The argument over the greatest motorcycle racing track on the planet is both simple and impossible to solve. The choice is between Phillip Island in Australia and Mugello in Italy. They are both wide, sweeping, fast, and challenging. Tracks where riders win, rather than bikes.
Choosing between the two is hard. Both are set against a spectacular backdrop. In the case of Mugello, the verdant Tuscan hills. For Phillip Island, the cliffs that drop away into the Bass Strait. For the visitor, Mugello probably just edges it, as the weather in late May in Tuscany is reliably warm, whereas Phillip Island in October, at the end of the Antipodean winter, can be anything: hot, cold, windy, dry, wet. Often all in the same day.
Until Phillip Island is given its rightful place, at the start of the MotoGP season in late February/early March, it loses out. But the men in blazers from the Australian Grand Prix Corporation want to keep the race at the opposite end of the year to the Melbourne F1 race, which they also run.
Almost everyone in the MotoGP paddock lives in hope that one day, F1 will see sense and put the Melbourne race in November. Until then, we are stuck offering up quiet prayers to the weather gods, to shepherd any storms lurking in the Bass Strait and Southern Ocean away from the Island and bring sunshine in their place.
Phillip Island may lose out to Mugello when it comes to weather, but it wins in terms of being a pure rider’s track. In Australia, the rider can more than make up for any machine deficits, if they have the talent and the minerals. Phillip Island leaves nowhere to hide.
I am loath to provide my customary track description, as any motorcycle racing fan worth their salt already knows the layout by heart. They can name the corners without prompting – Doohan, Southern Loop, Stoner, Miller (formerly the Honda Hairpin), Siberia, Hayshed, Lukey Heights, the hairpin at Turn 10, the long lefts at Turns 11 and 12, and then back onto the Gardner Straight.
But there are so many things that make Phillip Island special. Heading down the Gardner Straight, nothing ahead but a view of the Bass Strait, looking for all the world like you are about to ride off the edge of the world and plunge into the ocean. Doohan Corner, a turn as fast and terrifying as Mick himself. The Southern Loop, where you hold the bike hard left to bring it back from the edge of the ocean.
Stoner Corner, Turn 3, named for the Australian who was truly something special there, using the knowledge of where the advertising hoarding stopped to use the wind to hold him up and get him through the blisteringly fast fifth gear turn, before braking hard for the first and easiest place to make a pass, Miller Corner, Turn 4.
Roller coaster
Then up, and round, and rolling over the hills that give Phillip Island its character, through Siberia and Hayshed until you are climbing up toward Lukey Heights. Lukey is fast, and it is tricky, because of the way it leads into the hairpin of Turn 10 and then the two final corners. Do you hug the inside of Lukey, and risk opening the door on the exit to the hairpin at the bottom of the hill, giving up a position? Or do you take a wider line, and leave the door open on the inside of Lukey, and sacrifice too much speed on the entrance to Turn 10?
Mess up the entrance and you have ruined the exit of the hairpin, and that can cost you your last chance of making a move through the everlasting last two turns. You are on the edge of the tire forever through Turns 11 and 12, and if you can carry a bit more speed, get a bit more drive, then you stand a chance of making the long run to the line.
Triumph provide Moto2 data for each race, showing traces for engine revs, speed, throttle, gear, front brake and rear brake. In the data for Phillip Island, they compare data from a lap in free practice, when the riders are looking for consistency and tire management, to a lap from qualifying, and it provides a stark contrast.
At most tracks, the lines are much closer, with riders choosing where to push very carefully. But at Phillip Island, even the untrained eye can see where the difference is made: more throttle and more speed through Stoner Corner, earlier and harder on the gas out of Miller, carrying more speed through Hayshed, harder on the front brake and jamming on the rear to get the bike to turn through Lukey Heights. Then more gas and earlier out of the final corner, and a dab of rear to stop the thing from wheelying and get it to accelerate faster.
Of course, this is also the difference between qualifying and the race. In qualifying, your rear tire only has to last for two, maybe three full laps. During practice, when you are working on your pace and tire life for the race, you are being a lot more gentle with the side of the tire.
Who does the circuit favor? It favors the brave. It favors a bike that can turn, and that is gentle on its tires – the bikes spend so much time on the left side of the tire that the special asymmetric front and rear can take a real battering. But above all, Phillip Island favors talent. It favors a rider who is capable of riding fast, understanding exactly where the limit is and just how far they can dangle their tires over its edge.
Brave, talented, and capable of riding around the limitations of a bike? Two weeks ago, you would have said that makes Marc Márquez a shoe in for the win at Phillip Island. He’s won here four times previously in MotoGP. But he won’t win this year, as he is at home recovering from surgery on the shoulder he injured in a crash at Mandalika. A crash that wasn’t even his fault.
That rather blows the whole thing wide open. There isn’t really a rider you can point to and say, they’ve got it in the bag. And that makes for a fascinating prospect.
