Thursday belonged to the paddock, not the racetrack. With Formula 1 catching its breath after Zandvoort and MotoGP setting up at MotorLand for the Aragon Grand Prix, the biggest motorsport talking points came out of announcements, medical bulletins and media-day microphones — and one of them ended a 16-year grand prix career.
Here is what actually mattered across both championships.
Motorsport talking points: Jack Miller’s 16 years in MotoGP end
Yamaha and Pramac confirmed on Thursday morning that Jack Miller will leave the MotoGP world championship at the end of this season, with a switch to the Japanese manufacturer’s factory WorldSBK effort widely expected to follow. The 31-year-old Australian debuted in the world championship in 2011 and was promoted straight from Moto3 to the premier class by Honda in 2015 — still one of the strangest gambles of the modern era. He leaves with four premier-class wins, 23 podiums and two pole positions.
Pramac team director Gino Borsoi did not pretend it was a comfortable call, saying a “rider and a person like Jack deserve to remain” before conceding that “sport is sport”. Miller’s own statement was characteristically unsentimental: “I still believe I have more to offer and more to achieve, and I’ll take that motivation with me into whatever comes next.” His seat goes to Moto2 title contender Izan Guevara, the 22-year-old former Moto3 champion who sits second in the intermediate class, 42.5 points behind Manu Gonzalez. Our full report on the Jack Miller MotoGP exit has the rest.
Colapinto’s Alpine extension closes another 2027 door
Alpine re-signed Franco Colapinto for 2027, keeping the Argentinian alongside Pierre Gasly for a third year together. It is a straightforward reward for a straightforward improvement: Colapinto has added 19 points to Gasly’s 44 this season, took a career-best sixth in Montreal and sits 12th in the drivers’ standings after 12 rounds — a considerable step from an erratic 2025.
Flavio Briatore, who has never been shy about publicly weighing a driver, was unusually warm. “We have seen Franco truly grow into a great driver this year,” the Alpine executive director said. “His results in Miami and Montreal especially confirmed what I already knew — that Franco belongs in F1 and he belongs at this team.” The wider point is that another 2027 vacancy has quietly vanished. Read our take on what the Colapinto deal means for silly season.
Norris’s Zandvoort win has become Mercedes’ problem
Lando Norris’s second win of 2026 was five days old by Thursday, but the F1 conversation still had not moved past it. The reigning champion beat Kimi Antonelli by 11.5 seconds at Zandvoort, with George Russell third and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc immediately behind — a result that has recast a season Mercedes appeared to be controlling.
Alex Brundle put the question plainly on F1 TV: “It’s going to be interesting to see how this McLaren form, for example, rolls on into Monza. If it’s the same there, then I think Mercedes have got a problem on their hands.” Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur, meanwhile, argued his car was quicker than the Mercedes at Zandvoort and that qualifying and execution cost him: “I think the pace was strong, I think at least stronger than Mercedes, but it is like it is.” With Antonelli leading the championship but carrying a grid penalty into Monza, and Mercedes’ next upgrade package not due until Azerbaijan, the timing is awkward.
Ai Ogura’s surgery breaks up the MotoGP top three
Trackhouse confirmed that Ai Ogura underwent surgery in Barcelona on Thursday morning, a plate inserted into the left thumb he fractured while training near Tokyo during the short break after Silverstone. The Japanese rider, third in the championship, was already out of Aragon; the team said it was “too early to confirm” whether he will be fit for the San Marino Grand Prix on 11–13 September.
That is a serious blow at a serious moment. Ogura is one of four Aprilia-mounted riders in a season the marque has dominated, and he will now watch a full weekend of points he cannot contest. Marco Bezzecchi, second in the standings, is also managing a knee injury he says suffered a setback after Silverstone and will make him “suffer” through the run-in. Our coverage of Ogura’s enforced absence has the substitution details.
Marc Marquez accepts the favourite tag — with a caveat
Marc Marquez has spent 2026 talking his chances down and then winning anyway. On Thursday at MotorLand, a circuit where he has won seven times, he stopped bothering. “If we want to fight for the championship, we must finish in front of these [Aprilia] guys. So, we will try,” said the reigning champion, who sits fourth and 40 points behind leader Jorge Martin after finishing seventh at Silverstone.
He also explained the alarming “no control over my right arm” radio message that followed that race, and it was not about the nerve issue treated in May. “It’s related to the seven different surgeries I have in my right shoulder. So that’s it,” he said, adding that he will now ration his Friday running to arrive at the sprint and the grand prix with something in reserve. Aprilia has won seven of the first 12 grands prix; Ducati believes MotorLand’s mix of corners suits the Desmosedici better.
Ukraine takes the FIA’s Russia U-turn to the ethics committee
The Ukrainian Automobile Federation lodged a formal complaint with the FIA’s ethics committee over the governing body’s decision to lift the ban on Russian and Belarusian competitors, in place since February 2022. The FAU alleges its Russian counterpart has opened and continues to operate offices in occupied Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, breaching the statutory principle of one automobile club per country.
“This is a clear breach of the FIA statutes by the Russian Automobile Federation,” FAU president Oleksandr Feldman said, urging that the offices be closed and the RAF sanctioned. The BBC reports the lifting of the ban was proposed to the world council by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem; the RAF is headed by Boris Rotenberg, who is subject to US, UK and EU sanctions. We covered Ukraine’s initial response to the decision earlier this month.
Two smaller items worth your time from the same day: Alex Albon spoke candidly about being “burnt out” badly in 2025 by F1’s commercial schedule, and Pirelli delivered a third batch of 2027 MotoGP tyres to Aragon marked with F1-style compound colours — a small, telling sign of how thoroughly next year’s rules reset is already under way.
Sources: Motorsport.com, Crash.net and BBC Sport.
