But the teenager, who will rise to Moto2 with Aspar this season, insists he is in no hurry to reach the premier class

“There is no rush to get to MotoGP,” Guevara said. “I need to be ready. I know there is already some interest but we need to focus on the next step ahead of us right now.”

The Spaniard, who blitzed to the Moto3 title with seven wins and twelve rostrums, believes a realistic Moto2 goal is to try and repeat his rookie 2021 Moto3 achievements.

“It’s clear I am facing a step. It will be a year to learn again,” he said. “In my first year in Moto3, I adapted quickly and got a win. It would be great to do this again: to be with the front group and aim for a podium and try to be the best rookie.”

But he acknowledges the depth of talent in Moto2 this year.

“It’s difficult to say who will be champion, there is a lot of strength on the grid. Alonso Lopez, Pedro Acosta, Ai Ogura, Chantra, Canet… It will be really difficult. There is a good level this year,” he said.

Guevara is often compared with fellow 18-year-old Acosta, for good reason: The pair battled together in the 2020 Junior World Championship, which Guevara won, before Acosta rode to rookie glory in the 2021 Moto3 season.

Acosta then moved straight up to Moto2 last year, where he took three wins despite breaking his leg in a mid-season training accident.

Guevaranow now re-joins the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider, who says he turned down a MotoGP opportunity for 2023, on track.

“Pedro is a really fast rider who also adapts quickly to the bike,” Guevara said. “I don’t know how many wins he took already last year; I would like to have a first season like this!

“We fought in other categories and sometimes I won, sometimes he did. He is a strong rival and that rapid adaptation to categories means he can move fast through the series.”

And who does Guevara tip in MotoGP this season?

“The Ducatis will be really strong and seem to have already made a step according to the tests. I think an Aprilia will be there but it’s a long championship and there are bound to be a few surprises,” he said.

In terms of Guevara’s own MotoGP ‘connections’, KTM’s rebranding of Tech3 as GASGAS – the same company Guevara promotes at Aspar – is likely to do no harm, while his former Aspar team manager, Gino Borsoi, is now running Pramac Ducati.

Acosta made history by winning the Moto3 title as a rookie in 2021, then claimed three victories in Moto2 last year, again riding for the Red Bull KTM Ajo team.

Guevara took over from Acosta as Moto3 champion and is sticking with GASGAS Aspar as he moves to Moto2 this year.

Acosta has said he turned down a MotoGP offer for 2023, while Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall’Igna and Jorge Lorenzo’s father Chicho are among those to have highlighted Guevara’s MotoGP potential.

With both 18-year-olds currently competing for ‘KTM’ teams, the Austrian factory would seem in pole position for their future MotoGP services – providing it has room for the pair.

‘If the next generation develops quickly, we might get a problem’

“I don’t want to say right now but let’s hope in the future it is a luxury problem to have maybe two good rider lining up [to move to MotoGP]. But I feel that we are not in a position to talk spoiled like that,” said KTM motorsports director Pit Beirer.

“Now we have four riders in MotoGP and we need to succeed [with them]. We want to make another step with Brad [Binder[ and we are sure Jack [Miller] will make us better, [then] to have Pol [Espargaro] back and now bring Augusto [Fernandez] up.

“At the moment I feel the package is very strong with these four riders but, yeah, if the next generation is developing very quick then we might get a problem very soon.

“We cannot foresee that. First we have to get the results with the riders we have and then tomorrow is tomorrow. We cannot say what the future will bring, but that’s why we do development with young riders [so] that they are coming up.

“At one moment the older riders will stop or leave, it’s normal. Let’s face that positive problem once it’s there.”

KTM and Ducati have led the MotoGP field in offering rookies a premier-class chance in recent years.

KTM has a bigger commitment to the smaller classes (Red Bull Rookies onwards) than any other MotoGP manufacturer, helping it provide premier-class debuts for Iker Lecuona, Miguel Oliveira, Brad Binder, Raul Fernandez, Remy Gardner and now Augusto Fernandez.

However, Ducati has used its eight MotoGP seats and the lure of competitive satellite machinery to offer debuts to the likes of newly crowned champion Francesco Bagnaia plus Jorge Martin, Luca Marini, Enea Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio di Giannantonio over the same period (2017 onwards).