Confidence trickster
“Everybody here will say ‘one of my favorite tracks’ but at the end of Sunday there can be only one winner!” Alex Márquez joked. “So I mean, it’s a track that I really like. It’s fast. You control a lot with the throttle. It’s a track where the rider needs confidence with the bike to push to the limits. If not, you are really slow.”
Confidence is key, but it is confidence which Pecco Bagnaia is currently missing. The Ducati Lenovo rider has been on the podium for the last three years, finishing behind Alex Rins, Johann Zarco, and his now teammate Marc Márquez. So there is no doubt that the Italian can be quick around Phillip Island, the only question being whether he can be quick at this point of his season.
After a season of decline and despair, Bagnaia triumphed at Motegi, comfortably fastest and winning both sprint and GP from pole. At last, he believed, he was back where he belonged. A week later, he crashed out of last place, struggling to keep up and looking totally lost again.
Which Pecco Bagnaia will we see at Phillip Island? “It depends on what I will feel on the bike,” the Italian said at Phillip Island. “If I will feel like in Motegi, I can fight for podiums, I can fight for the win and fighting for something important. If I feel again like in Mandalika, it will be a tough weekend and the thing will be to finish races.”
It was that feeling from Motegi he is hoping to recapture. But this is Phillip Island, where nothing is easy. “This track is very fast, a bit bumpy, with a lot of wind, and if the front is not stable it becomes a nightmare,” Bagnaia warned.
Dream team
If a Ducati is going to be fast, then best look to the Gresini team. Fresh from his debut victory in Mandalika, Fermin Aldeguer arrives to a track where he has traditionally been strong. The Spanish rookie finished on the podium in 2023 then won the Moto2 race in 2024, and this is one of his best tracks.
“For sure I come here with extra motivation,” Aldeguer told the press conference. “We won the last race, and Phillip Island is my favorite track.” He has started his last three races here from pole, and his Moto2 win in 2024 was the last win before victory in Mandalika. But he is not putting pressure on himself. “I come here with a good mentality, but very calm. It’s a different track with a MotoGP bike.” The wind, the cold, the conditions all make Phillip Island a very different proposition on a 300 horsepower MotoGP machine.
His teammate was at pains to point out that his record is not a reflection of his real pace at Phillip Island. “In 2022, I was not bad, but I crashed with Miller in the Miller corner, so it was not a good experience!” Alex Márquez joked. “In 2023 I was injured, when I arrived here with injured ribs, and last year I had a long lap penalty, I was last in the first corner. So we’ll try to change a little bit that luck. It’s a track that normally on paper should be really good for my style.”
The layout of the track should suit the Aprilia RS-GP, but Jorge Martin is still absent with injury and Marco Bezzecchi is not in great shape. He is still battered and bruised from crashes at Motegi and Mandalika, and has a double long lap penalty for causing the crash that left Marc Márquez sidelined on the first lap of the Indonesian GP.
Error of judgment
Phillip Island was the first place Bezzecchi had a chance to explain himself, first to the FIM Stewards at the hearing where they gave him a double long lap – it was his second offense after causing a crash in Argentina, hence the double long lap – then to the media.
“I picked up because I was tighter in that corner, but I didn’t expect him to brake so much at the end,” the Factory Aprilia rider said. “It’s my mistake, I was behind and it was a misjudgment. I was a bit too fast. So I tried to brake, pick up the bike to brake harder, and fortunately I hit only just a little bit the rear end of his bike.” But that was enough to send them both to gravel, where tumbling had damaged Márquez’ shoulder and left Bezzecchi with pain in his back.
Fan footage showed him lying still in the gravel for a long time, leading to the suspicion he had been knocked out in the crash. But he had only had the wind knocked out of him, he explained. “I was always conscious,” Bezzecchi insisted. “I stayed down because of the hit, especially in my back, I couldn’t breathe. So I stayed there trying to wait for the moment my breath came back. I don’t know if you ever hit your ribs or your back, but for sure you can understand how the feeling was, multiplied a thousand times.”
A double long lap is going to take the wind out of his already battered sails. So perhaps Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez can be Aprilia’s standard bearer at Phillip Island. Fernandez qualified on the front row in Mandalika, got his first ever sprint podium and ran at the front of the main race. This would be a good time for Fernandez to back up his Mandalika performance with another strong race at Phillip Island.
The reason the Aprilia should be good around Phillip Island is because its strengths should suit the layout. It is strong in fast and flowing tracks, and carry a lot of corner speed. The same could be said of the Yamaha M1, yet recent results do not bear that out. Once upon a time, Yamaha’s dominated at the Island, but the last time one was on the podium was in 2018. And that was a win by Maverick Viñales.
All in
Could 2025 see the return of the Yamaha? If it is up to Fabio Quartararo, the answer will be a resounding yes. After missing out at Silverstone due to a failing ride-height device, and a period during which he has qualified well but gone backward during the race, Quartararo sees Phillip Island as a prime chance for redemption.
