Coenen for me are the top five guys that are a little bit higher," he opines. "Then you have [Ruben] Fernandez, [Pauls] Jonass and the new guys like [Tom] Vialle, [Kay] De Wolf and [Andrea] Adamo. [Kevin] Hormgo, at the beginning of last year was good as well, and [Thibault] Benistant is coming in. It's amazing; hard to know which way it will go…and I'm a long time in motocross!"

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ducati Corse/Falex

Gigi Dall'Igna wanders to an unoccupied high table and a couple of stools with a replenished glass of wine in hand. He graciously waits while I grab a quick refill at the adjacent bar. The location for our chat is in the furthest corner of the Chalet Spinale restaurant, atop one of the snowy Dolomite peaks in the resort of Madonna di Campiglio for the 2026 MotoGP Ducati Lenovo Team launch. We have escaped to this enclave to try and avoid the hubbub of Ducati/Audi/Madonna di Campiglio's many guests and the live music that is pre-facing the evening dinner.

The angle for our talk revolves around Ducati's use of technology in Grand Prix for a story for The Telegraph. We were supposed to sit down at the public presentation of the 2026 livery and, of course, Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia, in the icy village centre of Madonna di Campiglio a few hours earlier but the 59-year-old hadn't been feeling too well after a full day of interviews and media duties.

He is in better form now and still prepared to tackle a few questions.

To call Dall'Igna the 'Adrian Newey' of MotoGP is not too much of an exaggeration. Since he was fished from Aprilia in 2013, he has helped shape Ducati Corse to become the proactive and innovative powerhouse at the top of MotoGP and WorldSBK.

At the team unveiling inside the Pala di Campiglio conference hall earlier in the day he commented about his department's prolificacy, and told host Gavin Emmett about the pride in the eight-year-old ride height device that helped revolutionise MotoGP perceptions of downforce and electronics for corner-exit grip. Along with mass damper technology, 'scoops', holeshot devices and experimentation with aerodynamics (that was swiftly adopted and employed to further extremes by other brands like Aprilia and KTM), Ducati can claim to be the most influential manufacturer at the peak of motorcycle sport and since HRC refined their seamless gearbox in the early '10s.

There are several topics that I would have loved to dissect with Dall'Igna, such as his fascination with Marc Marquez, his real thoughts on the causes of Pecco Bagnaia's torrid 2025 season, and his opinions on the next MotoGP regulations window that has been designed to reel back many of the loophole solutions that Ducati Corse forged. But we have a tight time frame, and I'm also well aware from previous interviews with Gigi that I'm unlikely to pluck the ripest fruit, so the discourse heads in a particular direction.

Before jumping in the dark ski lift to ascend to Chalet Spinale, I had spoken with Ducati Motor Holdings CEO Claudio Domenicali. "Luckily with Gigi, since we met, we had a fantastic alignment because he really likes to innovate…" the Italian told me. For a man accustomed to secretive projects, it's little surprise that Dall'Igna - tall, wiry and busy-faced - can squint, smile and get away with some non-committal comments. Still, his words carry stock. He is an authority. A record 88 consecutive Grand Prix podium finishes for Ducati machinery, a streak stretching back to the summer of 2021, is quite the haul. And, based on the recently closed 2026 Sepang International Circuit pre-season test in Malaysia, where his unofficially monikered GP25 and GP26s filled five of the top seven fastest positions, 2026 is going to be another season of glimmering trophies.

You talked about the ride height device in the presentation. Seeing as 2026 is the last year for the technology, has there been much investment in it?

Yes, still. We started back with the ride height in, probably, 2018 some time, and every single year we improved it. Either the system, the stroke or the system for how it works. Now it is really quite complex. It's [improvement for 2026] not about reliability but performance.

The Desmosedici GP24 won all but one Grand Prix in 2024 and is regarded as one of the best motorcycles in the modern era of MotoGP. Will you be sad to see the current edition of the bike and its 2025 and 2026 derivatives moved to the museum in a matter of months?

Absolutely…but the rules have been the same for I-don't-remember-how-long, so, now it is time to change. Above all because of the speed of the bikes. 360kmph? It's quite high, and I think it is important to reduce it because the tracks now cannot really permit this. We have to remember now that these rules will stay until 2032, so, from tomorrow, there is plenty of time to improve and increase the speed [of the 850] again.

Do you see possibilities with the new technical rules for 2027 onwards? Or restrictions?

Hmmm, previously there did not seem to be opportunities either but then we came up with new ideas, new concepts and new solutions. I think it will be the same [for 2027]. For sure, in the beginning, the possibilities will be a bit less than today but anyway people's brains rise to the challenge.

The Ducati Corse group has a mixture of engineering talent. Some of which have flowed to other brands in recent years…

I think we are the only ones that don't try to catch from other manufacturers. We build the people internally. We bring the young ones from university and grow them in the system and, honestly speaking, I am really happy about this philosophy. We have a lot of really clever young people that can become a good platform for the future.

How do you find working with the current generation of young technicians? How do you see the differences in attitude?

This [pointing to the iPhone on the table] is the new reality. You have to move with the tools now. I am surprised about young people. I'm really happy to work with them because their attitude is fresh. It helps us to stay younger! More or less like Valentino [Rossi]; he build the academy with young riders and also took profit himself. It is the same for us.

In your view what has been one of the biggest changes for R&D in racing and MotoGP? Is it the influx of AI?

One of the keys is to understand better the tyres. Ten years ago, you didn't really fully understand what the tyre needs to then understand the performance of the system. I think in the last years the goal was to know how you can get the best from them. For sure using AI…but this is normal, it's a tool of the job. Still, AI needs the idea. It needs you to tell it what you want or to look for. The human side has to steer the system in the proper direction.

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88 MotoGP podiums in a row: that's quite some feat…

88 podiums is really a lot. For sure sooner or later the day will come when it doesn't happen. Sport moves like this. But I hope it will be far away.

How will you and the Ducati Corse team manage the 2026 championship and developing the new 850 at same time?

Everything depends on the result of the Sepang test. If it goes quite well then you can have time to spend on the 2027 project. Otherwise, you have to keep concentration and focus on the '26. For a small manufacturer like us it is necessary to understand what is going on and steer things accordingly. No quiet life for us yet!

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Yamaha Racing/shotbybavo

Herlings and Gajser occupied most of the scant off-season MXGP chatter with the first unveiling of their new colours last month. The Dutchman and Slovenian - ten world titles between them - had been with their previous brands for 16 and 11 years respectively and had taken all their accolades with those teams and manufacturers. Herlings' first appearance in HRC guise and Gajser's initial airing with the blue Yamaha YZ450F represented two of the biggest shifts in the premier class landscape this century.

Herlings is hardly a publicity hound although his video interviews and photoshoots meant that HRC won the PR 'duel' compared to Yamaha's somewhat understated communication with Gajser's unveiling. Tim was the first to compete however, and the decent outing in the chilly Sardinian sand at Alghero was encouraging, a week before Herlings makes his Honda bow at Mantova for round two of the Italian campaign on February 8th.

Both champions are still in the 'honeymoon' phase of their fresh career chapters (everything is going 'well', 'positive' and 'motivating'), but the pre-season international events before the Argentine Grand Prix in one month will provide more critical data in race conditions. By all accounts Gajser has been able to make some shortcuts with the new factory YZ450FM.

"We know that every good guy who gets on a [new] bike says 'wow'…but what stood out [for Tim] was his happiness with the power and he felt immediately comfortable with the chassis," team owner Hans Corvers told us. "He said he felt more stable than with his previous brand. He's almost a month with the bike now and he gets faster and faster with the suspension work: something that is normal. We are now only onto [small] details, and the two he wanted improvement for were the footpegs and the front brake. They were too sharp, and he really likes a really strong front brake so we just changed the calliper and then it was OK! The pace is fine. It's nice."

Corvers also says that "Yamaha have worked hard on the bike and on many things." The 61-year-old Belgian has presided over Yamaha's MXGP effort since 2024 after earning MX2 GP wins with five different riders, the rider's crown with Maxime Renaux in 2021 and four manufacturer's titles with the YZ250F. The former Kemea team's transition from 250s to 450s also came during an unstable period for Yamaha Motor Europe's motocross racing programme in terms of their structure, teams, riders and resources. "In the last few years they tried to do their best but it was difficult," Corvers admits reluctantly but with typical honesty. "Moving up from MX2 was not my goal at that moment [at the end of 2023]," he adds. "But we did it, and there were things that could have been better and needed changing for organisation and R&D. Also, my team's organisation…"

2024 and 2025 delivered slim pickings for results. Calvin Vlaanderen posted two 3rd positions in '24 while Renaux missed the campaign through a foot injury, and although the Frenchman won the 2025 Argentine Grand Prix he was again hit by physical problems. Vlaanderen brought another three trophies as Geerts toiled on the bigger bike without success. Both Vlaanderen and Geerts moved on for 2026. "2025 was a disaster," Covers admits. "My worst season in 30 years with Kemea and with Yamaha. We've been in the world championship since 2012, so I think I have some experience. So, the internal organisation changed. Andrea Dosoli came on top for the technical side, Paolo [Pavesio] moved to MotoGP and the R&D team changed a bit. In the team we also changed the Crew Chiefs and other things. If it will work? I will tell you in a year!"

Yamaha's re-evaluation, together with Corvers and the YRRD development group (the technical wing of Michele Rinaldi's old racing division) and YME's reorientation meant new perspective. The plan to emulate KTM's profitable flow for talent through European championship achievement all the way to MXGP (Herlings, Jordi Tixier, Pauls Jonass, Jorge Prado, Rene Hofer, Tom Vialle, Simon Laengenfelder, Liam Everts and the Coenen brothers all emerged from different levels of KTM backing in EMX) was put on hold, and led to dialogue with a 'big hitter' like Gajser.

Corvers describes the process. "We talked a lot and had many meetings and many discussions and we changed our approach. Normally it should have been [former MX2 charge] Thibault Benistant that should have grown and been the next MXGP guy next to Maxime but things went differently. We were heading in that 'line' but when you are as multi-national as Yamaha and in the top five of the world and you want to compete for the title then sometimes you have to look at it differently. Sometimes in football or cycling they also take the good guys to win."

"It was time for all of us to make a move like this because our riders in the line-up were not ready to give us what we needed and expected," he adds. "Nothing against the youngsters…but we also had a lot of bad luck because Maxime started the season so nicely in Argentina and while he's in shape and healthy now it meant three years with the same story [of injury] and we could not take the risk to have a fourth year like that."

Yamaha now have arguably the most formidable MXGP roster with Gajser and Renaux both multiple winners and bringing fourteen accumulative seasons of experience in the category. Corvers insists that Renaux is "happy' with the alterations. Post-2025 Motocross of Nations there was a sustained period during the off-season where the 25-year-old was allegedly looking to break his contract early and join the factory Ducati effort.

It seems Yamaha have responded to the malaise of the past two years and are scrambling to crest the series they last ruled in 2015. "What's nice is that there was a loud bell ringing: not just from the riders, but inside the team, from Monster and everywhere, and Yamaha reacted in a proper way and I'm thankful that they did," Corvers says. "It was hard in the beginning but now there is calm and everybody knows what to do and there is a nice structure."

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By Adam Wheeler. Photos by KTM.

Acosta's fate, and the plans of the Austrians (and their mainly-British-owned French associate team Tech3) for what should be their third five-year contract chapter for MotoGP were the more prominent themes from the activation. Sure, Binder - looking even more trim for his seventh MotoGP term, all on the RC16, and twelfth as a Red Bull KTM athlete - was being asked about his new Crew Chief Phil Marron and Viñales was probed repeatedly on his unusual union with Jorge Lorenzo but it was the words and demeanour of both Pedro and KTM Motorsports Director Pit Beirer that gathered the most attention.

With gossip already swirling about Fabio Quartararo jumping from one Japanese camp to another and Jorge Martin continuing his tour of MotoGP motorcycles by allegedly considering a Japanese bike for the first time (and for the first time in any class since 2018), Acosta's re-up with KTM or leap into new waters has increased in urgency, especially with Marc Marquez pausing on his commitment to MotoGP in the wake of his shoulder injury but unlikely to deviate from factory Ducati status.

Acosta showed expert ability in deflecting enquiries about his future while holding a video call with the press. "I think today is not the day to talk about that, I mean, we are in the KTM presentation…" he said when asked about his time frame for 2027 and beyond.

DARK ORANGE

The general feeling is that Acosta sees his path away from the factory that brought him to prominence since he first entered the Red Bull Rookies series in 2019 (he finished runner-up in his first two races). The impression comes from the cloud surrounding Pedro in the early phases of the 2025 season where speculation was rife that he would escape his KTM contract prematurely and steer a Ducati for 2026. That breakaway did not happen, but it stemmed from the-then 20-year-old's grump with the competitiveness of the RC16 and the wavering period of uncertainty for KTM; not only for their continuance in MotoGP but their existence as a brand and position as Europe's largest motorcycle manufacturer.

Acosta crashed in the first Grand Prix in Thailand. Then finished 8th, 7th and then 8th in Qatar; where he was upstaged as the company's leading rider by new recruit Viñales (and at the Lusail Circuit where Acosta had debuted with the fastest lap and even performed an audacious overtaking move on Marquez twelve months previously). During that spell he struggled with grip and vibration and swapped between bikes with the mass damper and without, until he eventually claimed to be using his GASGAS settings from 2024. "I mean, it's already a topic every time that I entered into the box," he said of the vibration issue that affected his Americas Grand Prix and round three DNF. "For this we need to find a solution because we already one year like this…"

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"We have to be better. Need to be closer," he had urged on Thursday at Austin. Acosta then stirred the pot by gifting his manager, Albert Valera, a signed helmet that featured the phrase 'turning point'. "When you have a bad situation, you need to make a turning point, let's say. You know what I mean?" he said, somewhat vaguely, at the following Grand Prix in Qatar. "It's about everything: the bike, learning how to push, how the brand is understanding what is going on. Everybody has to go in the same direction. It is not only the rider pushing for one and the factory pushing for another, let's say. In the end I understand that every manufacturer wants something new but sometimes it is clever to go back and understand what is going on."

Further comments, and a general air of being fed-up, only increased the sensation that Acosta's impatience for competitiveness was darkening his tenure in orange. "It's frustration," he said in Jerez. "It's not easy to ride like this, to compete like this or achieve a target like this. I hope we can make the flip."

The story of 2025 showed that Acosta, Crew Chief Paul Trevathan and KTM managed to zero-in for set-up and become a regular rostrum threat. The second half of the campaign delivered 5 podiums and 7 Sprint medals. But Pedro remains one of only five riders on the current grid to have not sampled MotoGP success (the others are Luca Marini and Ai Ogura as well as the two rookies for 2026). Watching countryman and former rival Fermin Aldeguer coast to victory in Indonesia by almost seven seconds must have been nibbled at his anxiety.

From the cool and pressure-less climes of 2026 pre-season, Acosta was reflective. "At the beginning of last year, maybe my expectation was too high, and it was not easy to accept the bad moments," he admitted to us. "Thailand, Argentina, Austin, even Jerez was not easy at all…."

"Maybe the key this year will be to be much more calm, maybe also try to be much more cold, let's say, in the way that doesn't make things [crazy] just for my feelings," he added.

TIPPING POINTS

Pit Beirer later said that KTM were "busy talking to our current four riders to keep them on board", and Acosta seemed to indicate that the door was not closed on another KTM agreement. The company and the MotoGP team seem to be in far more settled phase compared to the beginning of 2025; even if all the brands are juggling various pistons, for 2026 formidability and 2027 optimisation with the 850s, Pirellis, less aero and ride-height-free grand prix. Acosta might have the race-winning package he craves after all and the first rounds will be revealing.

"At the end of last year, we go to Malaysia [pre-season test] with some updates of my 2024 bike, but [there] was not really anything new, until mid-season," Acosta revealed this week. "And this year I see a big step, you know? And this makes you super-confident. Also, it's true that the general situation of the factory is not the same than one year ago. You can feel it in the faces of the people, everyone is more calm and more confident. This makes you breathe."

