It is the end of an era. Aleix Espargaró ends his career in MotoGP after the 2024 season, putting an end to a journey that began in 2005 in the 125cc category. In July he will turn 35 years old.
For almost 20 years, the rider was never in the fight for the titles in any of the categories he passed through (125cc, 250cc, Moto2 and MotoGP), but he was always a reference and managed to climb the ladder to the elite.
His debut in MotoGP was with Pramac in the last rounds of 2009, to complete his first full season the following year. The experience was not positive, returning to Moto2 in 2011. It was a brief stint in the intermediate category, before returning to MotoGP for good from 2012 onwards.
He started in one of the former CRT teams, Aspar, before being with Forward in 2014 achieving a podium and a solid seventh place finish despite competing in an Open team. From 2015 until now, he has always been in factory teams: Espargaró was one of the riders for the start of the Suzuki project, leaving in 2017 for Aprilia where he has remained until now.
With the Noale manufacturer, the Spaniard made a remarkable journey: when he arrived, it was one of the least competitive bikes on the grid, being a key piece in the remarkable progress since then that has put Aprilia on the path to the top positions. In 2022, he won a race for the first time and achieved his best result so far (fourth place).
