Road to MotoGP joins forces with Michael Laverty to launch British Talent Team

A new team in the Finetwork FIM JuniorGP™ World Championship is set to provide new opportunities for British riders on the Road to MotoGP™

A new team will take on the Finetwork FIM JuniorGP™ World Championship from 2024: the British Talent Team! Providing new opportunities for British riders on the Road to MotoGP™, the new project within the Finetwork FIM JuniorGP™ World Championship is a collaboration between Dorna Sports and Michael Laverty, and will see two British riders get the chance to race in the JuniorGP™ category from 2024.

The first will be established JuniorGP™ competitor Eddie O’Shea, who moves from the Junior Talent Team structure to the new, standalone British Talent Team. O’Shea, also an alumnus of the British Talent Cup, is already a podium finisher in the category.

His teammate will be 2023 R&G British Talent Cup Champion Evan Belford. Belford had an impressive season in the BTC and will now make the leap to JuniorGP™ alongside O’Shea. This all-new collaboration is intended to provide exactly this path on the Road to MotoGP™, giving a selected BTC rider the chance to graduate directly, age-limit permitting.

A British Talent Team will also race in the European Talent Cup next season, run by Michael Laverty. The line-up of the ETC team will be Johnny Garness, with a place held for the 2022 BTC Champion as his recovery continues, and 2023 BTC frontrunner Amanuel Brinton as his impressive trajectory continues.

Michael Laverty: “It is a proud moment for us to become ’The British Talent Team’, the title encompasses our ethos. The ultimate ambition for our team is to promote talent from the UK and Ireland into the premier MotoGP class, we have now created a clear pathway, having four British Talent cup graduates with us on the next steps of the ladder in both the European Talent Cup and JuniorGP for 2024. The plan is to develop our riders to graduate into our Moto3 Grand Prix team in the future; competing against the best young riders in the world is the best preparation. I feel we are laying the correct foundations for the future of British racing at the very top level of the sport. I want to thank Dorna for their support in this collaboration, and I welcome Eddie O’Shea, Evan Belford and Amanuel Brinton into our team, alongside the returning Johnny Garness following his injuries.”

Ana Ezpeleta, Talent Promotion Director, Dorna Sports: “We’re really happy to announce this new collaboration with MLav Racing. We’ve worked together in a few different ways for a while, but to formalise and finally announce this whole new project makes us really proud. The British Isles is an important part of both motorcycle racing’s past and future, and we’re really happy to invest in that future by creating these new opportunities on the Road to MotoGP.”