In Trevathan and his team (with several hand-picked members) top-billing at KTM and Red Bull favour, Acosta has almost all of the ingredients an elite-level athlete requires. The subject of the motorcycle remains loose in the equation. This means KTM could have a few weeks, laps and a couple of races to secure their generational talent. "I have to say that I'm impressed," Pedro also claimed in the wake of his visit to the factory for the official photoshoot and the traditional start-of-year bike-build for the race team "but we never know how much the other brands was working, knowing that in one year a new regulation will come."

Acosta's youth and his family's roots (we cannot underestimate the allure of a paycheck from another brand that doubles the salary) as well as his competitive thirst do not cloud his intelligent awareness that timing and strategy are critical to career progress. "It's quite difficult to know who will be the manufacturer to beat," he understated. "But it's true that I'm quite optimistic, after seeing how much KTM was working."

He is linked to Ducati, and that means a sensible bet in joining the current powerhouse of the series and a manufacturer with sharp experience of Pirelli tyres in WorldSBK. But it means ditching Red Bull and sliding into the pitbox next to Marquez; who has successfully vanquished every single teammate in his MotoGP stint, ending the careers of two. And, as a result of 2025, edging a Ducati legend like Pecco Bagnaia out of the factory team frame. Yes, Acosta is billed as Marquez's successor, but good luck as his main rival for the next 24 months while also developing a fledgling technical platform.

KTM POISED TO RETURN

Beirer did not carry the air of a man resigned to losing the rider that finished P4 in the world in 2025. The German has plenty of meetings in the agenda for the coming weeks as KTM need to agree terms with Dorna to continue in MotoGP (as do the other brands and satellite teams), rubber stamp the plan for the 850's development and investment and also bank Gunther Steiner's Tech3 squad association for the same term. Somewhere at the top of that pile has to come Acosta but also the other three racers… and all in-and-around a hectic phase of tests in Malaysia and Thailand, a championship launch in Kuala Lumpur and the first Grand Prix in the final week of February. The activities in Sepang will be crucial for all 11 teams in the series…but extra significant to how KTM can balance their assets.

"He made no secret that he expects still another step on the bike [before] we're in the situation to give him a contract for the future," Pit told us. "We made a very clear plan how we're going to phase the beginning of the season and how we're going to phase the Sepang test. I'm pretty sure that also the Sepang test will be important to show not just Pedro but all our riders what we've delivered over the winter."

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"Now it's also time to make the framework on the contract side," Beirer continued. "I feel in the next four weeks everybody really needs to be sure that 'this is my partner who produces material which costs a lot of money and the resources…'. In the next 4 weeks I feel really important things need to be decided."

The fact that KTM were one of the first to display their 850 engine for MotoGP 2027, and shared video images of the bike's early rolling chassis testing during December 2025 is a positive sign that they will indeed be part of the grid until the end of 2031. "Even in all the difficulties for the company, don't expect that we could've built an 850 just because I wanted to build one,' he stressed. "I had to get permission from the board of directors and supervisory board to do so. That commitment was there a long time ago otherwise there'd have been no bike on track in December."

"Thanks to Bajaj we're still here," he admitted. "With their strong commitment, they saved the company. They gave us the chance to work, to repair and we are on a really good way to repair this company. Now we have all their backing to go into the future of MotoGP."

If Acosta does join the flurry of social media silly season chatter in the coming weeks, even before he'd raced the 2026 RC16, then KTM can still look to Binder's resilience and Viñales rejuvenation and perhaps even Enea Bastianini's unpredictable speedbursts. And then there is the matter of the KTM 'pipeline' and a certain 19-year-old by the name of David Alonso who could easily gobble some of Pedro's hype in the coming years of MotoGP.

Thanks to Neil Morrison and David Emmett.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Falex/Ducati Corse.

Well-fed and watered, we were among the first to leave the mountaintop Spinale chalet on the second night of the 'Campioni in Pista' Ducati Lenovo Team launch, held in the snowy peaks of the Dolomites in northeastern Italy. Outside the restaurant that was populated by Ducati senior management and associated guests from sponsors and significant groups like Audi as well as a healthy media attendance, was a frozen 44,000-euro Panigale V4 R. Wallets were aching. Two of us entered the first ski lift capsule for the dark descent and return to the resort town of Madonna di Campiglio. Surprisingly, the second batch of people to exit the station at the bottom was 2022 and 2023 world champion Pecco Bagnaia, accompanied by his sister and PA Carola and his manager from the VR46 set-up.

It's possible that the recently turned 29-year-old was tired after long day of promotion duties showing off the new Ducati Corse factory colours for what will be his sixth campaign in that distinctive 'red'. But the fact that he left his teammate, Marc Marquez, shuffling on the small restaurant dancefloor under the illumination of content creators' mobile phones and with the bonhomie of figures like Ducati Corse General Manager Gigi Dall'Igna and Ducati Motor Holding CEO Claudio Domenicali for company was a stark contrast of circumstances. Speculation about Bagnaia's fate with the team and brand wafted invisibly over the first official day of 'Campioni in Pista', especially with recent rumours of Pedro Acosta's imminent deal with the Italians popping up online in the preceding days. Marquez, who has not raced a Grand Prix bike since October 5th, meanwhile revelled in the attention befitting of the company's third different world champion in four years and with the assurance of a man that is clearly feted and wanted by the Bologna-based firm.

It was hard not to draw a parallel with the glistening, icy Panigale outside the restaurant doors and Bagnaia's apparent future with the Ducati Corse flagship effort. Bewilderment of the Italian's erratic competitiveness in 2025 after three glorious seasons has still not thawed either. From the entire MotoGP grid, only Fabio Quartararo and Brad Binder have been with their respective teams (seven years) longer than Bagnaia with Ducati Corse's flagship. Once again Marquez has dwarfed a teammate, even one as entrenched and celebrated as Pecco with his native brand.

2026 is a bridge year for MotoGP technology, the end of a contract window for the five manufacturers on the grid with Dorna Sports as well as satellite teams and brands. Of course, it will also be the final Grand Prix term for riders, either in the championship itself or with their current employees. As the series sorts itself out for the next five and two-year phases, the transfer stories and narratives arcs will be as fascinating and fervent as any of the -on-track action in the coming months. "2026 will be tricky, not on track, outside the track," Marc said to us in the post-presentation press conference. The clamour for confirmation of plans and the changes to the fabric of MotoGP means that a raft of announcements could surface earlier than expected, so teams and riders can dispel with endless questions and conjecture while they get on with the business of succeeding in the last volley of the current 1000s and then also charting progress of the development of the 850s.

Marquez, the second oldest rider in MotoGP, sits in the familiar position of being 'first' in this mire of mixture. The Catalan's eventual decision will arrange the subsequent spaces, the budgets, the priorities and the possibilities for his peers.

In Madonna di Campiglio Marc's replies to enquires about what he will do were not the first and will not be the last. A seasoned veteran of the game, he was giving little away but the team launch press conference was the opening salvo of questions for his timeline and considerations for possible fifteenth and sixteenth seasons in MotoGP and that Valentino Rossi-eclipsing tenth title bid.

Why go again? Marc is clearly nestling comfortably in a plump Ducati bosom; voluptuous with potential for 2027 thanks to Ducati Corse's extensive experience with Pirelli tyres through their achievements in WorldSBK. Domenicali allegedly said to Sky Sports Italia that re-upping with their star was the priority. His seventh MotoGP championship and the glut of 11 GP victories in 2025 has not quenched the thirst. "I have a big passion about riding a bike," he had said on stage for the presentation. "But not [just] riding a bike, about competition. It's the best fuel I have in my body. And a season like 2025 just creates more motivation."

In the press conference he was more revealing. "I'm happy with my life, I'm happy with my work, if you can say 'work'," he added. "The most difficult challenge of my career I have already done, that was to come back [from his broken right arm]. Now if something [more success] arrives, it's welcome."

A final one-year sortie with the GP26 is unlikely, even if Marquez answered "nothing" to TNT commentator Gavin Emmett's question about what would be at the top of a wishlist for the forthcoming Sepang test. He might be content with his race bike based on the GP25 and with electronics and aero upgrades and final revision to Ducati's masterful rear ride height device to come for 2026, but if Marc continues as a Grand Prix rider then it will be for both 2027 and 2028. "If we decide to go forward, it will be a two-year contract…" he said. "The project of manufacturers are by two years. If not, it will not be a big benefit for the team and the manufacturer."

Why call it a day? As much as Marc blurs the separation between work and passion, 2026 will be a busy year for him. His profile means a loaded calendar of promotion requirements for his employer as well as MotoGP itself. The requests will be dizzying. You have to wonder why he isn't already tired with the periphery of the circus before then contending with the pressures of the paddock and the demands of the travel. Then, there is the physical wear and tear of 107 crashes in the last five years and the nagging doubt that his right shoulder is still not quite ready. "If you asked me two weeks ago, I would say, 'hmm, so so'," he said, earnestly, about the current state of the joint. "But as [with] every rehabilitation or recovery, we have some ups and downs, and now I start to feel better and better. I don't know which percentage I am, because I don't know what will be my 100%. I think it will be the same as before, but I need to analyse this and try to discover."

Marc also hinted at the drain of yet another circle of recovery. Something he's already frustratingly familiar with after the four operations it took to get him race ready between 2020 and 2024. "Yeah, another year we did a long winter, tough winter, about the mental side because a lot of physiotherapy sessions," he half-sighed "and a lot of gym sessions with low weights."

Ducati deservingly flaunted their MotoGP feats in numbers through the presentation: 1-2 in the championship, a third Triple Crown (Rider, Constructor, Team titles), 17 GP wins from 22 in 2025 (and 44 podiums) and 6 of the first 8 riders in the standings. Although its unlikely, there is the slim possibility that they don't hit the mark with the 850 for 2027. Ducati Corse could get it wrong. 2027 will scramble the paint palette of MotoGP and the dominant hue of scarlet could well turn another shade. Marc might re-enter the basin of frustration that he found in his last two years with HRC. "Nobody can promise the best bike," he warned. "You have to feel and follow your instinct what is the best project for yourself."

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Realistically, where could he go? A reunion with a resurgent HRC seems the most imaginable factory move. Aprilia would not sit right, KTM would struggle for budget and Yamaha is a different type of project. Marquez speaks in glowing terms of his one-year experience alongside brother Alex at Gresini, so that would be the next most logical choice if he wants to copy Rossi's graceful ease into retirement outside of 'works' status, but it would also make little sense for arguably the series' all-time greatest rider.

Marc's sensitivity to Bagnaia's situation led him to lament the speediness with how 2027 and 2028 will undoubtedly be cemented. He said of the pecking order: "It's not fair, but it's like this."

"I would like to go more forward and wait a bit more and decide our future mid-season," he added. "[But] I think some riders will close already before the first race. It's true that I'm one of them, we are in conversations, but I need to analyse everything, what is the best for my professional and personal life."

Bagnaia could already be out of Ducati Lenovo. If not, then he might only have a handful of races to prove that 2025 was a brief mind-bend. Thanks to 31 GP wins to-date and those two titles he is already a Ducati 'legend' but six years could be the point where both rider and team need to refresh. Pecco's career prospects with Ducati will endure if he takes the easy option of steering a Desmosedici from the VR46 squad because if MM93 sticks around for another brace of seasons then it's quite clear who will be bringing the heat.

By Adam Wheeler. Photo by Shot by Bavo.

Five world championships and a record tally of 112 Grand Prix wins give 31-year-old Jeffrey Herlings a hefty distinction in FIM MXGP (the series reaches its 68th year of existence in 2026). The fact that the Dutchman achieved every single success with Red Bull KTM means his jump to HRC represented a seismic shift in the landscape of Grand Prix. Herlings' two-season agreement with the Japanese is perhaps the biggest rider shake-up this century because of what he achieved and symbolised with KTM: the orange 84 pervaded over both the MX2 and MXGP classes whether he was dominant on track or absent through injury. Herlings either ghosted his rivals or was a distant spectre; his excellence lurking in the background of the results sheets that he couldn't penetrate.

Austria for Japan/Italy, 450 SX-F for CRF450R, Alpinestars for Fox: from January 1st Herlings abandoned every consistent staple of his career since he impacted the world championship as a shining 15-year-old in 2010.

The change to Honda occurred through the period of uncertainty at KTM last summer and the offer of a strong contract from HRC that had mitigations for injury (there was no clause in the fine print). After sixteen seasons in orange, Herlings was also attracted by the novelty of possibility: the motivational benefits of a void outside of his comfort zone. According to sources close to the racer, he had doubts about the move before and during (even after) the process but forged ahead with his decision. The duration of his outgoing KTM deal meant he could not ride a Honda until January 1st 2026 and officially replaced Yamaha-bound Tim Gajser - a five times champion himself and Honda stalwart since 2015 - at the turn of the year.

The factory unit have then been doubling down with Herlings who will have to adjust to alternative suspension beyond WP and an aluminium chassis. "To have a little taste of Honda we gave him a production bike, all stock, from January 1st," Pereira tells us. "He rode quite a few times before we arrived with all the Japanese, all the engineers and the whole crew and then we switched to the prototype."

Like teammates Tom Vialle (also new to HRC after seven terms with Red Bull KTM in MX2 and then AMA 250SX and MX) and Ruben Fernandez, Herlings will race the factory pre-production CRF. Vialle completed tests in November and raced the Paris Supercross for his debut. Fernandez, who will begin his fourth campaign as an HRC rider, rode the new model through the second half of the 2025 championship and to 4th place in the MXGP standings.

Herlings' initial laps with HRC was an exercise of acute acclimatisation. While both parties are clearly in a honeymoon period and any progress with feeling, speed and potential are positive steps, there is an urgency to get '84' ready to tackle the likes of world champion Romain Febvre and former teammate Lucas Coenen as well as incoming MXGP rookies like Kay de Wolf and Andrea Adamo. According to Pereira the process was effective. "We already had already some idea what we're going to face and what we were going to test with him but you never know until the first day," the Brazilian said. "We were trying to get a base bike that we think that will suit for him very well but being 17 years with a different manufacturer, it's not easy. However, we were together 12 hours a day for three days solid and he was really happy: learning the team, learning how the bike handles, what he needs from the bike, what he needs from us, and also what we need from him. To be honest, I was also really happy. I think nobody from the HRC or the team expected that everything would go so smooth and so easy."

Pereira said that Herlings was extremely curious. For the team it meant a different working approach after a decade of orientating their championship hopes around Gajser. "Tim was with Honda for a long time, so let's say, testing-wise, we knew what he was looking for and we knew the requests. But with Jeffrey everything is new, so there are many questions and many ideas. Things coming from his mind and what he wishes for engine character, suspension and handling. But, in a short time, we were able to give him a base."

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"Both riders [Herlings and Gajser] are really professional," he explains. "Both riders really know what they want because they are both on that high level. The requests for the specification are always met with the best we can give because we like to be on that level as well! But with Jeff there's more questions than usual for us!"

In terms of different bike set-ups for the two championships, Honda are still in the exploration stages but the latest generation of the CRF means the '84' might already have alternative parameters to what HRC had to shape for Gajser. "Tim never rode the new prototype, so it's kind of like a 'reset'," Pereira says. "But it's not a big deal for us and the Japanese can meet the requests Jeffery has."

Herlings' Honda debut will come on February 8th in the shallow sand of Mantova for the second round of the Internazionali d'Italia. The whole HRC line-up will compete in Italy. Herlings will then enter the Hawkstone Park International in the UK the following weekend with Vialle while Fernandez and HRC MX2 rider Valerio Lata will ride the opening dates of the 2026 Spanish Championship. MXGP begins in Argentina on March 7-8.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer.

Kay de Wolf has ended a strong half decade in the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship and will bump into MXGP at the age of 21 for 2026. The Dutchman will steer a factory Nestaan Husqvarna FC 450 and is expected to be part of an official six-rider Austrian works line-up; three of which in the premier division (along with Lucas Coenen and Andrea Adamo). In the wake of Jeffrey Herlings' departure from Red Bull KTM colours after sixteen seasons, De Wolf ensures that the Netherlands will still have factory representation from the depths of Mundering.

