Riders to watch in 2021: Jeremy Alcoba
Jeremy Alcoba was the 2020 Rookie of the year and looks to take some wins in 2021.
At 19 years old Alcoba is one of the older 2020 Moto3 rookies, but that doesn’t disregard any of his immense talent which came to fruition in 2019 when he was crowned the 2019 Junior Moto3 World Champion beating Carlos Tatay to take the top spot overall. The title came after a move from the Estrella Galicia Monlau Honda set up who he raced with from 2013 to 2018, the team took him through the junior ranks from 80cc all the way to his Moto3 World Championship debut in 2018 with wildcards at Jerez and Aragon and a replacement ride in Thailand.
He was very used to the setup and how the team worked, however, when the team chose Sergio Garcia over him to join Alonso Lopez in the World Championship despite various podiums and even wins in the Junior World Championship, Alcoba decided to make a move elsewhere and signed with the Laglisse team and would ride a Husqvarna for the ex 2013 Moto3 World Champions. He would have an incredibly dominant season and racked up 9/12 podiums with 3 wins to his name, he took the title and was signed by Gresini to run in their World Championship team for 2020 and boy did he impress.
Jeremy Alcoba, 2019 Moto3 Junior World Champion
Alcoba’s time with Gresini actually started in 2019 when he was hired by the team to replace the injured Gabriel Rodrigo for Austria and Silverstone, both tracks he was unfamiliar with given that the CEV Repsol championship does not visit either of these tracks, therefore he was forced to adapt back to the Honda from the Husqvarna and learn two brand new tracks. He was able to do this with ease and took his first Moto3 World Championship points at Silverstone with a P14 finish, these two performances were enough to impress Fausto Gresini enough to hire him full time for 2020.
As a rookie he was tasked with learning some new tracks for 2020 which he had not raced at before, these include Qatar, Brno and Misano. Despite this disadvantage, he was able to pull off some great results and a very solid season taking P11 overall in the final standings capping off the season with a podium finish at Portimao. He impressed many in 2020 with 7 top 10 finishes beating his experienced teammate Gabriel Rodrigo by 7 points putting himself firmly in the ‘#1 rider’ position with scope to impress even further in the 2021 season.
First World Championship podium
Alcoba was consistently at the front throughout the season and if it wasn’t for some penalties applied to him for track limits he would’ve come away with a top 10 finish overall in the world championship after being demoted in various races during the season. He is riding for the 2018 Moto3 World Champions and if his 2019 season and rookie Moto3 seasons are anything to go by he will impress this year.
Featured images – www.motogp.com