He is all in on using the soft rear at Phillip Island, despite what happened to Jorge Martin when he tried the same in 2023. Martin had led for the entire race, before running out of rear tire on the last lap and going backward. Quartararo believes he has nothing to lose.
“I’m especially optimistic with the rear soft tire,” Quartararo said at Phillip Island. He knew what had happened to Jorge Martin in 2023, but believed he could avert disaster if he prepared properly. “I think it’s actually the same tire as Martin two years ago, but the asphalt is different. So I don’t know if it’s going to make it worse or better. But I think that we will have to give it a chance.”
When he brought up trying to race the soft on Friday in Indonesia, his team had thought he was crazy, Quartararo said. But if they started work early on, then perhaps they could actually find a way to make the soft rear last, he said. “For me, (racing with the soft) was the best decision and we know how big is the step from soft to medium in this race. And if we have to make it, I think that the most important is to be ready the first laps and then see how things are going.”
Mental fortitude
Perhaps it will be an orange bike near the front come Sunday. Pedro Acosta showed his mettle in Mandalika aboard the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing bike, taking a very hard-fought podium. And teammate Brad Binder showed tenacity and speed, fighting his way through from fifteenth to finish fourth.
Acosta had little luck here last year, crashing in the sprint and damaging his shoulder. And it wasn’t one of his stronger tracks, he told the press conference. “For sure it’s the hardest race mentally all year,” Acosta said. “Not many tracks you can go that fast, that close to the sea, and with those winds around. It’s true that it’s not my best track of the year, but KTM has been improving at the last couple of tracks. So I can be like Assen or Silverstone.”
Brad Binder was a lot more enthusiastic about racing here. He was especially positive about the track. “It’s super cool to be back at Phillip Island, this track’s insane,” the South African said. “So it looks like we’re going to have some decent weather as well on Sunday. All weekend, looking quite okay except for tomorrow morning. There’s nothing better than this place when the weather’s good.”
He was optimistic after such a strong race at Mandalika. “We made a really big change for Sunday and the bike just worked much better,” Binder said. “When I had a little bit of confidence, I felt like I could ride a lot better and I could come through the field, which was nice. So in FP1, we’re going to start how we have been lately and then jump back to the change we made in Indonesia just to see if it’s really transferable between tracks or not. It’s yet to be seen but I think we’ll be okay.
Happy Honda?
The wildcard once again is Honda. The RC213V has gotten stronger and stronger in the second half of the season, with the factory Honda riders looking especially good. Joan Mir was on the podium at Motegi, and Luca Marini was in the podium battle at Mandalika.
In fact, Marini was sure he had thrown away a podium in Indonesia. “I think we worked very well, the potential was nice and I was feeling very comfortable during the race,” the Honda HRC Castrol rider said in Australia. “But when I overtook Pedro, I was not smart enough to close the door more on him, and I let him pass again. Because if I was able to do one full lap in front, for sure I could create a gap from me to all the other riders with no problem. So it’s just I think my fault.”
Honda have a new main aero package, including new top fairing at Phillip Island, but that may not necessarily be the best place to test it. With gusts of up to 70 km/h expected on Sunday, it is much more difficult to assess whether aero is working in blustery conditions.
Could this be the track that sees the redemption of Johann Zarco? The Frenchman won his first ever MotoGP race here in 2023, when storm conditions forced Dorna to move the race from Sunday to Saturday. After a strong start to the 2025 season, the LCR Honda rider has dropped down the order as the season has gone on.
He hopes to turn all that around at Phillip Island. “Looking at the nice result of Mir in Motegi and Marini in Mandalika, I want to believe that it can be my time in Phillip Island. It’s a track I like and I have great memories here,” the Frenchman said. He needs to find the confidence that has slipped away from him in the second half of the season.
“The good thing is when it is a completely different kind of track, it’s a good way to make a kind of reset and enjoy on the track and see what is coming,” Zarco told reporters at Phillip Island.
“I hope it will be a great weekend. We can see that Honda is doing great progress so at least we know the bike is performing much better than before. We just need to find the confidence and the good control on the bike which is not the easiest point.”
The last hurrah approaches?
What can we expect at Phillip Island? We can expect to see some spectacular sights at the greatest racetrack on the planet. We can expect to see close racing, as the layout negates many of the advantages and disadvantages bikes suffer at other circuits. And we can expect to see a surprising winner, given the main favorite for victory is absent.
Phillip Island is a mouthwatering prospect for motorcycle racing fans of all stripes. It has its downsides – facilities which have not been upgraded in decades, no covered grandstands for fans, and located a long way away from everywhere else, forcing up accommodation prices. And it is in the last year of its current contract, and rumors echoing through the paddock that the Australian Grand Prix could be moved to another track.
That would be a tragedy, if it happens. So savor it while you can. Phillip Island is such a very special place.
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