Husqvarna confirmed the news last Friday for 2026 as De Wolf continues his association with Kay Henneken's team run by Rasmus Jorgensen and a squad he joined as a teenager for EMX125 in in 2019. Ironically De Wolf made the decision for his future (and for the last year of his current deal with the KTM Group) at the 2025 Motocross of Nations in the USA where he won the MX2 category. "I had to think about it. I missed the deadline by over a week!" he smiles when asked about the choice between another term in MX2 (he could still race another two, based on the 23-year age rule) and the entry to MXGP.

De Wolf should join other MX2 champions like Maxime Renaux, Tom Vialle and Adamo (both also potentially making their MXGP debuts in 2026) on the 450 while incumbent #1, Simon Längenfelder, has opted to try and become the first back-to-back MX2 title winner since Jorge Prado in 2019. Kay (pronounced 'Ky') has finished 7th, 6th, 6th, 1st and 2nd in his five MX2 campaigns and waves farewell to the competition after two years of last race, last lap championship finales.

"A new chapter and it's the right time," he says, exclusively. "I wanted to defend my 250 title in 2025 and I was doing it pretty well despite some injuries."

De Wolf's biggest obstacle was the spell of three consecutive race in France, Germany and Latvia, and then the British Grand Prix at Matterley Basin. He finished 13-3-3-10 at those events. "I went through a lot of pain: France was bad," he explains. "I'd twisted my right ankle and there were a lot of right-handed turns! The tiniest touch or tip on the ground can ruin your whole race with an injury like that. It was the first of a triple header and those things just don't heal that quickly. I went to Germany and was trying not to touch the ground with my foot and ended up doing down on my shoulder. I could not raise my arm. Going into Latvia there was a lot of rain. I didn't have power in my right shoulder and couldn't put my right foot down. I crashed quite a few times there. It was a rough set of GPs and I learned how to charge myself-up mentally and that's something I can take into the future. It was a big learning lesson; going through that pain barrier."

He was then only minutes from re-stamping his champion status at the storm-hit second moto in Australia. His water-logged bike expired a lap before the red flag in Darwin for what was a dramatic and sensational closer to a season where De Wolf had chased Längenfelder and also dealt with Adamo for long stages. "I gave it all I had," he recalls. "That's why I have no regrets. I could hear the water in my engine and I was kinda prepared for it. The lap before it died I was actually hopeful because it sounded better but then I had to go through a puddle that I could not avoid. I tried everything to miss that water because we had information from the team that Simon was quite far behind. I missed it by two minutes but as soon as I walked back I was quite neutral because we gave everything. That's why I've slept well ever since. The whole team gave it all."

De Wolf had travelled to Australia trailing Längenfelder by only 16 points. He lowered to 13 after Saturday's Qualification Heat and then only 10 in the wake of the first moto. The tension meant some close calls between the pair on-track. De Wolf was criticised by some for his tactics when he passed his German rival. "I had people saying they wanted to kill me afterwards," he grins. "I laughed with it. In my opinion he still had an 'open ticket' from Turkey last year and a really unnecessary pass that could have ended my 2024 title. A lot of things happened after that race and a lot of opinions. People can say what they want…"

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Despite the low moments and flashes of controversy, De Wolf was otherwise exceptional. He won the most Grands Prix, the most motos and totalled 15 podiums from 20. His perfect weekend of topping every single MX2 period or outing at Lommel for the Belgian Grand Prix was a masterclass. Now he has drawn a line under the year and his career chapter.

Rather than aspiring to a dizzying rookie season like Romain Febvre (2015), Tim Gajser (2016), Jeffrey Herlings (2nd in the championship with 6 victories in 2017) or Lucas Coenen (also a runner-up with 13 trophies in 2025), De Wolf is being modest and realistic, while also anticipating a contest against the likes of Herlings and co. "It's not just about racing my heroes but learning from them and hopefully take that experience into later years and chase the world title," he said pre-emptively of 2026.

There is cause for optimism, however. De Wolf was one of the tallest and heaviest riders in MX2; a reason why he was comprehensively defeated in Grand Prix holeshots. His technique also lends itself to the greater torque and output of the 450, much in the same way as former teammate and title foe Lucas Coenen. "A lot better than a 250 actually," he says of the suitability of his style for the extra cc's. "I ride it smoothly compared to the 250. Because of my weight I have to hang-it-out on the 250 more whereas on the 450 I have it more under control. It's really enjoyable and I've already shown some good speed on different tracks."

Nestaan Husqvarna will again split classes with De Wolf in MXGP and Liam Everts in MX2. The team last divided their efforts between two bikes in 2024 when they fielded Mattia Guadagnini on the FC 450.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer.

Tim Gajser could not defeat brandmates Hunter and Jett Lawrence for a second year in a row at the Motocross of Nations this month but the decorated MXGP racer at least gave Honda a farewell top three with 3rd place in the MXGP class in Indiana.

Gajser, along with Jeffrey Herlings, is set to embark on two of the biggest team and manufacturer changes in modern MXGP history. The 29-year-old, who first represented the Japanese in 2014 and from the confines of Giacomo Gariboldi's team in MX2, killed the engine on an -eleven season association with the factory in the USA, and a union that delivered five titles and over 50 Grand Prix victories (putting him 5th on the all-time list). Gajser famously won the premier class division in his first term with the CRF450R in 2016, which was also Honda's first success in the blue ribband competition since 2000.

2025 started positively for #243 with five consecutive podium finishes, including three wins, but then he controversially hit a partially concealed marshal's mound at Frauenfeld for round six of the series and sustained a displaced right shoulder. He missed nine Grands Prix after surgery and returned to grasp one more trophy with a runner-up classification at the penultimate round in China.

"I had a really comfortable lead, over 50 points, but then the crash happened in Switzerland," he explains. "I gave my best to come back as soon as possible but when I tried in Agueda [Portugal, round seven] it was too damaged. Surgery…and then it [recovery] took way-longer than expected. Without that crash I felt like [2025] was my season…but this is the sport sometimes."

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At Ironman Gajser still wasn't quite back to total fitness. "I still don't have full mobility of the shoulder, but we are working on it and it will be 100% for next year," he said in the paddock in Indiana. "In the last two GPs the speed was there, and Ironman was another step in the right direction. I can go motivated into the off-season: many changes! I'm looking forward and I'm excited."

During his recovery this summer, Gajser had been negotiating another new deal with Honda but the company had their head-turned by the prospect of Jeffrey Herlings, and enticed double MX2 world champ and AMA 250SX #1 Tom Vialle back to Europe. Gajser, allegedly, found a willing new employer with Yamaha.

"Strange that it was my last race on a red bike," he said on Sunday at the MXoN. "I have been with Honda since the end of 2013, twelve years is a long time! It's definitely going to be different next year but sometimes a fresh beginning is also good. I am always super-motivated - motivation is never my problem - but it gives me something extra: to go on a new bike, do the testing, see how it feels. It will be good!"

Yamaha have yet to confirm Gajser's deal, and the identity of his teammates. Honda meanwhile are also in a contractual bind with KTM to announce Vialle and Herlings, although Vialle should be declared prior to his debut appearance at the 2025 Paris Supercross in mid-November. Ruben Fernandez - the third CFR450R racer for 2026 and on the pre-production model of the latest generation of the bike - should be announced as part of the overall team roster.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Ray Archer.

There is still no official news about Maxime Renaux's contract status with the factory Monster Energy Yamaha team but the luckless 25-year-old, who recently helped Team France to the third step of the podium at the 2025 Motocross of Nations, indicated that his future with the Japanese is far from clear.

"Still to be decided," he said exclusively at Ironman Raceway. "There is a chance obviously…but it is not really in my hands anymore. I gave my opinion. I need changes."

Despite having another term to run on his deal with Hans Corvers' team, Renaux has been linked with a premature departure and has caught the attention of Ducati Corse Off-Road who are on the brink of announcing their link-up with Louis Vosters' unit (who had fielded Fantic machinery for the last two seasons) and had dissolved their partnership with Mattia Guadagnini, leaving a slot next to Jeremy Seewer open for 2026 and the second year for the developing Desmo450 MX project.

Renaux's frustration has stemmed from a third injury-hit season in a row. He won the opening round in Argentina, but then hurt his right hand, broke some ribs and cracked the top of his femur, effecting his hip area. He has appeared on an MXGP podium just once since the end of 2023. Although Renaux has rarely been 100% in 2025, the Yamaha YZ450F has also been lacking silverware compared to the Kawasaki KX450F, KTM 450 SX-F, the Honda CRF450R and even the Yamaha-based Fantic motorcycle ridden by Glenn Coldenhoff to P3 in the championship. Jago Geerts struggled to become a consistent top ten runner and broke off a career-long spell with Yamaha at the beginning of this week. Calvin Vlaanderen at least salvaged something for the Belgium-based crew with three 3rd positions this year and seems to be the sole constant for Yamaha with five-times world champion Tim Gajser also incoming.

"I came out of a very strong winter and was ready," Renaux recounts. "I won the first race of the season and then it went from bad to worse, injury after injury, and then always trying to recover. I pushed with a knife in the teeth. I went through hell this season and the biggest pain I've had while riding. A broken hand, a broken femur head. I was fighting all the time and the body took a big hit because of that. Of course, mentally, it's not easy to ride injured and you develop bad habits. I'm definitely looking forward to an off-season! And starting from a blank sheet to build up to next season."

"I need to put everything flat, whatever the future will be, and start from new," he added.

At Ironman there was talk that Yamaha would hold Renaux to the final year of his contract. The dispute is entering the final stages as both parties need to start their planning phase for 2026 testing. Although battered, Renaux insists he can return to be a major name in MXGP. "The hip was a bit better but not fully cured and I'll have a check-up as well as some real rest, which will help a lot," he said of his state at the MXoN. "The goal is to build up again. I'm not dealing with an injury like my foot in 2023. It's not as bad as that and I'm confident I will be back. I just need some time, and to erase all the suffering and bad habits. I need to start from the bottom and build up, and I've done that a lot of times in my career with some huge injuries. I know I'm capable of it. Hopefully we'll see again the real me."

MXGP currently waits to see whether that fast #959 will appear in blue or red.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Trackhouse Racing.

"I love motocross…!" a slow smile breaks across Ai Ogura's face. The 24-year-old Trackhouse Racing rookie and Aprilia rider has had a bumpy rookie MotoGP season. Good results and fast speed have also come with injury, education of the RS-GP's complexity and drops in form. He has also had to adapt to the American team's culture and their desire for stories and content, as well as the increased media demands from TV and the press. 2025 has been something of a whirlwind so far and the Japanese sits down for an interview expecting the same ream of questions about being the new boy in the category.

Having been tipped off by the ever-amiable Trackhouse press officer Maria Pohlmann and one or two of his mechanics that Ogura's current passion lies on the dirt rather than the tarmac (and it also serves as his main form of training, even if he did sustain a broken arm due to a motocross mishap in 2023) this interview was destined for another direction. Ogura's eyes widen slightly in surprise at the topic of discussion.

Over the course of the following 20 minutes at the Dutch TT, Ai's explanation of his fondness for the dirt helped shed some light on his alternative approach and philosophy. The slow-speaking and reserved racer has a very 'Zen' outlook; and even bemused his Trackhouse team during pre-season tests and the first events of the year by refusing to get rattled by the scale of the task ahead of him and the adjustment to 300bhp+, Michelin tyres, ride height devices and more.

Ai's chat is earnest but reserved. It gives him an air of mystery, but talking about non-MotoGP subjects creates plenty of smiling, a few laughs and seems to make him feel at ease. You cannot help but wonder if the same placidity feeds directly into that economic and elegant riding style for the RS-GP25

Ai, do you prefer a 250 or a 450?

I've tried a 450 maybe three or four times in my life! So, a 250.

You're based in Catalunya right?

Yes, Castelldefels.

So, some decent tracks to choose from…

I always go in the direction of Girona. Tracks like MX Golf, Vallgorguina. I just started training more in 2025 so I am still finding tracks.

Are you quite disciplined with the riding? Do you make motos and time attacks?

I ride until I am tired. Every session is around 20 minutes…but it's just for fun. I like to play with the motorcycle, and motocross is the best. There are a lot of different elements every lap. The track is changing, some corners are really flat, some have deep ruts and then there are the jumps! In one lap you get such variety that you cannot get on asphalt.

How does Davide Brivio [Team Manager] feel about it?

He loves motocross too!

Your roots are not in off-road, correct?

Yes. I only rode asphalt and pocketbike. I started motocross when I was 17, quite late. I did flat track from school years and I regret starting motocross so late. I was living in Barcelona when I was 18. I was racing in Europe when I was 16. Being in Barcelona helped me for doing more riding, different riding. Japanese riders now are doing motocross or flat track since they are very young. Me, [Ayumu] Sasaki or [Ryusei] Yamanaka brought that kind of information back to Japan and [the scene] started. It's always like this; [Hiroshi] Aoyama would be in Barcelona and said that all the Europeans would be riding all the time. I remember thinking 'ah, OK…'

Have your skills developed quickly?

In flat track I was quite OK from the first day, but motocross…?! It was a disaster, and maybe that's the reason why it's the best for me because even when I go to the track now to train most of the other riders are faster than me. That never happened on the asphalt in Japan. At least you have somebody to chase. That feeling was new. There is always something to learn and you feel the improvement in a big way and that's the best feeling.

Different to a good feeling in MotoGP?

Even if you make a fantastic result in GP, for me it's not 'fun'. It's not pure joy. For me, GP is something different. When I'm training, I have a lot of fun. In official GP sessions I almost never have fun.

Is there any transfer from MX to MotoGP for you?

Just the feeling of a bike. That's all. I don't know if I am getting better in MotoGP because I am training on a motocross bike. Maybe it's important…but I'm tired of thinking in that way. I have tried all kinds of bikes and maybe one day that will pay off but I don't like to think about what I need on a MotoGP bike and then try to find it somewhere else.

Ever tried sand?

I rode hardpack many times. In Japan it was hard to find a deep sand track. If I go to the Netherlands or Belgium then I don't think I will come back! I'd be stuck somewhere. I like motocross but I am not good at it.

Do you follow any of the MXGP or Supercross riders? Ever been to a GP or seen a Main Event?

I followed Ken [Roczen] a lot…and not because he was at HRC. I was interested more in motocross around 2017 and the legends like [Ryans] Dungey, Villopoto and James [Stewart] had gone. So, it was Ken, Eli [Tomac], Jason Anderson. Ken was riding for Honda then and I still follow him now. I've never been to MXGP or Supercross…and I'm in an American team!

Some of the other MotoGP riders are quite fast on the dirt: Marquez, Miller…

Maverick is super-fast.

What happened in 2023 and with the wrist injury…?

It was strange conditions. There was a long straight and one part was very muddy but before it was a dry patch that was super-hardpack and fast. I went straight into that deep mud and the bike just caught and stopped. I don't know if I broke my wrist when I was pushed over the bars or when I landed on the ground. Three broken bones and a dislocation and two-three ligaments. The doctor was happy to see my wrist at all. He thought I would never recover enough to ride.

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Did that make you apprehensive about motocross afterwards?

No! I was like 'come on, get better, I want to go again…' I never think 'oh, the season is happening and I cannot ride because it's dangerous'. No. It is dangerous because you are not any good! I have to train. Until I feel I am good then I train fully at it.

What is your training routine generally?

I do two-three days [per week] on the motorcycle and I run. In the Idemitsu time [Honda Team Asia] I used to cycle a lot. But I am not a big fan of cycling: it is unbelievably boring. After I left the team I switched to running and had more fun and gained more time. Cycling can be three-four hours, running is one hour or less.

Could you ever be tempted to try a motocross race?

My goal is…well, Japanese motocross is not at a high level [compared to world championship] but there is a Professional A and Professional B and National A and National B levels. I would like to be good enough to be one of the last riders in Professional A! You need to make a race to move up the levels but I've never been able to. Maybe after I retire! I want to make one. My friend is already doing 2-3 a year. He is a road racer but I used to train with him and he said it was nice experience, especially the start. I want to have a go…but no chance yet!