Guevara’s Aspar team manager, Gino Borsoi, has also been hired as Pramac Ducati’s MotoGP team manager…

Those of the words of Ducati Corse general manager Gigi Dall’Igna, during an interview with Marca.com in which he also names Moto3 champion Izan Guevara as having caught his eye for the future.

After winning 125cc, 250cc and WorldSBK titles with Aprilia, Dall’Igna was poached by Ducati to resurrect its flagging MotoGP project at the end of 2013.

While a Dall’Igna Desmosedici first graced the top step of the podium in 2016, the title remained just out of reach, with Andrea Dovizioso world championship runner-up from 2017-2019, then Bagnaia in 2021.

But it all came together in 2022 when Bagnaia overcame a record five non-scores and a 91-point deficit to Fabio Quartararo to finally hand Dall’Igna the title missing from his illustrious engineering career.

Rather than criticising Bagnaia’s errors, which saw him crash out of four races, Dall’Igna sees the points lost as a sign of just how dominant the young Italian can become with a little ‘fine tuning’.

“Pecco is someone who can make history, really, because just think about how the 2022 World Championship was: he came out of two or three errors and could have won it well in advance,” Dall’Igna told Marca.

“That’s why I say that Pecco has little to do, fine-tuning every little thing here and there to truly become… he’s already winning races in a row, but if he gets rid of a few small imperfections he can make the difference in an incredible way.”

But Dall’Igna is also wary of the threat posed by a fully fit Marc Marquez, the rider who proved the main obstacle between Ducati and MotoGP title glory during the Dovizioso years.

“Marc Márquez is always scary. How can I say that Marc Márquez is not scary?” Dall’Igna said. “Márquez has shown to be someone who has the determination, the strength, a riding style that should scare you.

“Someone who is not afraid of Marc Márquez is just crazy. It’s not that I’m saying that Marc doesn’t scare us, but I’m saying that we have a rider [Bagnaia] who, if he gets rid of a ‘crack’, can make a difference like Márquez did.”

While some believe Bagnaia’s title glory, Ducati’s first since Casey Stoner in 2007, means the factory no longer needs to try and sign the #93, Dall’Igna didn’t close the door.

“In life you can never know or say. Perhaps it is Pecco who is leaving [Ducati]. We know that we have a two-year contract, we know that our relationship has always been wonderful. Even in moments of difficulty for each other, we have known how to help each other and find a solution. That’s why I think it would be difficult, but… in life you never know.”

Dall’Igna added that Bagnaia had first caught his eye during his Moto3 days on an uncompetitive Mahindra. ‘Pecco’ went on to win the Moto2 title in 2018 and joined MotoGP with Pramac Ducati the following year, being promoted to the factory team in 2021.

“I chose Pecco because he spent two years in Moto3 with a motorcycle that was not competitive and he won races,” Dall’Igna said. “I like those riders, who don’t complain, who always try to take home results regardless of whether they have the best or the worst bike.

“For me, that is one of the characteristics that champions have to have, which I also saw in Lorenzo and other drivers who later left their mark. I always say it, that’s when I knew that Pecco could do great things.”

Asked if he sees such a rider in Moto3 now, Dall’Igna responded: “Izan Guevara is another rider who, with perspective, can make a difference because he has also done incredible things.”

Guevara, aged 18, won the Moto3 championship this season and will be tested further by a step up into the Moto2 2023 rider line-up alongside Jake Dixon for GASGAS Aspar Team.

“Izan Guevara will mark an era, he will be the heir of Marc Marquez for the head he has, intuition and self-confidence,” explained the father of Jorge Lorenzo to Diario de Mallorca.

“I bet on Izan Guevara. Barring catastrophe, he is destined to be consecrated among the best in history, he is a thoroughbred with a privileged spirit.”

Marquez is a six-time world champion in the premier class and, despite undergoing a fourth major arm surgery and riding a below-par Honda bike this year, he is not to be discounted from the championship fight in 2023.

Chicho Lorenzo’s motorcycle racing school in Majorca, Spain, taught Jorge Lorenzo, Joan Mir, Augusto Fernandez and Guevara.

Although Jorge Lorenzo’s relationship with his father has fallen apart, he became a three-time MotoGP champion during his heyday.

