MotoGP’s most famous race is about to begin! Several injured riders won’t start this year’s TT Netherlands. Who all will replace them?

The MotoGP series will conclude this weekend with a group of three consecutive races at the historic Assen circuit in the Netherlands. A full field of 22 riders is expected after a slightly depleted German Grand Prix, with only 19 riders entered. However, some riders are still struggling with injuries, so certain teams are having to field replacements. Who will be involved?

This year’s MotoGP season has been characterised by an abnormal number of injured riders. The culprit may be the more hectic schedule, led by the introduction of Saturday sprint races. Only 17 riders will line up on the grid for the Argentine Grand Prix in April.

For long-time fans, this may have reminded them of the black days around 2010, when this number of drivers was the standard back then.

The last round at the Sachsenring in Germany didn’t exactly represent a healthy state of affairs either. 19 riders took part in the race, not including local sovereign Marc Márquez, who was injured a few hours before the start. He became the third rider to retire in the German VC for the Honda stable, which deploys four motorcycles in normal conditions.

However, things should be relatively back to normal for the upcoming grand prix. All 11 teams are expected to field their full rider pairings for this year’s Dutch Tourist Trophy at the Assen circuit. However, it won’t be full-time riders in all cases.

Who are these replacements?

Ducati, Aprilia and Yamaha will field their standard rider line-ups for the Assen race. Ducati’s Enea Bastianini and Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira, who have had to miss several races this year, can start safely.

KTM, or rather its satellite team under the GasGas brand, is still missing Pol Espargaró. The Spaniard was badly injured in the opening round in Portugal when he hit a tyre barrier at high speed. Since the third race in the United States, he has been replaced by Germany’s Jonas Folger, who will also be present in Assen for the spectators there.

Japanese Honda is the worst offender, mowing down one of its riders after another. Both Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir and satellite LCR’s Álex Rins are sidelined after their own crashes that have sidelined them from further participation in the World Championship.

Mir will be replaced in the factory team by MS Superbike pilot and former MotoGP rider Iker Lecuona. Rins, who scored his only grand prix win this year outside of the Ducati riders, will be cheering on Stefan Bradl from home.

The question of taking part in this year’s Dutch TT hangs over the head of Marc Márquez, who suffered a minor injury to his hand. If the eight-time champion decides to spare himself for whatever reason, MotoGP journalist David Emmett says he should be replaced by Tecuta Nagashima.

The only Honda rider who has so far avoided injury is Takaaki Nakagami, who represented the Japanese factory himself in Germany last week.

Source: Motorsport.com, David Emmett (Twitter)