By Adam Wheeler

Dorna Sports announced its FAST expansion in early August for the U.S. with the 'MotoGP Channel'. The platform will provide free 24hr programming and extensive live coverage of the championship (not the actual race durations) through a stream generated by specialists C15 Studio, who also handle F1. Found through portals like Prime Video, LG Channels, FireTV, FuboTV, Plex and Sling Freestream, the MotoGP Channel is made possible through the presence of 'old school' TV advertising and is a significant boost to the sport's footprint in North America along with the FOX TV deal and Dorna's own VideoPass subscription package on MotoGP.com.

"Sitting back with a TV remote control [thinking] 'hmm, what am I gonna watch today?', there's very little of that now," opines Dorna Sports' Chief Commercial Officer Dan Rossomondo. "So, you have to have your content in front of people in all these different places, and that's what we're trying to do."

"I think the biggest challenge that we have - but it could apply to every sports property in the world - is discovery. How do people find your sport?" the American adds. "Consumption habits, particularly of young people, has changed so rapidly that you have to continue to innovate in terms of how you distribute your product, and that's what we're doing with this. FAST channels are the latest 'thing'. And it goes back to the world of ad-supported television, which is, you know, as old as the day is long."

Fans, viewers or those curious about MotoGP only have to download the channel to get immediate access. One of Dorna's main revenue streams involves the lucrative TV broadcaster deals signed with the likes of TNT Sport, Sky Sports Italia and Germany, Canal +, DAZN, Ziggo and more. These agreements (and others) conjure almost 50% of MotoGP's income (equating to more than 200m euros in 2024) and form the basis of the remuneration paid to teams to contest the series. How does FAST fit into this structure? Especially for the U.S. where MotoGP is already located on FOX Sports, home of the NFL, MLB and NASCAR.

"It's complimentary to everything else we're doing," Rossomondo explains. "If you look at the product ladder, obviously FOX is mass distribution, putting on both the Sprint and the main MotoGP race exclusively. VideoPass is for the really, really hardcore fan who wants every session, wants historical races, wants practice, wants this-wants that, wants to really dig into it, wants timing. Then [with] the FAST channel we're going to try to find a new audience that is really consuming a lot of content in that way. It's an experiment, it's an educated experiment, because we do see people changing the way they consume content."

Dorna have not rushed into this method of engagement, and linking with C15 was pivotal. "It took a long time because how it was going to fit inside of our media landscape was a key question for us," Rossomondo admits. "C15 came very highly recommended. We had some really good conversations. They have great relationships on the distribution side, and they have a proficiency in doing this. So, it was good in that regard."

FAST channels have bloomed in popularity (almost 2000 now exist, over 1300 in the U.S. alone, according to Gracenote video data). MotoGP has merged with the trend but are trying to foresee how the championship can reach new eyeballs is a major guessing game. "I would say this is a great era of choice where consumers have content at their disposal and they can customise it however they want," says Rossomondo. "If they have a broadband connection…people are experimenting but it can be very confusing too. The old, existing bundle of American media is - not disintegrating - but it's changing very rapidly. Prime Video, Paramount Plus, Netflix, Hulu, ESPN and Fox are just launching their own products. Everything is changing. So, for a consumer, even though they've got unlimited choice and unlimited flexibility, we need to make it easy for people."

Could the MotoGP Channel work for other territories? It's a tricky weave considering the exclusivity of the deals and the rights to footage. "I think the United States is more complicated than other markets. European television has gone to this pay model way-quicker than the US. So, I don't know if FAST channels are going to apply globally."

"The number one consumed media company on television in the United States is YouTube," he continues. "So that just gives you a sense of how people have changed consumption habits. When my sons put on the TV, their homepage is YouTube. So that's where they go."

MotoGP's YouTube channel has almost 7m subscribers. The content is diverse, with race highlights videos easily claiming the biggest number of views. Visitors can also catch behind the scenes clips, historical features and more. MotoGP has more than half of F1's following but easily dwarfs other series like NASCAR, Indycar, MXGP and Supermotocross. Perhaps Dorna need to do even more to help YouTube addicts to notice MotoGP. "We have a good subscriber network there. We put content on there as well," counters Rossomondo. "It might be the original FAST channel…but it's global and it's got its Pros and Cons as well. So, I don't know if this is going apply to other markets but, as you know very well, the US is a really important market for us to try to grow."

The series' international scope can bring inconsistencies for commercial interest. It makes blanket deals harder to close and to price: MotoGP has traction in some territories and is barely known in others. The current media rights revenue is steeped towards Europe and sits at 83% of the income. Dorna have a large patchwork business operation to stitch. Rossomondo: "We're blessed that we can take this sport all over the world but we've got to be relevant in those markets. We've got to do distribution deals with the right partners in those markets. It's not like the EPL [English Premier League]. They can be really darn happy with their Sky deal and then obviously they've got huge money with their global rights elsewhere. But they're a domestic league and their domestic deal is the biggest deal they have. We are not a domestic league."

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"We have to be relevant everywhere," Rossomondo says. "I'd say global partnerships are great, but also we have to continue to experiment and find the best way for people to watch our sport and the stories we want to tell. That's the key thing, I think. We have 22 races a year, 44 if you include the sprints, right? But then if you include Moto3 and Moto2, it's another 44. So, 88: that sounds like a lot but there's also another 280 days a year where we have to be relevant. So, we need to tell stories better, and I think consumer consumption wants us to be in places like YouTube so they can find out more about the riders and we can lift the visors and tell the stories about these guys."

Liberty Media have officially owned Dorna Sports for two months. Their past promotional policy changes in F1 partly helped towards the sport's boom in the U.S. TV rights fees surged from 5m dollars to more than 80m in less than five years and with Apple TV rumoured to be considering a 150m dollar deal. F1's global TV revenues have exploded; from 2017 to 2024 they almost doubled from 600m dollars to 1.1 billion and total earnings by the F1 Group in 2024 nearly hit 3.5 billon.

"We saw an increase in all different interests, all over the place," Rossomondo reveals of the new era. "Some of it is far-flung, some of it is far-fetched, but others are real. We have to convert that. Whether it's sponsorships or investment, whatever it might be."

"I think we have started on a really good track. We have invested in marketing. We have invested in adding some really key people. We have invested in the brand and the identity and research. We now have to continue to invest in storytelling. And I think Liberty will help us with that."

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Italtrans: www.italtransracingteam.com

MotoGP is on the cusp of generational change. Riders in (or close to) their 30s such as Jack Miller, Miguel Oliveira, Johann Zarco, Franco Morbidelli, Luca Marini, Maverick Viñales and Alex Rins are likely approaching their last seasons in the premier class and there is a queue of hungry talent waiting for their saddles. Names like Moto2 championship leader Manuel Gonzalez, David Alonso, Daniel Holgado, Collin Veijer, Jose Antonio Rueda, Maximo Quiles, Angel Piqueras. Then, of course, there are the youngsters who have already made it onto the MotoGP grid like Pedro Acosta (21), Fermin Aldeguer (20) and Ai Ogura (24) who are vying to shine.

One rider creating a big surge of interest and linked with a long-term contract offer from Honda (Somkiat Chantra's LCR Honda berth) is 21-year-old Diogo Moreira. The Brazilian is into his second season of Moto2 and has turned heads courtesy of his results (five podiums and three wins so far) but also a wonderfully flowing, adaptive and effective riding style. The signs were present early. Moreira captured 6th position in his Moto3 grand prix debut at Qatar in 2022 and immediately slotted into the top ten, finishing 8th in the championship and rookie of the year. He won the following season. 2024 saw him vault into Moto2. Again, he found a trophy before the end of the campaign and took another rookie of the year accolade. In 2025 he's made a step again and is now at the door of MotoGP.

There are foundations to Diogo's story. He and his family moved from his home in Sao Paulo to Catalunya when he was 14. There he was schooled but also trained and rode flat track and motocross as he rose through the FIM JuniorGP and Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup ranks in quick time. He's now based in Andorra. The transition to a European base, his nationality and roots in off-road and the desire and ambition necessary to exist at elite level has created the swirl of momentum.

"I started riding motocross with my father when I was four. Pretty young, and the reason now why I'm pretty good at it!" he smiles during an interview held on the eve of the recent German Grand Prix. "It's good for the body and the condition but most importantly I enjoy it. I was riding for almost ten years, two of those in the USA on the west coast. I was with Rodney Smith, riding Glen Helen, Pala. I changed from motocross to asphalt when I was 12. I won some [MX] championships in Brazil and my father and I talked about moving to the USA…[permanently] but I still think the direction I took is the right one."

Two years after removing the nobs from his tyres, Moreira was a resident in Spain. "We lived there for most of the year and would only go back at the end of the season for a month to see family and friends. Motocross, flat track circuit and karting; for training it was OK. I had to adapt to life, try to make some friends. I went to school for three years, and learnt Catalan, but I am forgetting a bit now!"

"Motocross means fun for me and it's nice to ride on the different terrain," he explains. "Flat track for controlling the throttle, it's pretty good, but it's motocross for enjoyment."

'Enjoyment' is an essential concept for Diogo. "If I enjoy riding the bike then I will always be fast. I need to enjoy it. Otherwise, I cannot be aggressive or do anything."

He rides a 450cc dirtbike because "the 250 for me, now, stock is nothing! I need a bit more power, a bit more strong."

Moreira harnesses the improvisation and adaption necessary for motocross - where the track and the level of grip is constantly shifting and the throttle contact and control can be critical - to apply to his day job (like many other MotoGP riders). Double MXGP world champion, Jorge Prado, commented that the Brazilian was one of the best road racers he'd seen on the dirt. Moreira also ruled the 2024 edition of Valentino Rossi's star-studded 100KM Flat Track race held on the Italian icon's ranch in Tavullia.

"Motocross helps me here [Moto2] to make fast laps. In qualifying I'm usually at the front. It was the same in Moto3 and now in Moto2: I make good times. The track change in motocross forces you to adjust, and you have to do that also in Moto2 to find the flying lap."

His feeling and technique for maximising his Moto2 package with relatively little experience compared to many of his peers has alerted the majority of the paddock. "The guy is super talented for sure, you only have to see his videos making flat track or supermoto or motocross or whatever, he's fast in all the disciplines," assessed Pedro Acosta when asked about Moreira in Austria last week. "That guy, if he comes to MotoGP without winning a championship, he will not have forgotten to ride a bike. He's a talent and you cannot forget that.'

Moreira might be making large strides on the motorcycle but he still needs to discover the world of attention, pressure and expectation when the engines are off. He might eventually become the first Brazilian premier class race winner since Alex Barros two decades ago and the spotlight will be firmly on his head when MotoGP returns to the country for the first time since 2004 in March 2026. "It is difficult to manage," he admits. "When I started in the world championship in Moto3 I was too young; 17 or 18 and because I did well people started coming up to me. It was tough to manage that. Eventually I learn to follow my line and listen to my personal team. That's the important thing: to stay in the family zone."

"After Barcelona last year [the final round of 2024] I went to Brazil for two weeks and spent one of those weeks making interviews and media appearances," he says. "I think when I go back now then there will be more. It might be like this year by year, no? I just have to organise things well…but it also makes me happy because it means the job is going well. I'm proud of that."

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In the meantime, Moreira has faced constant scrutiny about his future. "I think I am too young for MotoGP," he sighed in Germany. On raceday at Sachsenring Moreira would blast back from a poor start and work his way up to 4th before tangling with Jake Dixon and then re-entering the track without spotting David Alonso. The collision was sickening, and both were fortunate to escape relatively unscathed. Moreira damaged his right elbow and the combination of the physical pain and the pitlane-start penalty meant he withdrew from the Czech GP the following weekend. The incident was the only black mark on an impressive scorecard in 2025. He resumed normal business with total control of the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring and followed up with victory in Hungary.

Moreira has won Moto3 and Moto2 races and although he doesn't have the title collection to match someone like Acosta, his ascension is almost as swift as the feted Spaniard. Like Acosta, and despite his deftness on any set of two wheels, he is still in the educational phase of his career. "I am learning a lot this year because I am racing more at the front and with [Aron] Canet and Manu [Gonzalez]," he assesses. "I have been trying to see things. I need to understand and learn. If I can pass and beat someone like Manu then I will, otherwise I must learn something from him. If I don't make '0's and crashes then I will be there."

Perhaps Diogo is already 'there'.

By Adam Wheeler.

When it comes to live television, MXGP is a stodgy, unwieldy beast. Four hours of coverage of the MXGP and MX2 classes with an inflexible and skeletal pre-and-post race format (that hasn't changed for years) as well as comprehensive but rigid fixed camera positions; it's hard to squeeze much more into the sheer quantity of minutes that the production requires.

Grand Prix has experimented with the impracticality of onboard technology (if riders are shedding personal protection like airbags then why would they carry extra baggage for broadcast?) but the addition of roaming drones has given the visual presentation of the sport (also AMA SMX) a much needed refresh since their introduction in 2024. Infront Motor Racing have invested further in more technology and a family-run two-crew set-up for 2025, and the 'pursuit' drone, operated by 34-year-old Gaetan Valente, has brought a new exhilarating dynamic to the speed and difficulty of MXGP.

The artistic zenith was the plunging 'eagle-eye' view of the Qualification Race start at the Grand Prix of Trentino this spring, allowing a wonderful appreciation of the Dolomite setting of Pietramurata.

Gaetan's work even has its own Instagram account with meaty clips of the MXGP and MX2 action.

The Swiss has been flying and racing drones since 2019. A motocross rider and former Swiss Championship runner, he came into MXGP in 2024 and is now a key component of the live TV output. "We use an FVP drone and the brand is a GEPRC Cinelog35 but the only way to have a live stream, for now, is to use a DJI Pro camera and with DJI goggles as well," he explains. For the uninitiated, Valente flies the drone from a location or pad next to the TV broadcast truck with the aid of a remote, and obtains the 'view' thanks to the goggles, that are similar to a VR headset. He then follows the lead of the TV director and has free reign for proximity. This is the main advantage of MX compared to permanent motorsport facilities used for F1 and MotoGP with strict regulations preventing aerial presence below a certain height; there drones are used for sweeping angles along pitlane or on the exterior of curves.

"I can fly where I want until they need me for something special," he reveals. "Usually I take the race start, then see how the race goes and who is fighting with who. In my left ear I have the TV production and in my right I have the drone co-ordinator who is watching the live timekeeping to see who is making time and where a fight might happen."

"Quite often I feel like I'm in the race," he grins. "I'm really focused because I have to be careful of the marshals, the riders and photographers around the track. It's really enjoyable."

For a relatively new strand of technology for sports broadcasting, the drone set-up has its compromises. Reach, range and duration are the main headaches. "Most of the time I can fly around the whole circuit but I cannot lose sight of the drone," Gaetan says. "We had a problem in Sardinia because half of the track is behind a small hill so we had to build a huge antenna, 10m high, to spread the signal and supply the goggles. My location is important to have the best signal for the image and also the controller."

"It would also be great if we didn't have to change the battery every four minutes!" he adds. "It depends how fast I fly but if the track is quick then it can run down in 3 minutes! It would be a big improvement if we could double this time; much easier for us. We also struggle with the signal sometimes for the goggles. The remote is quite good…but when you lose vision then you cannot fly anymore, and you have to push the 'rescue' button and save."

Looking at FVP drone at Lommel for the Belgian Grand Prix, the rotors and the unit are sandblasted and abused. "It's tough for the drone: it's a good soldier! It takes a lot of rocks and debris," Gaetan says from the confines of his small trailer, stocked with boxes of spares and charging batteries. "Here, with the sand, the propellers get destroyed after one race. We change a lot of parts. A DJI drone cannot be dissembled but ours is different. We build everything and we can change the engine, the flight controller and other components. We have many."

Apparently, flying a drone is not an easy skill. "It's hard to understand if you haven't tried it," Valente asserts. "If you want to turn left then you don't just hit the 'left' button. You have to mix all the angles. It would be impossible just to pick up the controls and to fly an FVP drone in acro mode. You can add 'help' from the flight controller to manage flight…but it gives you less freedom. I fly in full manual mode and it would be very hard to do it without some training. I've trained on the simulator and I'm used to racing with a drone where it is way faster. When you are able to fly at 200kmph and make really tight corners then following an MXGP rider is not too tough."