And Chicho Lorenzo has since provided the first steps to 2020 MotoGP champion Mir and 2022 Moto2 champion Fernandez who will step into the 2023 MotoGP rider line-up alongside Pol Espargaro for Tech3 GASGAS.

“Joan Mir is the most talented rider I’ve ever had in my life,” Chicho Lorenzo said. 

“Augusto Fernandez is not so talented, but he is very intelligent.

“Mir is satisfied with what he has achieved, and Augusto Fernandez has to improve some aspects to be world champion.”

Chicho Lorenzo’s motorcycle racing school in Majorca, Spain, is where his son learned the skills which would mould him into a three-time MotoGP champion.

It is also where his relationship with his notoriously tough father turned sour.

Chicho Lorenzo described his current bond with his son “non-existent” in a new interview with Diario de Mallorca.

Chicho is the man behind the success of his son, Joan Mir, Augusto Fernandez and Izan Guevara – but insists his contribution has been disregarded.

“I won the challenge of proving to my son that I could breed other champions,” he said. 

“I was a key player in the sporting careers of the four Majorcan motorcycle world champions. I put the first step within the reach of any family, and without a first step there is no second. 

“No one, however, has ever thanked me. They have forgotten the importance in their careers of a very humble school that allowed them to start.”

Jorge Lorenzo has openly discussed his tough upbringing at the hands of his father. Last year he described him as “like a kind of Hitler” in an interview with Antena3.

Guevara, aged 18, won the Moto3 championship at the weekend to cement his status as one of the sport’s most thrilling starlets.

He will be promoted and feature in the 2023 Moto2 rider line-up alongside Jake Dixon for GASGAS Aspar Team.

“Of course I get excited when I see kids like that,” Marquez said to AS.

“But at the same time not, because I know that [they are] going to make things difficult for me from now on. 

“You see that they are kids who are going to go up to MotoGP.”

Guevara’s accomplishment comes a year after another Spaniard, Pedro Acosta, became the first rookie and the youngest rider since Loris Capirossi in 1990 to win the Moto3 title.

Acosta, still just 18, is now in his rookie Moto2 season. 

Marquez said about his countrymen: “They are going to burn their stages and make their mistakes, like when Acosta arrived in Moto2, he was falling. 

“When I got to Moto2, I crashed three times in a row. They’ll make their mistakes, but they’re going to get there for sure.”

Marquez compared Guevara and Acosta: “Both are good, although with different styles. Acosta has a more aggressive point and Guevara is finer, although not as much as Jorge Lorenzo. 

“You will see more in Moto2 his style, but he is a rider who lets the bike run a lot. They are two different styles and in the end, both champions.”

Marquez shared advice he gave to Moto3’s teenage champion: “He’s a kid who goes by instinct. I told him the other day that in Thailand it was not by instinct, but by thinking, rather than instinct. 

“I told him to keep going on instinct. When you have the speed and you are young, you are also not aware of what a world championship is and he has beaten the champion in Australia, on a difficult circuit. 

“He deserves it. He is the most talented right now in Moto3 and will be seen in Moto2, where he will go fast. Last year it was covered by Acosta.”

Marquez finished second in the Australian MotoGP and, in a season interrupted by his fourth major arm surgery, he sits 13th in the MotoGP standings.

Izan Guevara extends his Moto3 title lead over Aspar team-mate Sergio Garcia to 33 points with victory in the Aragon Grand Prix, while Dennis Foggia’s championship hopes are now on the ropes with five rounds to go.

MotoGP Aragon weekend schedule (UK time)

Friday September 16

8am – Moto3 FP1

8.55am – MotoGP FP1

9.55am – Moto2 FP1

12.15pm – Moto3 FP2

1.10pm – MotoGP FP2

2.10pm – Moto2 FP2

 

Saturday September 17

8am – Moto3 FP3

8.55am – MotoGP FP3

9.55am – Moto2 FP3

11.35am – Moto3 Q1

12pm – Moto3 Q2

12.30pm – MotoGP FP4

1.10pm – MotoGP Q1

1.35pm – MotoGP Q2

2.10pm – Moto2 Q1

2.35pm – Moto2 Q2

 

Sunday September 18

8am – Moto3 warm-up

8.20am – Moto2 warm-up

8.40am – MotoGP warm-up

10am – Moto3 race

11.20am – Moto2 race

1pm – MotoGP race