Moto3: 2021 rookies to look out for
The Moto3 World Championship has some new faces you need to be aware of.
The 2021 Moto3 World Championship welcomes 5 rookies to the class, Andi Farid Izdihar, Lorenzo Fellon, Izan Guevara, Pedro Acosta and Xavier Artigas, 4 of the 5 rookies have not raced full time in the MotoGP World Championship with Izdihar completing the 2020 Moto2 season, we are going to look at the 4 new fresh faces for 2021 who you may not have heard of.
Izan Guevara
Izan Guevara joins the class as the newly crowned 2020 Moto3 Junior World Champion, taking the title as a rookie in the class, backing up his 2019 European Talent Cup title. Guevara has an incredible amount of talent, adapting to the Aspar Moto3 KTM in record speed, taking just four races to win his first race in the class, once he took this race win, he didn’t step off the podium once.
He racked up 8 podiums in the 8 races which followed and a tally of 5 race wins, he was able to put in a dominant season to take the championship out of the hands of Xavier Artigas and Pedro Acosta, both well established as being fast in their own right, the 16-year-old joins the World Championship looking to stamp his name into the record books and show the veterans of the class how it’s done. He will be riding for the Aspar team, keeping the continuity and replacing Albert Arenas who leaves the class as the World Champion.
Xavier Artigas
Xavier Artigas is a rider we have supported since we were founded in 2015, following his progression through the ranks of Moto4 with the Toni Elias academy, the Red Bull Rookies where he placed 3rd overall behind the Oncu Twins, then into the European Talent Cup where he won the 2018 championship, all the way to now. You may remember him from the Valencia 2019 Moto3 race when he did a ‘Can Oncu’, leading the race as a wildcard. Unfortunately, he was unable to win the race but finished in an outstanding third place and was enough to really get people talking about him.
He battled Izan Guevara down to the last lap of the 2020 CEV Moto3 championship, but was unable to take the title, losing the title due to some horrifically bad luck in Race 1 of 3 at Valencia when his bike stalled, missing out by 7 points but taking 8 podiums and 2 race wins, he moves to the World Championship with the Leopard team who are arguably the best team on the Moto3 grid.
Pedro Acosta
Pedro Acosta had a stunning 2020 Red Bull Rookies and CEV Moto3 campaign, winning the Rookies cup by a huge 64 points, taking 6 wins and 9 podiums to dominate the season, completely ruining every rider he raced against, he also put up a convincing CEV Moto3 title fight, being the thorn in the side of Artigas in the start of the season before some crashes halted his progress.
He was able to take third place overall in the standings just 12 points behind Artigas with 8 podiums and 3 race wins to his name, he will receive support from Red Bull in 2021 and has been moved into the Red Bull KTM Ajo team where he will be under the watchful eye of Aki Ajo who has a track record for turning riders into champions, there’s no doubt Acosta will be a force in 2021.
Lorenzo Fellon
Lorenzo Fellon is another impressive up and coming rider, he has been signed to the SIC58 squad for 2021 with Paulo Simoncelli saying he has had his eye on Fellon for a long time and knows he will be fast. Fellon is the son of Laurent Fellon, the man responsible for getting Johann Zarco into the World Championship and aiding him to win the 2015 and 2016 Moto2 World Championships.
Lorenzo has raced in the Red Bull Rookies and also for Ajo in the European Talent Cup. He only completed one Red Bull Rookies cup season but he was able to impress many, finishing in P5 overall in the standings with 11/12 top 10 finishes and 5/12 top 5 finishes, he was unable to take a podium but his consistency was enough to impress the Monlau Squad who signed him for 2020.
In 2020 as a rookie in the CEV Moto3 championship, he finished in P11 overall with 5 top 10 finishes and 1 top 5 finish, instantly showing his speed in the class and impressing Paulo Simoncelli enough to take the leap of faith and catapult him into the World Championship.
These four new faces in the championship will all be looking to make an impact in the 2021 season and with the talent they all have shown, we have no doubt you’ll be hearing their names quite frequently.
Featured images – CEV Repsol