Swooping after race-leading riders while they hammer ruts and cut through the air is another task. The lines and the positions are not always that clear to predict. "It's easier in the sand though because the speed is more constant," Gaetan says. "On the dirt they can brake hard, lose speed and then accelerate quickly. There is more variation. The sand is easier because nobody escapes it!"

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Creating a standout picture like the Trentino start requires precision. "We tried three times! The first one was for timing, the second time I was stressed and I arrived too early because I didn't trust the count. The third time we followed the plan…and it happened. It was a beautiful shot."

Valente's 'money shot' is beyond audacious. "I would like to pass through a rider's arm and the seat of the bike while he's doing a whip. I think it would be impossible…but I'd like to try. It would take a lot of organisation…and a few attempts. Although riders are here to race and not make our shots!" It says a lot for the power of the technology and the imagination it inspires.

Radicalism aside, the effect of the drone has augmented MXGP and the appreciation of elite level motocross. Gaetan smiles to the suggestion that he has made the TV portrayal of the sport look like a video game. "I'm really lucky to follow the action so closely," he acknowledges. "They believe in my skills and I'm happy with that. I know in F1 and MotoGP they are not allowed on the track. You really have to focus and be careful. It's a great feeling."

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Jordi Wheeler Garcia & JP Acevedo.

Simon Laengenfelder smiles throughout our interview at the Belgian Grand Prix. After all, he has a lot to be satisfied about. Four wins, eight podiums and the most prolific leader of 2025 MX2, he is also defending a championship lead and could be the first German FIM motocross title holder since 2011. The 21-year-old even grins while curtly dismissing the notion that his friendly and meek demeanour could be representative of his competitiveness.

Laengenfelder already has four full seasons in MX2, taking wins in 2022, 2023 and 2025 amidst injury and illness setbacks and an arduous educational process at the highest level. He has ranked 3rd in the championship for the past three years. In 2025 he seems to have reached a peak of Grand Prix maturity so far. He has adjusted his environment in the De Carli section of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing; an awning he shares with the Coenen family 'juggernaut' of results, demands and potential, and achieved some separation by departing his Italian base of the past three years to move back to Germany. Familiar ground and a different setting seem to have had a positive bearing on his riding and mentality, even if it means more mileage for the Rome-based squad. Team Manager Davide De Carli even travelled to central Europe recently to oversee Simon's impressive performance in the ADAC German Master series.

Laengenfelder blends fast starts, a smart style and evident determination to steady effect. While peers and former championship winners like Andrea Adamo and Kay De Wolf have endured mistakes and incidents, Laengenfelder has motored to 18 top-three moto finishes from 30 to-date. The total is actually less than Adamo (and he has three fewer podiums than De Wolf) but's picked up more points on his off-days and has yet to classify lower than 9th all year. Coupled with comprehensive 1-1 scorecards in Switzerland, France and Britain - to prove he can outclass everybody - Laengenfelder is closer than ever to dumping that 'P3' tag.

Simon, this year, does the title run feel a little bit overdue? Do you think you could have been in this position maybe last season or season before?

Yeah, three times third in a championship…let's say the first time maybe I was a bit lucky. I got third with very few podiums, not really the best riding, with some really, really bad races. Last year, I was really pushing hard to get that third place overall, and the year before, I needed to push way harder! I needed to be always there, always score because I also had all the injuries. So that set me back a little bit but also made my head, I think, stronger, and made me focus and understand racing a bit better. Now I'm in a really good position, which makes me happy but it's a position I've never been in. But I like to be in it!

You're only just 21, so those three seasons of learning have been done as a young athlete..

Hmmm, the physical side, you can feel. But the mental side is something maybe a bit more difficult to know. Yeah, you learn so much. It's incredible. After every season, I tell myself: 'boy, you were so stupid the previous year. Why did you do this or why did you do that?!' You get smarter, you understand everything better. The bike you understand so much more. The training side, the hydration, the food, everything. There are so many parts. You just understand better, you know which people you want to work with, who's really good for you or what is working good for your body. And I think in those last three years, I really understood these things.

Can you give me an example of something that went wrong? And maybe a preparation method that worked out?

Yeah, one of the biggest things is food. Sometimes I was just making it up. I believed I needed to be lighter to make better starts. So I was on a diet and lost seven kilos. I was pulling holeshots but then I could not last the race. Sometimes from the outside you think, 'oh, he's not trained or he's not fit' but there are so many more points about being fit, having all the energy, all the carbohydrates in your body that you can also use. Having that energy you can just burn. If I would turn back time, I think it could have been all way different. But for sure, I think everybody has their own adventures like this. It's what makes motocross 'motocross' and makes this such a hard and physical sport.

Do you think sometimes people see you and assume you're too much of a nice guy?

I think not. I think you can rewatch a few videos and then make your mind up…!

Well, there's on the bike and off the bike….

Yeah, I would say I'm quite a good guy. And what happens on a race track is because I want to win. It's not because I want to get 2nd or 3rd. I always give my best. Sometimes it goes better, sometimes not. I can, I think, understand my limits. Usually the bike needs to work good, I need to be in a good form and then I can really go faster. And I think I got much smarter throughout all those years about this because before I was going over my limit every training, every race. Yeah…just stupid. Huge crashes were happening. I just hope to continue improving each factor.

How has the De Carli faction of Red Bull KTM helped you?

Yeah, they helped me a lot, to be honest. I moved to Italy three years ago. Now this is my fourth year with them. I was coming from a normal German team and I could feel that De Carli as a group has a lot of experience. They know how to work with the bikes. They know how to set up a bike. They knew way more than I did. To be honest, it was a very important step in my career.

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How have you felt the attention and the profile of leading the championship?

Yeah, this is a completely different scenario for me. I've never been in this situation, like I told you. When I came to Germany [Grand Prix] with the red plate I lost it rightaway, you know, so... sometimes it's just not going your way. You need to learn about having the red plate and [at Teutschenthal] you just have so many fans around and so much attention. You need to learn to use it to your advantage and not your disadvantage. But I think that's part of the game because I regained the red plate and made a nice points lead. So, things can turn around in this sport like crazy. You never know what's really going to happen in the next race. You can never know. We are so many fast guys and you're just going from race to race and hoping that everything goes good. I'm sure with my training, with my riding style, I'm in a really good position. But…never take anything for granted. Just keep on pushing, keep on doing your best, your 100%. That way I think I should be fine because I can't do more than my maximum.

Is there one way in your riding in the last year you're really happy with? Is there one weakness that you think you got rid of?

Yeah, I think my style right now is cleaner. On a 250, I think if you look at me, especially on hard pack tracks, I'm really in control of the bike. I can use the traction quite good. I can really feel the bike. Also, I think setting up a bike: I got way better throughout those years, which also helps with my style then.

How has it been here with the Coenen family? De Carli was the domain for Tony Cairoli for many years and other riders had to fit in…

In the winter I was riding a bit with them. But right now I'm just living in Germany, so I just see them on the race weekend. I just see the team at the races. Seasons before, we were always training together in Italy. All the riders were staying there, and now it's completely changed. Nobody's in Italy anymore and everybody's around the world. Doing their own thing. I have my mechanic up there in Germany. I would say, yes, for me it's working good. I am enjoying being home. I have some great people around there in Germany, which I think are helping me out quite a lot. Also, track-wise, I think I'm set up really well there.

What does the future hold? Are you in a rush for MXGP?

I was thinking of maybe moving up soon however right now I just put my biggest focus on this championship, on being out front. But, yeah, I would say I could have another year in the 250 class…and then we'll see what's happening after that.

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Jordi Wheeler Garcia

"Honestly, I am not good in history! I've never looked…" If Lucas Coenen was a student of the FIM Motocross World Championship then the extra significance of his third consecutive MXGP victory and his fifth of a rookie premier class season might have buried slightly deeper into that 18-year-old soul.

Coenen was brilliant for only his third attempt at the fearsome Lommel sand in Limburg and the Flanders Grand Prix (the region evidently putting up the cash to earn title billing in Belgium). He wasn't as complete and impressive as Kay De Wolf, who not only won both MX2 motos at a canter but topped every single session through the weekend. But the young Red Bull KTM rider brings energy and judgement; and his inexperience and age are sharp juxtaposed to the speed and consistency he can carry.

Lucas was cheered enthusiastically all around the circuit close to the Dutch Brabant border. He had noticeably more support than sand master Jeffrey Herlings and even reigning MX2 world champ and former foe De Wolf. Watching him waving to the crowd through the atmospheric 'spoon' curve - a slice of the sand wedged between the vast bank of fans and a small lake - on the last lap of the second moto illustrated Coenen's level of buoyancy and confidence in a term where he was only supposed to learn the rigours of the 450 and glean racecraft from decorated peers like Romain Febvre, Herlings and Tim Gajser.

Belgium have waited 18 long years for a world champion in the principal classes of the series, and with the gap between Coenen and Febvre (whose first moto victory and 1-2 scores represented a decent weekend of work…although the French veteran is no slouch in the sand and already has two overall triumphs at Lommel) now down to nine points, the title dispute is fantastically close and tense for the second year in a row and the third time in the last five editions.

Lommel was full to the fences. Saturday was frustratingly 'off-on' for rain and showers but still the paddock was hard to traverse, and the spectator zones were close to capacity. Coenen had his stage. As well as the opportunity to reverse his performance meltdown from 2024 when strong MX2 form should have seen him challenge De Wolf for the overall but he instead flapped and faltered and finished 7th.

Watching Coenen in practice and the motos last weekend he was not as refined and smooth as De Wolf but is brave, unrelenting and experimental. He is slight but powerful (you'd never guess the diminutive Sacha Coenen is his twin) and could manipulate the KTM to whatever lump or line he fancied. There was something Herlings-esque about his speed and, importantly, his potential. Sand riding, and Lommel in particular, requires discipline. It measures a rider's physicality and mental resolve unlike any other track. The temptation to push harder and risk burnout must be invading a racer's thoughts constantly, but constancy and preservation are crucial ingredients for optimal results sheet.

"It's a fight every lap," Calvin Vlaanderen said in the post-race press conference and after a sturdy run to 3rd place. "If you have that flow then it's alright but if you sit down for that one bump you lose momentum and it's really tough to get that back. I know how to save my energy quite well with riding…".

I asked how it was possible to do that while carrying pace to make it to the MXGP podium, his second of the campaign. "I was watching Kay [De Wolf] ride the [second] moto and you could see the difference between him and Sacha," he started to explain. "Just how Sacha was using his energy a lot and moving his body. Kay keeps his upper body really still and just uses his legs which is really similar to how I ride: really smooth and not really taking risks and not using too much energy over the bumps."

MXGP went to Lommel for the first time this century in 2008. The Grand Prix of Belgium could not have made more of a contrasting switch at the time. The history and leafy scenery of Namur in 2007 was replaced by a large flat sandpit in a Limburg industrial park. Lommel was most teams and riders' 'reluctant' training and testing hub around that time (and still is to some degree) thanks to the all-weather capabilities of the venue and the severity of the terrain. In 2008 it upscaled and grabbed Grand Prix status and, aside from 2013-2104, persevered thanks to the ambassadorial verve of the late Eric Geboers and passion of former rider and promoter Johan Boonen. Belgium, Limburg, Flanders: the event names have changed but the prospect of Lommel on the schedule has been a signature date for most. "It's a race that makes me shiver when I know it's coming…it's scary," Andrea Adamo told me Sunday.

It's been a playground for native talent and schooled sand riders but also permitted intense bragging rights for locals. MXGP hadn't been stranger to Lommel-type sand and, in my opinion, the absence of Lierop (last carved in 2013) is felt to this day and Valkenwaard was another persistent presence until 2019. All three tracks are situated within a 45-minute drive of each other.

Ken De Dycker won at Lommel in 2009 and then decided to strip on the podium. Kevin Strijbos took his and Suzuki's last emotional Grand Prix victory in 2016 and Jago Geerts has three consecutive MX2 Lommel triumphs to his name from 2021-23. Ironically it was a Spaniard that claimed the 2008 inauguration and Jonathan Barragan's third GP win on the bounce with factory KTM equipment was revealing. He beat seven Belgians and Dutchmen in the points-scoring positions, Marc De Reuver's sandy supremacy among them. Barragan had left Spain for the grey climes of Lommel earlier in his career and had become accomplished across the surface (he would win at Valkenswaard in 2009) but it was Tony Cairoli's immigration and residence in the small Belgian town that created a legend as a small, wiry Sicilian went on to become a refence for sand speed. In doing so he debunked the happy hunting ground for the Benelux contingent of the paddock. Tony went against type for a southern European, and raised plenty of eyebrows (and a nod of recognition for his kidology) when he'd frequently describe Lommel as his favourite track. The 2012 Motocross of Nations was a Cairoli, Roczen, Herlings sand show.

2008 was my first visit to Lommel. I found the circuit uninspiring but at the same time captivating and magnetic for what it forced from the riders. I still do until this day. That summer a fresh-faced 18-year-old American called Zach Osborne made his MX2 debut. He revved the Dixon Yamaha to oblivion in one of the motos but somehow made an 8th place in the other. "The track was almost indescribable as to how deep, rough and hard it is to ride on," he said then, and for a report filed for RacerX, when online texts were still a thing. "I have never experienced anything like that or fought so hard for a race position."

Over the years Lommel has been both swampy and bone dry, and the sand provides a vast blank palette for track designers armed with diggers and machinery. Wind-power turbines have popped up in the background, infrastructure has improved. On a sunny day the dust-like roost created by the bikes gleams in the light. Through each battering lap the surface changes quicker than perhaps any other. Bumps become jumps. The track is an organism. It morphed swiftly last weekend with the varying weather.

"Really strange, really tough," observed MX2 runner-up Camden McLellan. "The rain made the sand heavy so it was sucking a lot of power from the bikes."

"The track shaped -out really well, especially today," offered De Wolf. "Yesterday it was, in my opinion, a bit different. The 125s, especially with how wet it was, struggled to get the same speed as us and the bumps developed."

"A really fun day," the Dutchman added, perhaps in the minority.

The landscape has been home to weird and unexpected moments, like one-hit wonder results (Gert Krestinov's 2008 win in MX2, Brian Bogers in MXGP in 2022) and against-the-odds outcomes such as Shaun Simpson's privateer victory in 2015 and Max Anstie's MX2 success with a fragile Dixon Yamaha in 2014. Anstie is the only rider to have won at Lommel three times with three different bikes: Kawasaki and Husqvarna being the other machinery. When he walked the top step for the second time in 2015 it was the last time Britain clinched both classes on the same day.

There have been showcases, such as Herlings' breathless superiority to lap up to 8th place in 2018 and Red Bull KTM's team sweep of the podium in 2017 (Herlings, Cairoli and Glenn Coldenhoff). Then unsung names like Max Nagl, Josh Coppins and Clement Desalle. There have also been hard accidents, such as Steve Ramon's career-ending crash during the 2011 Qualification Heat while going through the section that is now Coenen's 'spoon'.

Lommel has yellow in its essence. The link with Suzuki was established by the Geboers brothers and the former factory team's workshop a short distance from the track. De Dycker won, Strijbos won seven years later and Ramon had his final Grand Prix laps as a factory rider with the RM-Z 450. Ramon was Belgium's (and Suzuki's) last world champion in the premier class back in 2007. Suzuki carried Strijbos to the last homegrown victory in the sand before Coenen continued his merry assault on 2025 MXGP.

Lucas might not be too clued-up on the record books and Lommel's Roll of Honour but he's now part of an exclusive club of just ten names. He could still go bigger and better but a gold plate this year means he enters a freaky group of debutant champions: Cairoli in 2009, Febvre in 2015 and Gajser in 2016. #96 might reignite Belgium's mainstream gaze for motocross. His ability to move the sand last weekend was a sizeable step.

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By Adam Wheeler. Action photos by Polarity Photo.

Dorna Sports send almost 200 professionals to each round of MotoGP to provide more than 36,000 hours of live TV broadcasting and accommodate contracts with 117 media partners in 200 countries. It is one of the main revenue pots for the company and the championship but creating a 'live feed' that involves action from variable angles, reports and filtering into OTT content is also a major outlay. There is a trackside network that involves more than 20 and sometimes close to 30 units, as well onboards, remote RFs [Radio Frequency cameras), drones, a heli-cam and even autonomous technology - cameras that film the action without human assistance. The feed can count on input from over 150 channels during a Grand Prix weekend and behind it all there is a sea of "technicians, directors, graphics and replay operators, journalists," explains Live Director Enrique Sierra.

Live sport is apparently still a draw for broadcasters and streamers, and still essential for promoters. In an article written in February, Forbes.com quoted a study from Ampere Analytics that said in 2025 streaming services will account for 'one-fifth of global sports rights spend, reaching over $12 billion.' It could be argued that fans and viewers are digesting sports in different ways: delayed viewing, social media clips, YouTube highlights and other media outlets but Sierra says the root of all moving content is the live feed. "The Live broadcast is still the most important thing," he states. "I think it's the base. We don't have social media [content] if we don't have the Live but it is changing…and for this we have to keep pushing to make sure we have the technology we want and need. The Live still needs to be five-star, and the broadcast partners pay for this product. It's a premium service in coverage."

"There are always budget discussions," he reveals on the split between investment for track action and more resources for social media. "Right now, we have our budget confirmed for a couple of years but if we want to improve then we need to keep investing. We are in a different situation now [with demands for social media] compared to five years ago."

The 51-year-old Spaniard is at the helm of Dorna Sports' vast TV structure and a department that has always pushed for fresh and innovative ways to televise Grand Prix, thanks to the impetus of people like Sergi Sendra and Manel Arroyo who helped craft a large visual and commercial base for the series. TV revenue helps support large sections of the paddock. Sierra is responsible for the MotoGP class signal while he has other directors for other categories. The production on raceday is like coordination of a sizeable symphony orchestra.

"It's important to have the team happy and motivated," he describes. "You want to reduce the amount of 'noise' around you. It's like being in another world for two-hours. You just connect with the race and the team. The secret is to be calm, but fast. Also to change the speed or rhythm of the work because there are many directors who are always 'up' and shouting for the angles when the race might be quite quiet."

"You can change gears and make fast sequences that gives the viewer the feeling of 'wow, look what's happening!' especially with overtaking," he adds. "You have a method of sequencing and then it depends on what happens in the race. We have 60 onboard camera views and 16 channels and you can cut between front and rear, and that's important because if cut away at the wrong moment to trackside then you can lose the feeling of action. It's critical, and it also happens in hundredths of a second."

The coverage of crashes is a polemic and delicate subject. Grand Prix's last fatality came with Jason Dupasquier's qualifying crash at Mugello for the 2021 Italian GP but accidents for Pol Espargaro (Portimao), Pecco Bagnaia (Catalunya) and Jorge Martin (Qatar) in recent seasons and shots of teams and family members in pitlane have also attracted commentary on what Dorna's TV should show and of whom.

Sierra acknowledges the difficult mix between sensitivity and an informative relay. "You have to make quick decisions. You see the image, and then you have to decide if you cut to another because it's a drama," he explains. "You have to take care…and these critical moments are very difficult. Showing the human side is part of the racing, part of the story. It comes down to feeling and instinct in the moment. Behind me are journalists and other management that can help and maybe say 'it's a bad crash…'. We check the replays [away from the Live] and if the rider is not moving or in a bad way then we take care of what we show. This is the case from the time of the Simoncelli crash [Malaysia, 2011] where we will not show any replays until the rider seems to be moving and is OK."

MotoGP is a sport entertainment product, yet the controller of its TV portrayal is conscious of his obligation. "It is a spectacular sport but of course we know the riders are playing with their lives," he says.

MotoGP now involves 22 Grands Prix and 8 overseas rounds and Dorna's global hike might be due for further review. Thanks to high-speed fibre optics, more and more Grands Prix could be directed from the company's operational headquarters just outside Barcelona. Formula 1 already have a split structure with their Event Technical Centre at each circuit and the Media & Technology Centre at Biggin Hill in southern England piecing together their productions. Sierra still wants Dorna's control hub on the ground at the tracks. "For many reasons," he says. "One being the atmosphere and the tension of the race and the connection with the teams. Another is the quick ability to get to the track to see a new camera position."

Sierra is an avid motorcyclist himself and even makes the timing laps with an official BMW on the day prior to the Grand Prix to get the best possible feeling for the course and the venue. "In terms of TV direction it is important to try and understand the sport and the discipline, in my case riding the laps gives me a feel of the track and I can try to bring that to the TV. It's an advantage. We do what we can to be among the elite for TV sport production."

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He does admit that the days of hauling a full outfit to 22 GPs could dwindle, as soon as it makes fiscal sense. "The future does seem to be remote production," he concedes. "It is a technological matter. There is a cost factor and the budget for travel and the entire crew being on-site is more or less the same [as using the fibre optic]. In the future though I think this will change and it will be cheaper to be in Barcelona than the circuit."

Asking how Dorna could possibly improve their live TV feed going forwards gives ground for thought. "It's a good question. Maybe we are at a level now we can lose more than we gain. It's very satisfying to create good coverage of a good race. You have many tools, many cameras. How can we improve? Obviously, we have new cameras and new onboards. Things always change."

There is something familiar about the Gabriel SS24 KTM team. The orange colour. The compact but well-ordered awning. The small but earnest racing operation. It's the definition of a 'satellite' team: one that can take profit of emerging talent while being an important part of the paddock fabric because they provide a platform those riders to develop.

It's exactly the kind of set-up from which Shaun Simpson achieved his best work in MXGP (with four wins the Scot is the UK's best rider in the premier class). Now, the 37-year-old is Team Manager and marshalling the efforts of upcoming Dutchman Gyan Doensen (already on the podium in his rookie EMX250 term) and promising Spaniard Oriol Oliver in MX2.

Oliver was a late and unplanned subscription. For 2025 the team are into the second year of an official KTM MX Academy structure. In 2024 they helped Dutchman Cas Valk fight for the EMX250 crown (he is now a debutant in MX2) and for 2025 they run the semi-factory KTM 250 SX-Fs for Doensen and Max Werner. When the German dislocated his shoulder pre-season they had a gap and KTM saw a chance to help Oliver; a Catalan who had been roaming the periphery of the MX2 top ten but whose ride with BTS KTM had dissolved. He was rescued by the British squad for the Trentino Grand Prix and has been adopted for the full '25 schedule. He responded by delivering a career-best 4th position overall at the French GP.

"I've been battling these last few years in MX2 and finally the results are arriving," says Oliver, the son of a racer and with an older brother who competes in the Catalan national series. "Last season I lost my ride - the team owner said he wanted to try something new - and the team I started 2025 with, BTS, lost their main sponsor and I could not pay what they then asked of me. When Max got injured then an opportunity opened up here [Gabriel SS24 KTM] for a few races. I'm really happy. It's the best bike I've ever ridden and it's a relief to know I will finish the season with these guys because it was a hectic period."

2025 is Oliver's last attempt at MX2 as he recently turned 23. But he is combining the starts, some consistency, work ethic and his effective riding style to put his name on the map with the Austrians and in Grand Prix generally. "Oriol hadn't really found his feet in MX2," evaluates Simpson. "If he'd had the right team, bike and support three years ago then he would have developed into a podium guy. He's got this chance now."

"We gel well because I wasn't the most talented guy on the track but hard work got me to where I arrived in MXGP and I think he's the same," Simpson adds. "He has a very efficient style. He doesn't use a lot of rear brake or clutch and rides with the engine. He floats over the bumps compared to some other riders that really manhandle the bike. Oriol thinks a lot and gives good feedback. He's easy to work with because I can see he is totally focused on riding his bike as well as he can. I reckon he would be a good test rider already because he feels things and can explain what going on with the motorcycle."

"I've always had this style where it seems I'm not pushing…but I am!" smiles Oliver. "When I'm having fun then the faster I go: it's the case for many riders no? I'm very precise and really like to ride that way. Jorge Prado is a reference for me. Jett Lawrence is amazing."

"Ernee [French Grand Prix] and that 4th place was a relief," he continues. 'We'd had quite a few mud races and there had always been a little issue that stopped us. I could see [a podium finish] in front of me. Everyone is pushing in this class but to be in that 4-6 bracket is a good step for me."

Gabriel SS24 KTM's machinery benefits from engines that are service and maintained by the factory. They run stock suspension but with other upgrades to help with mileage and durability. The works bikes fielded by Andrea Adamo, Sacha Coenen and Simon Laengenfelder have the full engine treatment, factory suspension, titanium upgrades and more, but Oliver has been able to help the Austrians continue their grip on the class as KTMs and Husqvarnas occupy the majority of top ten places and have filled all but 5 of the 33 podiums spots so far in 2025. "It shows our set-up, staff, materials, bike, the whole programme is good enough to not only to be winning in EMX but to filter into MX2 and maybe even MXGP," Simpson claims. "Oriol will help bring Gyan on, and Max as well on his return."

Oliver could be the sixth different racer to take the KTM technical base to an MX2 trophy this season. But what does the future hold? 2025 is already a diversion for Gabriel SS24 KTM who had been expecting to contest only EMX250 (Thomas Traversini's Racestore KTM Rookies squad handles the EMX125 step). KTM's business predicament and economic situation leaves question marks around the size of their MXGP and EMX footprint and to what degree they could support projects like Oliver, who has to vault into the premier class if he stays in the world championship.

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"We are set up and motivated to run the EMX250 development programme but I think there will be a reshuffle at the end of this year," Simpson says. "Whatever happens for 2026 it has to be beneficial to both KTM and also the team. Simon [Gabriel] and I are motivated with Oriol because it means racing in the world championship but this takes nothing away from podiums and wins in the Europeans and hopefully a title one day. We're motivated by results and it's exciting to see we can make podiums with Gyan and get in the top five of MX2 with Oriol. We are that stepping stone. We'll definitely have a presence in EMX250 next year."

A Gabriel SS24 KTM 450 SX-F and more education for Oliver is not outside the realm of possibility for 2026 (the team also helped Briton Josh Gilbert in this way in 2024). Oriol himself knows his career is clicking up a gear. "What I want to do now is seize this chance and push for a podium," he states. "The future? I'm not sure but I know I can be a good 450 rider. I ride long gears and low revs. Whether it's here, the US or Australia I'm open to everything."

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Polarity photo.

Three DNFs and a highest classification of 6th from the first eight rounds of the current campaign is a meagre return for a rider of Brad Binder's capabilities. The Red Bull KTM Factory man last walked a MotoGP podium back in Qatar 2024 but both he and the team have been persistently looking for ways to find a better feeling for rear edge grip and less understeer to allow the former Moto3 world champion to use the merits of his hard-braking style. "In our opinion everything started with the new rear tyre technology that Michelin introduced in 2024," Andres Madrid, Binder's Crew Chief since the 2021 season explained. "From our information, from our numbers, we could see that this new tyre behaviour had more affect after Qatar [2024]…for some reason."

The Spaniard and the rest of the KTM technicians have been fighting to optimise a configuration that can suit #33 since the trip to Lusail. "We are still trying to apply a solution," Madrid sighs. "We have tried several approaches, different ways to set-up the bike, different components. We are trying a lot of stuff to get back the confidence."

Binder's struggles and those of his teammate Pedro Acosta (the Spaniard is the best RC16 rider to-date in his second term in the class but has been vocal of his frustrations in needing more performance) have coincided with off-track turmoil for KTM. It would be easy for race fans to assume that KTM's instability as a company would be having an influence on their potential to be MotoGP winners but Motorsports Director Pit Beirer has repeatedly underlined the firm's commitment to the series until the end of the current contract window in 2026. Madrid also insists that the KTM Motorsport department have not eased off the throttle for development.

"During the last winter test the amount of stuff we had was a lot," he says. "I would never have said 'we're in a situation…'. OK, some parts in certain areas have taken longer to produce but, for me, the capacity of the factory is at a very high level for MotoGP. This year I think we had more new parts than previous seasons. This is my experience and a fact. Whether these parts can bring us success is another thing. People don't see but we tried a lot of different things this winter. The company told the riders that we will make the bike better and they are doing their best. Unfortunately, the other manufacturers have done better so far. It's simply this."

Binder, now six seasons into his MotoGP career, has registered at least one podium finish for KTM each year. Madrid believes that the calibre of a rider like Brad - a winner of Grands Prix in all three categories - also has to go through a retrieval process to arrive back at the front. "There is a point where riders lose the confidence and even if we gave them a winning bike then they would not immediately go very fast," he claims, generally. "First of all, they have to recover what they have lost because the amount of crashes has increased [Binder fell 9 times in 2022, 15 times in 2023 and 19 in 2024.] To find their way back takes time. It's quite difficult. Of course, we need to improve the machine, and we need to use all our resources for that: like the efforts of the other MotoGP riders and the team test. It's a complicated issue. "

"All you can do is keep working and be as professional as you can, and I think Brad is doing this," he stresses. "No matter how bad the previous weekend might have been, he tries to follow all our work plans and never, ever gives up. He is fully motivated for every grand prix. Even from one day to another: if we have a bad qualifying then you know he will still go 'beyond' for the race. This is something that I've never seen in a rider quite like Brad: it's that capacity to reset and deliver."

In this sense Madrid has two jobs: to refine and improve the RC16 as a technician but also as a psychologist to get Binder back in the Prosecco spray. "Yes, but that works both ways because Brad motivates us with his energy," he says, drawing more on the human side. "Some other riders might bring this depressed state of mind to the garage. We've seen this in other boxes. Brad, no matter the situation, enters like 'new' again and this is super-appreciated by the mechanics, the crew and everyone. He is always keen to ride."

As much as Binder comes across as a hungry and determined athlete, and one that would seize a mere sniff of an opportunity, Madrid believes the reversal of fortune will take some time. "I don't think you can recover everything in one weekend. When you start the GP you know more-or-less how it is going to be. You can see where the other KTMs are and if they are all performing then you know the bike is suited to the current layout quite well. Then you think: 'we can do it…' and the rider sees it. Then you have to take this to the next race and prove it was not just luck. So, one weekend is not enough. We know in this sport that the rider is important but the bike is also very important and you cannot make magic. There is a limit."

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KTM are not a million miles away from troubling the Ducatis. In Aragon last week Acosta and Binder were running P4 and P5. During Monday's one-day test Red Bull KTM Tech3's Maverick Viñales set the all-time lap record at the track. The factory famously reduced a 2.5 seconds deficit to the leaders in their first GP appearance as full-time members of the grid at Qatar in 2017 to get on the podium less than two seasons later and win races by 2020. The step to silverware in 2025 might again come soon.

"My experience tells me if you measure the gap in time then it's ridiculous," Madrid says. "If we are missing half a second then it can be seen as a lot but if take a stopwatch and try to measure it then it's nothing! The difference is so small. In the past we have made a couple of clicks or switches and then the performance went completely downside up. Sportsmen, I think in general, have a sweet spot: you must find the way to put them inside it and then they can deliver from 5% to 300%! Sometimes it's just a couple of clicks and the rider brings another four. Sometimes you don't need massive help. Half comes from the package and half comes from the rider…they just need the little boost and then boom!"

AI is advancing fast. Digital education is expanding. Skills training, technical work, small business digitization, and creator economies are growing across the world — especially across Global South markets. But all of these futures share one very practical dependency: affordable computing devices. Phones connect people. Computers enable them to build, ... [continued]

The post A Consumer Choice Gap in the Computer Market — And a Simple Fix appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Microsoft's Raymond Chen has revealed an unexpected use for the company's lawyers: securing permission from the cast of Happy Days so a Weezer music video could ship on the Windows 95 CD.…

Mullvad, a virtual private network (VPN) named after the Swedish word for "mole," is often recognized as one of the best VPNs for privacy. I put it on my best VPN list for exactly that reason. I've got huge respect for the extra lengths Mullvad goes to in order to ensure its user's privacy.

To give you a preview, Mullvad is one of the few VPNs — other than my normal privacy recommendation, Proton VPN — that lets users pay entirely in cash. But even Proton VPN asks for an email address to make an account and uses a few marketing cookies on its own website. Mullvad represents every account as a randomly generated 16-digit code and uses no marketing cookies whatsoever.

That's just one example of how Mullvad goes beyond the call of duty to keep users private. But while privacy is the most important aspect of a VPN alongside security, it's not the only thing that matters. For this review, I set out to investigate whether Mullvad pairs its rights-protecting bonafides with versatile, convenient and enjoyable VPN apps. Using our rigorous VPN testing procedure, I'll rate Mullvad in 11 areas. You can find a summary of my results in the table below, skip to the sections that matter most to you or just read my final advice in the conclusion.

Editor's note (2/11/26): We've overhauled our VPN coverage to provide more detailed, actionable buying advice. Going forward, we'll continue to update both our best VPN list and individual reviews (like this one) as circumstances change. Most recently, we added official scores to all of our VPN reviews. Check out how we test VPNs to learn more about the new standards we're using.

Category

Notes

Installation and UI

All apps share roughly the same user interface

Apps are responsive and easy to navigate, with no design choices that would threaten beginners

Lack of "fastest server" button is an issue

Browser extension is only available on Firefox and still in beta

Speed

Reasonably good average latency

Reduces download speeds by 26 percent and upload speeds by 17 percent

Speed declines are consistent and chartable

All speed metrics are quite good on nearby servers

Security

Only uses WireGuard protocol

No IP address leaks, even when switching servers

Packet test showed successful encryption

Pricing

Always costs 5 Euro per month, though prices outside Europe depend on exchange rates

No auto-renewal — membership lasts until money runs out

Can pay using cash or by purchasing scratch-off vouchers on Amazon

14 day money-back guarantee, except on cash payments

Bundles

Only app besides the VPN is the free Mullvad Browser, which removes the tracking habits of typical web browsers

Allows several smaller VPNs to use its servers in their networks

Privacy policy

No vague lines or loopholes in privacy policy

Only saves account numbers and expiration dates for each user

Uses an extremely limited range of cookies with no marketing trackers

Has undergone a total of 17 audits of different aspects of its service

Swedish police demanded customer information in 2023; Mullvad couldn't comply because the data wasn't logged

Virtual location change

Unblocked Netflix 13 out of 15 times

When it failed, virtual location was still changed

Server network

90 locations in 50 countries, majority in North America and Europe

No virtual servers whatsoever

Features

DAITA conceals traffic patterns that might let an AI identify what sites you visit

Uses quantum-resistant encryption on WireGuard

Can choose your own multihop entry and exit points

Several options for getting around nation-level firewalls

Can block ads, trackers, malware and other unwanted content using predetermined DNS block lists

Supports IPv6 traffic

Kill switch and stronger lockdown mode

Split tunneling by app

Customer support

Help center includes useful filters to find the topic

Well-written articles with good internal linking

No live chat support, but staff answers emails quickly

Can view app logs at any time

Background check

Founded in 2009 in Sweden; still owned and operated by initial founders

User account numbers were exposed in a 2023 incident, but Mullvad quickly closed the leak

Let's start by examining how Mullvad feels as a piece of software. In this section, I'll be testing its desktop apps for Windows and Mac, its mobile apps for Android and iOS and its browser extension for Firefox. To start with the installation process, Mullvad downloads and installs in a snap on mobile. On desktop, installation requires a few more steps than is typical, but the app guides you quickly through everything.

Across the board, my only serious complaint is that there's no option for automatically choosing the fastest server. You can usually assume that the nearest one to you will be the fastest, but there's always the chance of an unusual server overload. It's a bizarre oversight for an app that otherwise goes out of its way to be usable.

Mullvad's Windows app has a slim UI that uses space efficiently without being too cramped. It doesn't give you a lot of information, such as live speed tests or data in transit, but I've mostly found that to be needless filler on VPN apps.

Speaking of needless filler, the map may be a little bigger than it needs to be, but maps on VPN clients aren't just about teaching you geography — they do a lot to make the apps more welcoming to casual users who might not otherwise fire up security software. In fact, Mullvad's UI is admirably beginner-friendly, befitting its focus on privacy for everybody rather than just the tech-savvy.

All the settings are accessed by clicking the gear in the top-right. Here, you can turn on DAITA (Mullvad's defense against AI traffic scanning), activate multihop and control Mullvad's other features. There are also some quality-of-life features for the UI itself, such as whether it remains pinned to the taskbar or operates as a standalone window. Some options, especially under the VPN settings tab, are a bit technical, but don't need to be touched for a good experience.

Mullvad's macOS app is quite similar to its Windows app, both in terms of the interface and the features offered. The big difference used to be that macOS lacked split tunneling, but that's been added in a recent update. The only serious distinction now is that the Mac client can't be unpinned from the taskbar, which is just a little bothersome.

Other than that, you'll find every setting you need under the gear, just like on Windows. Similarly, connections to VPN servers happen quickly, and selecting locations from the menu is very straightforward. While connected on either app, you can click the circular arrow by your location to swap to another server in the same location — highly convenient if you're trying to unblock Netflix.

Mullvad's Android app has the same nearly-perfect design approach as all its other apps. The main page has nothing on it but the connect/disconnect button, the choice of server locations, a map and the buttons for your account information and preferences. Those preferences are a manageable set of options that are almost all managed with simple on-off switches. It's all highly responsive and annoyance-free.

Mullvad's iOS app looks very similar to its apps on every other platform. The front page is kept simple, with large controls in the foreground and a map taking up most of the space. Everything else is located in the menu accessed through the gear icon at top right. Neither mobile app has the options for toggling the UI itself that the desktop apps have, but it's mostly free of quality-of-life problems to start with.

Mullvad's browser extension is only compatible with Firefox. You can't actually connect to the VPN through this extension. Its main functions are to tell you whether you're connected to a Mullvad server and to connect to a SOCKS5 proxy in a Mullvad location. If you do this while connected to Mullvad through the desktop app, you'll get a second layer of protection, similar to the multi-hop feature.

The Firefox extension is a rare misfire for Mullvad — perhaps fair, since it's still in beta. Its only real feature is something that the desktop app already does perfectly well, and it looks like a software malfunction to boot. However, given Mullvad's track record, I'm confident they'll figure out what to do with it in time.

A VPN almost always slows browsing speeds and increases latencies. It's unavoidable, given the extra steps a VPN protocol adds to the process of getting online. The trick is to find VPNs that keep the slowdown to a minimum, using a combination of regular maintenance, good planning and smart load balancing.

For this test, I used speedtest.net to check how six of Mullvad's server locations influenced three key speed metrics. Ping measures latency, the time in milliseconds (ms) that one data packet needs to travel between a client device and an ISP. Download speed measures the amount of data in Megabits that a web browser can download in one second. Upload speed tracks how much data can be uploaded in a second. We're looking for low latencies and high download and upload speeds.

Server location

Ping (ms)

Increase factor

Download speed (Mbps)

Percentage drop

Upload speed (Mbps)

Percentage drop

Portland, USA (unprotected)

15

—

58.96

—

5.85

—

Seattle, USA (fastest location)

23

1.5x

55.07

6.6

5.51

5.8

Montreal, Canada

165

11.0x

44.28

24.9

4.62

21.0

Fortaleza, Brazil

307

20.5x

40.96

30.5

4.65

20.5

Prague, Czechia

368

24.5x

43.17

26.8

5.47

6.5

Lagos, Nigeria

528

35.2x

37.41

36.6

4.61

21.2

Bangkok, Thailand

473

31.5x

39.76

32.6

4.13

29.4

Average

311

20.7x

43.44

26.3

4.83

17.4

I'll start with the bad news: the tests didn't exactly make Mullvad look like a speed demon. Its speeds have gone up and down in the years I've been using it, and right now they appear to be on the downswing. If you use locations all around Mullvad's server network, you can expect your download speeds to decrease by about 26 percent and your upload speeds to decline by 17 percent.

However, it's important to put those numbers in perspective. First, Mullvad's numbers aren't markedly worse than the ones I got when testing CyberGhost. Its speeds are average, but by definition, most things are average. Its average worldwide latency is actually better than Surfshark, the current champion of download and upload speeds.

It's also nice that Mullvad's speed drops follow a predictable curve. Lots of VPNs have unexpectedly sharp declines in certain locations, frequently in Africa. By contrast, Mullvad's speed decreases pretty much as a direct function of how far from the server you are. This not only makes speed drops easier to plan around, but also means you can expect very good speeds on nearby servers.

This property of being fastest on servers near the user is another sign of Mullvad's focus on its core privacy mission. If anonymity is your main reason for using a VPN, it doesn't matter what your IP address is, so long as it's not your real one. Using a nearby Mullvad server should guarantee you an internet connection that's both fast and private.

To be secure, a VPN has to check two critical boxes. It must provide you with a secondary IP address without leaking your real one, and it must encrypt your communications with its servers so your activity can't be traced. In the sections below, I'll see whether Mullvad meets those requirements.

VPNs use protocols to mediate between end devices, ISPs and their own servers. The first step is to ensure that the service you're considering uses protocols that have expert confidence. Mullvad has kindly made this step easy for me by using only WireGuard on all its apps, with no OpenVPN, IKEv2 or in-house unique protocols.

There's no question that WireGuard is a solid protocol. It uses the ChaCha20 stream cipher for symmetric encryption and Poly1305 for authentication, both uncrackable with current technology. Mullvad has even added its own fix for WireGuard's one flaw, its need to save static IP addresses — the Mullvad implementation is set up to delete the IP address if it goes 10 minutes without being used.

Even so, it's unfortunate to lose the ability to change protocols, which is one of the most common steps for troubleshooting a VPN connection. I understand Mullvad's reasoning for cutting out OpenVPN (it claims the cryptography isn't strong enough) but don't agree. It's one of this provider's few unforced errors.

There's a straightforward test to determine if your VPN is leaking. Load up any website that shows your IP address — I personally use ipleak.net — and see what IP and location it reveals without your VPN active. Then activate the VPN and refresh the page. If you see your real IP address anywhere, your VPN is leaking.

I ran that test on five Mullvad servers. Each time, the website showed me the IP address of the VPN server, concealing my real one. To keep things simple, I ran the initial tests with IPv6 blocked via the Mullvad client. When I turned it on and tried again, the IPv6 traffic didn't leak any more than the IPv4 did. I also saw no signs of WebRTC leaks. Unless you set up a custom DNS server, Mullvad also uses its own DNS, which remains entirely within the VPN tunnel.

I had one more leak test to try. Frequently, VPNs are leak-proof when maintaining a connection to one server but drop encryption when switching between servers. That problem is why I ultimately couldn't recommend Norton VPN. Luckily for me, Mullvad has a button that lets you shuffle to another server in the same location, so I used that to see if it stayed leak-proof.

As you can see in the screenshot, Mullvad jumped seamlessly from one server to another without showing my real location in-between. On a practical level, that's enough for me to declare Mullvad leak-proof.

For one final experiment, I used the WireShark packet sniffer to see whether the data Mullvad sent from my computer to my ISP was encrypted. After capturing a few packets, I was gratified to see that they were totally unreadable to interlopers. Most established VPNs pass this test, but it's still important for due diligence.

Mullvad's pricing structure is one of the most unusual things about it. This is normally the section where I untangle 47 different Pro+ and Business- accounts that are all sold at three different durations. Mullvad couldn't be further from that. It costs 5 Euro a month — that's it. Each 5-Euro subscription can be used on five devices at once.

It manages payments through a system inspired by parking meters. When you sign up for Mullvad, you'll buy as much time as you want. That time will count down until it expires, unless you top it up with more 5-Euro payments. If you run out of money, Mullvad won't charge you a new subscription fee because you didn't tell it not to. It'll just stop working until you pay again. Every payment also comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee, except for payments made in cash.

The only real complexity in the process is that Mullvad always figures out its prices in Euro, so outside the EU, the cost per month is affected by exchange rates. If you happen to live in a country where the government's economic policy shuttles between capricious and arbitrary, you might want to grab a few months in advance.

The other most interesting thing about Mullvad's pricing is the options you can use to pay. For maximum privacy, you can pay with cash using the payment token you'll find on your account page. Note that this is not the same as your account number. To find it, log into your dashboard on Mullvad.net, click Add time to your account in the left-hand bar, then click the button labeled Cash and scroll down. Make your cash payment by writing the token on an envelope and mailing it to Sweden (full instructions here).

You can also get untraceable Mullvad vouchers by paying cash at participating retail locations. Most of them are in Europe, but you can order them from Amazon. While your payment to Amazon won't be private, the voucher can't be linked directly to your VPN account, since the actual number is hidden behind a scratch-off panel. It's actually pretty ingenious.

Of course, you can also pay using any of the normal methods, including credit cards, cryptocurrency and bank wires (though not PayPal). But the more private methods are always there for people who need them.

Mullvad is that rare VPN that's still content to be a VPN and not an all-inclusive security suite. No shade to NordVPN or Surfshark, whose extra features are generally quite good, but it's nice to see at least one of the top providers staying focused.

Although Mullvad doesn't have any partners that sell their products alongside its VPN, it does have several partnerships with other VPNs who use its network as the basis for their own products. MalwareBytes Privacy VPN, Mozilla VPN, Tailscale and Obscura can all be considered Mullvad side apps if you squint.

Mullvad's only product other than the VPN is Mullvad Browser, which is free to download and works on Windows, macOS and Linux. Mullvad Browser works in the background, blocking common methods of browser fingerprinting that can be used to deduce your identity even when you have a VPN running.

For example, it automatically reports your time zone as UTC, disguises personal preferences like font and window size, scrambles information sent by APIs and conceals your browser version and computer operating system. It's also in private mode by default, which doesn't hide what your ISP sees but is useful for concealing your activity from other people that might use your computer.

Since privacy is Mullvad's main selling point, this section is even more important than usual. Loopholes in the privacy policy of the privacy VPN would be deeply ironic. Fortunately, Mullvad's privacy policy backs up its high-flying rhetoric. It's a short, pointed and readable document with no problems I could discern. Mullvad has no parent company or subsidiary it might use as a loophole, and no clauses in its policy are left open to interpretation. It's a masterpiece of the privacy-policy genre.

The document is actually three policies: a privacy policy, a no-logging policy and a cookie policy. The privacy policy lists all the times Mullvad might collect data about a user. That's exactly two situations — using financial information to process payments (which will be entirely anonymous if you use cash or a voucher) and using your email address to track support tickets you open. That's it.

The no-logging policy is a bit longer, but mostly because it's explaining exactly how Mullvad manages to run a VPN service with so little information on individual users. For each account, it stores a number and an expiration date, plus public keys and tunnel addresses if you're using WireGuard (deleted at most 10 minutes after your session ends). Everything else is completely anonymized. Mullvad even claims that its 500,000 or so user accounts could have been created by the same user 500,000 times, which I suppose is one way to spend 2.5 million Euro.

The cookie policy is the shortest because Mullvad uses exactly five cookies. One saves your login status in your browser, one saves your language preferences, one protects its site from being used in a specific kind of forgery hack and the other two are for handling Stripe payments.

Mullvad corroborates its privacy policy with regular audits of various aspects of its service. Currently, there are 17 audits listed on its website, including four infrastructure audits by Cure53. All of its apps have been separately audited and found to be solid. It has been a couple of years since the last full infrastructure audit in 2024, but given how many other targeted reviews Mullvad has gone through since then, it's hard to be too upset about the pause.

In 2023, Mullvad achieved the holy grail of VPN privacy: being ordered by subpoena to turn over customer information and not being able to comply because that information didn't exist. Nothing compares to a VPN's privacy being tested in the wild like this.

Sometimes, a VPN appears to be working, but still reveals your real location to websites. Netflix is a useful proxy for this. To unblock a streaming site like Netflix, a VPN needs to change your virtual location while not appearing to do so — if Netflix sees any hint of VPN traffic, you'll get blocked with the hated proxy error. I used five different locations to check whether Mullvad is up to the streaming task.

Server location

Unblocked Netflix?

Changed content?

Vancouver, Canada

3/3

3/3

Gothenberg, Sweden

2/3

2/3

Istanbul, Turkey

3/3

3/3

Johannesburg, South Africa

3/3

3/3

Singapore, Singapore

2/3

2/3

Mullvad did well for streaming, but it didn't manage a perfect score like its fellow anti-establishment VPN Windscribe did. Two of the 15 servers I tested failed to unblock Netflix, one in Singapore and one in Mullvad's hometown of Gothenburg. I also had trouble logging into Netflix while connected to a Vancouver server, though that server did unblock the site consistently once I got inside.

In Mullvad's defense, no location failed more than once. It's completely possible to get good streaming performance out of this VPN; you just have to be willing to click the server refresh button a few times. Privacy is still the main use case for Mullvad, but it's fine for streaming too.

Mullvad has 90 server locations in 50 countries and territories. Unusually for a VPN, users can choose between all 590 of its total servers, including several in each location. There's even a list on its website that shows you the status of every server.

Mullvad does not use virtual server locations, so every server is physically located in the place where it claims to be. Here's how they're distributed.

Region

Countries with servers

Total server locations

North America

3

25

South America

5

6

Europe

29

41

Africa

2

2

Middle East

2

2

Asia

7

8

Oceania

2

6

Total

50

90

Over half the countries with servers are in Europe and over two-thirds of the cities with servers are in either Europe or North America. That lopsided network is a limitation of Mullvad's refusal to use virtual server locations, since its real servers have to be concentrated in nations developed enough to host data centers. With an all-real network, it's easier to tell which servers will give you the fastest performance, but you can't simulate as much of the world as you can with larger services like ExpressVPN.

The good news is that there's at least two real server locations on every continent. Mullvad has a surprisingly robust presence in South America and two bare-metal servers in Africa, which is more than some other VPNs have. In the end, though, the best application of Mullvad is to protect the online privacy of users in North America, Europe and eastern Asia.

Most of Mullvad's features are augmentations to the VPN itself, rather than side options that do other things. Some of them are bread-and-butter, like the kill switch and split tunneling, but a few you won't find anywhere else. Note beforehand that Mullvad does not support port forwarding, so if you depend on that for your torrenting, try another VPN.

Mullvad's most novel feature is a recent one. DAITA, which stands for Defense against AI-guided Traffic Analysis, can be toggled on and off in the Mullvad app. According to Mullvad, certain patterns in how browsers communicate with websites can be analyzed by AI to reveal the truth behind encrypted internet history. DAITA hides those packets by filling communications with background noise so the AI won't know what's real.

DAITA is a laudably forward-looking feature, but as Mullvad itself admits, it will make your browsing speeds slower and drain your battery. I recommend only using it for activities you really want to hide.

Mullvad's desktop apps establish quantum-proof WireGuard tunnels by default. Quantum computing isn't yet a threat to WireGuard, but it may become dangerous in the future, so Mullvad is getting ahead of the problem (along with a few other services like NordVPN). When quantum resistance is active, Mullvad encapsulates its keys using the current standard mechanism, ML-KEM.

If you find yourself in a country where government censorship makes it hard to access the internet, Mullvad has options that might help. These anti-censorship features can be used to get around firewalls that block visible VPN traffic. You have several options, including changing your WireGuard port, randomizing your port number, disguising your VPN traffic as an ordinary HTTPS connection or using an obfuscated Shadowsocks proxy.

Mullvad's anti-censorship involves more features than most VPNs have in this area. This makes it a bit less user-friendly, but a lot more likely to work. If you're new to getting around censorship, Mullvad's help center has a helpful page about using its anti-censor settings.

Many VPNs offer a double-hop connection that routes your traffic through two servers instead of one, adding a redundant layer of encryption in case one server malfunctions. Mullvad pulls ahead of the competition (except Surfshark, which also does this) by allowing you to choose your entry and exit servers. When you activate the multihop option and open the server list, you'll be prompted to pick two locations instead of one.

This means you can select an entry server that's close to you and an exit server in any country whose location you want to spoof, letting you fine-tune your own performance. It's way nicer than being railroaded into certain paths.

Mullvad includes six blocklists that can keep you or your family members from looking at unwanted content: ads, trackers, malware, gambling, adult content and social media. These lists can't be customized like Windscribe's R.O.B.E.R.T. blocks can, so you're limited to just turning them on and off.

The internet is gradually transitioning from the old IPv4 standard over to IPv6, which will allow many more addresses to be shared out. Mullvad is one of a few VPNs looking ahead to the IPv6 era. You can leave it to block all IPv6 traffic, but if you do need IPv6 for any reason, you can enable it while still being connected to a Mullvad server.

Mullvad comes with two features that protect against unexpectedly losing your VPN defenses. The first is a kill switch, a common VPN option that cuts off internet access if the VPN tunnel ever fails. This simple measure helps guard against accidental leaks.

Lockdown mode is the stronger option. While it's active, you will be unable to get on the internet unless you connect to a Mullvad server first. This will remain true if you turn the connection off yourself and even if you quit the app.

Split tunneling is available on Mullvad's apps for every system except iOS. It lets you send some apps outside the VPN tunnel so they get online with your normal IP address. It's helpful if you have some apps that don't work with the VPN active — this is common with online banking, as an example. Another common application is to protect a torrenting client in the background while using your browser unprotected for better speeds.

Mullvad makes two forms of support available in the app. You can report a problem by going to Settings -> Support -> Report a problem, typing your question (requested to be in either English or Swedish, though they'd probably be able to read a question run through Google Translate) and optionally providing your email. You can also view the app's logs at any time, which can be useful to help a technician diagnose your problem.

If you'd rather search for a solution at your own pace, you can go to that same page and click FAQs and Guides instead. This opens the help center in a browser.

I love Mullvad's approach to laying out its FAQs. Instead of crowding topics into five or six categories and making you guess whether your problem falls under setup, usage or troubleshooting, Mullvad gives you a set of dropdown filters to narrow down the articles which might relate to your problem.

By the time you've named which device, OS and protocol you're dealing with, you won't have many articles left to sift through. There is an annoying tendency for certain sets of filters to reduce the number of surfaced links to zero, but for those cases, there's a search bar that also works well.

The articles themselves are good enough that I referred to them several times while writing this review. Some of them are a bit overlong, but they're diligent about including both internal and external links to get you where you're going fast.

This is normally where I cover how it feels to get live chat support from the VPN I'm reviewing. However, Mullvad doesn't have live chat support. That's unfortunate, although it's still better than Windscribe's approach of forcing you to banter with a sarcastic robot. Instead, I sent a question via email to Mullvad's support team, and got a response within 24 hours.

Mullvad was founded in 2009 in Sweden. It's still owned and operated by its original founders. According to a detailed timeline on its website, its 16-year history has been as uneventful as any user could ask for, with not much changing except updates to stay on the technological leading edge. The only controversy mentioned in Mullvad's own materials is the 2023 police raid of its headquarters, which (as I covered in the privacy section) only makes them look better.

So as not to take Mullvad at its word, I scoured the last 16 years of news items and user reports to search for any other blemishes on its record. Based on that research, I found no reason to doubt Mullvad's honesty about its location, owners or team.

I found just one leak that wasn't noted on Mullvad's own site. In 2023, a security research group called ZATAZ alleged that it found anonymized information on Mullvad users saved on an Internet Archive page, including account numbers (linked article is in French). According to ZATAZ, Mullvad contacted the Archive and got the page deleted.

To my mind, the only mistake Mullvad made in response to the ZATAZ allegations was not making a public statement about the incident. I can see why they didn't think it was a big deal, since even logging into someone else's Mullvad account wouldn't show you their browsing history, but it's always better to communicate about these things.

Mullvad is a VPN that knows what it wants to be and achieves that goal with flying colors. It's not trying to be an everything app — it does privacy and does it well. That's not to say it has nothing going on outside the VPN itself, as its DNS blockers, AI defenses and split tunneling all work smoothly. But if you want a VPN that's not ashamed to be a VPN, Mullvad is the right choice.

Of course, it has its own compromises. It's solidly in the middle of the speed pack and occasionally trips up when unblocking streaming sites. The lack of any protocols other than WireGuard grates on me a bit, since it reduces the user's options for troubleshooting. With all that said, those are minor hiccups on a VPN that does such a thorough job keeping you anonymous online.

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US members of Congress who viewed the latest Epstein files unredacted have accused the US department of justice (DOJ) of covering up for billionaires and exposing victims. US lawmakers are entitled to view the original files under US legislation on the investigation.

The same legislation says that federal officials can only redact to protect the identity of victims and explicitly excludes protecting others. However, the DOJ has obscured many names of Epstein associates and perpetrators.

Representative Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the congressional judiciary committee, said that the DOJ is "in a cover-up mode". He added that the chaotic and illegal nature of the redactions is either "spectacular incompetence" or, more likely, deliberate illegality:

I went over there, and I was able to determine, at least I believe, that there were tons of completely unnecessary redactions, in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that was troubling to us.

They violated that precept [of redacting only to protect victims] by releasing the names of a lot of victims, which is either spectacular incompetence and sloppiness on their part, or, as a lot of the survivors believe, a deliberate threat to other survivors who are thinking about coming forward, that they need to be careful because they can be exposed and have their personal information dragged through the mud as well.

I saw the names of lots of people, who were redacted for mysterious or baffling or inscrutable reasons.

Lawyers have said US law is unclear whether it's legal to reveal the redacted names. However, Raskin's Democrat colleague Ro Khanna used his congressional privilege to read out the powerful names he had seen:

Raskin also named Victoria's Secret founder Les Wexner, as a wealthy figure whose name had been blacked out. He added that he was going to demand that Trump's attorney general Pam Bondi will correct the redactions when she testifies to his committee on Wednesday 11 February:

We're going to start by posing questions directly to attorney general Bondi about the process that produced such flawed results, and that has created such mystery. But also, we want to get a commitment from the Department of Justice to clean it up as quickly as possible, and to get them to release the millions of other documents that are still out there.

The DOJ has released only about half of the Epstein files. It has admitted that it is withholding the worst, and that this includes footage of rapes, torture and murder of helpless victims.

For more on the the Epstein Files, please read the Canary's article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Forbes Breaking News

By Skwawkbox

Handwritten notes made in prison by serial child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein show him writing "jail out = 10". It may well indicate that Epstein expected to be out of prison on the 10th day of a month, which is, of course, the day he allegedly died. Or, it could be the ramblings of a predatory child rapist who was becoming increasingly unhinged.

Epstein's 'death' has now been cast into doubt by evidence found in the latest release of US government files. Prosecutors prepared an announcement of his supposed suicide a day before it happened. A subpoena revealed that an anonymous message board post describing Epstein's removal from prison - posted before his 'death' was announced - had been written by a prison guard on duty that night.

The latest discovery will only fuel suspicions that Epstein is still alive.

File EFTA00134596 and its adjacent release EFTA00134597 contain notes scribbled on a yellow pad in Epstein's spidery handwriting. While much of it is either coded or difficult to read, much also is not.

One of the pages, alongside sketches that may show containers or building layouts, has clear mentions of:

• Israel
• Jet - US prop
• Guards
• govt clear
• Niger/Nigeria
• Visa
• Red notice (a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action).
• Gangsters
• Banks
• Computer
• Tourist
• Gaza
• Muslim

Along with several names:

But the other is briefer. Shown upside down in the file, when rotated it shows, among initials:

• JAIL OUT = 10

What all of this means when put together is unclear - but it could be that Epstein was laying out his train of thought around some kind of plan. Or, it could be the desperate and deranged scribblings of a man who, even then, did not care about his victims - only himself. All of this will only add to speculation the child rapist's death was not all that it seemed.

For more on the the Epstein Files, please read our article on how the media circus around Epstein is erasing the experiences of victims and survivors here.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

US politician Ilhan Omar has burned Donald Trump so hard that it was felt by an ancestor in the small town of Kallstadt in Germany's Rhineland in 1608.

Omar has often clashed with Trump. Proudly Muslim, left-wing, and Somali, the firebrand Minnesota democrat embodies everything Trump and his goons despise. She has never been cowed before The Mighty Hairpiece and today was no exception.

Omar was commenting on a new Fox interview in which Trump was once again putting the boot into Somali-Americans - including Omar specifically. The president has often singled out the group to whip up hatred in his second term.

Trump told Fox News:

Somalia has come in here — what they've done to our country, these people — they've come into our country, and what they've done with that fake congresswoman. She's so bad.

Trump: "Somalia has come in here — what they've done to our country, these people — they've come into our country, and what they've done with that fake congresswoman. She's so bad." pic.twitter.com/SX5idZqV3R

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 10, 2026

Omar spotted the clip and noted:

The leader of the Pedophile Protection Party is trying to deflect attention from his name being all over the Epstein files. At least in Somalia they execute pedophiles not elect them.

The leader of the Pedophile Protection Party is trying to deflect attention from his name being all over the Epstein files.

At least in Somalia they execute pedophiles not elect them. https://t.co/xC3Ype3zXI

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 10, 2026

Trump is under pressure over the small matter of his name cropping up literally thousands of times in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Epstein files.

In case you've been cut off in a mineshaft for a few months, Trump's long association with the dead child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein is causing him no end of bother.

He's also been framing Somali people as some sort of enemy within, not least in Minnesota where his paramilitary goons have executed two people this year.

What follows is simply series of GIFs because no words can describe how hard this went:

"At least in Somalia they execute pedophiles not elect them." https://t.co/smDgJahPTF pic.twitter.com/yEmoPu01o2

— TTCA - The Musical (@Brosnan_in_1997) February 11, 2026

Also this one:

GET THEMMMMMM https://t.co/yjuCYAaPIU pic.twitter.com/yz1ozGLDQV

—

VinFast's Retreat From America Was Inevitable A recent Nikkei Asia report said that Vietnamese carmaker VinFast was targeting a 300,000 annual vehicle sales in the coming years, with India and Southeast Asia positioned as core growth markets. That global total still has Europe and North America in mind, and underscores ... [continued]

The post Op-Ed: VinFast is Refocusing on Asia, Planning to Sell 300,000 Vehicles appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The radical project is an attempt to preserve wildlife in one of Europe's most light-polluted countries, but can they persuade local people they will still feel safe?

Two yellowing street lamps cast a pool of light on the dark road winding into the woods outside Mazée village. This scene is typical for narrow countryside roads in Wallonia in the south of Belgium. "Having lights here is logical," says André Detournay, 77, who has lived in the village for four decades. "I walk here with my dog and it makes me feel safe and gives me some protection from theft."

Belgium glows like a Christmas decoration at night, as witnessed from space. It is one of the most light-polluted countries in Europe, with the Milky Way scarcely visible except in the most remote areas.

Toyota has unveiled the 2027 Highlander, the first fully electric version of the vehicle and the automaker's fourth EV in the US. It's also the company's first EV assembled in the country and the first electric model with three rows of seats. The automaker already sells the electric C-HR crossover and the electric bZ SUV in the US. While the 2027 Highlander resembles its predecessors, its lines look sharper and it has broader fenders. In addition, it features flush door handles similar to Tesla's, which were designed for aerodynamics but which China recently banned out of safety concerns.

The new Highlander will be available in several varieties, specifically in Limited and XLE (Executive Luxury Edition) grades with either front-wheel or all-wheel drive configuration. If you get the Limited edition all-wheel drive with a 95.8 kWh battery, you can get a range of 320 miles on a single charge, based on Toyota's estimates. Take note that range estimates by manufacturers and the EPA could be different from each other. It would be more accurate to compare EPA ranges between vehicles across brands, because they were determined using the agency's testing methodologies.

The 2027 Highlander in XLE front wheel drive configuration with a 77 kWh battery has a manufacturer-estimated range of 287 miles. Meanwhile, the all-wheel drive XLE variant comes with either a 77 kWh battery that can power it for 270 miles or a 95.8 kWh battery that has an estimated range of 320 miles, similar to the Limited edition vehicle. The all-wheel drive variants have a total maximum power output of 338 horsepower, whereas the front-wheel models have a power output of 221 hp.

All the EV's versions can seat seven, with the third row being able to fold flat if you need it for cargo. They come with heated front seats, but you can also get ventilated and heated second row seats for an additional fee. Toyota will start selling the 2027 Highlander in late 2026, with some regions getting it early next year. The automaker says it will announce pricing for the EV model closer to its release date.